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7 New Features That Make GNOME 42 an Awesome Release
GNOME 42 is an exciting release with apps porting to GTK 4, and a new dark style preference.
What do you think about it?
GNOME 42 will be an interesting release.
It includes noticeable visual changes and improvements to the desktop experience.
Of course, the changes in GNOME 41 compliments the new release as well.
GNOME 42 is due on March 23, 2022, but it has almost reached beta (scheduled for February
12, 2022).
So, let us take a look at the changes that you should see in the final release.
You can expect to see GNOME 42 with Fedora 36 Workstation and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
GNOME 42: What’s New?
Note that GNOME 42 is not generally available for all.
So, with the official announcement next month, we can expect more details about the new features
and changes.
And, we shall make sure to update the article when that happens.
1.
System-wide Dark Style Preference
Similar to the efforts by the elementary OS team for elementary OS 6, GNOME developers
have made efforts to implement a system-wide dark mode.
In our original coverage, we mentioned more about why GNOME plans to follow elementary
OS to add a dark style preference.
You can find the option to switch the theme in the system settings under the appearance
menu.
It can also be accessed through the right-click menu when trying to change the background.
2.
Folder Icon Theme Update Even though GNOME focuses on providing a modern
desktop experience, the original folder icons looked dated.
With GNOME 42 and some debate for a new folder icon theme, they finally settled with a Blueish-gradient
design.
Here’s how it looks with the light theme:
3.
GTK 4 and libadwaita GNOME 41 introduced libadwaita that aims to
evolve the user experience for GNOME applications.
Of course, this also meant more work for developers, but the porting process to GTK 4 is going
good so far and the situation should get better with GNOME 42.
While many applications are gearing up for GNOME 42, you will find options like Fragments
2.0 ready to provide you a pretty user experience.
At this point, almost every GNOME app seems to have made the progress in terms of UI.
Overall, the buttons, icons, rounded corners, and subtle visual changes reflect the improvements.
4.
Revamped System Settings The system settings remain the same, functionally,
but the visual difference is noticeable.
You should find the user interface cleaner, modern, and aesthetically pleasing.
Technically, with the port to GTK 4, there are technical benefits to maintain it, but
you do not have to worry about finding the options, it’s all the same.
5.
GNOME Text Editor
Gedit will be replaced by GNOME’s new text editor that supports new features and theming.
While we already discussed its features in our early coverage, it seems as if it’s
ready for prime time with its beta version.
6.
Improvements to the Screenshot UI and Native Screen Recording
The GNOME screenshot app is currently a simple GUI to help you take screenshots of an entire
screen, a region, or a window.
With GNOME 42, the user interface has received some major changes, including the ability
to record the screen.
Not just the new feature, but with its new UI, you can easily switch between taking a
screenshot or record the screen.
It looks great, what do you think?
7.
Wallpapers for Night/Day
The default wallpaper is a blue background, as shown in the screenshot above.
However, you will notice a purple variant of the wallpaper that kicks in as per the
time (when the day ends).
Here’s what the night variant of the wallpapers looks like:
Other Improvements In addition to the improvements mentioned,
GNOME 42 also includes performance tweaks and bug fixes.
Starting from the GNOME Shell to the core apps, everything received minor fixes.
Not to forget, numerous third-party projects have made improvements for GNOME 42.
So, it should excite to see what they come up with.
Download GNOME 42 You can use GNOME OS using Boxes to test the
latest nightly build of GNOME 42.
As of now, that’s the only way to test the latest features/changes.
If you want to avoid testing it, you might want to wait for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or Fedora
36 to include GNOME 42 for your desktop.
:: More ::
GNOME 42’s Built-In Screenshot and Screencast Feature
The upcoming GNOME 42 desktop environment series will feature a built-in screenshot
and screencast feature that will replace the existing GNOME Screenshot utility.
I bet that you’ve read about GNOME 42’s built-in screenshot and screencast feature
in the past, but you probably never saw it in action in its full and final state.
As such, I wanted you to be the first to see it in action and learn about its capabilities
right here on 9to5Linux.
First of all, I want to make it clear that this is not a new app that will replace the
GNOME Screenshot utility, but a built-in functionality of GNOME Shell that you can activate in the
GNOME 42 desktop environment and later versions via the PrtSc (Print Screen) key on your keyboard.
If you’ve ever used macOS Mojave or later, you will find the new GNOME 42 screenshot
and screencast feature quite similar.
It’s actually even easier to use and has a more intuitive UI that features a toggle
to switch between screenshot and screencast functionality, a record/take screenshot button,
and a toggle to show or hide the mouse cursor.
Just like GNOME Screenshot or any other screenshot utility, the new built-in screenshot and screencast
feature of GNOME 42 lets you choose between three modes, namely Selection (Area), Screen
(Entire Screen), or Window.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to record (screencast) just a window, but you can always
use the Selection mode.
I should also note the fact that the Window mode is available in screenshot mode only
if you have at least one window open.
If multiple windows are opened, the UI will let you choose the one you want to screenshot
in a nice Overview screen.
During a screencast, a handy screen recording indicator will be visible in the top panel
to show you the recording duration.
Whenever you want to stop the recording, just click on the recording indicator and the recording
will be automatically saved in the WebM format in a Screencasts folder in your Home’s Videos
directory.
On the other hand, the screenshots will be saved automatically in a folder named Screenshots
located in your Pictures directory in Home.
All screenshots and screencasts will also appear in the Recent view in Nautilus (Files).
Some other nice features of the screenshot and screencast UI are the ability to drag
and drop windows to another workspace in the Overview mode during screen recording, the
ability to automatically close when the screen is locked from inactivity, notifications with
the ability to open the file, keyboard navigation, as well as asynchronous PNG compression for
screenshots.
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that, I will see you in tomorrow's video, peace out.