We are pleased to report that ubermix 6 is now available. Based on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish) the new version offers a plethora of new features and functionality, along with better hardware support than ever. A few of the new features include:
Gnome 42
Gnome is the core user interface (UI) for ubermix, offering an array of design changes and ease of use improvements. The desktop now uses a horizontal workspace switcher, along with new multi-tasking settings to customise it. The app launcher is also switched to a horizontal layout, and app icons can not only be grouped, but also reorganized. There are new, three-finger touchpad gestures for entering and existing the app launcher and workspace switcher as well, making the whole system a pleasure to use.
Other Gnome related changes include a bunch of new file manager features, such a scrollable path-bar, path-bar autocomplete, support for password protected .zip creation and extraction directly from the file manager.
The whole UI is "prettier", with Gnome 42 finally offering a real, system-wide dark mode. There is even a new cleaner screenshot experience that now offers full screencasting functionality.
Other functionality improvements include the ability to set performance modes from the system menu, similar to battery save modes on mobile phones, more sophisticated multitasking settings, the ability to enable/disable animations, better multi-monitor settings with fractional scaling, additional controls for desktop icons, and more.
An ubermix specific tweak you'll notice is the dock, which defaults to floating mode along the left edge. There are a number of dock settings available in the Appearance control panel, and for ubermix we have re-enabled the rest of the more advanced dock options, which are accessible through the Extensions app.
Application Updates
Default applications are updated across the board, including the latest versions of LibreOffice, GIMP, Inkscape, Shotcut, Chrome, and more. Some applications, like Kazam are no longer necessary, due to built-in support through Gnome, but are still installable, of course, should long time users prefer them. A couple of apps have been changed out for alternatives for a variety of reasons; generally better performance or ongoing maintenance. For example, Notable is now standard and KeepNote is out, as Notable has more modern features and is better maintained.
Hardware Support
Significant updates to installer key hardware support enable installation on some of the latest systems from Lenovo and other vendors who utilize storage and other devices that weren't recognized by ubermix 5. We will upgrade the ubermix 5 key soon, as well. In addition, the new kernel in ubermix 6 provides better performance and broader hardware support, including much simpler integration with discreet graphics cards like those from NVidia and AMD.
Ready to give it a try?
Download ubermix 6 here.
- A faster UI with a sleeker look and custom ubermix wallpaper
- Faster boot times
- Fractional scaling for HD displays
- Custom app folder creation with a familiar drag and drop scheme
- Faster Google apps access
- Both Python 2 and Python 3 pre-installed for both the latest applications and solid backward compatibility
- Completely overhauled overlay partition scheme
- Full support for snap packages and the new, fully snap based software center
- Full multi-user support
- Linux kernel 5.4, supporting the latest hardware and a range of new security features
- A redesigned installer key that supports the latest devices
- Tons of application updates
Update to Linux kernel 5.3
Kernel updates typically bring significant improvements in hardware support, with this version making the move to the 5.x kernel. Version 5 brings with it many features, enhancements, and new functionality, such as the following:
- AMD Radeon FreeSync support
- Support for a new VegaM
- NVIDIA Xavier display support
- Continued work on Intel Icelake Gen11 graphics
- Intel VT-d Scalable Mode support for Scalable I/O Virtualization
- New Intel Stratix 10 FPGA drivers
- Fixes for F2FS, EXT4 and XFS
- Btrfs file-system restores support for swap files
- Fscrypt Adiantum support for helping with fast data encryption on low-end hardware. This replaces the infamous Speck algorithm by NSA.
- Realtek R8169 driver improvements
- Logitech High Resolution Scrolling support
- Raspberry Pi Touchscreen driver
- x86 laptop drivers improvement
- Improved power management
- Full support for multiple users, including resets and imaging: The instant reset functionality is one of the best features of ubermix, however it was originally only designed to work for the primary user. ubermix now fully supports multiple users for imaging and resets, making it possible to create several user accounts with varying access levels, while still retaining full reset capabilities across all of them. This was a complete overhaul of the reset system, bringing added flexibility and functionality.
- Touch setup improvements: ubermix makes setting up for a touchscreen device easy by doing all of the necessary tweaking of various system and visual settings for you, which is ordinarily quite a chore with a default Ubuntu install. The latest version brings with it much better support for variable resolutions, including automatic detection and scaling for HiDPI displays, and it does a better job of maintaining Gnome extensions already in place.
- Added sound input/output selector to the system menu: One of the shortcomings of the Gnome desktop on which ubermix runs is that managing multiple sound input and output sources can be quite tedious and confusing. Recent versions of ubermix now include an easy to use input and output device selector and volume control, saving users from having to hunt down sound settings every time the need to make a change.
Thrilled to learn that Peder Kjærgaard and Henrik Zilstorff have been deploying ubermix in rural schools in Tanzania! Funded by a small Danish NGO (http://marafiki.dk/aims) via Danish government funds, Henrik and Peder sent a box of computers to a small ruaral school and health clinic in Tanzania. In addition, the team built a small set of tutorials on https://freecomputersystem.wordpress.com . We're humbled to have a small part in this exciting effort, and wish the team all the success in the world with their efforts!
As with prior ubermix releases, ubermix 4 is based on a Long Term Support (LTS) release of Ubuntu, which means that it will receive support and updates from for a full 5 years, through April 2023. LTS releases are the most reliable and stable versions, making them an ideal base to build from. That said, it is time to say goodbye to ubermix 2, as it has just passed its support window. Images will remain available on the ubermix site, however they will no longer be supported or updated.
Here are just a few of the new features of ubermix 3.23:
Touch Support
One of the challenges for most operating systems designed for laptops - even Windows - is that they typically run in one of two User Interface (UI) modes: Standard or HiDPI. Standard UI mode is most common for displays with High Definition (HD) resolutions, which typically run 1920×1080 to 2560×1440 on modern hardware. For ultra-high resolution displays, like Apple's Retina and Dell/HP's Quad HD displays running at 3200×1800 or more, the operating system will switch to HiDPI mode, which essentially doubles the size of everything on the screen.
If you are like me, you try to keep tabs on a number of news feeds from a variety of sources, using Feedly or some other RSS feed aggregator. And while Feedly's web reader is fine, it's far from spectacular, especially when used on a touchscreen device, like the excellent Acer Switch Alpha 12 or Spin 7 (both great choices for ubermix).
Enter FeedReader.
FeedReader is a standalone RSS reader app for Linux desktops that does a nice job of fetching and organizing feed content. It performs all of the functions you would expect, including marking items as read, starred, tagging, and the like, and will even share articles to your Instapaper or Pocket account. And best of all, it caches content, so you can read offline, should you find yourself without an internet connection.
To check it out, open a terminal (ctrl-alt-t is the fastest way to get to one) and copy and paste the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:eviltwin1/feedreader-stable
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install feedreaderEnjoy!
