We spun up the beta preview release so youll know what to expect when it lands.
The GNOME 47 Desktop Environment
TheGNOME desktopis one of the most popular Linux graphical desktop environments.
Its not without controversy.
GNOME 47 continues in that vein.
Were using the beta version of GNOME 47 for this article.
Be aware there may be differences between this build and the official release.
Visual and Usability Improvements
Of course, there are new wallpapers.
The new wallpapers are mixed in with some holdovers from GNOME 46.
GNOME 47 delivers a greatly anticipated new feature, custom accent colors.
These are located below the Default and Dark Mode controls in the Appearance controls screen.
Some confirmation dialogs have changed.
This is the new power-down confirmation dialog.
There are improved workspace previews in the window list and workspace indicator extensions, plus better monitor matching.
When you plug in a removed monitor, GNOME more accurately restores windows that were previously on that screen.
The 24-hour mode clock was already centered.
Its central to the user experience on GNOME.
Mutter now has support for hardware cursors for non-atomic kernel mode-setting.
The GPU provides an overlay image for the screen framebuffer.
Moving the cursor doesnt require redrawing the portions of the desktop that were overwritten by the cursor.
Non-atomic here means that the requested controls are sent to the kernel serially, not concurrently.
This lets Mutter adapt its behavior accordingly.
GDM gains support for Intels System-on-a-Chip S0ix sleep states such as idle, standby, and power.
GDM also blocks suspend requests if there are active remote sessions.
The gnome-initial-setup-copy-worker job runs the first time a newly-created user logs in.
GNOME 47 supports touchpad gestures using three or more fingers.
Not exactly a performance improvement, but the terms tracker and tracker-miners have been replaced by LocalSearch and TinySPARQL.
software Improvements
As youd expect, many of the GNOME standard applications have been tweaked or improved.
When it is active, the address bar has a Clear button.
GNOME Remote Desktop now supports persistent remote login sessions and has improved grdctl status reporting.
A bug has been fixed that addresses a file descriptor leak.
Admittedly, this was on the GNOME OS, which isnt really abone fideLinux distribution.
It has just enough Linux to fire off the desktop.
On a full install it’ll probably be fine.
Another Welcome Update
GNOME 47 carries more changes under the surface than it does above.
GNOME 47 is less about breaking new ground and more about consolidating and polishing.
