KDE Plasma 6, COSMIC Desktop, CodeWeavers, Lutris, Arch Linux & More Linux News

welcome to this week in Linux your Linux and open source news show from the tux digital Network my name is Michael Tennille and this week we're going to talk about some news updates from pipe wire and the lutras project plus we got some desktop environment news from KDE plasma with plasma 6 and also some news about the cosmic desktop from system 76 and we've got some distro news from Ubuntu Arch Linux and Chimera OS all of that and so much more coming up right now on your source for Linux good news [Music] this episode of twill is sponsored by lenode and by bit Warden up first in the show this week we're going to talk about KDE plasma because the KDE team have released some news about the new features and enhancements that are coming with KDE plasma 6. first of all we're going to have a floating panel by default and also double click for opening files will be the default which is something I have been wanting for a long time not because I necessarily need it for myself because I think it's the best approach for the person who is a beginner or new to KDE plasma also there's a new default task switcher that is being included in plasma 6 and now console has a new monitor for prompt feature that can be used to send a notification once a long running task finishes which is really nice because for people who have a thing that has to take maybe 20 30 minutes they don't want it to sit there and wait for the console to do it it can give you a notification education saying hey it's done that is just very nice also there's going to be better handling for keyboard backlighting and some really exciting news is basic HDR support HDR support in plasma 6 will be available with the Weyland session which will also be enabled by default in the upcoming release if you'd like to learn more about the upcoming news for the next version of KDE plasma with plasma 6 you'll find links in the show notes in the latest update from system 76 the creators of the popular pop OS Linux distro significant progress has been made on their Cosmic desktop environment which is a very interesting topic and for those who are not familiar with it you can check out links in the show notes where I talk about the cosmic desktop's initial announcement and that sort of stuff the company has been investing heavily in their Cosmic desktop environment for what potentially could be a game changer for the UI on Linux one of the key developments highlighted in their blog post is the progress made on Cosmic panels which are similar to the top bar in dock in traditional desktop environments we also see that in some desperate environments call them panels in general but the way these work are pretty different because the cosmic panels offers increased versatility and functionality these panel applets they have uh well basically they're actually kind of individual applications running inside of their own processes in these panels this allows the user to customize their experience by adding or removing applets system 76 envisions Cosmic panels as a flagship feature that can be utilized not only by pop OS but also other distros companies and organizations to create their own unique user experience system 76 also is actively working on Cosmic settings a dedicated area for handling various desktop settings like kde's system settings system this includes keyboard input wallpaper settings and more Cosmic settings follows a modular approach allowing developers to add or remove settings Pages as needed this flexibility empowers projects to create custom Pages tailored to their specific requirements which is really cool system 76 also is participating in the a red hat HDR hackvest demonstrating their commitment to supporting HDR within Cosmic however due to the current state of the kernel api's full and proper HDR support is expected to take some time now in the meantime system 76 may offer the ability to enable and disable HDR inside of cosmic and another key Focus that they're doing is accessibility which is fantastic to see that because accessibility is very important they are actively contributing to the development of the iced rust GUI Library which is used for creating Cosmic apps and provides accessibility infrastructure by incorporating the access kit project system 76 aims to ensure that Cosmic is accessible to all users they have successfully integrated the Orca screen reader into Cosmic so far and well although there are some still things that they're working on like enhancing keyboard control but it's really awesome to see that they're working on accessibility as a key focus in other system 76 news and their latest pop OS update they have introduced system 76 scheduler 2.0 a software that optimizes system performance by directing resources to the active window this also includes new Pi Bar integration audio processes receive real-time priority minimizing audio stutters when applications are running in the background system 76 says their scheduler 2.0 also uses a 75 percent less resources than previous versions so all in all the work system 76 is doing is impressive especially with the progress of the cosmic desktop I expected this to take much longer than it has so it's really cool to see how much they have made on the progress of that new desktop environment if you'd like to learn more about this latest news you can find links in the show notes code Weavers the renowned company behind the crossover software for running Windows apps and games on various operating systems and key developers in the proton project along with valve is undergoing a significant transition after an impressive 27 years Jeremy white the company's largest shareholder has decided to step down as CEO and move on from code Weavers this departure raises important questions about the company's future but White's careful planning and shares a promising path forward what I mean by that is that white says his priority has always been to engage in meaningful work with respected individuals and he was determined to not sell the company to someone solely focused on extracting profits instead after three years of extensive research white settled on an employee ownership trust as the ideal structure to safeguard code Weaver's future this decision paves the way for a more Community oriented and staff-centric approach as of April 12th the code Weaver's purpose trust has become the primary owner of the company this trust mission is to ensure that code Weavers continues to operate for the benefit of the community and the staff with this new ownership structure code Weavers aims to thrive for years to come serving the needs of its dedicated user base James Ramey the a longtime president at code Weavers has been appointed as the new CEO and Remy's expertise and experience make him a great fit for this crucial leadership role and additionally Ulrich chakala sorry if I said that wrong the company's esteemed director of development will will now assume the position of President despite his decisions to step down as CEO Jeremy white will continue to play a vital role as chairman of the board though his continued involvement ensures a smooth transition and provides support when needed in the blog post white looks back on his time at code Weavers and expresses deep gratitude for The Incredible Journey he experienced alongside the dedicated team and The Wider wine Community he expressed his immense pride in the collective achievements and eagerly anticipates watching Code Weaver's Futures progress from the sidelines white also extends a heartfelt appreciation to everyone who supported him and the company throughout the years their unwavering backing has been instrumental in code Weaver's success allowing to overcome challenges and make a meaningful impact the individuals who purchase crossover in particular have directly contributed to the realization of code Weaver's Mission enabling them to accomplish remarkable Feats this is something I like to reiterate here because if you are someone who wants to support work done on proton then purchasing crossover is a great way to do that as they share code and are related projects along with wine so directly helping code waivers by purchasing crossover will also benefit proton and now looking ahead Jeremy said he is excited about the future he plans to explore new opportunities Beyond his desk whether it's volunteering with various organizations embarking on adventurous hikes reconnecting with distant relatives or contributing to companies addressing different social issues white is eager to embrace the next chapter of his life he also publicly promised his wife that he will first fix the fence in their backyard which I just thought that was kind of funny so code waiver is under the new employee ownership Trust embarks on a transformative Journey this transition reflects a new model for corporate governance emphasizing sustainability ethics and Equity the positive response from the community and the team bodes well for the future of code Weavers ensuring that wine and proton development will Thrive and Empower users for years to come if you'd like to learn more about this news you can check the links in the show notes this episode of this week in Linux is brought to you by lenode visit linoa.com tux that's leno.com t-u-x and see why over a million developers trust the node for their infrastructure lenode provides Solutions and services to accelerate Innovation you can build everything yourself if you want to piece by piece or you can use their one-click apps from the plethora of options in the node's app Marketplace to deploy everything from plesk and WordPress to valheim and Minecraft servers linode even has VPN friendly virtual servers so you can create secure connections over the Internet protecting you on public Wi-Fi keeping your data private and guarding you from malware and attacks if that wasn't enough every plan comes with lenode's amazing human-powered customer support you might be wondering what do you mean by human powered well that means that a human is involved in the support whether you send a email or you call them on the phone or you reply on social media like whatever you want you will be interacting with a human to get that support which is unheard of in the tech industry at this point for sure so visit leno.com tux to create a create your account plus when you use that URL you're going to get a 100 60 day free credit by going to leno.com tux that's it all you got to do is go to node.com tux and sign up with that URL and you will get a 100 60 day free credit on your lenode account so go get started with the node's awesome Cloud platform by going to leno.com tux up next in the show we're going to talk about Ubuntu 23.04 flavors this time previous episode we talked about the official release of Ubuntu 23.04 but now I want to talk about the flavors alongside the main release so this is gonna be a little while because we have a lot of flavors to talk about so let's get started first of all we're going to talk about kubuntu 23.04 this ships with KDE plasma 5.27 LTS desktop environment and kdegear 22.12.3 it also introduces high resolution scrolling in Weyland resulting in better smooth scrolling for performance in Chrome and Firefox native support for fractional scaling in Weyland sessions enhancing the display flexibility and so much more Ubuntu 23.04 includes the LX cute 1.2 desktop environment focusing on a lightweight and energy efficient experience utilizes picom as the default X compositor now improving visual effects and for those looking for lxq 1.3 which you talked about on a previous episode this will be available in a future release of lubuntu 23.04 through their back ports PPA up next is zubuntu 23.04 features xfce 4.18 desktop environment with a focus on Simplicity and performance featuring updates to gtk4 initial Weyland support and a revamp of core native apps this is a very big update for zubuntu and xfc as a whole let's talk about now Ubuntu mate 23.04 they say that it maintains familiarity with the latest version of mate 1.26 desktop environment delivering a stable and reliable experience includes a bug fix update to the odd I'm not really sure you're supposed to say that indicators package and minor visual refinements Martin wimpress the head of Ubuntu mate says that Ubuntu mate 23.04 is the least exciting Ubuntu Mante release ever the good news is though if you liked Ubuntu Mante 22.10 then it is more of the same just with better artwork so next up we're going to talk about Ubuntu budgie 23.04 it ships with budgie 10.7 desktop environment providing enhanced Hot Corner capabilities and intuitive tiling support offers expanded hot Corners with eight spots for productive tasks triggered by Mouse gestures introduces a new application indexer for faster app searches and a built-in budgie screenshot app as well as many more things now the next one we're going to talk about is Ubuntu cinnamon Ubuntu cinnamon 23.04 debuts as an official Ubuntu flavor featuring cinnamon 5.6 desktop environment developed by the Linux Mint team and we talked about this in a previous episode so you want to learn more about Ubuntu cinnamon 23.04 you'll find links in the show notes edubuntu 23.04 has made a triumphant return as an official flavor of Ubuntu after nine years this educational distro offers tailored configurations for different age groups complete with a range of applications and a user-friendly interface for kids in preschool all the way up to college notable features include the inclusion of gnome 44 as a desktop environment and the ability to hide certain apps from non-administrator users the edubuntu also brings an impressive collection of educational apps such as G Capri inkscape scribus Tux Paint stellarium caliber eBook reader and many more its Revival aims to empower Learners and Educators with a dynamic and engaging educational ecosystem next up Ubuntu Studio 23.04 this shares a lot of components with kubuntu so it features the same KDE plasma 5.27 desktop environment for its interface Ubuntu Studios appeal is the enhancements offered on the media production side of things especially with the audio side one standout feature is the integration of pipe wire with full Jack support setting Ubuntu Studio apart from other distributions this is the out of the box functionality ensuring smooth audio experience without the need for additional installations the installer has been completely redesigned optimizing it for high DPI displays and it also allow users to choose from preferred packages and even uninstall entire groups of packages if they want to Ubuntu Studio 23.04 also supports the ability to switch between the new Pi power configuration and the traditional pulse audio slash Jack setup and finally we're going to talk about Ubuntu Unity 23.04 Ubuntu Unity is shipping with the unity 7.7 desktop environment with this release users can enjoy a brand new Dash reminiscent of the concepts designed for Ubuntu 1604 this panel has also been enhanced featuring a slightly larger size and a default translucent look adding a bunch of Elegance to the light mode to keep you informed the indicator notification system is now pre-installed ensuring you never miss any important notifications that may have appeared while you are away additionally Ubuntu Unity now supports U widgets the official widget's implementation the development team is actively working on a dedicated Store to download and manage these widgets as well which will be available in the the coming weeks or so these Ubuntu flavors cater to diverse user preferences offering unique desktop environments and features while maintaining the reliability and foundation of the Ubuntu operating system so if you'd like to learn more about these flavors you can find links in the show notes pipewire 0.3.71 has been released bringing a bunch of improvements and exciting features for those unfamiliar pipe wire is a versatile multimedia framework that handles audio and video streams serving as a replacement for older Technologies like pulse audio and Jack one notable addition in this release is the new zero latency Jack D bus Bridge similar to pulse audio it creates a sync Source when Jack debus is initiated however this bridge is much more efficient running in complete pipe wire graph as a as a asynchronous jack client without introducing any additional latency the Jack notified callback imitation has also undergone some reworking resulting in better compatibility with our door 7 and the jack stress test additionally pipe wire 0.3.71 brings various performance improvements activation of remote nodes has become more efficient requiring fewer event file destruct descriptors on the client side and the release also reduces callback overhead in performance critical paths and introduces an optimized pull function these enhancements primarily driven by the Jack D bus module aimed to minimize latency and maximize system efficiency there's also been work on basic audio profiles devices or Bap devices and the the update ensures that device latency is passed on to Applications even for Multi-Device headsets and improves Channel allocation these enhancements contribute to a better audio experience when you're using Bap devices over Bluetooth the release notes for pipewire 0.3.71 also highlight numerous bug fixes and additional improvements that further refine the refunctionality of this multimedia framework pipewire has gained popularity among desktop Linux distributions with leading players like Fedora workstation and Ubuntu adopting it as their default audio stack however for desktop users it is recommended to wait for distribution maintainers to package and provide this update because building from Source can be a bit complex if you'd like to learn more about the latest release of pipewire you'll find links in the show notes looters the popular open source game launcher has just released a new version with a bunch of awesome features and improvements for those unfamiliar lutras is a fantastic tool that simplifies the installation launching and playing of games on Linux it integrates various gaming platforms like steam Gog Humble Bundle and more allowing you to manage your game Library through a sleek and unified interface so let's dive into what is new with lutras 0.5.13 first up proton support is back though for now it's recommended to stick with lutras's wine builds for a more smoother experience but it's really cool to see that they're working on the proton support and what they're doing for the future support of it if you're someone with an extensive game Library you'll love this update because thanks to performance improvements and other UI enhancements lutras is now much more responsive than before Luther's 0.5.13 also introduces several exciting features you can now drag and drop files directly onto the main window for easier organization the integration with moddb allows you to reference mod DB links in lootress installers making the gaming experience even more convenient the UI has received a makeover as well with restout configuration restyled preferences and restyle installer and restyled AD games Windows configuration options are now grouped into sections streamlining the settings management process plus you have the option to stop looters from repeatedly asking for launch configuration of a game making things just overall smoother to use additionally this update includes improved High DBI support for custom media and the detection of obsolete Vulcan drivers among many other things if you'd like to learn more about the latest version of looters you'll find links in the show notes this episode of this week in Linux is brought to you by bitward and get started right now with your free account at bitwarden.com com slash tux bit Worden is an awesome piece of software it is a password manager that allows you to have peace of mind knowing that your online accounts are secure how does it do it well bit Warden provides you with tools to store all of your passwords in a secured Vault Auto generate those passwords for you and even automatically fill in those passwords on login forms so you don't have to do any of this stuff you can access data across many different types of devices whether it's your web browser mobile applications desktop applications or even on the command line plus bitward and seals and encrypts your private data with into an encryption before it ever leaves your device so you know you're the only person with access to your data which is very important for a password manager obviously so go to bitwaren.com tux to get started did I mention get started for free well you can but I think you want to check out their premium account because for less than a dollar per month that's right for just ten dollars per year you get a bunch of cool features like one gigabyte of encrypted file storage two-step login with UB key u2f Duo Vault Health reports bit word and authenticator for temporary one-time passwords kind of like Google Authenticator or author that sort of thing a party customer service and you get all of this for less than a dollar per month so make the smart move like mini from the community have and go to bitwarden.com tux to get started with your account and thanks to bitwarin for sponsoring this episode of this week in Linux and some more Ubuntu news canonical the company behind Ubuntu is improving how the ppas or personal package archives are managed ppas have long been a useful feature allowing users to easily enhance the official Ubuntu repositories with additional software packages however they have also raised concerns about security and reliability over the years with the upcoming release of Ubuntu 23.10 which is codenamed manic Minotaur which is a very fun code name canonical is introducing significant changes to address these issues until now ppas were managed through dot list files and gpg key Rings stored in specific directories however this approach proved to be unreliable and insecure to address these in concerns canonical isn't introducing a new method starting with Ubuntu 25 3.10 ppas will be managed through Deb 822 Dash formatted dot source files the significant advantage of this change is that the gpg keys will be directly embedded into the files signed by field enhancing security and reliability one crucial Improvement is that removing a PPA will now automatically remove its Associated key reducing the risk of leftover security vulnerabilities additionally each key is unique to a specific PPA preventing its use for other repositories other keys will no longer be allowed to sign a PBA ensuring integrity and authenticity canonical believes that these changes will greatly enhance the security and reliability of managing ppas on Ubuntu systems the changes are expected to be available when Ubuntu 23.10 is released on October 12 2023. if you'd like to learn more about this news you can find links in the show notes in some Arch Linux news the Arch Linux team has decided to discontinue SVN access and they're making some repository changes the testing repository will be split into core testing and extra testing the staging repository will be split into core staging and extra staging the community repository will be merged into extra and will therefore be empty after the mitigation all affected repositories will be provided as empty repositories for a transition period after the migration for regular users this means that everything works as before but for developers there may slight differences now note that after the migration is done users that have the testing report repositories enabled need to include new repositories the core testing and the extra testing instead of just testing in their pacman.com before they update their system now they discontinue in SVN is really good because this is a let's talk about the difference between SVN and git so SVN or our sub version is a centralized Version Control System where the entire code base is stored in a central repository git is a distributed version controlled system where each developer has a complete local copy of the repository and can work offline so overall a lot of people have been switching to get for many years because it just seems like a better option now if you'd like to learn more about this news from Arch Linux you'll find links in the show notes if you're looking for a gaming experience similar to the steam deck but without the steam deck then you can check out Chimera OS they recently released version 42 and it's a great alternative to steam os3 especially since you the steam os3 is exclusive to the steam deck right now we don't know when it's going to be available but right now you can check Chimera OS 42 to accomplish basically the same thing and Chimera OS 42 comes with the Linux kernel version 6.1.27 Mesa 23.0.2 with Intel anv and a game scope compatibility patches and Nvidia driver version 530.41.03 this aims to offer a smooth and optimized experience for gamers who want to have their own basically set top game console let's delve into the exciting improvements in chroma crimera OS 42 firstly the device support has been expanded including support for the GPD Win 4 with controllers full controller support it also includes improvements for iyanyo devices and Chimera OS 42 inches is new open Gamepad UI display session option it offers a unique custom user interface giving users multi-library launcher system with plug-in support although it's currently in the early Alpha stage this feature shows promising potential now let's talk about the various fixes and improvements the Disk Management utility in Chimera OS has or the Chimera app has been improved providing a more user-friendly experience formatting and mounting of secondary storage devices have been fixed with the note for real this time so the Chimera app can now be launched locally from the desktop offering convenient access to the features the app also displays apps and game titles on the flat pack or the flat Hub Gog and epic games store Pages simplifying the search for your favorite titles several other bug fixes have been implemented in this release as well as many more things if you're interested in upgrading to chimeros 42 if you're already using it be aware that that it now uses systemd boot bootloader instead of cislin Linux and this may require reinstallation for some systems depending on your configuration whether using like a Legacy BIOS boot or MBR partition types however upgrading from older Chimera OS versions should work smoothly but just to keep that in mind if you'd like to learn more about the latest release of chimera Os or just Chimera OS in general you'll find links in the show notes thanks for watching this episode of this week in Linux if you like what I do here on this show and want to keep up to date with what's going on in the Linux world and be sure to subscribe and of course remember to like that smash button if you'd like to support the show and the tux digital Network then consider becoming a patron by going to tuxvigil.com membership where you can get a bunch of cool features and perks like access to Patron only sections of our Discord and much much more you can also support the show by ordering the Linux everywhere t-shirt or the this week in Linux shirt which I'm wearing right now at the tuxdigital.com store plus while you're there check out all the other great stuff we have hats mugs hoodie stickers and so much more at thetux digital.com store thanks again for watching I'm Michael snail with the tux digital Network and I'll see you next week for another episode of your source for Linux good news [Music]

Channel: Michael Tunnell

Views: 15,927

Keywords: Linux, open source, linux podcast, podcast, tech podcast, technology, linux news, tech news, linux distro, TuxDigital, Tux Digital, Linode, Bitwarden, akamai, KDE, KDE Plasma, KDE Plasma 6, Plasma 6, System76, System 76, COSMIC Desktop, CodeWeavers, Employee Ownership Trust, Ubuntu Flavours, Ubuntu 23.04, PipeWire, JACK linux, Lutris, Ubuntu PPA, Arch Linux, ChimeraOS 42, ChimeraOS

Id: ZZmuRsByXfg

Length: 26min 11sec (1571 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 01 2023