Windows 11’s Weather app uses ~1GB RAM, Linux apps a fraction

I was flummoxed to read a report on how much memory Microsoft’s Weather app uses on Windows 11 – more than 1GB just to render what is, ostensibly, a fancy table of stats. Less surprising […]

9 August 2026

Orion for Linux beta update adds private browsing and link previews

Kagi has released a new beta of Orion for Linux, a WebKitGTK-based port of its popular browser for macOS and IOS. Orion for Linux v0.4.1 builds on the v0.3.0 public beta, released in May, adding […]

9 August 2026
Dynamic Music Pill extension showing track lyrics in pop over on Ubuntu Dock

Dynamic Music Pill adds word-by-word lyrics highlighting

An updated version of Dynamic Music Pill, the GNOME Shell extension to put now playing track info and lyrics in your panel or dock with animated flourishes, is out. If you’re prone some desk-side crooning, […]

8 August 2026
Calibre Ebook Manager logo on a cutout against a pile of books (image from Unsplash)

Calibre 9.13 fixes broken ebook search in the content server

A new bug-fix release of Calibre, the open-source e-book manger, view and converter, is available for download. Calibre 9.13 fixes a number of PDF-related issues, including a conversion error that could occur on Linux distributions […]

7 August 2026

Resources (Linux system monitor) adds new PowerPC, NPU stats

Resources 51 beta, the system monitor Ubuntu now uses, adds AMD NPU stats, PowerPC CPU temps and alternative memory-usage metrics.

6 August 2026

Rhythmbox 3.5 lets you sync your podcast listening across apps

Rhythmbox 3.5.0 is out and it now lets you sync podcast subscriptions and listening progress across apps – the standout feature in the music player’s first major release in nine months

5 August 2026
15 new icons from the Paprius icon pack

Papirus icon set gets first update in over a year with 80+ new icons

Fans of the Papirus icon theme will be pleased to hear there’s a new update – the first since May 2025. Papirus’s first update in 2026 (the tardiness of which its maintainer, Serhii Yeremenko, apologises for) brings […]

4 August 2026
Dropbeat GNOME Shell extension showing now playing info in various ways

Dropbeat is yet another flashy music controller for GNOME Shell

Dropbeat is a new riff on an old tune, a panel-based music applet for GNOME Shell that gives you an alternate way to pause, play and skip tracks in MPRIS-friendly Linux media players. Applets of […]

4 August 2026

Ubuntu’s turning another system Deb package into a snap

Ubuntu is moving hwctl from Deb package to snap-only distribution, a change Canonical says improves security and desktop integration.

3 August 2026
ubuntu logo on clouds

Curl dropped from Ubuntu 26.04 minimal cloud images by mistake

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS’s minimal cloud images have been missing curl – accidentally, it turns out, so Canonical has put it back. Curl is a commonly-used command-line tool for fetching files from remote servers. It’s called […]

3 August 2026
Linux mascot holding a bag filled with the icons of various open source apps

Linux App Release Roundup (July 2026)

If you spent July dodging the summer heatwave, catch up on the best Linux app releases and updates you might have missed last month in this roundup. You likely already know about the Firefox 153 […]

2 August 2026
Ubuntu logo clock with Alberta and morocco flags denoting time zone changes

Ubuntu’s ready for Alberta and Morocco time zone changes

Times are literally changing and Ubuntu’s keeping pace – well, kinda. In November, most of Canada will turn its clocks back an hour, but the Western Canadian province of Alberta won’t. It’s decided to stay […]

1 August 2026