3.10 release notes items

Major changes in GNOME 3.10, to be potentially mentioned in the release notes.

Please note that this does not need to be pretty. It's just a list that will be used to make the actual release notes.

See also the advice about the schedule and translation.

How-to

Major changes are those that:

• Affect lots of people (users, administrators, or developers.)
• Are something people have been hoping for or discussing widely.
• Feature, usability, performance, internationalization or accessibility improvements.

Provide this information:

• What the module (application) is.
• What the change is.
  • Why it is important.
  • How it can be accessed.

Be as descriptive as you like. Better too long than too short. Links and screenshots are very welcome!

GNOME 3.10

• https://live.gnome.org/ThreePointNine/Features

What's new for users

(Please add your app or feature if it is not listed here!)

Shell

Minor improvements aside from major features:

• Improved login screen - better layout, nicer transitions
• Better transition for screen lock and blank
• Prettier lock screen notifications
• Pagination in the application picker.
• Various improved transitions.

Header Bars

• New design pattern seen in many applications.
  • More efficient use of screen space
  • Ensures that the close button is always available, even when maximised

System Status

• New system status menu, combining the previous system status menus. (more info https://afaikblog.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/feature-focus-gnome-3s-new-system-status-area/)

  • More compact.
  • Gives you an overview.
  • More dynamic (allows better treatment of things like aeroplane mode, bluetooth).
  • Adds a brightness slider.
  • Better work flow for connecting to wi-fi networks.
  • Adresses privacy concerns with permanently displayed name.

Lock Screen Customization

• You can now set your own lock screen image.

Automatic timezone setting

• Automatically change the computer's timezone based on the current location

Authentication

• Smartcards are now supported as an alternate way to log in or unlock the screen
• Smartcard removal can be configured to lock the screen or force log out.
• Password authentication can now be disabled, forcing just fingerprint or smartcard authentication

Settings (aka Control Center)

• New date and time settings

• New display settings (more info http://blogs.gnome.org/thos/2013/09/03/displays-settings-in-gnome-3-10/)

• New universal access settings
• Background/lock screen (see above)

• Select your background from your Flickr content (#707569)

• Add user dialog improvements

Online Accounts

• Integrate Telepathy chat accounts (more info http://blog.barisione.org/2013-09/empathy-chat-accounts-and-goa/)

• Support for Google 2-factor

Fine Scrolling

• New "zoom" mode in scrollbars allows for fine scrolling - useful if the scrolled area is very tall. (more info http://blogs.gnome.org/mclasen/2013/08/05/scrolling-in-gtk/)

Clocks

• Pretty new analog timer in stopwatch and timer views
• Geolocation support. Gets the local time automatically.

Documents

• ownCloud support

Photos

• Browse all your photos with ease.
• Flickr support
• Albums
• Share images to any device that supports UPNP, such as your TV, phone or another computer running GNOME.
• Print photos

Web

• DuckDuckGo as default search engine. (more info http://people.gnome.org/~csaavedra/news-2013-08.html#D27)

• Search provider for the GNOME Shell (provides access to web history from shell dashboard and let's you search directly in Web from the shell).
• List available (saved) usernames in login web forms. Previously only the first one saved was available (good for people with multiple mail accounts or twitter accounts, etc.)

Music preview release

• New application for 3.10
• Listen to music from your hard drive or your NAS using UPNP.
• Support for online music sources is planned.

Maps preview release

• New application for 3.10
• Based on collaborative Openstreetmap database, made by hundreds of thousands of people across the globe
• Look up places
  • Search by names: "Helsinki", "Empire state building", "Statue of Liberty" etc

  • Search by phrases: "Pubs near Main Street, Boston", "Hotels in New York" etc. More info/reference for search phrases here: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Nominatim/Special_Phrases

• Localized search results
• Find your location on the Map (currently limited to city-level accuracy)

Contacts

• Lots of UI polish:
  • Nicer contacts list
  • Better selection mode visuals
  • More attractive contacts pane
  • Updated setup and accounts dialog

Software preview release

• New application for 3.10
• Allows you to install and remove applications, and install software updates
• Easy to use, allows browsing for applications
• This is the first release; lots more features planned for the future, like comments, ratings and screenshots

Tweak Tool

• Redesigned for 3.10
• Nicer looking, more logical layout, options are easier to understand and laid out better

Cantarell

OPW program student, Pooja Saxena, has done extensive work on the system font, Cantarell. Glyph coverage has been extended, based on our translation completion data and includes extra maths symbols. The regular weight has received radical spacing improvements and some highly exposed outlines have been improved (basic latin + numerals). Similar ongoing work is happening for the bold weight.

Also: improved extended latin accents

Notes (Bijiben)

• collections
• ownCloud
• search provider

Games

* Chess and Five or More now have application menus instead of menubars

Evince Document Viewer

• Improved Accessibility support => this can be added in the accessibility section

• New Caret Navigation mode => this can be added in the accessibility section

• Improved Djvu support
• New sidebar showing search results

Boxes

• Support for importing file system images. Supported formats are:
  • cow, qcow and qcow2: QEMU image formats
  • raw (.img extension): Raw disk image format

  • vdi: VirtualBox 1.1 compatible image format

  • vmdk: VMware 3 and 4 compatible image format
  • vpc: VirtualPC compatible image format (VHD)
  • cloop: Linux Compressed Loop image

• Many small UI improvements & other fixes, e.g showing a spinner on under-construction boxes.

Hi resolution screen support

Cairo fixes have landed in upstream master - there may be a quick 1.13 release/snapshot this fall. Fate still somewhat uncertain...

What's new for administrators

What's new for developers

• GTK+

  • new widgets: GtkStack, GtkRevealer, GtkListBox, GtkHeaderBar, GtkPlacesSidebar, GtkSearchBar

  • define complex widgets with glade templates
  • baseline support
• GLib
  • Tests can generate TAP output now, for easier integration in other test harnesses
  • Some support for installed tests
  • GApplication
    • busy state
    • org.freedesktop.Application
    • D-Bus activation from desktop files
    • Actions in desktop files
• geocode-glib: A new library for (reverse-)geocoding, i-e it allows you to find information on places given some search term or coordinates. It relies on Nominatim service from Openstreetmap.

• GeoClue2: A re-written Geoclue implementation designed for simplicity and privacy. It allows you to find your location on the planet (for now Earth only, sorry Mr. Spock). Currently the accuracy is limited to city-level at best.

Wayland

• Initial Wayland support (more info http://blogs.gnome.org/mclasen/2013/08/05/gnome-wayland-plans/ and https://wiki.gnome.org/ThreePointNine/Features/WaylandSupport)

• Will be possible to test GNOME Shell and applications running under Wayland

What's new in accessibility

• improvement on accessibility support for gnome-shell sliders (#706391 #706386)

• gnome-shell calendar is keyboard navigable (#667434)

• gnome shell focus and caret tracker for the magnifier (#647074 #705652 GSoC Updates: Focus and Caret Tracking Has Landed)

• new Universal Access panel (#695099 A new design for the universal acccess panel)

• improvement on caret-focus for evince
• Super + Alt + S now is the official keyboard shortcut to toggle orca

What's new in i18n/l10n

Plans for GNOME 3.12

• Sound Recorder preview release planned for 3.12
• Full wayland support
• Ratings, screenshots, history in GNOME Software

Handy links

* http://blogs.gnome.org/mclasen/2013/05/29/some-gnome-3-9-sightings/ * http://blogs.gnome.org/mclasen/2013/08/23/gnome-3-10-sightings/ * https://wiki.gnome.org/ThreePointNine/Features/