The GNOME 49 release candidate “49.rc” was just released as we close in on the stable GNOME 49.0 release in two weeks.
The GNOME 49 release candidate is mostly about shipping bug fixes and translation updates, but there are also some last-minute changes worth pointing out ahead of GNOME 49.0.
Some of these last minute GNOME 49.rc changes include:
– Most notable is GDM 49.rc re-enabling X11 support by default. The change notes:
“Re-enabled X11 support by default. We found it difficult to cleanly separate GDM’s ability to launch modern X11 sessions (which we intended to keep enabled in GNOME 49) from the rest of GDM’s X11 integration (which we intended to disable but leave intact for GNOME 49). We still plan to remove GDM’s full X11 integration in a future version, and leave only the ability to launch modern X11 sessions.”
– GDM has added logic to retry the preferred display server (Wayland) before falling back to alternatives (X11).
– GNOME Console added support for a full-screen mode. There is also improved error handling and other enhancements for this GNOME terminal option.
– GNOME Session separated out its systemd-specific code from the gnome-session loader process into a dedicated executable, so it’s easier for distributions using alternative init systems to interact with gnome-session.
– The Epiphany web browser has fixed a number of bugs throughout its codebase.
– GNOME Foundry has prepared a lot of work on its LLM, VCS / Git, Tweak, and Template APIs.
– The Glycin image library added experimental JPEG 2000 loader support with basic features.
– GNOME Builder added inline support for git blame.
– GNOME Calculator improved performance for handling large numbers.
– GNOME Calendar enhances keyboard navigation support.
– GNOME Connections added support for SPICE.
– GNOME Remote Desktop adds support for relative pointer movements via RDP. GNOME Remote Desktop can now also handle extending the desktop with virtual monitors via RDP.
– GNOME Text Editor brings performance improvements to the open popover.
– LocalSearch brings a WebP file format metadata extractor.
– Orca now has a systemd user service.
– Last minute Mutter and GNOME Shell changes.
– GTK 4.20 with better Wayland support.
More details on the GNOME 49.rc release via GNOME.org Discourse.
