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Release notes items for 3.36

List of potential items to include in the release notes for 3.36. This can include small or big changes that might be interesting to users or developers. If in doubt, suggest it!

System

Power off options

Power off / log out options have been reorganised. There's now a visible suspend option, which is easier to use than the previous UI. Log out is now more visible. We think that it looks nicer, too!

Password peeking

In system dialogs, you can now show the password text by clicking a button: GNOME/gnome-shell!619 (merged)

Redesigned system dialogs

Most, if not all, of the system dialogs have been redesigned, so they're consistent and look nice. Big thanks to @verdre for doing a lot of work on this.

Background: GNOME/gnome-shell#1343 (closed)

Visual style improvements

@snwh did another round of style improvements to the shell: everything is more polished and looks better.

Main areas where the changes are visible: the calendar popover, search.

The MR is GNOME/gnome-shell!875 (closed) . CSS lines changed: +2996, -3007.

Do not disturb

  • Do not disturb switch added to the notifications popover
  • An icon is shown next to the time when do not disturb is on
  • When do not disturb is on, notification popups aren't shown (urgent notifications like battery warnings are still shown)
  • Background: GNOME/gnome-shell#239 (closed)

App folders

  • App folders can now be created by drag and drop in the app grid - just drag a launcher on top of another one to create a folder
  • App folders have changed appearance - they now appear as dialogs in the center of the screen; this is more elegant, it also allows editing the folder name inside the dialog.

With this change, the old app folder functionality in Software has been removed.

Updated login and unlock UI

The interface for logging in and unlocking has been improved:

  • When unlocking, the two unlock screens have been merged into: there is no longer a separate grey screen where you enter your password
  • It's now possible to click the screen to show the password field, in place of the previous slide up action
  • One practical consequence of this: notifications are shown while entering your password, so its easier to see what's being going on while you were away
  • The lock screen now uses a blurred version of your wallpaper as the background
  • The user avatar and password entry has a nice new layout
  • We've added some nice touches, like the password field will wiggle if authentication fails

In general: the new design looks nicer, and logging in and unlocking should feel quicker and smoother. We've also fixed a few usability issues along the way.

More improvements are planned in this area for next release, version 3.38.

See https://blogs.gnome.org/shell-dev/2020/02/18/login-and-unlock-in-gnome-shell-3-36/

Settings

General

The sections have been rearranged to make Settings easier to navigate ( GNOME/gnome-control-center!669 (merged) ):

  • Details and Devices sub-sections have been removed
  • Thunderbolt has been moved to Privacy
  • The order of the list has been changed slightly

About panel

The about panel has been redesigned ( GNOME/gnome-control-center!590 (merged) ). This is mostly an aesthetic change, although changing the host name is a bit clearer, and we might have added info about whether you're using X11 or Wayland...

Privacy

Expanded privacy settings - GNOME/gnome-control-center!322 (merged) . Builds on Portals/Flatpak. Now lists apps with access to camera, microphone, location services, and allows this access to be revoked on a per-app basis.

Region & Language

Nicer formats dialog: GNOME/gnome-control-center!525 (merged)

Users

Design updates to the panel (GNOME/gnome-control-center!685 (merged)) :

  • Clearer UI for unlocking
  • Clearer control for setting the user as an admin
  • Nicer UI for editing the user name
  • General UI polish - uses standard list style (with boxes)

Apps

Icons

Five of the core apps had their icons updated - https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/Design/icon-revolution/issues/3

Software

Metered data support ( GNOME/gnome-software!194 (merged) ):

  • Metered networks are those which have data caps or can incur charges. They are automatically detected in some cases (mobile data). Networks can also be manually set as being metered from the network settings.
  • If the current network is metered, Software will pause automatic updates, in order to reduce data usage.
  • An info bar is shown in Software when updates have been paused.

Various minor visual improvements to the home page: better-looking banners, categories have been moved.

Extensions

GNOME Shell Extensions are now managed using a dedicated Extensions app, rather than Software. The Extensions app is an enhanced version of the old Extensions Preferences utility, and handles:

  • enabling/disabling extensions
  • changing extension preferences
  • updating and removing extensions

GNOME/gnome-shell!959 (merged)

Boxes

New onboarding experience - GNOME/gnome-boxes#282 (closed)

Edited by Allan Day