GNOME 49: What's new, technical changes, and apps that set the course

Informatec Digital » Linux » GNOME 49: What's new, technical changes, and apps that set the course

The latest release of the leading Linux desktop environment arrives packed with practical and polished improvements that enhance the everyday user experience. GNOME 49 is the result of six months of intensive community work, with a clear focus on modernizing key apps, boosting performance, and taking significant technical steps for the future of the project.

This version, codenamed “Brescia” (in honor of the Italian city that hosted GUADEC), changes long-standing elements of the ecosystem and refines the most noticeable details when using the system. There are updates to Shell and Mutter, new default apps, and accessibility improvements that make a significant difference in everyday use.

Overview: Launch, Philosophy, and How to Test It

The stable release of the series takes place on September 17th, concluding a previous phase with the 49.rc label in GNOME Shell and Mutter, where final fixes and refinements were concentrated. Distributions such as Ubuntu 25.10 and Fedora Workstation 43 will adopt it as their default desktop environment, with development builds already showing very positive signs.

As always, GNOME software is free software : the code is available to download, modify, and redistribute according to its licenses. The official recommendation is to wait for the packages for your distribution, although you can also try the GNOME OS image in a virtual machine with Boxes if you're curious.

The project highlights the drive of its community and encourages anyone who can to financially support its development. Any donation helps dedicate more time and resources to continuing to improve the desktop for everyone.

Organizationally, GNOME is an international community supported by a non-profit foundation, with a strong commitment to accessibility and internationalization . If you'd like to participate, the doors are open , and there's room for diverse skills, not just development. You can also explore other desktop environments.

Two historic relays: Video Player and Papers

The first big news is the changing of the guard in media playback: the veteran Totem gives way to the new Video Player (formerly Showtime). Built with GTK 4 and Libadwaita, it abandons the GTK 3 foundation and focuses on a modern and fluid experience. The window is chrome-less , the controls hide during playback and reappear when needed, and the interface is clean and uncluttered.

It's not just for show: the new player covers the essentials with ease. Adjustable speed , support for multiple audio tracks and subtitles, video rotation, screenshot capture, and chapter management are among the practical features that put it on par with what's expected of a simple yet effective player today.

Meanwhile, another significant change: Papers replaces Evince as the default document viewer. Originally derived from Evince's code, it has been completely revamped with GTK 4 and Libadwaita, along with an updated interface. It performs better, looks cleaner , simplifies PDF annotation, and integrates digital signatures.

In terms of compatibility, Papers covers everything you'll need on a daily basis: PDF, DjVu, TIFF, and comics in CBR, CBZ, CBT, and CB7 formats. It allows you to view, search, annotate, and organize documents easily, with a clear interface that makes finding what you're looking for quick and straightforward.

Desktop and Shell: shortcuts, animations, and useful controls

GNOME 49 introduces changes to several highly visible aspects of the user experience. The login screen now features a more prominent accessibility menu , making it much easier to locate. And the lock screen now includes a media control widget that allows you to pause or skip tracks even if playback is in progress, without unlocking the device.

The Quick Settings section is now more coherent: the "Do Not Disturb" switch has been moved here from the notification area, where it always seemed out of place. Furthermore, when HDR is enabled, it's now possible to adjust the brightness of each monitor independently , even in multi-monitor setups and with external displays.

In GNOME Shell 49, animations have been refined to make everything feel more responsive and polished. Some unnecessary transitions have been removed , and new scaling animations have been introduced for notifications and popovers, along with "quad" animations for elements like the notification shade.

Other fine-tuning you'll appreciate: notifications for grouped captures and recordings , 5% steps for brightness adjustment, an animated indicator during search in Activity View, better indication when battery charging limits are active , and an improved icon for active Wi-Fi without an access point.

Essential Files and Utilities: Time-Saving Enhancements

The file manager, Nautilus (Files), is receiving practical updates for everyday use. The search menu has been redesigned: it now features more visible filter options and a calendar-based date selector to narrow down results quickly. You'll use it and save yourself clicks.

When you cut files to move them, you'll now see a dashed border around their thumbnails to distinguish what's in transit. Hidden files are shown with slight transparency, making it easier to locate what's not visible; small details that add up.

It has also been made easier to copy network addresses in the network panel , the loading of MTP directories is incremental (better handling of mobile devices), the batch renaming dialog adapts to the window, the application selector uses a modern dialog, and a very valuable shortcut appears: Ctrl + . opens the current folder in the terminal.

Other tweaks: local mounting points on the side panel are sorted by device name, trailing slashes are added to paths entered with ~ , and trash emptying has been made more reliable, completing a more robust system-wide trash management system.

Core Apps: Web, Calendar, Maps, Software, Camera and more

The Epiphany web browser has had a very active period: over one hundred bugs resolved and new features added. Ad blocking is improved with optional regional lists , the address bar now includes a site-specific menu with related actions, and in reading mode, the estimated reading time is displayed.

Security and management also get a boost: improved smartcard support , a dedicated password management dialog, and a redesigned security window . In addition, there are live suggestions, a button to add search engines via OpenSearch when a site supports it, and a more powerful on-page search with case-sensitive and full-word matching.

In everyday use, other details are appreciated on the web, such as the ability to edit bookmarks in a specific mode, inline autocomplete in the address bar, and a mute button when a tab plays sound. These are small things that, added together, make everything more convenient.

The calendar takes a significant leap forward in accessibility. Its interface has been reorganized to better adapt to different window sizes , and it now allows you to manually hide the sidebar to see more content—ideal for small screens or tiled windows. You can export events to .ics files for sharing or backups.

In addition, readability improvements have been made to event displays, and support for keyboard navigation and assistive technologies has been enhanced. The goal was to be fully accessible, and the app finally meets the needs of many people who rely on these features.

Maps also receives useful details. In supported regions, subway and train stations display local icons, and highway emblems appear when viewing certain roads . Furthermore, labels (street names, numbers) become interactive : tapping them opens the location's information page, allowing you to learn more or add it to your favorites.

On the social front, Maps now displays OpenStreetMap profile pictures in the account dialog and adds points of interest searches focused on vegan and vegetarian options , a handy nod to finding like-minded places at a glance.

The App Store, Software.com , has taken performance seriously. A major bottleneck related to parsing data from Flatpak repositories like Flathub has been addressed: memory usage is significantly reduced and processing speed is dramatically increased, resulting in a much smoother experience when browsing and searching for apps , especially on less powerful devices.

Other core apps are also progressing: Snapshot/Camera adds hardware-accelerated video encoding, support for scanning mirrored QR codes , defaults to H.264/MP4 and GTK YUV support when available, and warns if necessary GStreamer plugins are missing.

Weather brings refresh shortcuts like F5 and Ctrl+R, grid improvements, and a TypeScript rewrite . The Text Editor improves session saving, filters better when searching documents, reloads the file if you change the encoding in Properties, and adopts Libadwaita's new searchable shortcuts dialog.

The terminal Ptyxis —by default in Ubuntu 25.10— introduces a menu for search across containers and profiles (Alt + ,), handles mailto: links and allows you to start full screen with the option --fullscreen. The app Connections (remote desktop) can forward multi-touch input from the client, supports relative mouse input (key for some games) and adds extended virtual monitors.

GNOME Circle and Developer Experience

GNOME Circle adds two new apps to round out its ecosystem: Mahjongg , a polished version of the classic tile-based game, and Wordbook , a dictionary powered by WordNet and eSpeak . These two lightweight apps expand the catalog of quality apps curated by the community.

For developers using the platform, this edition includes a range of improvements to the development experience . Many applications adopt Libadwaita's new Shortcuts Dialog , a modern, responsive keyboard shortcut widget with integrated search that replaces the classic shortcuts window.

In addition, the Mother Development Kit as an alternative to the method --nested to run development versions of GNOME Shell on the host system. It relies on Toolbx and makes it easy to test composer and shell changes without extra hassle.

HDR Backgrounds and Color Management: Taking Color to the Next Level

GNOME 49 introduces a catalog of HDR wallpapers designed for the Display P3 color space and high dynamic range displays. Thanks to improved color management in Mutter, the desktop can render wallpapers at 16 bits per channel , with a richness of color and contrast never before seen.

Behind this leap lies work in the image pipeline: the loading backend, Glycin , has been optimized to perform better in scenarios with color management, and improvements have been introduced in Mutter to ensure the result is consistent, accurate, and above all, visually smooth.

Remote Desktop: More capable from the outside

The integrated remote desktop functionality expands in this version. It's now possible to forward multi-touch input from a touchscreen device to a remote GNOME session, which is especially useful for tablets or convertible laptops acting as clients.

Also included is relative mouse input , a requirement for many titles and applications that expect this mode of interaction, and the ability to add additional virtual monitors from the client even if the remote machine does not physically have more screens.

Mutter in depth: Fractional scaling, VRR, and new capabilities

The compositor and window manager, Mutter , receives a major wave of technical improvements. 10, 12, and 16-bit decoding formats are now supported , ICC profile support is enhanced , and an extended sRGB color space is used by default for graphics mixing, resulting in smoother and more accurate rendering.

Fractional scaling is improved thanks to new calculations with precise ratios , resulting in sharper text and interfaces at various screen densities. In VRR environments, the cursor can move at the maximum available rate, and speed-limited visual alerts have been adjusted to comply with EAA.

In terms of connectivity and protocols, Mutter implements Wayland's wl-seat v10 , offers a custom service client that assigns default window labels to Wayland clients, adds support for Broadcast RGB , and reintroduces snippet caching to optimize compositions.

A new API is being launched to (dis)inhibit cursor visibility , trackpoint speed settings are being separated from mouse speed , the touchpad acceleration profile is being applied at startup, and windows are suspended when the lock screen is activated, reducing power consumption and unnecessary activity.

Behind the scenes, the loading of funds is delegated to Glycin (in Rust) , there are improvements in the initial window configuration in Wayland to gain stability, and a D-Bus color calibration API is added for monitors, fine-tuning the color reproduction to professional needs.

More system polish: security, power and controls

Security is being strengthened with a cross-cutting change: image loading in GTK apps is now isolated in a sandbox to mitigate exploitation vectors. It's a quiet but highly significant step that hardens the attack surface without inconveniencing the user.

Quality of life improvements are also coming: the battery icon in the top bar indicates when the device is plugged in but not charging (for example, with "Preserve battery health" enabled), helping to verify that everything is as it should be.

If you use HDR, there is specific brightness controls in Quick Settings that affect external displays and allow you to adjust multiple monitors at once. And if you're one of those who prefers to manage the system from the lock screen, an option has been added to show restart and power off on the lock screen by this setting: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver restart-enabled true.

Under the hood, the recycle bin management has improved in reliability and consistency. These are subtle changes, but they prevent surprises and unexpected behavior when you're in a hurry to retrieve or permanently delete something.

Base changes: Wayland by default and greater integration with systemd

One of the most talked-about moves of this cycle: GNOME 49 disables the X11/Xorg session in GNOME Shell and opts for Wayland. Applications that depend on X11 continue to function through Xwayland , and GDM allows launching other X11-based sessions, but the GNOME session itself becomes Wayland-only.

Linux distribution vendors retain the ability to reactivate X11 support in some modules during compilation, although all indications suggest that GNOME 50 will remove the X11 code, not just disable it. This is a logical step towards advancing the modern graphics stack in Linux.

The integration with systemd becomes tighter and marks a turning point. GDM adopts systemd-userdb , a dynamic account management system intended to replace legacy behaviors and improve the management of multiple and remote sessions , introducing a direct dependency (with a temporary alternative based on static accounts).

Furthermore, gnome-session removes its internal service manager, which since GNOME 3.34 was only used as a fallback in the absence of systemd . This mechanism is now considered obsolete and a hindrance to features like session saving and restoration , so it is being removed to pave the way for those capabilities.

In practice, GNOME 49 is more closely tied to systemd than ever . It will still be possible to run it on systems with other init systems, but the effort will fall on distributions with alternative approaches, which will not have official support from the project for those configurations.

CR status, stability and availability

GNOME Shell version 49.rc brought, in addition to animation tweaks, improvements to WPA(2) connections —notable in corporate environments—, better support for legacy icons in the system tray , and a more polished look for multimedia notifications on the lock screen . Extensive work has also been done to fix bugs and memory leaks.

Mutter rc integrated ICC profile support , a default window label service client in Wayland clients, Broadcast RGB , the implementation of wl-seat v10 , loading backgrounds with Glycin in Rust , better choice of fractional scaling factors , color calibration by D-Bus , smoother cursors with VRR , a restructuring of the initial window configuration handling in Wayland, and the adoption of extended sRGB in the mix.

Specialized media outlets that have tested development builds on Ubuntu 25.10 and Fedora 43 describe GNOME 49 as a “very polished” incremental update: no fireworks, but with many accumulated changes that feel fast and consistent in real-world use.

In the Control Center, you'll see a donation button and information for "GNOME Support" under System > About (note: this is disabled in Ubuntu). The Displays panel has been redesigned to fit smaller screen resolutions, avoiding the common problem of not being able to access options when the resolution is lowered too much, and a toggle switch to open the Orca screen reader has been added to Accessibility .

Closing the circle, GNOME 48 will continue to receive maintenance updates until the arrival of GNOME 50 (expected in spring 2026), giving leeway to those who cannot make the immediate jump due to distribution policies or compatibility.

Anyone who tries GNOME 49 will find a desktop environment that exudes modernity and consistency: improved performance in the store , new default apps that simplify common tasks, more logical controls where you expect to find them, and a technical foundation that pushes towards Wayland, HDR, and better color management . It's the kind of version that, without making a big splash, simply makes everything work better.