After six months of intense development, The new version of GNOME 48 has been releasedCodenamed "Bengaluru," this update introduces a wide range of improvements ranging from performance, design, HDR support, to the introduction of new applications and tools.
The new version of GNOME 48 It is characterized by optimizations in Mutter, a new typeface, a renewed music player, in addition, the adoption of systemd-sysupdate.
Top What's New in GNOME 48
One of the most anticipated advancements in GNOME 48 is the Addition of HDR support, which allows for greater fidelity in color and brightness reproduction on compatible monitors. This option It can be activated from the display settings within the system.
The composite server Mutter has also been optimized with the introduction of triple buffering, Improving the fluidity of animations and screen transitions. This new mechanism reduces stuttering in visual representation by allowing continuous rendering, albeit with a slight increase in output latency.
Other improvements in GNOME 48 include new windows that now appear centered by default, and notifications that are now grouped by application using a stack layout, reducing clutter in the notification tray.
Besides that, The Cantarell font, in use since 2010, has been replaced by Adwaita Sans, based on the Inter typeface, optimized for user interfaces. For terminals and code editors, Adwaita Mono, a variant of Iosevka, has been introduced.
Updated apps and tools
In GNOME 48 a new feature has been introduced new music player called «Decibels». this player features a minimalist interface, ideal for playing individual audio files. Its code is developed in TypeScript with technologies such as GStreamer, GTK4, and Libadwaita, and presents functions such as:
- Sound waveform display.
- Advanced playback controls (adjustable speed, fast forward and rewind).
- A lightweight and efficient design.
El GNOME Image Viewer now includes basic editing tools, allowing you to crop, rotate, and mirror images without the need for external programs. Additionally, experimental support for RAW formats and new scaling and zoom settings have been added.
In addition to that, he text editor has received improvements, Well now it features the integration of the panel in the title bar, as well as automatic formatting options more accessible and a redesign of the position indicator of the cursor to improve usability.
The Navigator Epiphany was also improved, because now it has one new interface To import bookmarks and passwords, it has been improved browsing history managementPerformance has been optimized by reducing CPU and memory usage. A more efficient password autofill mechanism has also been incorporated.
System and overall performance improvements
In GNOME 48, a new section has been added to Settings called "Digital Wellbeing," designed to encourage healthy computer habits. Its features include:
- Monitoring daily usage time.
- Alerts to take scheduled breaks.
- Option to activate a black and white mode when a screen time limit is exceeded.
With regards to Power management, GNOME 48 introduces the ability to limit battery charge to 80% to extend its lifespan, a feature especially useful for portable devices.
Also The indexing system has been optimized, reducing memory consumption and improving metadata extraction in multimedia files and optimization in the file manager has been improved, as directory loading and thumbnail rendering have been significantly improved, increasing display speed up to 5 times and scrolling through large directories up to 10 times.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- The GTK library has optimized the creation and resizing of interface elements, reducing loading times.
- Applications can now define keyboard shortcuts globally, with user confirmation.
- Stability has been improved in configurations with monitors connected to discrete graphics cards.
- The experimental GNOME OS distribution has changed its update system, replacing OSTree with systemd-sysupdate. This new mechanism allows for atomic updates, ensuring a more secure and reliable process, and supporting UEFI Secure Boot.
- In Region & Language, the formats dialog has been updated to better select regional settings and formats.
- Power settings have been restructured for easier navigation.
- The app's interface colors have been slightly tweaked, buttons and inputs are slightly more rounded, and banners and notifications have been redesigned.
If you are interested in learning more about this, you can check out the details at the following link.
Get GNOME 48 "Bengaluru"
For those interested in trying out this new release, you can test the environment using openSUSE-based Live builds, as well as an installation image as part of the GNOME OS initiative. Additionally, GNOME 48 is now available in experimental builds of Ubuntu 25.04 and Fedora 42.