Six months after the launch of version 48, GNOME 49 “Brescia,” named after the Italian city that hosted this year’s GUADEC conference, was released today and is now available for anyone interested in trying it.
One of the biggest shifts is in multimedia. The long-standing Totem video player has been replaced by Showtime, a new app built on GTK 4 and Libadwaita.
Showtime focuses on a distraction-free experience, hiding controls during playback until needed. It includes essentials like playback speed adjustment, multiple audio and subtitle tracks, video rotation, and screenshot capture.
Another major change is in document handling. Papers have replaced Evince, a modernized viewer also based on GTK 4 and Libadwaita.
The app comes with a refreshed interface, better performance, and improved PDF annotation. It supports PDF, DjVu, TIFF, and comic formats, along with features like digital signatures and easier document organization.
The Calendar app has been redesigned to adapt better to different screen sizes, with a collapsible sidebar and improved readability of event details. It also adds the ability to export events as .ics files, which makes sharing and backup easier. Accessibility has been improved too, with better screen reader support and smoother keyboard navigation.
GNOME’s Web browser sees one of its biggest updates in recent years. More than 100 issues were fixed, while new features include support for regional ad-blocking lists, estimated reading times in reader mode, OpenSearch integration, and a redesigned security dialog. Users also get better bookmark management and smarter in-page search options.
Maps has been updated with localized transit icons, interactive street labels, and OpenStreetMap profile pictures. The Software app now parses Flatpak repositories much faster, lowering memory use and speeding up browsing on resource-limited systems.
A new wallpaper catalog optimized for HDR displays makes its debut. Thanks to improvements in Mutter and GNOME’s color management, wallpapers now render in full 16-bit-per-channel depth, giving a wider color range and better contrast.
Remote desktop functionality has also been expanded. GNOME 49 now supports multitouch input forwarding, relative mouse input for games, and additional virtual monitors in remote sessions.
Other desktop changes include lock screen media controls, a more prominent accessibility menu on the login screen, HDR brightness adjustments in Quick Settings, and improved trash handling. Security has also been tightened, with sandboxed image loading in GTK apps.
Lastly, two new apps join GNOME Circle: Mahjongg, a modern take on the tile-based classic, and Wordbook, a dictionary powered by WordNet and eSpeak. For developers, GNOME 49 adds new tools and refinements across the platform, making it easier to work with GTK 4 and related technologies.
For more information on all the changes, refer to the announcement.
If you are eager to try the new GNOME 49, 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 49 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.
