At the end of 2018, Canonical's Alan Pope shared the most popular Snap packages for 2018. Now there's a similar list out of the folks maintaining Flathub for Flatpak packages. The list of popular applications is quite different between these app sandboxing/distribution means.

The Xfce 4.14 remains long overdue for release but with Xfce4-Panel 4.13.4 being released on New Year's Day gives us hope we could see this long-awaited desktop environment out in 2019.

Just in time for managing and enhancing any holiday photos, Darktable 2.6.0 was released this Christmas Eve as the latest feature release for this leading open-source RAW photography workflow software.

The latest feature on deck for the long overdue Xfce 4.14 desktop update is support for the RandR primary display/output functionality.

Linux Mint's Cinnamon desktop environment derived from GNOME/GTK components has tagged its v4.0.0 release in source and is already beginning to appear in distribution repositories from the likes of Manjaro.

As a new alternative over XScreenSaver or using other desktop environments' screensaver functionality, xfce4-screensaver has out its first release albeit of alpha quality.

Linux developer Simon Peter who has spent years working on application standards like AppImage and Klik recently presented on what he believes are the 2018 Desktop Linux Platform Issues and the unfortunate continually moving target of "the year of the Linux desktop" that never materializes.

A new release of xfce4-settings is out as another component update in the long road to Xfce 4.14.

The GIMP team has released a new point release today to GIMP 2.10 stable. While the version may not be indicative of significant changes, there are some prominent user-facing improvements with this release.

Hong Jen Yee, the developer of the PCMan File Manager that has long served as the default file manager on the LXDE desktop environment, presented at this week's Debian DebConf 18 event about the LXDE/LXQt desktop efforts.

The Catfish search utility now officially lives under the Xfce umbrella.

GIMP 2.10.4 was quietly released earlier this week as the latest stable release in the GIMP 2.10 series.

Sean Davis of the Xubuntu project has provided a status update about the ongoing work by this Xfce-focused spin of Ubuntu Linux.

NetworkManager now has support for 6LoWPAN devices.

As another step towards the long-awaited Xfce 4.14 desktop environment release, Xfdesktop 4.13.2 is now available as the latest development release for this important piece of the Xfce desktop stack.

NetworkManager has finally landed support for dealing with Wake On Wireless LAN (WoWLAN) as the WoL-like functionality for wireless adapters.

Thunar 1.8 is now available as the latest stable release of the Xfce desktop's file manager.

The Jade Desktop Environment is a new effort at delivering another Linux desktop option.

Ahead of the upcoming Linux Mint 19 release that's re-based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS as well as the upcoming Linux Mint Debian Edition 3 release based on Stretch, the Cinnamon 3.8 desktop environment is now officially available.

MenuLibre is the advanced menu editor that supports most Linux desktop environments including GNOME, KDE Plasma, Budgie, Cinnamon, EDE, LXQt, MATE, and Pantheon. MenuLibre 2.2 is the first major release for the project in over two years.

In addition to the Xfce Settings update this weekend there is also a new release of the Xfce PluseAudio Plugin providing better support for this sound server on the Xfce desktop.

While still waiting on the long-awaited Xfce 4.14, out this weekend is an Xfce Settings 4.14.2 preview release as well as an Xfce Settings 4.12.3 stable series update.

Desktop-based instant messaging clients are becoming increasingly rare in the age of mobile apps and browser-based alternatives, but Pidgin formerly known as GAIM continues moving along albeit slowly. Recently the Pidgin 2.13.0 release happened without much attention.

Remember Arcan, the open-source game engine powered display server? This project that has been going strong for several years now and began venturing into VR has now announced what we believe to be the first open-source VR Linux desktop environment.

When it comes to RAW image editing on Linux, Darktable is what most often is talked about for its photography workflow and RAW image processing features. But another open-source alternative for RAW image processing is out with its latest release, RawTherapee.

Linux Mint's GNOME/GTK-derived Cinnamon Desktop Environment will soon be able to launch applications faster.

Cedric Bail of Samsung's Open-Source Group presented today at the Embedded Linux Conference on EFL 2.0 as part of the Enlightenment project's long-standing goal to provide a new and unified API.

Today marks the first release of the i3 tiling window manager in 2018.

After nearly one year in development, lead MATE developer Martin Wimpress has announced version 1.20 of this GNOME2-forked desktop environment.

MenuLibre is the menu editor program supporting FreeDesktop.org's Desktop Entry Specification and supports most desktop environments out there for customizations of their menus.