Ubuntu plans to add AI-powered voice input to all text fields
Ever wished you could talk in to a text field rather than type? Ubuntu 26.10 hears you – quite literally. Canonical’s VP of Engineer Jon Seager, at the Ubuntu Summit, said the distro will soon lets users “press a button and talk into any field that you could previously type in”. A small, on-device AI language parsing model like Whisper will power the feature. It’s part of a wider push to integrate AI features in Ubuntu this year, with founder Mark Shuttleworth aiming to position Ubuntu as the ‘OS for agentic AI’. AI features in Ubuntu will be shipped as […] You’re reading Ubuntu plans to add AI-powered voice input to all text fields, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

Canonical’s Steam Snap for ARM64 is now stable 
Canonical has bumped its Steam Snap for ARM64 to the stable channel. First announced in January, the snap has been tested across ARM64 hardware including the NVIDIA DGX Spark, Radxa Orion O6 and Lenovo ThinkPad X13s, with Canonical now reporting ‘solid performance’ across many popular games. Valve doesn’t provide a native ARM Linux client (edit: they began quietly publishing Linux ARM builds in April, but these aren’t linked to on the main website). Canonical’s snap version of Steam uses the Intel/AMD Steam binary with the FEX emulator. This stable release of the Steam Snap for ARM exposes FEX’s configuration options to […] You’re reading Canonical’s Steam Snap for ARM64 is now stable , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

Play Catan in your terminal with El Poblador, a TUI clone
El Poblador is a fully playable Settlers of Catan clone that runs entirely in your terminal. Written in Go by developer vicho, El Poblador is a compete rendition of the iconic competitive board game, which is all about resources, trading, building settlements and blocking your opponents. All of Catan’s core mechanics are accounted for, albeit free of the tactile joy of handling and placing tiny wooden blocks in the real game. It’s a game designed for 3-4 players, so you’ll want to huddle around a laptop or on a PC to play it. You use arrow keys to navigate the […] You’re reading Play Catan in your terminal with El Poblador, a TUI clone, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

Flathub bans AI-coded apps – with some exceptions
You’ll have to sift through fewer vibe-coded apps on Flathub in future, as the store has announced a policy change on software made using AI tools. Flathub, the de-facto place to find and install Flatpak applications, is banning the use of “AI” coded applications and automated submissions going forward. It’s not a blanket ban – mature projects with AI code are allowed A change to the store’s policy note says “applications containing AI-generated or AI-assisted code, documentation, or other content are not allowed”. A carve out will allow “mature, well-maintained projects” to include AI generated code and use AI tools […] You’re reading Flathub bans AI-coded apps – with some exceptions, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

Linux App Release Roundup (May 2026)
May 2026 delivered a sizeable set of Linux software updates, including the set I’ve rounded up for your reading pleasure in this post.  The month also saw a buffet of big browser updates, including Firefox 151 with new-look new tab page, Vivaldi 8.0 with a new-look generally and a new public beta of Kagi’s Orion. Elsewhere, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS support was added to VMware Workstation (and Fusion for macOS), while open-source system cleaner BleachBit debuted a TUI for interactive command-line based spring cleaning. Below, I run through a crop of other Linux app releases that landed in May and caught my eye. […] You’re reading Linux App Release Roundup (May 2026), a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

Ubuntu 26.10 Snapshot 1 is now available to download
Canonical has released the first monthly snapshot of Ubuntu 26.10 ‘Stonking Stingray’. This is the first of 4 planned testing builds in the lead up to the final, stable release of Ubuntu 26.10 on 15 October, 2026. Utkarsh Gupta announced the release on the Ubuntu developer mailing list, noting that a couple of images – including the ubiquitous Intel/AMD64 build most of us use – are missing from the first snapshot. Those will return in time for Snapshot 2. Ubuntu monthly snapshots are not alpha builds. They exist as a way for Ubuntu’s engineers to fine-tune new, automated build processes. […] You’re reading Ubuntu 26.10 Snapshot 1 is now available to download, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

Canonical takes over Flutter desktop maintenance
Google confirmed at Google I/O 2026 that Canonical is the new lead maintainer and ‘strategic steward’ of Flutter desktop for Windows, macOS and Linux. The announcement of an expanded partnership with Canonical came during the ‘What’s new in Flutter’ presentation at Google I/O 2026, where Kate Lovett, Engineer Manager on the Flutter Framework team at Google, touched on their existing work: “[The Flutter] desktop experience has reached a new level of maturity this year, driven by our incredible engineering partnership with Canonical, the publisher of Ubuntu”. She later confirmed that Canonical’s ‘deep technical expertise’ will now oversee maintenance of Flutter […] You’re reading Canonical takes over Flutter desktop maintenance, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

Canonical’s Workshop: sandboxed, reproducible dev environments
Canonical has released Workshop, a new open-source tool to create reproducible development environments with a single command. Using YAML files, the same development setup can be reproduced across different hardware and devices, reducing dependency headaches and configuration drift. Environments in Workshop are built from SDKs (packages that install languages, frameworks and tools). Most of these come from the SDK Store, which supports versioned channels similar to the Snap Store so that projects can define specific SDK versions to use. Canonical offers SDKs for Ollama, OpenCode, NVIDIA CUDA and AMD ROCm at launch, but users can create and define project-specific SDKs […] You’re reading Canonical’s Workshop: sandboxed, reproducible dev environments, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

Raspberry Pi 6 won’t arrive before 2028 (and won’t have an NPU)
The Raspberry Pi 6 won’t be released before 2028 and it won’t feature an onboard NPU to handle AI compute tasks. Insight into plans for the Pi 6 were shared by three of the company’s key engineers and leaders in an AMA (ask me anything) session on Reddit on 21 May, 2026. Based on past launches the gap between major Pi models (Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4 and 5) is around 3-4 years. The Raspberry Pi 5 launched in 2023. That should put the Pi 6 on course for launch in 2026 or 2027. But Raspberry Pi co-founder and CEO […] You’re reading Raspberry Pi 6 won’t arrive before 2028 (and won’t have an NPU), a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

Cinnamon desktop is getting its own, native screenshot tool
Linux Mint developers are building a new screenshot utility for the Cinnamon desktop, ahead of its next major release. The home-grown tool will give users more options when taking screenshots and will “accommodate the differences between CSD (Client Side Decoration) and SSD (Server Side Decoration) windows” to provide ‘cleaner’ looking screenshots. Currently, Cinnamon rolls with the GTK-based gnome-screenshot. That tool works fine, but it doesn’t render shadows in windowed app screenshots on Cinnamon. It does, however, include pixel artefacts around the corners of windows, caused by the drop shadow bleeding through: It’s not super pretty, and as someone who works […] You’re reading Cinnamon desktop is getting its own, native screenshot tool, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

Canonical to shut Ubuntu Pastebin after 18 years of service
Canonical will decommission its long-running text-hosting service Ubuntu Pastebin on May 31. The company is pulling the plug as part of a broader “infrastructure modernization and migration project”, according to Canonical Community Engineer Aaron Prisk. Ubuntu Pastebin works similarly to GitHub’s Gist, albeit without the revision history. It’s been available as a tool the community can use since late 2007. The service was partly launched to help the distro’s official IRC support channels. They were often flooded with reams of terminal output from users requesting help. Paste links were also used by the wider community, often to provide quick access […] You’re reading Canonical to shut Ubuntu Pastebin after 18 years of service, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

Ubuntu 26.10 daily builds now available to download
Daily builds of Ubuntu 26.10 ‘Stonking Stingray’ are now available for download, as development on the distro’s next major release kicks in to gear. As the name suggests, new ISOs are produced from development code on a (mostly) daily basis, giving those keen to test October’s release in advance the ability to do so. However, because package updates can break the ability for a bootable image to be created, it’s not unusual for there to be temporary gaps between new daily builds being available. Daily builds will continue to be produced for remainder of the Ubuntu 26.10 development cycle, right […] You’re reading Ubuntu 26.10 daily builds now available to download, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

GNOME Sushi spacebar preview fix coming to Ubuntu 26.04
GNOME Sushi fans, rejoice: the spacebar preview feature is being fixed in Ubuntu 26.04. If you’re not familiar with it, GNOME Sushi is a file preview tool similar to Quick Look on macOS. Select a file in Nautilus, press space and a floating preview window appears. It works with images, video and audio files, PDFs, plain text files and more. GNOME’s Sushi isn’t preinstalled in Ubuntu but many users install it themselves as it makes it easier to find specific files when rooting through folders filled with samey-seeming documents, audio files and video clip. —Well, except it doesn’t (or rather, […] You’re reading GNOME Sushi spacebar preview fix coming to Ubuntu 26.04, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

ONLYOFFICE 9.4 is out with a stricter FOSS licence
A new version of ONLYOFFICE, the open-source productivity suite, is out with a small set of improvements. The new release lands a couple of months after ONLYOFFICE suspended its eight-year Nextcloud partnership over Euro-Office, a fork by a European consortium that ONLYOFFICE says violates its AGPLv3 licence terms. Totally unrelated (yes, sarcasm), ONLYOFFICE 9.4 updates its licensing. Forks are still permitted but ‘additional terms’ demand that forks credit ONLYOFFICE as the original developer in a ‘prominently visible’ part of the UI. However, the terms also state that forks aren’t allowed to use ONLYOFFICE’s trademark without permission. The AGPLv3 allows licence […] You’re reading ONLYOFFICE 9.4 is out with a stricter FOSS licence, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …

Vivaldi 8.0 released with ‘biggest design overhaul, ever’
A bold new look arrives in Vivaldi 8.0, the latest update to the Chromium-based web browser. The browser’s main UI elements (the bits that make a browser looks like a browser, so tabs, toolbars, panels, and content) drop their boundaries to form a continuous look. Hence the named Unified. Similar to Zen Browser, the canvas for web content is now ‘framed’ with rounded corners, rather than web pages flowing fully from edge-to-edge. “Unified is not a visual refresh. It is a rethinking of how the Vivaldi interface works as a system” the company says in a press release (invoking a […] You’re reading Vivaldi 8.0 released with ‘biggest design overhaul, ever’, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission. …