Six months after the launch of version 47, GNOME 48 “Bengaluru” was released today and is now available for anyone interested in trying it. Like the recent versions, it doesn’t introduce earth-shattering changes but offers some novel features as well as performance and usability improvements.
A major highlight in GNOME 48 is the introduction of notification stacking, which groups alerts from a single application into tidy stacks. Users can expand or collapse each stack, making it easier to sift through notifications without getting overwhelmed.
On the performance side, the standout feature is the dynamic triple buffering framework, which boosts the concurrency capabilities of Mutter, GNOME’s display manager. This translates into fewer skipped frames and smoother animations, which in turn results in a smoother user experience.
Moreover, everyday performance tasks—from JavaScript engine operations to file indexing—have become snappier while consuming less memory. In particular, folks with discrete graphics cards connected directly to their monitors should notice enhanced responsiveness and stability.
Additionally, the Files app is now substantially faster, especially when dealing with directories packed with thumbnails. According to internal testing, this translates to a fivefold speed increase when loading large folders and a tenfold boost in scrolling performance.
Coupled with GTK optimizations for interface creation and resizing, GNOME 48 feels more fluid on both older hardware and modern setups.
Continuing with the core apps, GNOME’s relatively new default image viewer steps up with handy editing features in version 48. Users can crop, rotate, and flip images within the app, streamlining basic photo tweaks without needing a separate editor.
In addition, the redesigned zoom controls also offer single-click access to default zoom, a menu of predefined zoom levels, and manual percentage input.
The Text Editor is another app that received a sleek overhaul, simplifying the header bar and trimming away unnecessary visual elements. Document properties are now more transparent, enabling swift access to auto-formatting options.
Plus, for those who work with code, the cursor position indicator has been moved into the main viewing area for quicker reference and less clutter.
For anyone who enjoys exploring raw photography, experimental support for RAW image formats and additional metadata standards like XMP is available—though availability may hinge on your distribution’s particular setup.
Another development involves GNOME’s updated interface and monospace fonts—Adwaita Sans and Adwaita Mono—customized versions of Inter and Iosevka, respectively. These fonts bring sharper rendering, better character coverage, and a richer set of modern font features, ensuring they work great on high-density displays.
GNOME 48 desktop environment also introduces Digital Wellbeing features. These tools let you track your screen time usage, set daily limits, and schedule break reminders. Making your display grayscale upon hitting a self-imposed limit might help some individuals reduce eyestrain or simply be more aware of how much time they spend in front of their screens.
Where can you find them? All these features reside in Settings’s new Wellbeing section, making them easy to configure.
Furthermore, this release includes an option to extend device battery longevity by limiting the battery’s charge level to 80% when plugged in. Although this feature requires hardware support, it can be toggled in Power Settings under Battery Charging.
For audio aficionados, GNOME 48 introduces Decibels, a minimalistic audio player geared toward single-file playback. Its interface focuses on essentials, featuring a waveform display and playback-speed controls—handy for those who often listen to podcasts, interviews, or other long recordings.
GNOME 48 also marks the early rollout of HDR support at the system level, enabling HDR output on displays and applications that can handle it. However, HDR-compatible software remains limited for now. Once HDR is enabled via Display Settings, brightness control may rely on software emulation in certain scenarios.
Under the hood, the desktop environment has gained global shortcut functionality, letting specific apps respond to system-wide key presses once the user grants permission.
Moreover, GNOME 48 now defaults to placing newly opened windows at the center of the screen, while users with specialized keyboards will appreciate extended support for function keys like Copy, Paste, and Undo.
For more information on all the changes, refer to the announcement.
If you are eager to try the new GNOME 48, you can download and install the GNOME OS through the Flathub Boxes app. Remember that this ISO image is not a complete Linux distro but only contains the GNOME desktop skeleton with a minimal installation UI.
Regular users should wait for GNOME 48 to arrive in the software repositories of their Linux distributions. As usual, rolling-release ones like Arch, openSUSE Tumbleweed, Void, etc., are expected to get it first.
