Collect items for GNOME 46
This issue is for tracking items of interest for the GNOME 46 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
Headless remote desktop
GNOME/gnome-control-center!2182 (merged) and others
- Connect to your GNOME system remotely, without there being an existing session
- When connecting in this way, the display can be adjusted from the remote client - making for a more comfortable experience
- Allows using the system as a fully fledged remote resource
- To use remote desktop session:
- You need to connect to a specific port, and use dedicated authentication details (shown in the settings panel)
- There shouldn't be an existing local session running when you connect
Improved notifications
Variable Refresh Rate support
Files
Main changes:
- New global search feature - GNOME/nautilus!1428 (merged)
- View code refactoring, which prevents reloading when switching between grid and list view (all MRs from GNOME/nautilus#3042 (closed))
- File operations indicator moved to the sidebar: GNOME/nautilus!1405 (merged)
Other notable changes:
- Include the contents of markdown files in search - GNOME/nautilus!1348 (merged)
- More mnemonics GNOME/nautilus!1391 (merged) GNOME/nautilus!1398 (merged)
- Improved discoverability of custom folder icons
- Implement star emblems in grid view GNOME/nautilus!1190 (merged)
- Allow searching for preferences GNOME/nautilus!1318 (merged)
- Add a detailed date and time format option GNOME/nautilus!1217 (merged)
- Location entry is now opened when the current path is clicked GNOME/nautilus!1133 (merged)
Minor changes we may or may not want to mention:
- Improved narrow/mobile mode. When in narrow mode, the sidebar is closed when a location is selected from it - GNOME/nautilus!1296 (merged)
- New menu item to switch the address bar to location entry GNOME/nautilus!1117 (merged)
- Warn/check before copying/moving a file that's over the 4GiB limit on FAT GNOME/nautilus!1114 (merged)
- Use toasts to provide feedback for some quick file operations - GNOME/nautilus!1369 (merged)
- Make tab bar respect gtk decoration layout setting GNOME/nautilus!1336 (merged)
- Add a password confirmation field in the compress dialog - GNOME/nautilus!1325 (merged)
Software
Main changes:
- If an app is verified in Flathub, this is shown in the banner at the top of the details page: GNOME/gnome-software!1790 (merged)
- Redesigned update preferences - GNOME/gnome-software!1804 (merged)
- UI refresh with modern widgets: GNOME/gnome-software!1761 (merged)
Smaller things:
- Safety window now shows if Flatpaks are using the
device=input
permission (primarily used for game controllers) - GNOME/gnome-software!1809 (merged) - Software reviews - use toasts for errors - GNOME/gnome-software!1824 (merged)
- Prettier "Loading app details" status pages - GNOME/gnome-software!1819 (merged) , GNOME/gnome-software!1792 (merged)
- Adjust how apps with read/write Pipewire access are presented - GNOME/gnome-software!1797 (merged)
- New keyboard shortcuts window GNOME/gnome-software!1814 (merged)
- Much nicer error popups - GNOME/gnome-software!1723 (merged) . They now use toasts, have been rewritten, and more information can be found in a details window.
Bug fixes:
- Adjust scheduling of software update installation - GNOME/gnome-software!1848 (merged)
Unclear:
- Support user installation of local flatpak files GNOME/gnome-software!1850 (merged) - but what does the UI look like?
Image Viewer
- Now uses Glycin 1.0 - which brings enhanced protection against security exploits in image loaders, limits memory usage based on available memory, better loading performance, and supports more image formats.
- Reduced use of animations for better experience on large screens
- Ctrl + two-finger up/down can now be used as an alternative to the pinch gesture on touchpads.
Maps
- Zoom buttons have been redesigned to be prettier
- Supports public transit routing with OpenTripPlanner v2 with GraphQL, currently enabled for Norway's national Entur API provider
- Modernised setup UI for OpenStreetMap POI editing
Online Accounts
See https://andyholmes.ca/posts/goa-and-stf-part-1/
- No longer included as part of initial setup
- Uses your web browser for authentication, which is more secure
- Modernised settings UI
- Added CardDav and CalDav providers: GNOME/gnome-online-accounts#1 (closed)
(This should all be checked.)
Settings
Navigation and structure improvements:
- New system panel
- Incorporates region and language, date and time, about, users. GNOME/gnome-control-center!1982 (merged)
- Consolidated apps settings
- Removable media and default apps moved into the apps panel - GNOME/gnome-control-center!989 (merged)
New settings:
- Disable touchpad while typing setting (on by default, as before) - GNOME/gnome-control-center!1998 (merged)
- "Secondary Click" option for touchpads - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2083 (merged)
- Wacom - much more fine-grained control over stylus pressure - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2036 (merged)
UI polish and modernisation:
- Time & Date > Format setting UI - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2070 (merged)
- Sharing windows (flat header bar, etc) - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2115 (merged) GNOME/gnome-control-center!1999 (merged) GNOME/gnome-control-center!1972 (commits)
- Power > Automatic suspend dialog GNOME/gnome-control-center!2111 (merged)
- Nicer placeholder pages in mobile network settings - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2082 (merged)
- Saved wifi networks - nicer forget button - GNOME/gnome-control-center!1930 (merged)
- Improved device illustrations in the Wacom settings - GNOME/gnome-control-center!1941 (merged)
- More attractive notifications settings list - GNOME/gnome-control-center!1592 (merged)
- Some modern styling for the network configuration windows - GNOME/gnome-control-center!1947 (merged)
Minor changes to make various settings easier to understand:
- Tooltips added to several icon-only buttons - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2023 (merged)
- Description added to the "Week Numbers" option GNOME/gnome-control-center!2017 (merged)
- Rename "Privacy" to "Privacy & Security" GNOME/gnome-control-center!2026 (merged)
- Remote desktop (in System > Remote Desktop) now includes a link to docs on how to use the feature - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2045 (merged)
- Improved "Accessibility Menu" setting description - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2041 (merged)
- Accessibility > Zoom > Enable crosshairs - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2032 (merged)
Minor enhancements:
- Has an About dialog now - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2071 (merged)
- Now has banners to indicate when an app isn't sandboxed - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2102 (merged)
- About: show information for more types of processors - GNOME/gnome-control-center!1917 (merged)
- Add Left Ctrl and Insert to compose key options - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2074 (merged) GNOME/gnome-control-center!2060 (merged)
- Sound: more accessible mute button - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2027 (merged)
- Mnemonics added to improve keyboard navigation - https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-control-center/-/merge_requests?scope=all&state=merged&search=mnemonics GNOME/gnome-control-center!2004 (merged) GNOME/gnome-control-center!1967 (merged)
- Appearance - sharper wallpaper thumbnails and faster load times - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2075 (merged)
- Network: show details page when creating new VPN or wired connection GNOME/gnome-control-center!1996 (merged)
- a11y > Zoom - add default values, to allow resetting to defaults - GNOME/gnome-control-center!1913 (merged)
Bug fixes:
- Fix File & Link Associations UI GNOME/gnome-control-center!2042 (merged)
- Ignore symlinks when measuring cache/data size - GNOME/gnome-control-center!2091 (merged)
System
Memory usage improvements in Tracker:
Performance improvements in Mutter:
- GNOME/gnome-shell!3001 (merged)
- GNOME/gnome-shell!3004 (merged)
- GNOME/mutter!3389 (merged)
- GNOME/mutter!3406 (merged)
Screen recording performance improvements:
Performance improvement in filesystem handling:
- daemonvfs: Reduce sync metadata methods calls (fix performance issues when deleting a folder with a lot of files) GNOME/gvfs!196 (merged)
Enable tap to click by default - GNOME/gsettings-desktop-schemas!71 (merged)
Shell
Improved notifications:
- Add header to banners - GNOME/gnome-shell!3103 (merged)
- Improve the appearance of icons in notifications - GNOME/gnome-shell!3066 (merged)
- Notifications can now be expanded from the notification list, to access their actions - GNOME/gnome-shell!3173 (merged)
Smaller things:
- High contrast mode improvements - GNOME/gnome-shell!3030 (merged)
- Prettier multi-monitor keyboard shortcut popup - GNOME/gnome-shell!3128 (merged)
- Nicer transition when exiting search results - GNOME/gnome-shell!3152 (merged)
Prettier avatars
GTK
GTK has a new renderer, which will be used by default.
One notable new feature of the new renderer is native support for fractional scaling. The renderer selection can be overwritten using the GSK_RENDERER environment variable.
The accessibility support in GTK has been extended to work with webkit. It also supports notifications now. The new GtkAccessibleText interface provides accessible text support for 3rd party text widgets, such as vte.
System Monitor
Ported to GTK 4.
For developers
Prompt
New terminal app. See https://blogs.gnome.org/chergert/2023/12/14/prompt/
Bibioteca
A new offline documentation app.
GLib
Now uses gi-docgen instead of gtk-doc: GNOME/glib#3037 (closed)
Mutter
Reduced dependencies - https://belmoussaoui.com/blog/18-reducing-mutter-dependencies/
Platform/SDK
WebP loader added: GNOME/gnome-build-meta!2507 (merged)
VTE
Christian made it go faster.
Other
- gnome-software now supports AppStream merging. This can be used by distributions to set certain metadata properties on apps. GNOME/gnome-software!1309 (merged)