Eliana Willis

Ubuntu 24.10 pays homage to the OG release, 4.10 and 20 years of desktop Linux. Jack Wallen/ZDNETAh, Ubuntu. I remember those early days well. Back in 2004, I made the switch from Red Hat Linux (before there was Fedora and after using it since 1997) to this upstart distribution and never looked back. Since then, I’ve used only Ubuntu or a Ubuntu-based distribution for my primary OS.With good reason.Ubuntu is as stable and user-friendly as an OS can be. And with a clockwork-like release scheduled, I can always count on when a new version is about to hit. Also: 10 things I always do after installing Linux – and why you should tooWell, it’s nearly October, and that means there is yet another new release. This time around it’s something special because it’s the 20th anniversary of Ubuntu’s first release (Warty Warthog – version 4.10). There have been plenty of ups and downs along the way (think Ubuntu Unity) but the rough spots have been well smoothed over, and, for the most part, Ubuntu releases can be counted on to be reliable and enjoyable.As soon as I installed a test version of Ubuntu 24.10 (Oracular Oriole), I nodded my head and smiled in recognition of all that is familiar and good about this open-source operating system.But what’s new with the latest release from Canonical?GNOME 47Linux distributions live and die by the desktop environment. Without an outstanding UI, a distribution doesn’t stand a chance of surviving in this hyper-competitive world that is inundated with enough choices as to induce apoplectic fits of indecision.GNOME 47 is here and it includes plenty of polish. No, there aren’t any game-changing features to be found but what the developers have added improves an already brilliant desktop. The new additions include:Native accent color supportNew dialogs look with floating buttons and changes to improve the look on narrow displays.Improved interface for low-resolution monitors.Hardware-encoded screen recording.Persistent remote login sessionsImproved Nautilus sidebar (with rearranged shortcuts for easier access to Trash, Network, and more; easier bookmark management; internal drives now appear in the sidebar; and bookmarks can be rearranged via drag-and-drop).Improved UI for Disk Usage Analyzer.More settings options including “activate windows on hover” and improved online accounts.Progress bars in Dock launchers for snap apps are used when an app is updating in the background. More

A new Costco membership comes with a free $20 gift card right now. StackSocial Thinking about joining Costco? Or, have you been sharing a membership card with your parents or friends? Now that Costco is starting to crack down on membership sharing (in the coming months, the stores will start scanning cards at the entrance […] More

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNETLast year, to mark its 20th anniversary, gadget repair company iFixit gave its Repair Business Toolkit More

filo/Getty Images It’s commonplace for artificial intelligence (AI) experts in research and industry to talk about AI agents and agentic AI as the focus of innovation. OpenAI’s Sam Altman said as much almost a year ago at the company’s unveiling of an online store for custom GPTs and has elaborated at length about how agents will take […] More

artpartner-images/Getty Images Amid profound skepticism about generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) in the enterprise — consulting firm Deloitte says projects are struggling to get into production, and research firm Gartner predicts many projects will be abandoned — investment bank Bank of America (BofA) has reported results of a survey of Wall Street stock analysts recently that […] More

Richard Drury/Getty Images While it’s never been a better time to be a successful IT professional in terms of professional gains, recognizing opportunities for career advancement is just the starting point.  IT professionals who want to land the top jobs will have to appeal to the senior executives of their respective organizations in new and […] More

Get a Babbel lifetime language subscription at a big discount right now.  StackSocial Learning a new language can be daunting. But right now, you can buy a lifetime subscription to Babbel Language Learning from Stack Social that lets you choose from 14 languages and access more than 10,000 hours of online language education for just $180 […] More

takayib/Getty Images On October 14, 2025, Microsoft will stop delivering security updates to your Windows 10 PC unless you’re willing to pay an exorbitant price to join the Extended Security Updates program.  Also: Microsoft to start charging for Windows 10 updates next year. Here’s how much If you try to upgrade to Windows 11 on […] More