The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. This week in DistroWatch Weekly:
Review: The best open source operating systems of 2025
News: Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi Linux working to improve the install experience, Mageia team's plans for version 10
Questions and answers: Is software ever truly completed?
Released last week: Emmabuntus DE6-1.00, Kicksecure 18.0.8.7, MidnightBSD 4.0,....

The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. The Qubes project has a new stable release, Qubes OS 4.3.0, which updates the project's templates for Fedora, Debian and Whonix. The release announcement shares the key changes: "We're pleased to announce the stable release of Qubes OS 4.3.0. This minor release includes a host of new features,....

The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. Barry Kauler has announced the release of EasyOS 7.1, an updated build of the project's experimental Linux distribution built from Devuan: "woofQ2-built EasyOS has version numbering starting from 7.0. It is built from Devuan 'Excalibur' (equivalent to Debian 'Trixie') binary packages, with major structural changes, including based on....

The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. The Synex distribution is based on Debian's "Stable" branch and offers a range of desktop variant along with a specialist server edition. Synex 13 "Server" offers predictable networking settings and a custom storage manager which simplifies LVM and encryption management. "ServerHub continues as the modular framework for enterprise....

Wallpaper Competition for Ubuntu 26.04, Resolute Raccoon, opened for submissions. 6 of them will be included in the disc images.

This is one of my top favorite community activities. I’m neither an expert artist nor a professional photographer, but I can get many cool images and vote my favorites to be optional wallpapers for all Ubuntu users.

Like the last competition, the submissions are grouped into 3 categories: Mascot Theme – artwork that features the mascot for raccoon, Digital / Abstract – artwork created by digital tools (e.g., Blender, GIMP etc), and Photography – high resolution image taken from a conventional or digital camera.

The top TWO voted images from each category will be included in Ubuntu 26.04 as optional wallpapers in the Appearance -> Background settings.

The rules for this competition include:

• Submitter must own the rights to the image.
• Full quality image must be 3840×2160 px. PNG and WebP recommended.
• No watermark, name or logo in image.
• image licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0 or CC BY 4.0

The AI generated artwork is NOT allowed! Because there are active legal debates on the ownership of AI generated artwork and whether it can be copyrighted or not. And, many popular AI generation tools use a license that does not align with those for the contest.

The wallpaper submission started a week ago on December 15th (UTC), few months earlier than the last 24.04 LTS. And, the submission window is open for few weeks longer than before, until January 28th. After the submission close date, all can vote until February 4th.

The entrance of Ubuntu 26.04 Wallpaper Competition:

 
 
Here are some of my favorite images from the submission page:

Images below are optimized for faster loading, please go to the link above for original files.

Add an animated Santa to Ubuntu with the Gnomelets GNOME extension. See Santa walk on app windows, jump and roam your desktop. Works with GNOME 45+.

You're reading Add a Pixel Santa to Your Ubuntu Desktop for Christmas, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

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Linux Mint 22.3 beta brings a redesigned app menu, regex file search, new on-screen keyboard, and improved Wayland support. See what's new in this update.

You're reading Linux Mint 22.3 Beta Released, This is What’s New, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Canonical confirms Ubuntu 26.04 LTS will ship with Linux kernel 6.20 (7.0) in April, bringing latest hardware support and performance improvements to users.

You're reading Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Confirms its Kernel Version, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Kdenlive 25.12 adds native vertical video support, a new UI docking system, and duration-based markers. See what’s new in the latest KDE video editor update.

You're reading Kdenlive 25.12 Release Makes Vertical Video a First-Class Citizen, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. Chimera Linux is an independent distribution which uses an unusual combination of technologies behind the scenes. Chimera Linux uses BSD userland command-line tools, the Clang/LLVM compiler toolchain, Dinit for service management, and APK for package management. The project's latest snapshot introduces a text-based system installer: "This set has....

The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. The Linux Mint team have announced the availability of Linux Mint 22.3 beta. The new development snapshot introduces Cinnamon 6.6 with several small improvements along with a new troubleshooting application. "Linux Mint 22.3 is a long-term support release which will be supported until 2029. It comes with updated....

For Linux Mint users, the Beta release of next version 22.3 is now available to download for testing purpose.

Linux Mint 22.3, code-name “Zena”, features Cinnamon Desktop 6.6.2, modern new application menu, and new application to configure the boot menu.

The Linux Mint blog revealed the exciting new features for 22.3 version in the October monthly news post. The start menu (aka Applications Menu) has been redesigned to look modern in today’s desktop operating systems.

It now has a full height left-bar contains user avatar, user folders, and few core apps (e.g. Settings and Software Manager). The categories now use new XApp Symbolic Icons which look tidy and compact that no longer needs a scroll-bar.

The search box can now be moved to the bottom of menu, and the system buttons (e.g., lock, logout, and power-off) can be placed to either in left sidebar or alongside the search box.

In addition, user can configure which kind of apps and user folders to display, and even hide the whole left-bar from the application menu.

Linux Mint 22.3 also renamed System Info to System Information. Besides showing the basic system info, the app merged “System Reports” and “Error Reports”, as well added following new pages:

• USB – displays all plugged-in devices, as well as their types, names, and IDs.
• GPU – shows information about the default graphics card and the status of hardware acceleration support.
• PCI – with detailed look of internal computer components, and their bus IDs, device names, and drivers.
• BIOS – shows the information about the motherboard, BIOS version, boot mode (UEFI or legacy boot), and secure-boot enabled or not.

Moreover, Mint 22.3 introduced new System Administration app, allowing to configure the boot menu (aka Grub boot-loader).

With it, you may choose whether to show the boot menu or not, configure how long the menu displayed before booting the default entry, and select to remember and boot the last choice. As well, it supports adding/editing Kernel and boot parameters.

Other changes include:

• Wayland-compatible keyboard/IM handling.
• Improved on-screen keyboard.
• Ability to pause file operations in Nemo file manager.
• Add ‘Always on’ Night Light schedule option.
• Add ability to send text messages in Warpinator.

For more about Linux Mint 22.3, see the official release note.

Get Linux Mint 22.3 Beta

The iso image for the Cinnamon edition is available to download via the link below:

https://linuxmint.com/torrents/linuxmint-22.3-cinnamon-64bit-beta.iso.torrent

For MATE and XFCE images, choose a download mirror that near to you, then select download either Cinnamon, MATE, or XFCE edition under “testing” directory.

You can now install the latest and greatest Linux 6.18 LTS kernel series on your Ubuntu 25.04 and Ubuntu 25.10 distributions. Here’s how to do it!

The post How to Install Linux Kernel 6.18 LTS on Ubuntu 25.10 and Ubuntu 25.04 appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

Kdenlive 25.12 open-source video editor is now available for download with a new and flexible docking system, a new Welcome Screen, and more. Here's what's new!

The post Kdenlive 25.12 Video Editor Adds New Docking System, Welcome Screen, and More appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

Fwupd 2.0.19 Linux firmware updater is now available for download with support for the Lenovo Sapphire Folio keyboard and other changes. Here's what's new!

The post Fwupd 2.0.19 Linux Firmware Updater Supports Lenovo Sapphire Folio Keyboard appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

Mozilla is working on an AI kill switch for the Firefox open-source web browser to let users completely disable all AI features.

The post Firefox Will Ship with an “AI Kill Switch” to Completely Disable all AI Features appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

OpenZFS 2.4 file system and volume manager is now available for download with support for Linux kernel 6.18 LTS and several new features. Here’s what’s new!

The post OpenZFS 2.4 Released with Linux 6.18 LTS Support, Quotas, Uncached IO, and More appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

NVIDIA 590.48.01 graphics driver is now available for download for Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris systems with various bug fixes. Here's what's changed!

The post NVIDIA 590 Linux Graphics Driver Released with More Wayland Improvements appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.