Just over an hour ago, the project behind the desktop used by the main editions of Ubuntu and Fedora, among others, has made official the launch of GNOME 47. Lots of new features, and even a short video showing some of them. What is perhaps most striking, as always, is what you see, and this edition includes some tweaks that are obvious.
In the header screenshot, which comes from the video below these lines, we see that the color of the wired connection switch (Wired) has a tone that is not what you would expect. It is not orange, it is not red, but something in between. This is thanks to the new feature that allows GNOME 47 to support accent colorTo give some examples, in Ubuntu the default is orange, and in Manjaro it is green.
Highlights of GNOME 47
GNOME 47 is codenamed Denver. It has been in development for the past six months since the v46, and it will be the one used by Ubuntu and Fedora that will arrive in October. In its list of most outstanding novelties we find:
- Accent color support. This allows the rest of GNOME to get its accent color from settings if you change the accent color.
- Small screen improvements. GNOME 47 improves the user experience on lower resolution screens by optimizing the way icons and interface elements are displayed.
- Hardware encoding for screencasts: GNOME 47 introduces support for hardware encoding on Intel and AMD GPUs when recording your screen. This significantly reduces the strain on your system during screen recording. As a result, you'll experience smoother performance with less impact on system resources, making it easier to capture high-quality screencasts without compromising the responsiveness of your desktop or other running applications.
- Performance and smoothness improvements. This release brings improvements to GTK rendering, especially on older hardware and mobile devices.
- Persistent Remote Desktop Sessions - In this edition, this type of session allows that if you disconnect from a remote session, it will continue at a later time.
- New dialog boxes. These will be available in both system and application dialog boxes. They are easier to use, cleaner, and look better on all types of screens.
other developments
- New open and save dialog, a substantial improvement over previous versions and based on the Files app instead of separate code. Besides being more aesthetically pleasing and clearer, they make the Files app (aka Nautilus) more consistent.
- Speaking of the Files app, it has seen a lot of improvements in GNOME 47. For example, it has improved navigation and better search information. As if that weren't enough, the app now has a more modern interface. It will look better, but it is likely to cause issues in some environments, such as virtual machines.
- New options in Settings:
- Activate window on hover.
- Preview input sources.
- Option to suspend the mobile.
- Improvements to online accounts:
- IMAP/SMTP email account details are now automatically filled in based on the address used.
- Kerberos accounts consume less power on an ongoing basis.
- Email, calendar, and contacts integration has been added to Microsoft 365 accounts.
- When setting up WebDAV accounts, available services are now automatically discovered, providing a more streamlined setup experience.
More improvements to GNOME 47 applications
GNOME is a graphical environment, but so are its applications. In the 47th release, GNOME Web (aka Epiphany) can automatically fill out forms, favorites have been redesigned, and there are new privacy reports.
The calendar app has fixed almost 50 bugs and has been polished. It has a new design that highlights:
- The handling of read-only events has been improved and is now indicated by a lock icon.
- A more attractive and user-friendly design, with clearer sections and consistent spacing.
- Links to video meetings are now only displayed once.
- Placeholders indicate where information is missing.
Other changes
- Disk Usage Analyzer has a revamped interface for GNOME 47. The updated look includes a modernized file list, updated icons, and a new-look location bar.
- The wait cursors have been refreshed to match the platform's new spinner widget.
- Maps now uses vector tiles by default.
- App recommendations in Software have been updated, making it easier to find the latest and greatest apps to install.
- Maps also includes public transit routes in select locations. Rather than relying on commercial services, Maps leverages a community-run transit routing service.
The project has taken the opportunity to welcome several applications that will become part of the GNOME circle: Binary, Library, Hieroglyphic, Resources, Tuba y Review.
GNOME 47 has been officially announced, but that just means that its source code is available. In the next few days it will start appearing in the different Linux distributions. Can you wait?