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With GNOME 45 out the door and already hitting the stable software repositories of some of the most popular rolling-release distributions, it’s time for the GNOME devs to focus their efforts on the next major release of this widely used Linux desktop environment, GNOME 46.
Prominent GNOME developer Michael Catanzaro announced today the release schedule for the upcoming GNOME 46 desktop environment series, which suggests a final release date “set in stone” for March 20th, 2024.
The development cycle for GNOME 46 will probably start in a few days from now, but the first testing version will be available early next year. Without further ado, here are the major milestones of the GNOME 46 release schedule:
- GNOME 46 Alpha – January 6th, 2024
- GNOME 46 Beta – February 10th, 2024
- GNOME 46 Release Candidate – March 2nd, 2024
- GNOME 46 Final – March 20th, 2024
Of course, it’s way too early to talk about the new features and major changes in the GNOME 46 desktop environment, but I’m hopeful to see the long-awaited built-in support for accent colors and the new, unconventional window management system that uses a mosaic tiling behavior.
I also hope that GNOME 46 will finally bring at least some basic desktop customization options, like the ability to hide or make transparent the top bar or to move the dash from the Activities Overview to the main workspace. This way, we won’t have to rely on extension developers to update their extensions when a new major release is out.
GNOME 46 will be codenamed “Kathmandu”, after the host city of the GNOME.Asia 2023 event, which will be held later this year between December 1st and 3rd, 2023, in Kathmandu, Nepal, at St. Xavier’s College.
Of course, I will keep you guys up to date with all the major changes coming to GNOME 46 during its six-month-long development cycle. Until then, we have a new major release to enjoy, GNOME 45, which will be the star of some popular distro releases later this year, including Fedora Linux 39 and Ubuntu 23.10.
Last updated 7 months ago
