New Opera, Chakra Plasma 5, Riddell Responds
A new Opera Web browser has landed for Linux users bring new features and improved multimedia support. Jonathan Riddell posted a short response to Ubuntu's statement on the community councils and a couple of reviews deserve mentioning. For Chakra users, a switch to Plasma 5 was announced.
The Opera Web browser got a rare update today, to version 33 (or 33.0.1990.43 to be exact). The first thing I noticed was the new icon and "brand identity." They actually introduced that a month ago, but here it is in a release now. The next was the updated Speeddial that has some quick launch icons at the bottom for things like Bookmarks, History, and Discover (that seems to feature news and articles from around the Web). Another nice update went into the new Settings, Downloads, and other screens. Some of the default settings are a little loose on privacy and security, so be sure to go over them before too much use. Also new this release is support for "proprietary codecs like H264 video and MP3 audio on Linux." There are also some performance improvements as well as some goodies for Web developers. Downloads are offered at Opera's homepage.
New look of Settings in Opera 33
Jonathan Riddell didn't really take Canonical's statement yesterday on the relationship between Ubuntu and Kubuntu's community councils very well. Questions came into Ubuntu/Canonical after Riddell's resignation from Kubuntu last week and the statement posted by Daniel Holbach was supposed to quieten them and, I imagine, close the subject once and for all. However, Riddell didn't take it lying down. He fired back, "The Ubuntu Community Council bullied me for asking questions that made Canonical feel uncomfortable and this is the only response to that. That bullying someone until they leave a project is the UCC way of resolving tensions leaves me speechless." He then added, "Canonical still claims restrictions on Ubuntu software which do not exist and which are against Ubuntu policy."
In other interesting news today:
* Plasma 5 will be the default desktop environment in Chakra
* Plasma 5 Powers KaOS Productivity
* Meet the Ubuntu family (slideshow)