Collect items for GNOME 40 release notes
This issue is for tracking items of interest for the 40 release notes. This can include small or big changes that might be interesting to users or developers. If in doubt, suggest it!
For users
GNOME Shell
Messaging notes
- We are downplaying the extent (and by implication) disruptiveness of the design changes. The changes are an updated design for a specific part of the shell, not a complete redesign.
- The main features of the shell are unchanged - a single overview with a separate apps view, search that is one keypress away.
- The main advantages include:
- Improved touchpad gestures
- A more engaging and personalisable app grid
- Helpful and efficient empty and boot states
- General improvements to look and feel
The main changes
- The overview has been rearranged. Workspaces are now horizontal and the dash is along the bottom screen edge. Workspaces appear as a large filmstrip along the center of the screen.
- New touchpad gestures: three finger swipe up/down opens the overview as the first step, and opens the app grid as the second step. Three finger swipe left and right switches between workspaces.
- New keyboard shortcuts: Super+Alt+←/→ moves between workspaces. Super+Alt+↑/↓ opens the overview and app grid. The previous shortcuts (Super to open the overview, Super+PgUp/PgDown to switch workspace) will continue to work.
- Boot and empty experience - previously we would show a blank desktop on boot. Instead, now we show the overview on boot and when the last window is closed on a workspace. This makes it less work to get started, and is more helpful.
Other more minor changes
- In the dash there's now a separator: favourites go on the left and running apps which haven't been favourited go or the right. This helps to keep favourite apps distinct and allows dragging running apps to be favourites.
- Hold super+scroll can now be used to switch between workspaces.
- App icons are now shown over window thumbnails in the overview, to make them easier to identify.
- The app names below app icons now expand on hover to show the full title.
- General visual changes: active elements in the top bar have a new "pill" style, hover and selection states have been updated in the overview.
- When workspaces are set to span displays (using the workspaces-only-on-primary settings key), the workspace navigator is shown on all displays, not just the primary (as in previous versions).
Blog posts: https://blogs.gnome.org/shell-dev/tag/uxd-gnome-40/
Mutter
- Atomic modesetting
- Input thread
Settings
Keyboard & Region & Language - GNOME/gnome-control-center!785 (merged) :
- New and improved keyboard shortcut settings:
- Shortcuts are now arranged in smaller groups. This helps to get an overview of all shortcut categories and makes them easier to discover.
- Search is now visually more prominent and therefore more discoverable
- The input source settings have been moved from Region & Language to Keyboard, where they are easier to find (we have data on this)
- New settings added:
- Enable and configure the compose key
- Configure the 3rd level chooser key
Wifi
- Wi-Fi list improvements GNOME/gnome-control-center!884 (merged)
About
- Now shows the hardware model, if that information is available (not yet merged - GNOME/gnome-control-center!919 (merged))
Core apps
Many core apps have been brought up to date style-wise, with rounded bottom corners, rounded lists, and new view switchers, including
- Files
- Web
- Disks
- Fonts
- Calendar
- Photos
- System Monitor
- (and others, full list TBD)
Software
- New updates logic - GNOME/gnome-software#947 (closed)
- Reduces the frequency of non-urgent update reminders, so it's not nagging unnecessarily
- Flags critical updates more clearly
- New carousel - GNOME/gnome-software#1131 (closed)
- Looks better, automatically cycles, supports swipe gestures
- New version history dialogs on app pages - GNOME/gnome-software!617 (merged)
General UI
- Compose sequences are now displayed while you are entering them, with the ⎄ symbol for the Compose key (GTK 3 and 4)
- The Adwaita theme now has larger scrollbars, for easier mouse operation (GTK 3 and 4)
- Updated app icons: Web, Software
Weather
The UI has been overhauled (before and after screenshots to come).
Photos
Port to Tracker 3 has been completed. (GNOME/gnome-photos!135 (merged))
Nautilus
https://blogs.gnome.org/antoniof/2021/01/11/files-40-creation-timestamp-wallpaper-portal/ :
- Can now show and list by creation date
- A preview is now displayed when setting the wallpaper
Preferences redesign GNOME/nautilus!613 (merged)
Improved tab completion: https://www.jwestman.net/2021/02/17/files-tab-complete.html
Web
- New tabs GNOME/epiphany!814 (merged)
- Experimental WebExtensions support GNOME/epiphany!866 (merged)
- Google search suggestions in the URL bar (opt-in) GNOME/epiphany!883 (merged)
Tracker
Improved support for Games (GNOME/tracker-miners!308 (merged))
Performance improvements in the SPARQL database (GNOME/tracker!345 (merged), GNOME/tracker!348 (merged), GNOME/tracker!337 (merged)) and filesystem indexer (GNOME/tracker-miners!281 (merged), GNOME/tracker-miners!303 (merged))
Maps
Redesigned place bubbles (https://www.jwestman.net/2020/11/17/gnome-maps-place-bubble.html)
Adaptive UI for map details (https://www.jwestman.net/2021/02/10/gnome-maps-adaptive-place-bubbles.html)
For developers
GTK
- GTK4 is here
- The GTK inspector is available in non-debug builds as well
- Printers discovered with Avahi are better supported
Tracker
- New TrackerBatch API provides a more efficient way of inserting data.
- New TrackerEndpointHttp object to optionally make databases accessible via the SPARQL HTTP protocol.
libhandy
- New widgets:
- HdyTabView + HdyTabBar - dynamic tabs
- HdyStatusPage - a widget for implementing empty or error states
- HdyFlap a widget for transient sidebars or sliding sheets
Sysprof
- Improved symbol decoding when using containers such as Flatpak or Toolbox.
- Using sysprof-cli will now pre-authorize the profiling session before spawning processes.
Builder
- Builder can now more accurately discover SDK extensions and install them for you.
- Builder's Rust support will now install and run rust-analyzer from your Flatpak build container to improve diagnostics, completion, and code-formatting features.
- Improved support for Toolbox containers.
GtkSourceView
- A modernized GObject API with support for GTK 4.
- Improved syntax highlighting performance using the JIT provided in PCRE2.
- A new auto completion engine
- Support for "Interactive tooltips"
- A new code-snippet engine
cc @Chenriksen