Only six days following its official debut and merely a day after Arch Linux introduced it into its official repositories, openSUSE Tumbleweed delighted its user base by adopting the new GNOME 46 desktop environment.
This move just solidifies their position as frontrunners in the Linux ecosystem, particularly among distributions betting on the rolling-release model.
In addition to Tumbleweed, however, GNOME 46 is also available for users of the still-in-development Aeon edition, formerly known as MicroOS Desktop – an immutable openSUSE flavor providing only a minimal base system with a GNOME where all apps are available as Flatpak packages.
There are numerous new features to explore, and while you can find a detailed look in our comprehensive article on the subject, here’s a quick summary of the GNOME 46’s key highlights:
- A massive improvement to the file search functionality within the Files application, introducing a new global search.
- The tracking of any file operations has now been relocated to the bottom left corner of the Files interface.
- Users can now select their preferred format for displaying the date and time on files in either List or Grid view, with “Simple” or “Detailed” available.
- Lightning-fast switch between List and Thumbnail views.
- Enhanced notification system – notifications now feature collapsible and expandable functionality.
- Redesigned “Settings” – a new “System” menu and improved “Mouse & Touchpad” settings.
- GNOME Online Accounts now has integrated support for Microsoft OneDrive.
- VRR (Variable Refresh Rates) is included as an experimental feature but is disabled by default.
- Enhanced system efficiency with lower search memory usage, better screen recording, smarter image viewer resource management, and faster GNOME terminal apps.
It is worth noting that with the release of the new version, you may find that several of your current GNOME extensions are incompatible.
This, however, shouldn’t surprise GNOME users, who are likely familiar with this inconvenience cropping up every six months following the launch of a new version of the desktop environment.
On the other hand, if you’re among the few who find the vanilla GNOME experience perfectly sufficient, you can confidently upgrade to the new version without any concerns and enjoy the enhanced desktop experience that GNOME 46 offers. The commands are well-known:
sudo zypper ref
sudo zypper dup
