Nuvola Apps Runtime Fixes Issue with Spotify & Widevine Plugin, Tweaks Dark Theme Option and Scrollbars
The latest flatpak builds of Nuvola Apps fix the incompatibility of a new Widevine plugin (needed by Spotify), enable a dark theme preference for nine web apps that use a rather dark user interface, and improve the appearance of Chromium scrollbars (both light and dark variants are available). Individual Nuvola apps now check whether the installed Nuvola Apps Service does have the same version to prevent compatibility issues.
To install Nuvola, follow the installation instructions at the Nuvola Apps Project website. To update Nuvola, run flatpak update --system && flatpak update --user in terminal (as a regular user, not root/sudo) or use a package manager which supports Flatpak (e.g., a recent GNOME Software application with the Flatpak plugin).
This blog post applies to the genuine flatpak builds of Nuvola. If you use a third-party build, contact your distributor to find out which features are available.
Spotify: Widevine Plugin Update Required
Those who tried a fresh installation of Spotify recently may have encountered the Enable player in your browser error message [GitHub ticket]. The cause was a new Widevine plugin shipped with the new stable Chrome 68 release, which is incompatible with Chromium 67 built into Nuvola 4.12.0.
Nuvola 4.12.20 was updated to use Chromium 68.0.3440.75 (a bit delayed by another issue) and solves the problem entirely. Users who use any of the older versions of the Widevine plugin will be asked to update it to achieve maximal compatibility. If you encounter any issues, please don’t hesitate to report them.
Some Apps Use Dark Theme by Default
Nuvola 4.11.60 brought back the option to use a dark theme variant. Nuvola 4.12.20 goes further and enables the dark theme by default for 9 scripts (see below) whose user interface is rather dark. Other apps use a light variant by default if the theme provides it. As always, you can change these default settings in the preferences.
- Amazon Cloud Player
- BBC iPlayer
- Deezer
- KEXP
- Mixcloud
- Plex Music
- Pocket Casts
- Spotify
- YouTube Music
Tweaked Scrollbars
After the dark theme option was reintroduced, the default ugly Chromium scrollbars became the last noisy element ruining the otherwise pleasant visual experience.
Nuvola 4.12.20 tackles that with new dark scrollbars (enabled by default for the 9 apps mentioned in the previous section):
Other apps use new light scrollbars:
As always, you can change these default settings in the preferences:
Other Changes in Nuvola 4.12.20
Changes since release 4.12.0:
- Individual Nuvola apps check whether the installed Nuvola Apps Service does have the same version to prevent compatibility issues. (Nuvola Apps Service is an optional background service that provides individual Nuvola apps with globally shared resources such as global configuration storage, global keyboard shortcuts, an HTTP remote control server, and a command-line controller.)
- Various minor bug fixes, performance improvements, and clean-up of the codebase.
Nuvola Contributes to Good Angel Foundation
Jiri Janousek, the core developer of Nuvola Apps project, is glad to contribute a part of the project’s revenue to the Good Angel foundation. This way, he can regularly help families with children, which face financial distress as a result of severe illness. Even small monetary donations can help these families overcome a tough period.
Thank You for Your Support
At the time of writing, the awesome people listed bellow and a few others are Nuvola Patrons, who support the development of Nuvola Apps Runtime. Thank you all!
Christian Dannie Storgaard, José Antonio Rey, Ryan Wagner, Simon Law, Bart Libert, Chris Beeley, Andrew Azores, Bryan Wyatt, Balázs, Denton Davenport, Ben MacLeod, Duco van Amstel, David Wiczer, Andrew Allen, Nathan Warkentin, Chuck Talk.
If you are a Nuvola Patron but your name is not listed, you have to enable the “Show my name and a link to my external profile page in a list of Patrons.” option in your profile settings. Obviously, it is not enabled by default to protect privacy of our patrons.
