GNOME Plans New Donation Reminder Pop-Up in Upcoming Release

The GNOME 49 desktop environment is taking shape, and while the stable version is still over a month away—scheduled for September 17—some pretty interesting things are coming in the final stable release.

Now that we know GNOME 49 is bringing much tighter systemd integration and revamped HDR backlight controls, there’s yet another addition on the way—this time unrelated to the desktop’s core functionality. A new, polite pop-up will make its debut, inviting users to consider financially supporting the project.

The idea is simple: a small notification would appear a couple of times a year, linking directly to the official fundraising page at donate.gnome.org. The goal is clear – the GNOME Foundation is exploring a new way to bring in more regular financial support.

The notification’s origin could come from the “About” panel in GNOME’s Settings, thanks to recent work merged into gnome-control-center. There’s also talk of leaving a small record when the check is performed, allowing GNOME’s Settings app to decide whether to display a donation banner there as well.

The idea behind this reminder is already familiar to KDE users, since a similar feature is already in place there—showing a pop-up after a major desktop version update.

Although this kind of approach might not be everyone’s favorite, it’s often the only polite way to remind users that behind the product they get to use completely free is a massive amount of highly skilled work. And if they’d like to keep enjoying that same level of quality, it would be great if they could consider supporting the project—at least if it’s something they can afford to do.

Lastly, this change appears to have already been merged, so starting with version 49 of the desktop environment, GNOME users could expect a short, non-intrusive reminder just twice a year—a gentle nudge to support the project that powers millions of Linux desktops around the world.