The second Ubuntu 26.04 snapshot is ready to download, making testing of 'Resolute Raccoon' ahead of next April's stable release easier. Details inside.
A new stable release of Pop!_OS is out, the first to ship with the Rust-based COSMIC desktop environment by default. I look at what's new in Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS.
Thunderbird 146 has been released, making it easier to add OpenPGP keyservers, improving the security of login data with AES encryption, and fixing a ton of bugs.
Changes to Ubuntu's telemetry with the new Ubuntu Insights tool include more frequent reporting, more controls and more transparency on what's collected.
Ubuntu 26.04 will be a long-term support release, but not all of its official flavours will be as 2 of the 10 official Ubuntu flavours have not applied for LTS status.
Ubuntu's Yaru theme will closely follow the vanilla GNOME Shell design in the upcoming 26.04 release, as its developers aim to reduce the maintenance burden.
Canonical will package AMD ROCm directly in the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS repos, making it much easier to get GPU-accelerated workloads running on the distro.
Firefox 146 is out with fractional scaling on Wayland, local backups on Windows, and new tab weather widget rollout. A quiet but solid update for all platforms.
The 2 Wallpapers GNOME extension changes wallpaper when apps open, letting you fake blurred window look in apps that support transparency – clever!
Proton has launched Sheets, an encrypted spreadsheet app available to use in any browser with CSV/XLS import, real-time collaboration and more – for free!
Want Firefox to dynamically match website colours? This free add-on changes toolbars based on page colours for Vivaldi-style theming. Works on all platforms.
Canonical announce Ubuntu Pro for WSL, bringing extended security coverage to users running Linux on Windows. As on desktop, it's free for personal use.