April 2026 has been and long gone, however no longer sooner than handing over an array of Linux instrument updates, together with new variations of widespread FOSS video editor Kdenlive and Oracle’s virtualisation providing VirtualBox.
We additionally were given Firefox 150 with GTK emoji picker fortify and break up tab enhancements, and a modest worm repair replace to the GIMP symbol editor, albeit resolving an hectic on-canvas textual content device quirk.
Beneath, I checklist different notable Linux app releases to reach in April. Whilst those didn’t advantage a devoted article (whats up, it used to be a hectic month with the discharge of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS), they nonetheless introduced nifty new options and welcome enhancements which can be value listening to about.
Zed textual content editor reaches 1.0
Zed, the open-source IDE written in Rust, issued its 1.0 free up. It’s constructed up a notable following since I ultimate featured it on at the weblog, having saved tempo with building adjustments through including AI and agentic options (some paid), however no longer neglecting its core: textual content.
No longer that the rounded v1.0 model quantity signifies that the textual content editor is now very best. Extra that its makers really feel it’s excellent sufficient for builders to depend on day by day.. If you happen to’ve attempted Zed prior to now and located it missing, it can be value testing the brand new replace.
What’s new? At the AI aspect, Zed 1.0 provides fortify for China’s spectacular DeepSeek-V4-Professional and DeepSeek-V4-Flash fashions. It additionally positive aspects session-persistent bookmarking, stepped forward Git CLI integration and a few Linux-specific fixes, like finicky spacebar behaviour.
One removing of observe: preferred_line_length, which is long gone in favour of bounded comfortable wrapping. Some builders might imagine {that a} hindrance somewhat than a lend a hand, so being acutely aware of it sooner than upgrading is everlasting (assuming you care about it).
Head to the Zed web site to obtain the editor and take a look at it out. The core editor is unfastened and open supply instrument, and AI options can be utilized by means of Zed’s hosted fashions (unfastened tier to be had, Professional plan at $20/m), your individual API keys or native fashions.
Shotcut’s speech to textual content is going Vulkan
The Qt-based Shotcut video editor has a quick building cadence, and the newest replace, Shotcut 26.4, holds to it with a bevvy of timeline buffs, together with ‘symmetric’ resizing of transitions layered over clips within the timeline when the usage of the trim handles.
Dragging and losing clips from the Contemporary view and directly to the timeline is supported; timeline zoom made much less erratic; and the quantity of reminiscence used for timeline audio waveforms has been lowered.
The “giant” new function is Vulkan GPU fortify in Shotcut’s Speech to Textual content module, taking into consideration {hardware} sped up processing of subtitles on Home windows and Linux. There’s a brand new ‘use GPU’ checkbox within the speech to textual content conversation you’ll want to test to use this.
A brand new checklist of facet ratio grid choices will also be accessed from the participant grid button. This features a 1:1 body to lend a hand body sq. content material, common 16:9 for widescreen clips and 9:16 for TikTok, YouTube shorts and different ‘vertical’ video wishes.
Additionally of observe is export/rendering development and standing on taskbar/dock icons (the place supported) and the addition of recent 10-bit VP9 MP4 and WebM export presets and different smaller fixes and tuneups.
Shotcut is unfastened, open supply instrument. Hyperlinks to obtain the newest free up will also be discovered at the venture web site, with quite a lot of choices for Home windows, macOS and Linux methods.
PeaZip will get sooner (kinda)
PeaZip 11.0 provides notable efficiency positive aspects in huge archive dealing with. Opening and navigating very huge archives is now sooner, with pre-parsing as much as 94% sooner in huge collections (100K+), whilst tree view rendering is as much as 30% faster.
Within the PeaZip GTK2 construct, ‘digital mode’ is now on through default for archives over 16K pieces in order that the document checklist best renders what’s visual on display somewhat than loading the whole lot within the archive into reminiscence.
Batch archive checking out has additionally been added. This permits you to make a selection a couple of archives to run integrity assessments in a single move, with a move/fail proven within the CRC column. Drag-and-drop now works at the trail bar itself, shooting up a small menu to duplicate, transfer or extract to that location.
The backend has been up to date to 7-Zip/p7zip 26.00, the Password Supervisor now displays an entropy score for passwords you input and on Linux, darkish mode UI scaling on HiDPI shows is stepped forward, having up to now regarded pixelated beneath fractional scaling.
Obtain PeaZip from the respectable web site, which has installers and builds for Home windows, macOS and Linux, together with Deb installers for Ubuntu with a number of GTK2 or Qt6 UI.
Scribus ratings real-time spell test
Scribus 1.7.3 is the newest risky free up of the open supply desktop publishing (DTP) app. The strong department stays 1.6.x., however the thrilling adjustments are going down within the risky collection – a preview of the course Scribus is heading.
The largest addition is (for a few of us, heh) are living spell checking, which now runs in a separate thread as you edit so it doesn’t stall the UI. It handles comfortable hyphens, helps undo and routinely pauses all the way through Seek & Change operations so it doesn’t get perplexed.
Talking of which, Seek & Change has been rebuilt with a brand new UI, making complex standards collapsible, supporting seek throughout all textual content frames in a file and letting you prefill the quest box from no matter textual content you have got decided on.
At the typography aspect, a brand new Alternate Case serve as can change into textual content to lowercase, uppercase, sentence case, identify case, toggle. Web page and checklist numbering helps 15 further scripts (together with Devanagari, Thai, Greek, and Tibetan).
And the Barcode Generator plugin used to be rewritten (through its unique writer, no much less) to game a data-driven UI, re-editable barcode gadgets, a brand new scripting serve as and a lot of different buffs.
Obtain Scribus 1.7.3 for Home windows, macOS or Linux from the venture SourceForge.
BleachBit’s giant replace
BleachBit, the open-source gadget cleansing device, noticed its giant 6.0 free up this month, that means that new cookie supervisor previewed in its beta previous this yr is now able for prime-time.
Relatively than deleting all cookies all the way through a cleansing run, you’ll be able to now make a selection websites to stay cookies for. if you happen to’re fed of up getting logged from your electronic mail or social media accounts as soon as a gadget blank is finished then that is value testing.
Browser cleansing may be prolonged, with extra sorts of cruft gathered through Chromium-based browsers (shader cache, IndexedDB, community state and crash experiences) to be had to filter. You’ll be able to additionally blank Vivaldi and Zen for the primary time.
On Linux, BleachBit 6.0 extends its scrubbing to hide Flatpak installations of Chromium or ungoogled Chromium, can expunge LibreOffice’s contemporary paperwork checklist and makes use of fstrim all the way through partition wiping on SSDs.
DEB and RPM applications are actually signed immediately with the maintainer’s key, despite the fact that Arch Linux customers might want to observe there’s a brand new dependency on python-requests which the bundle metadata doesn’t point out, so if the app fails to release after putting in, test that’s put in.
Obtain BleachBit 6.0 from the respectable web site; DEB and RPM applications are to be had for Ubuntu 25.10, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Linux Mint 22.3. As ever: use this device sparsely as it may do extra harm or sluggish your software down if used with out due consideration.
VirtualBox helps Linux 7.0
A brand new repairs replace to Oracle’s open-source virtualisation app VirtualBox arrived in April, with v7.2.8 including fortify for the Linux 7.0 kernel free up on Linux hosts.
Linux hosts additionally select up fortify for visitor time accounting in VirtualBox 7.2.8. This sees CPU time VirtualBox spends working a visitor OS correctly reported, somewhat than it being bundled in with odd utility utilization.
Crimson Hat Undertaking Linux (RHEL) 10.1 and 10.2 kernels and the UEK9 kernel on Oracle Linux 9 see fixes, as is a graphics factor on Ubuntu 25.10 visitors that supposed the cursor used to be completely an arrow form, by no means converting to context-specific icons (e.g., clutch hand).
Linux Visitor Additions drops the integrated vboxvideo kernel module on Linux 7.0 and up because the kernel contains it (or you’ll be able to transfer to VMSVGA). Two clipboard fixes land for Wayland visitors on Home windows hosts, together with person who noticed the ultimate personality silently dropped on paste.
See the changelog for main points on those and a few different fixes, together with some that have been affecting Home windows visitors.
Obtain VirtualBox from the respectable web site for Home windows, macOS, Linux and Solaris. Ubuntu customers who don’t want the newest options can set up an older model from the Ubuntu archives.
Different apps of observe
Kdenlive will get collab-edit pleasant
Track mirroring and animated transition previews are amongst new options in Kdenlive 26.04, which launched (because the model quantity will let you know) in April.
Throughout main edits or operating with different editors within the room, track mirroring is a boon because it means that you can punt any track on your Kdenlive workspace (reminiscent of your primary venture preview) to a attached show, with out dropping it out of your workspace – all with a click on.
Custom previews will lend a hand accelerate modifying selections, as not more ‘trial and blunder’ is needed to search out the very best clip segue. Whilst you mouse over a transition within the picker an animated preview performs on loop – a function maximum closed-source video editors be offering.
Sticking with transition-related workflow speedups, transitions will routinely modify to the period of the clips it’s sandwiched between, which is helping will get you from A-B sooner because you don’t want to manually dial in a period (you’ll be able to, after all, manually tweak as soon as in place).
You’ll be able to additionally modify the playback velocity of a couple of clips directly, import clips from the timeline context menu (with the imported clip inserted on the scrubber level) and an approach to lock the playhead within the centre of the timeline all the way through playback, scrubbing or looking for.
The discharge announcement mentions those and a slew of alternative, smaller adjustments if you happen to’re .
Obtain Kdenlive from the respectable web site for Home windows, macOS or Linux – latter to be had as an AppImage or set up it from Flathub. If you happen to don’t want the very newest options, Kdenlive is within the Ubuntu archives too.
LibreOffice 26.2.3 introduced additional fixes to its present strong free up collection; OpenShot put out some extent free up to its contemporary ‘largest free up ever’ with a ‘proxy workflow’ function that makes use of lower-resolution photos to fortify efficiency.
Bazaar, the GTK4/libadwaita shopper for putting in and managing Flatpaks, remodeled its add-ons conversation, added a clear out to its seek web page and now displays a button for the EULA proprietary apps might hyperlink to on Flathub (‘cos do free up the ones EULAs, proper?).
In any case Rio, the cross-platform terminal app with GPU sped up options, hit v0.4.0. It’s passed through a big rewrite and code cleanup, decreasing the app measurement through ~50% on macOS. Rio’s dev cautions that on account of this it should now not paintings on older Linux and Home windows releases.
Pay attention app information? Let me know
That’s the bow tightly tied on April’s roundup however, as ever, if you happen to be informed of a instrument replace you assume others will need to learn about, do get in contact by means of the touch shape – your article pointers, corrections and content material ideas are tremendous liked.
