In preparation for the upcoming 10.10 release, the Budgie team has rolled out version 10.9.4 of this desktop environment, a minor maintenance update focused on backend modernization rather than visible desktop changes.
Among the more notable things, this release introduces support for libpeas 2 and Girepository 2.0, updating Budgie’s plugin system to align with the current GNOME and GTK technology stacks.
In other words, from a user’s perspective, as I mentioned earlier, nothing in the interface or behavior of the desktop has changed; the update focuses entirely on developer-facing improvements.
For example, packagers should note that Budgie’s ABI versions have been bumped to budgie-2.0 and budgie-raven-plugin-2.0, meaning third-party applets and Raven plugins need to be rebuilt against the new interfaces.
Additionally, the team has deprecated Python-based Raven plugins to simplify the maintenance of the Raven sidebar. Fortunately, all existing Raven widgets are written in C or Vala so that the change won’t affect users. Python-based panel applets are still supported.
Lastly, for those running Solus, please note that with the recent switch to the Polaris repository, the distribution is replacing the old Software Center with GNOME Software or KDE Discover, depending on the user’s desktop environment. For Budgie users, you get Discover.
For more information, refer to the changelog.
