I’m keen to get back into the habit of posting Linux release roundups. The last one I wrote was way back in 2019 — so it’s been a while!
But why do I want to write them again?
Well, open source and Linux-focused development never stops. App, tool, kernel, driver, distro, and framework updates pop out each and every week. Not all of these updates are what you’d call ‘substantial’ or ‘must-read’ news.
Point releases, for instance, are difficult to “pad out” into a full length article or something you’d rush to read about. And I’m loathe to start firing out short post on thin topic after short post on thin topic as it clogs up your feed reader and pushes the actually interesting stuff off the main page.
Hence roundups. I get the satisfaction of being able to cover the “lite” news items I normally skip (and mention distro releases I might not normally be able to), and you get the satisfaction of knowing you’re missing out on even less stuff.
We’ll talk more about them in a moment, but chances are you came here to see what meaty chunks we’ve threaded on this week’s skewer — so read on!
Kdenlive 20.12.1
Kdenlive devs pushed out a ‘minor’ update to the open source video editor recently. The first point release to the (recently launched) 20.12.x stable release features various improvements, including several affecting keyframes and effects:
- Select multiple keyframes with
ctrl+ click. - Select and move multiple keyframes with
shift+ click - Option to move selected keyframe to current cursor position
- Duplicate keyframes button
- Zoom on keyframes with
ctrl+ scroll-wheel - Option to delete all effects in selected clip(s)
Subtitles (created using the new subtitling tool) can now be hidden and/or locked during editing; there’s an unused clip filter in the project bin; and timeline tooltips now show in the status bar.
Kdenlive 20.12.1 is free, open source software available to download from the Kdenlive website, including an .appimage for Linux users who want to try this release without writing over an earlier (potentially more stable) version.
Prefer PPAs? There’s one of those too.
BleachBit 4.2.0
There are several Linux system cleaners around but BleachBit is arguably the best known. This free and open source utility helps to keep systems lean and clean by clearing out caches, logs, history, temporary files, excess kernels, and a whole lot more.
BleachBit 4.2.0 was published recently. Changes include packages for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.10, plus the ability to clean Zoom, Pale Moon, and Slack desktop apps, as well as the Chromium Snap app too.
Fixes include not wiping bookmarked favicons when cleaning Firefox, and not deleting LibreOffice extensions.
Flatpak 1.10.0
A major new stable release of Flatpak, the next-gen app packaging format, is available. Flatpak 1.10 adds support for a new repo format which, devs say, ‘should make updates faster and download less data – which sounds good to me.
Older versions of Flatpak are available in the Ubuntu archives, but GNOME’s Alexander Larsson maintains a Flatpak PPA. His PPA packages the latest stable Flatpak release for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS but not 20.10 — so keep this in mind!
For more details on check out the official Flatpak 1.10.0 release announcement.
LibreOffice 7.1 Release Candidate
A new version of the open source office suite LibreOffice is coming next month. Ahead of then, the LibreOffice 7.1 release candidate is available to download and test.
I’m not going to mention the new features of LibreOffice 7.1 here because a) it’s a huge change-log that b) deserves its own post, But as a teaser to persuade you to try the RC you can look forward to a new style inspector, faster find/replace, and an experimental new outline folding mode in the Writer component.
Your Feedback
Okay, that’s it for this (belated, and somewhat short) roundup. Do let me know what you want to see (or not see) in these roundups by leaving a note down in the comments.
For example: should roundup posts be published once a week, on the same day? Or would you be okay if they were posted irregularly, as and when there’s enough “stuff” to fill one out? 🤔
Throughout the 12 years I’ve been blogging one thing has been constant: you. I rely on readers like you sending in email tips about recent app releases, new distros, weird wallpapers, buggy updates, controversial changes. If you have news, tips, suggestions, or even corrections you can reach me by email (joey at ohso.io) or through DM on Twitter.
I also don’t want to call them ‘Linux app release roundups’ because I want to have the flexibility to include notable (and not-always-ubuntu-based) distro, tooling, development, and/or firmware releases too. That, and I know some of you hate it when I call desktop software “apps” 😉.
Also: I’m having a hard time deciding on a thumbnail to represent the series on the site (and in social shares).
The page topper you see (unless you’re on an RSS or scraper site) is the current idea, but it is OTT. My thinking is that the “apps/distros” featured in the cutouts around the text can change to reflect the post contents (though as you might notice they don’t match for this one). But that might be too subtle given the (relatively minor) effort…
I previously used these:
But they feel very “app” centric.