The budgie 10.6 new desktop version release, which is positioned as the first version since the decision to develop the project independently of the Solus distribution.
The project is now run by the independent organization Buddies Of Budgie. Budgie 10.6 continues to be based on GNOME technologies and its own GNOME Shell implementation, but the Budgie 11 branch is scheduled to migrate to the Enlightenment Foundation Library ( EFL ) set of libraries developed by the Enlightenment project.
For those who do not know the desktop Budgie, you should know that it is based on GNOME technologies, but it uses its own implementations of the GNOME Shell, panel, applets, and notification system. To manage windows, Budgie uses Budgie Window Manager (BWM), which is an advanced modification of the base Mutter plugin.
Budgie is based on a panel that is similar in work organization to classic desktop panels. All panel elements are applets, allowing you to flexibly customize the layout, change the location and replace the implementation of the main panel elements to your liking.
Available applets include the classic application menu, task switching system, an area with a list of open windows, virtual desktop display, a power management indicator, a volume control applet, a system status indicator and a watch.
Main new features of Budgie 10.6
In this new version se has reviewed the positioning of the project: instead of the final product, Budgie now appears as a platform in which distributions and users can create solutions tailored to your own preferences. For example, the ability to choose the layout, a suite of applications, and a desktop style is provided.
From an organizational point of view, work has been done to eliminate the separation between the actual development organization and subsequent projects like Ubuntu Budgie, who create end products based on Budgie. Such subsequent projects have more opportunities to participate in the development of Budgie.
To make it easy to create your own Budgie-based solutions, the code base is divided into several components, which are now shipped separately:
Budgie Desktop is straight up a user interface.
Budgie Desktop View – A set of desktop icons.
Budgie Control Center is a configurator derived from the GNOME Control Center.
It is also highlighted that rewritten code to track application activity and improved Icon Tasklist applet, which provides a list of active tasks. Added support for application pooling. Resolved an issue with removing valid applications with an atypical window type, eg some KDE programs such as Spectacle and KColorChooser were previously not displayed in the list.
The theme has been redesigned to unify the look of all Budgie components. Dialog borders, padding, and color schemes have been unified, the use of transparency and shadows has been reduced, and compatibility with GTK themes has been improved.
Besides it the system to show notifications has been rewritten, which is separated from the Raven applet, which is now responsible only for displaying the sidebar. The notification system can now be used not only in Raven, but also in other desktop components, for example, it is planned to organize a list of notifications in the task area (Icon Tasklist).
Of the other changes that stand out of this new version:
- Improved tracking of recent notifications and pausing notifications.
- The window manager removes unnecessary calls that cause content to redraw.
- GTK.Stack is used to display popup windows.
- The taskbar has been modernized and the panel size settings have been improved.
- Widgets placed on the panel to show battery charge and show clock have been improved.
- Modified default panel settings to reduce discrepancy between panel placement and widgets displayed on layouts.
- Returned support for GNOME 40 and Ubuntu LTS.
- To work with the translations, the Transifex service is used instead of Weblate.
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about it about this new version of the environment, you can check the details In the following link.