cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46379162

The Kubuntu team is thrilled to announce the release of Kubuntu 26.04 LTS, codenamed “Resolute Raccoon”! As a community-driven flavour of Ubuntu, Kubuntu continues its mission to deliver the cutting-edge KDE software ecosystem on top of Ubuntu’s rock-solid foundation. This Long-Term Support release, aligned with Ubuntu’s two-year LTS cycle, brings together the freshest stable KDE software with the reliability and security users depend on for years to come.

Building on the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS base released today by Canonical, Kubuntu 26.04 introduces Plasma 6.6 as the flagship desktop environment, alongside Qt 6.10.2, KDE Frameworks 6.24.0, and the latest KDE Gear 25.12.3 application suite. We’ve also upgraded to Linux kernel 7.0 for enhanced hardware support and performance. Whether you’re a developer, creator, or everyday user, this release emphasises Wayland maturity, modern security, and seamless integration with the open source world.

Kubuntu 26.04 LTS will receive security updates and critical fixes through April 2029, making it an excellent choice for home users, schools, businesses, and anyone who values a dependable, beautiful desktop.

Kubuntu remains completely free to download, use, and share—empowering our global community to innovate without barriers.

Four Exciting New Features for Kubuntu Users

Here are four standout enhancements that Kubuntu 26.04 LTS brings to your desktop:

• Text Recognition in Spectacle: Capture Text, Not Just Images Spectacle, KDE’s built-in screenshot tool, gains one of its most practical new capabilities in Plasma 6.6: built-in OCR text recognition. Capture any screenshot containing text—a document, a web page, an error dialog, a presentation slide—and Spectacle can analyse the image and convert the visible text into selectable, copyable content, right from within the app. No third-party tools required. Multi-language support means it works for users around the world, and the extracted text copies directly to your clipboard for immediate use. It’s the kind of small feature that quickly becomes indispensable.

• A New On-Screen Keyboard for Touch, Accessibility, and Beyond: Plasma 6.6 introduces a fully integrated on-screen keyboard, making Kubuntu a much stronger choice for touchscreen devices, tablets, and users with accessibility needs. The keyboard supports multiple languages and layouts, adjusts its position intelligently to avoid covering input fields, and is easily accessible via the system tray or accessibility settings. It includes standard keys, function keys, and emoji support, and appears automatically when you tap a text input field on touch-enabled hardware. This addition reflects KDE’s ongoing commitment to making the desktop inclusive and usable for everyone.

• Plasma Wayland - The Default, Fully Supported Session: The Plasma Wayland session is the default and fully supported session in Kubuntu 26.04 LTS, delivering improved security, smoother rendering, and better HiDPI display support. For users who need it for legacy hardware or specific workflows, the plasma-session-x11 package remains available in the Ubuntu archive— but it is not installed by default and is not supported by the Kubuntu team.

• Extensive Theming and Configuration Improvements: Plasma 6.6 brings significant advances to theming and desktop configuration, giving users more expressive control over the look and feel of their environment than ever before. Custom global themes have been expanded, colour scheme handling has been refined throughout the shell and applications, and widget customisation options have been deepened across panels and the desktop. Whether you prefer a polished out-of-the-box experience or enjoy crafting every detail of your workspace, Resolute Raccoon gives you the tools to make Kubuntu truly your own.

What’s New Under the Hood

Beyond these highlights, Kubuntu 26.04 LTS inherits Ubuntu’s robust platform upgrades:

• Linux Kernel 7.0: Updated from 6.8, the kernel now enables crash dumps by default on desktop installations, brings the new sched_ext scheduling system for hot-swappable eBPF-based schedulers, and retires the linux-lowlatency package in favour of a leaner lowlatency-kernel tuning approach on top of linux-generic.

• KDE Applications 25.12.3: All KDE Gear applications have been updated to 25.12.3, a stable release, including Dolphin, Konsole, Okular, Kdenlive, and more.

• Qt 6 Ecosystem: Qt 6.10.2 and KDE Frameworks 6.24.0 power the desktop. Qt5 (5.15.1cool1.gif and KDE Frameworks 5 (5.116.0) legacy packages remain in the archive for applications that have not yet completed their Qt6 port.

• Firefox 150 and LibreOffice 26.2: Both core applications are updated, with Firefox delivered as a Snap from the Snap Store and LibreOffice included in the full installation.

• sudo-rs by default: Ubuntu 26.04 LTS ships sudo-rs, a memory-safe Rust reimplementation of sudo, as the default sudo provider — improving security without changing everyday usage.

• Rust-powered core utilities: The core OS utilities are now provided by rust-coreutils, bringing performance improvements and memory safety to fundamental command-line tools.

• VA-API hardware video acceleration: AMD and Intel users now get hardware-accelerated video encoding and decoding by default via the Video Acceleration API — great for media playback and video work.

• Updated developer toolchain: GCC 15.2, Python 3.14, Rust 1.93, Golang 1.26, LLVM 21, OpenJDK 25, and .NET 10 are all included and ready to use.

• APT 3.2: The package manager gains a new dependency solver, OpenSSL-backed TLS, an automatic pager for commands like apt show and apt list and history and rollback commands like apt history-list or apt history-rollback, which were previously found only in separate apt-rollback tool.

This release marks another milestone in Kubuntu’s long journey as one of Ubuntu’s most beloved flavours. A huge thank you to our volunteer contributors, testers, bug reporters, and the upstream KDE and Ubuntu teams for making Resolute Raccoon a reality.

I just launched my first app. It's a simple app that pops up a toast notification when hdr content is being played, kinda like TVs do

I use a camera on my motorbike as a safety measure but also use it for filming when at work.

So. Because I'm an absolute idiot when I went out earlier I deleted all the video files off the card to make sure I had enough space for video of the ride.... The video files I need for work from an event I ran yesterday.

Any suggestions on open source recovery software?

Preferably Linux but I can borrow a windows laptop if required.

Thanks for any advice!

ONYX development update: v1.2a and v1.3-beta

A quick update on what's changed since my last post. Two beta dropped over the past few weeks. I would like to share this here so that I can possibly find my audience.

[1.2a-beta] — 2026-04-07

Added

• Application autostart — the app can now start automatically on system boot, Windows.
• Message animations in external groups and channels — animations were missing in external (self-hosted) instances, now consistent across all chat types

Improved

• Editing and deleting messages in groups and channels — this was broken or limited in non-external groups/channels, now works properly

Fixed

• Favorite icon color display in edit mode
• Voice message duration display in send preview

[1.3-beta] — 2026-04-21

Added

• Message reactions — react to messages
• User blocking — block list and the ability to block individual users
• Hide content in notifications — shows "New message" instead of actual content on the lock screen
• PIN and biometric prompt when switching accounts — multi-account users now need to authenticate when switching, prevents unauthorized access if someone has physical access to the device
• Relog notification — notifies when session token is expiring instead of silently failing
• Video download progress — progress indicator when downloading videos from the server

About the project

ONYX is an open source messenger with E2EE private chats, LAN mode (works without internet via UDP broadcast), and self-hostable groups and channels.

Bugs and issues — reach out to @support directly in ONYX.

Malus, which is a piece of "satire" but also fully functional, performs a "clean room" clone of open source software, meaning users could then sell, redistribute, etc. the software without crediting the original developers. But I have a hard time with the "clean room" argument since the LLM doing the behind-the-scenes work has already ingested the entire corpus of open source software -- and somehow the output of the LLMs isn't considered a derivative work.

I would Imagine that when you are privy to secrets which become increasingly valuable, you also draw some heat on yourself.

What are your thoughts?

Why Use This Circle To Search App?

The Problem with Google's CTS Version

• Forced Cloud Syncing: Uploads your selection to servers even when you just want to copy text.

• Get's accidentally triggerd frequently, exposing sensitive data instantly to google

• Ecosystem Lock-in: Restricted to Google Search—no support for Bing, Yandex, or AI models.

• Locked to Google ecosystem—no choice of search engine

• Missing Features: Useful features like "Share" and "Save" have been stripped out.

• Hardware Exclusivity: Only available on expensive flagship devices (Pixel 8, Galaxy S24+).

What We Do Differently

• Only what you circle gets processed—nothing else

• True Offline OCR: Text recognition works 100% locally on your device—no internet needed.

• QR detection offline, Smart Scan offline—no unnecessary servers

• Universal Compatibility: Works with any search engine (Google, Bing, Yandex, TinEye,).

• Restored Utility: We brought back the "Share" and "Save" features Google removed.

• Works on any Android device, not just expensive flagships

• Works on De-Googled Devices no google programs needed.

• And has many other useful features

100% Independent: Works on any Android phone (Android 10+), without requiring Google Play Services or OEM-specific software.

Privacy-First: No background tracking or logs—just pure on-device selection.

➥ Download:
- github

It still needs a lot of improvements and isn't polished yet, as I am a solo developer working on it. You can download it from GitHub for now, as the new update is yet to be released on F-Droid.

New York’s state budget could pass within days. Buried deep in the text is a provision that has nothing to do with balancing the books. Part C of the budget bill would require every 3D printer sold in New York to run surveillance software that scans every design file you create, and blocks anything an algorithm flags as a potential firearm component . A separate provision would expose researchers, journalists, and educators to felony charges simply for possessing or sharing certain design files.

edit: somebody complained the url isn't a eff domain, so here's the eff site linking to this petition/url: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/stop-new-yorks-attack-3d-printing

I am interested what do you use for tracking your expenses and other things like income, lending, investing, ...

All apps i tried don't have a lot of features or those features are buggy (or they at least seem so).

Have you found some app that does all that you want or do you use spreadsheets or some other solution?

(edit: typo and formatting)

the immediate blocker when trying to run this Python project is that a native package deep within its dependency graph won't compile without gcc-12 even though gcc 15 was released in August last year

that's not even targeting gcc 14 which was released in 2024

and to hardcode this expectation without a Dockerfile or some Python-native mechanism to pull in a specific version of a C/Cxx compiler ...

https://xkcd.com/1987/

🐍 🤡

We have launched our wiki and forum that is built around collaboration on Libre projects. The aim is to create a community built around genuine and lasting connections, where people can work together on various projects across various disciplines - from artists to software developers...we hope to create a hub for skill-sharing and project creation.

In an age of instant connection, we are still remarkably lonely in our creative work. You can have a niche interest and instantly find someone across the globe who shares it — but sharing isn't the same as collaborating. At some point in your creative journey, you may lack a specific skill or just need fresh ideas to move forward.

UnfinishedProjects is an attempt to connect you with other creative individuals and serve as a hub for open-licensed work. Our goal is to enable small, meaningful contributions across multiple projects, allowing us to move them forward together. It is an experiment in breaking isolation . . . an attempt to bring stalled ideas, or those simply too complex to finish alone, back to life through the power of collective contributions.

We aren't just another place to talk about what we like. We don't want to be yet another modern social media platform. We have faith in selfless connections and aim to build a place for meaningful and thoughtful discussions. We want to promote collaboration over self-promotion — a space where "incomplete" is not a shame or failure, but an opportunity to exchange with others, to build together, and eventually . . . to share the feeling of pride in what you've achieved.

We hope some of you will check out our platform as we try to establish our community.
Feel free to stop by our forum and introduce yourself at https://forum.unfinishedprojects.net/ - or read more about or community vision on our wiki at https://unfinishedprojects.net/wiki/About/Vision

In an age with modern social media and internet, it can sometimes be hard to sit down and dedicate time to build lasting relationships and communities, but we hope that our forum is taking a step in the right direction, and that you will help us build it into a community that brings back some purpose into our digital lives.

so i've been searching for a long time for an image tagging software, there are some tools out there, some are electron based so no thanks, then there's Hydrus which is actually very similar to what this does, but the GUI is horrible and the installation is way more complicated. I created a docker compose file and I was running Blombooru in a few minutes. So if anyone was looking for something like this to organize their system, please give it a try because it is really good!

@opensource #codeberg is great in creating cloud ☁️ repositories for images. Here l can easily store my images online, and also download them whenever and wherever I feel like.

However, the Codeberg team has contacted me and informed me that this isn't exactly the kind of use that Codeberg has been designed for. And they've given me a timeframe, after which they're going to delete my repository.

Can anybody suggest me some other platform where l can store my images and also download them at my convenience, which is as great as Codeberg ??

I'm using the default messaging app on e/OS and it doesn't support emoji responses. Not sure if this is a de-Google limitation or if other apps do have it. If so, any recommendations on basic SMS apps?

I'm on Windows and I often receive photos from iPhones in the HEIC format. Though I can convert them, it's annoying to have to do that just to view the dang photo. Is there a FOSS program that can open them without converting them? Something like VLC which pretty much handles all video formats.

I've tried downloading the HEIF Image Extension but that does absolutely nothing.

Built a Hugo shortcode that generates your full sitemap in a single line 🗺️

Just add {{< stormmap >}} anywhere — it automatically lists all sections, posts, and supports 7 different styles.

Free & open source

beblurt.com/@rubenstorm

#hugo #webdev #opensource #blurt #blog #web3 #blockchain

I kept running into a situation where my OpenAPI spec and my test collection described the same endpoints but slowly drifted apart. Someone updates the spec, forgets the tests. Someone fixes a test, doesn't touch the spec. The usual.

I built VolcAPI to collapse this into one file. You add a v-functional-test extension to your OpenAPI spec and define test scenarios in the same file or different files. The spec becomes executable.

paths:
  /auth/login:
    post:
      summary: User login
      v-functional-test:
        scenarios: ["valid_login", "wrong_password"]
 
scenarios:
  valid_login:
    headers:
      Content-Type: application/json
    request:
      email: user@example.com
      password: correct
    response:
      status: 200
      body:
        contains: ["token"]
 
  wrong_password:
    request:
      email: user@example.com
      password: wrong
    response:
      status: 401

volcapi run volcapi_local.yml -o openapi.yml

It's a static Go binary — no runtime, no dependencies. The immediate goal is CI integration: JUnit XML output and a working GitHub Actions example are in progress.

This is alpha. GET/POST/PUT/DELETE work. Response validation works. CI output formats are next.

Repo: https://github.com/aliamerj/volcapi

Curious whether the "spec as test suite" model makes sense to people here, or whether you'd keep tests separate from the spec on principle. I've gone back and forth on this design decision and haven't fully settled it.

Small. Compact. Usefull.

https://libregraphicsmeeting.org/2026/

Yes I will jailbreak it to get KUAL and KOreader. Thanks kovid and open source.