GNOME 3.12 was released today and it includes some important changes such as proper HiDPI support, improved Wayland support, various enhancements for the core GNOME applications as well as 3 new preview applications.
GNOME 3.12 video
Below you can watch a GNOME 3.12 video I've recorder under Fedora 20, which should give you a better idea about what's new in this GNOME release:
(direct video link; for more videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel)
Please note that I used VirtualBox for the video, that's why you might notice some lag at times.
GNOME 3.12: Changes in GNOME Shell, Settings, etc.
The most important improvement in GNOME 3.12 it that GNOME now properly supports high resolution displays, but there are many other interesting changes.
GNOME Shell 3.12 didn't receive the huge amount of changes we're used to from the previous releases, but there are still some interesting new features and improvements:
- Jumplists (also known as Quicklists in Unity) support;
- improved network menus;
- you can now create your own app folders from GNOME Software: go to the Installed view, select some applications and then choose which folder you want them to belong to;
- when searching the Activities Overview, GNOME Shell now displays applications available to install, along with installed apps;
- A geolocation indicator was added to the status menu;
- refined animations;
- window previews are now keyboard navigable.
Other changes:
- improved initial Setup Assistant
- better Wayland support
- Allow specifying monitor for OSD
- new Bluetooth settings
- GNOME Online accounts has better Facebook and Google support and also, it now supports Pocket (a web service that lets you save videos, articles and pretty much anything from the browser for later use)
- Google Cloud print support
- updated Adwaita GTK theme: new style for tabs and buttons, etc.
Also, GTK 3.12 introduces restyled tabs and "popovers", an overlayed bubble interface element that is already used in some of the GNOME 3.12 core apps, such as Gedit.
Here are some screenshots with these changes:
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| HiDPI |
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| New bluetooth settings |
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| Quickly toggle location on/off |
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| Applications available for installation in the Activities Overview |
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| New buttons style |
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| New tabs style and popovers |
GNOME 3.12 applications
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| Gedit |
Gedit was redesigned for GNOME 3.12, bringing it in line with the other GNOME core applications: Gedit now uses header bars (client side decorations), the tabs were redesigned, GtkPopovers are used for various UI elements, Solarized light & dark styles are now available by default and more.
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| GNOME Software |
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| GNOME Software |
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| GNOME Software - manage software sources |
GNOME Software 3.12 received various performance improvements, along with some new features:
- GNOME Software now displays application screenshots;
- automatic ratings which indicate the application quality;
- supports removing third-party repositories.
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| GNOME Videos (Totem) |
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| GNOME Videos (Totem) |
Like Gedit, GNOME Videos (previously known as Totem) was also redesigned: it now uses header bars, the playback view was completely redesigned and it now uses a floating playback controls bar that hides when it's no needed, etc.
The application has also received some new features, such as an option to browse online videos - in this release, GNOME Videos supports The Guardian Videos, Applet Movie Trailers, Blip.tv and Rai.tv but more will be added in the future. Also, since GNOME 3.12 comes with Pocket integration, Videos allows you to watch any videos you've saved to Pocket.
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| Polari |
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| GNOME Sound Recorder |
With GNOME 3.12, there are also some new preview applications: Polari (an IRC client), Sound Recorder and Logs - see above.
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| Web (Epiphany) |
Web (Epiphany), the GNOME browser, features a new address bar design, a new style for incognito windows, better downloading behavior, redesigned cookies and password dialogs as well as Chrome-like one process per tab.
Changes in other GNOME apps:
- Photos: Facebook integration, improved screenshot handling, performance improvements and also, you can now search for photos from the Activities Overview;
- Games: 10 games now have modernized window layouts;
- Terminal: automatically wrap lines, setting to use dark visual theme, Solarized style is available by default and it's now possible to search for terminals from the Activities Overview (it will search for commands and display open terminals that match the query);
- Notes: new option to open notes in a new window, as well as a trash bin to prevent you from accidentally deleting notes;
- Boxes: networking improvements and and option to import existing boxes from the host system;
- Music: support for creating playlists;
- Maps: search will autocomplete previous searches, and there is a better minimum zoom level.
For more information, see the official GNOME 3.12 release notes.
Test GNOME 3.12
If you want to give GNOME 3.12 a try, you can download an ISO from HERE.
Ubuntu users: Ubuntu (and thus Ubuntu GNOME) 14.04 won't use GNOME 3.12 by default but it will be installable via PPA.
information and some screenshots via GNOME 3.12 release notes
