GNOME For Linux

It's that time of the year, the time for a new GNOME version, namely GNOME 45, code-named Riga (the name is a special thanks to the organizers of this year's GUADEC conference which took place, yep, you've guessed it, in Riga).

What can we expect from this new update of the world's most popular Linux desktop environment? The short answer is - a lot of small changes and tweaks. Don't get me wrong, the effects of these changes are quite important, but it's clear that GNOME 45 is more focused on refining and enhancing the experience rather than changing it altogether (which is good, if you ask me).

What am I talking about? The all new Activities Indicator, of course. Even though I'm a big fan of GNOME, I always disliked the "Activities" button and I'm sure I wasn't the only one (hence, why there are tons of GNOME Shell extensions meant to improve it).

For starters, it was not interactive, and not everyone realised that it's actually A BUTTON. The button had a very unpleasant static label, so I'm really glad that now GNOME has a dynamic workspace indicator (you know, like most modern OSes).

The workflow is the same, you click it to switch workspaces (or scroll over it for a faster effect), but now the visual feedback is present.

Search performance has been one of the main focuses of this update, and I'm happy to report that the improvements can be seen almost everywhere (Nautilus included). Software, Characters, Clocks, Files, and calculator are all apps that benefit greatly from these improvements.

Let's talk a bit more about the Files app. It displays results faster, adn the search results should be more predictable. There's also a new button to expand the scope of the search outside of the initial location ("search everywhere" is a very good addition).

Since we're on the subject, Files also includes a new window menu (I guess that's how you call it). In short, you're provided with more options when it comes to diplaying results (list view, indicators, icon view, nicer thumbnail generation, etc.)

The Settings section is one of the areas most changed with each new GNOME update, and I quite like that. I always get the feeling that the Settings section doesn't offer much, but I'm always reminded that I'm wrong when I actually need to change something.

For GNOME 45, the Settings app allows you to configure the date/time format in the top bar (one less reason to install Tweaks app now). There's also a new keyboard layout viewer, and the Privacy and Sharing subpages have been improved (I won't go into details, because they're not exactly groundbreaking).

The Maps app now has a new zoom button (and a direction indicator), Connections now supports image and text copying over RDP, Simple Scan (the document scanner app) is now a GTK4 app, Calculator has more currency conversion options (including Taiwanese Dollar, Ukrainian Hryvnia, Nigerian Naira, and Jamaican Dollar).

More importantly the Software app now allows you to remove (leftover) app data when uninstalling Flatpaks, and the app automatically haults the downloads and installation of updates while you're gaming.

Well, there's a new Image Viewer (called Loupe, and I'm happy to see that it finally made it into the official GNOME release) that is simply better in all aspects than the one it replaces.

We also get a new Camera app which has a fresh and clean UI and has a lot of nice features. This is complemented by a new camera usage indicator (that is displayed on the topbar of GNOME 45).

You should also know that most apps have sleek new GUI components (including a new updated header bar style). Speaking of new GUI components, GNOME 45 has a new Keyboard Backlight Quick Settings section (small change, but a really nice one).

There's a new Quick Settings keyboard shortcut available (Super+S key combination), two new sleek wallpapers, updated pointer visuals (cursors basically), and a new light system style (goodbye old default dark look). To enable this light system theme, you can download and install the Light Style GNOME Shell extension, or you can just run the following command: "gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme prefer-light".

Wayland now features support for Input Leap (implementation of KVM-switch like functionality), and before I conclude, I have to point out two very underappreciated changes.

First, there have been some performance improvements for the pointer movement. This is one of the best changes - if your computer has ever reached maximum RAM usage, you'll know what I mean. Secondly, the lock screen on GNOME 45 is just better than the one it replaces. It has the same visual background effect (that blur effect), but the font is bigger and clearer giving it a more modern look.

I really love the constant evolution and the overall development direction of GNOME (especially in the last two years), and I can safely say that GNOME 45 is the best GNOME yet.

Most major GNOME-based distros should come with GNOME 45 by default in a few days time (if nothing catastrophic happens, of course). These include Fedora 39 and Ubuntu 23.10.