Collect items for GNOME 41 release notes
This issue is for tracking items of interest for the GNOME 41 release notes. Please feel free to edit the issue directly or make suggestions in the comments. Changes can be big or small - we want to know every change that might be of interest or an enhancement for either users or developers.
For users
Software
Has undergone a fairly major overhaul for GNOME 41
- Lots of performance and reliability fixes
- Overhauled UI:
- Different layout to the explore pages and app tiles
- App details pages have a new design, with a more attractive layout, bigger screenshots, better information about each app, with tiles displaying information about download size, privacy, age rating, hardware support, licensing, and more.
- Many other general UI improvements, including:
- Redesign software repositories settings
- Improved preferences window: GNOME/gnome-software!860 (merged)
- Improved list layouts for installed apps and pending updates
- Improved OS upgrade banners
- Better icons: GNOME/gnome-software!868 (merged)
Connections
New app for remote desktop.
- Now possible to connect and switch to multiple connections at the same time - GNOME/connections!78 (merged)
- Error messages and error handling when connecting - GNOME/connections!79 (merged)
- Improved the design of the new connection popover - GNOME/connections!77 (merged)
- New onboarding experience
Power profiles
Power profile integration was originally included in the previous release, GNOME 40. This has been extended and improved for GNOME 41.
More work to better integrate power profiles.
- Low power mode will now be automatically enabled when running a battery and the battery level is low. A setting has been added to the power settings to enable/disable this feature. (See GNOME/gnome-control-center!1016 (merged) and GNOME/gnome-settings-daemon!247 (merged).)
- Did we adjust the low power mode, to dim the screen? yes, see GNOME/gnome-settings-daemon!256 (merged)
- Power profiles can be automatically changed based on the situation. This includes certain apps, such as games, being able to request the performance profile. Information about these automatic changes in the power profile are now displayed in the power settings. See - GNOME/gnome-control-center!1012 (merged)
- Power profiles have been added to the system status menu, so it's easy to check which profile is currently active, as well as switch between them.
As part of this work, the power settings also received some general cleanup and polish.
Multi-tasking settings
A new section has been added to the Settings app, containing commonly used settings for workspaces and app switching. Settings include:
- Enable/disable the activities hot corner
- Enable/disable "active screen edges" (dragging a window against a screen edge to resize)
- Dynamic/static number of workspaces
- Workspaces only on primary display or workspaces on all displays
- App switching: include apps from all workspaces, or just from the current workspace
GNOME/gnome-control-center!729 (merged)
Web
Better support for dark mode: https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2021/07/twig-1/#webkitgtk
faster pinch zoom in AC mode (we can say "on certain websites")
jbrummer's mobile improvements (what are these)
unresponsive web process handling: when the website is unresponsive, offer to kill it instead of hanging forever
Calendar
New events popovers: https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2021/07/twig-2/#calendar
System
- Reduced input latency, especially on displays with a lower refresh rate: GNOME/mutter!1762 (merged)
- Multitouch gestures are behave more consistently - GNOME/gnome-shell!1763 (merged)
- Significant code cleanup in Mutter, GNOME's display manager - GNOME/mutter!1862 (merged)
- Workspace transitions are now more seamless, with windows on both workspaces appearing focusing instead of switching at the end of transition. GNOME/mutter!850 (merged)
Text editor
New preferences sidebar: https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2021/07/twig-3/#text-editor . Plus new shortcuts.
Files
Can now create encrypted archives:
Calculator
Adaptive redesign GNOME/gnome-calculator!81 (merged)
For developers
Builder
Improved session restore: previously, only code editor pages were restored. For 41, documentation pages will be restored too, and it will be easier to support other types of pages in the future.
Building and deploying a flatpak app to another device–got an upgrade. Once a device is set up, clicking “Run” now automatically builds, deploys, and runs the app, which is super useful for mobile development. See https://www.jwestman.net/2021/08/06/finishing-gnome-builder-mobile-support.html .
GNOME Builder can now handle flatpak make-args and make-install-args. This makes it possible to develop applications like tuxpaint, which uses a pure Make Buildsystem, in a flatpak environment.
Builder got a rework and redesign of its Replace in Files panel. Now the search can be done too from the panel, search options can be changed again and overall the panel is no longer one-time-use. There’s also a persistent project-wide panel that can be quickly accessed using Ctrl+Shift+F. Both should avoid having search panels piling up like they did previously.
GNOME Builder uses now the cmake codemodel to extract targets. This enables Builder to run CMake projects. See GNOME/gnome-builder!424 (merged)
Builder has received a new renderer for markdown documentation, which greatly improves readability in many cases.
developer.gnome.org
The new developer documentation website is up at developer.gnome.org. The old API references are available at developer-old.gnome.org.
HIG
New Human Interface Guidelines! Specific improvements:
- ...
- ...
- ...
Libadwaita
Things have happened.
- Unread badges for AdwViewSwitcher: https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2021/07/twig-1/#libadwaita
- libadwaita now supports .flat style class for header bars, as used in applications like Solanum or Breathing
- Window shadows are now softer and way nicer looking
- Libadwaita now introduces a new base class for Adwaita apps: AdwApplication. It saves repetitive code when loading your custom styles, while handling library initialization.
- libadwaita now supports style classes .numeric for easily making a widget use tabular figures, and .pill for buttons, as seen in applications like Clocks.
gtk-rs
Various improvements
- https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2021/07/twig-1/#gtk-rs
- Expanded “GUI development with Rust and GTK 4” book.
Testing of GNOME OS
The openqa.gnome.org server is now live, with an initial set of graphical tests for the GNOME reference distribution that can automatically detect regressions in the installer, initial setup and shell.
Other
- Tracker SPARQL is now available for Mac, via Homebrew - https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/pull/80281