Releases · basecamp/omakub

This is a massive upgrade to Omakub, and a huge credit to the substantial community that has already gathered around this project. It turns out that there are a lot of people who just needed a good starting point and a small nudge to checkout Linux, and who've been loving what they've found.

Together, we've gathered hundreds of people in the invite-only Omakub Campfire to push the project forward, and dozens of people have patches in this release to make everything better. Love to see it!

There's also a brand new manual: https://manual.omakub.org/

If you already have Omakub v1.0.0 installed, you can upgrade to the latest by first starting the omakub command, picking Update, then running source $OMAKUB_PATH/migrations/1718359027.sh (going forward these migrations will run automatically when running Update).

Here are the code and setup changes:

Rails, PHP, Python, Go, Elixir, Rust, Java

Omakub now has a vastly expanded setup of programming languages out of the box. When you run the installer for the first time, you'll be asked to pick with languages you'd like setup. The majority of them are setup using mise, except for PHP and Rust that use their own installers. Rails is now also installed together with Ruby.

You can add additional languages later by running the Omakub command, picking Install, then Dev Languages.

Standalone Omakub app

The Omakub command now has its own application shortcut that's added by default to the dock (or available via Ulauncher by Super + Space oma). It's been overhauled with control over font sizing, the installing of optional software is better explained, and everything has been tidied up.

Other standalone TUIs

There's a new Activity app that wraps btop as a standalone TUI for resource usage, a new About app that wraps fastfetch for system information, and a Docker app that wraps Lazydocker for container management.

All these commands can of course still be run manually via your own terminal, but it's nicer to have them as their own standalone windows, and accessible via dock and Ulauncher.

Flatpak

Flatpak is a package manager adopted by a lot of Linux distributions, and a number of applications are exclusively distributed using this method. It is now installed by default.

Better app grid

The default Ubuntu app grid is in need of a bit of scrubbing, so using the Alphabetical App Grid Gnome extension, together with some select using of new folders, and removing some needless app icons (like for ImageMagick), it now looks a lot better out of the Omakub box.

New app: Obsidian

Obsidian is a fantastic, free note taking application that's highly extensible. It's a great option for someone coming from Apple Notes or even Notion to migrate to. Everything is stored in plain text Markdown files, and you can either bring your own syncing solution (like Dropbox) or buy Obsidian's own syncing solution as an add-on.

New Gnome Extensions

Sushi

While in the Gnome file manager, press space on any file name, and Sushi will show you a preview of that file. Just like the macOS finder. Great for quickly seeing images or text files or whatever. You can navigate using the arrow keys.

Pano

Pano is a clipboard manager that gives you history, grouping, and searching. It's bound to Super + Shift + V.

Vitals

Vitals is a resource monitor for the top panel, which Omakub by default just configures to show your download speed in mbits. But you can easily add CPU, RAM, or disk usage as well.

Undecorate

Undecorate lets you remove the top window drag handle on any window, just like the Alacritty terminal is setup. Hit Alt + Space on any active window to reveal the window menu, then Undecorate at the bottom. You can drag a window with holding Super and clicking and dragging. Or you can resize the window with Super + Backspace and using the mouse.

New optional apps

Audacity

Audacity is for recording and editing audio. Whether you're making music or a podcast, Audacity has all the tools for making it sound great.

Brave

Brave is a privacy-focused browser built on the Chromium rendering engine. It ships with a host of built-in ad blockers. Good alternative if you don't want to run Chrome.

Steam

Steam is the most popular PC gaming store, and thanks to Valve's investment in Linux through the Steamdeck, a ton of great games run perfectly on the platform. This is an optional installation.