OMG! Ubuntu!

Canonical has brought Livepatch to Arm64 devices for the first time, allowing Ubuntu systems on Arm hardware to apply critical kernel security patches without a full reboot. Livepatch is one of Ubuntu’s best hidden security features – it’s not enabled by default, requires Ubuntu Pro – as it allows kernel security updates to be applied in memory while your system is runni...

Open-hardware manufacturer Pine64 has launched a $50 smart speaker that runs open-source software on a RISC-V chip. PineVoice (previously known as PineVox) is built around a Bouffalo Lab BL606P RISC-V SoC with integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 and Zigbee radio interfaces. It’s equipped with dual microphone array and speaker with support for ‘local wake word detection’, and top-...

A new update to System76’s COSMIC desktop is now rolling out with a new system monitoring tool and a fresh set of fixes and fine-tuning. COSMIC Epoch 1.1.0 also sees the developers behind the Rust-based desktop opting to “[increment] the minor version regularly in order to allow for mid-release patch versions if necessary”. The biggest new feature is COSMIC Monitor, a native ...

A new version of miracle-wm, the Wayland compositor built on Mir with an i3/Sway style tiling window manager, has been released. Developer Matthew Kosarek, a Canonical engineer developing this keyboard-driven UX in his free time, says the new v0.10.0 release sees the plugin system introduced in the April 2026 release “getting better and better everyday”. Plugins can now ...

BudsLink is a Linux app giving you more control over Bluetooth earbuds from the likes of Apple, Sony, Samsung and Nothing – battery levels, active noise cancellation (ANC) and more, all without needing to use a mobile app. Most Bluetooth audio devices ‘just work’ on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions for listening to audio, but that’s about it. Pair AirPods or Galaxy Buds w...