Gnome 49 is coming!

[Dev-in-the-BM_2.0]

Gnome 49 will be released in two days.

Doesn’t sound like there will be any groundbreaking upgrades coming, but even if you don’t care about changing brightness levels separately for different monitors or accessibility features on the lock screen the overall UX will probably be smoother and more consistent.

What will Gnome 49 bring?

@Gemini

Desktop Experience and Design

• New Accessibility Menu

  A new accessibility menu is now available on the login screen, providing quick access to tools like a virtual keyboard.
• Lock Screen Enhancements

  The lock screen now includes a media controller widget for playing music or videos and can be configured to show shutdown and restart options.
• Independent Monitor Brightness

  Users can now adjust the brightness of each monitor in a multi-monitor setup independently, a significant technical change.
• Refined Animations

  Several GNOME Shell animations have been tweaked for a smoother feel, including new scale animations for notifications and a "quad" animation for the notification shade.
• Quick Settings Improvements

  The "Do Not Disturb" toggle has been moved to the Quick Settings menu for better organization.
• File Manager Updates

  Nautilus (Files) has a new, redesigned search popover. Cut files are now marked with a dashed border, and hidden files appear with slight transparency.

New and Updated Core Applications

• New Default Video Player

  Totem has been replaced by Showtime, a modern video player built with GTK4/libadwaita that features a frameless window and overlay controls.
• New Default Document Viewer

  Evince has been replaced by Papers, a new document viewer built with Rust, GTK4/libadwaita, and modern rendering libraries.
• Web (Epiphany)

  The browser now has improved ad blocking, a new bookmark editing mode, and support for hardware smartcards for secure logins.
• Calendar

  The app now allows the sidebar to be hidden, adapts to different window sizes, and uses greater contrast for events.
• Software

  This application has received significant performance improvements, particularly in how it handles Flatpak repositories, reducing memory usage and speeding up browsing.

Backend and Technical Changes

• Disabling X11 Session Support

  One of the most significant changes is the decision to disable X11/Xorg session support for the GNOME desktop. GNOME Shell will now run on Wayland only, though software that relies on X11 is still supported via Xwayland.
• Mutter Updates

  Mutter, the window manager, has received numerous improvements, including support for higher bit-depth decoding formats, better handling of fractional scaling for sharper text, and support for ICC profiles.
• libadwaita

  GNOME's UI library now includes a new Shortcuts Dialog widget that is adaptive and searchable, which many core apps are now using.

GNOME 49: New Apps, Lock Screen Features & Design Changes

[Dev-in-the-BM_2.0]

Finally…

 dev-in-the-bm@dev-in-the-bm-Inspiron-15-3525:~/Downloads/macOS-Tahoe-v0.6.1$ sudo do-release-upgrade
Checking for a new Ubuntu release

= Welcome to Ubuntu 25.10 'Questing Quokka' =

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce Ubuntu 25.10 'Questing Quokka'.

To see what's new in this release, visit:
  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QuestingQuokka/ReleaseNotes

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop or server, with a fast
and easy install, regular releases, a tight selection of excellent
applications installed by default, and almost any other software you
can imagine available through the network.

We hope you enjoy Ubuntu.

== Feedback and Helping ==

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of
ways you can participate at

  https://ubuntu.com/community/contribute

Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help ensure
that our next release is the best release of Ubuntu ever.  If you feel
that you have found a bug please read:

  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

Then report bugs using apport in Ubuntu.  For example:

  ubuntu-bug linux

will open a bug report in Launchpad regarding the linux package.

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren't
sure, first try to reach out on one of the communication channels. Matrix is the
go-to for instant chatting, while Discourse would be more approriate for long
discussions in a more asynchronous way. Otherwise you can still join the #ubuntu
IRC channel on Libera.Chat, send an email to the Ubuntu Users mailing list, or
find some help on the Ubuntu forums:

  https://ubuntu.com/community/communications/matrix
  https://discourse.ubuntu.com/
  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InternetRelayChat
  https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
  https://ubuntuforums.org/


== More Information ==

You can find out more about Ubuntu on our website, IRC channel and wiki.
If you're new to Ubuntu, please visit:

  https://ubuntu.com/


To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's
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  https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce


Continue [yN]  

(GNOME 49 is only available in Ubuntu by updating to Ubuntu 25.10).