Today they are expected to release GNOME 42, the desktop that Fedora 36 will use and Ubuntu 22.04. It will be an update with interesting improvements, among which I would highlight the screenshot tool that will allow you to take "photos" and recordings of the desktop. But not all Linux distributions will be updated as soon as they release the new version, and currently there is no version stable that is already using GNOME 42. Yes, they are using the previous one, that is, the released in September 2021, which is none other than GNOME 41.
In the last hours we have had two updates of the most used desktop in the Linux world: on the one hand, It is now available GNOME 41.5, the fifth point update to the latest version of the desktop; On the other hand, the project launched GNOME 40.9, which is already the ninth maintenance update for the version of GNOME that was released in March 2021, the one that introduced novelties as striking as the touch panel gestures.
GNOME 41.5 and 40.9 are "bugfixes"
GNOME 41.5 is now available. This is a stable bug fix release for GNOME 41. All operating systems running GNOME 41 are recommended to update. […] It is designed to be a boring bug fix update for GNOME 41, so it should be safe to upgrade from earlier versions of v41.
The project labels this update as boring, but it makes sense: it doesn't introduce any new features, so there's not much to write home about, and it's also the fifth point update to GNOME v41, so there shouldn't be any big surprises either. From GNOME 40.9, they say:
GNOME 40.9 is now available. This is a stable bug fix release for GNOME 40. All operating systems running GNOME 40 are encouraged to update. […] GNOME 40.9 is the latest bug fix update for GNOME 40. GNOME 40 has reached the end of its life, and will not receive any more updates. It's time to upgrade to GNOME 41 or GNOME 42 (released tomorrow).
For those who have not uploaded, although this is a message that is intended more for developers than for users, it is recommended to do it now, since GNOME 40.9 is marked as EOL, that is, with it the end of the life cycle of the series is reached.