3.32 Release Notes Items

Changes in GNOME 3.32, to be potentially mentioned in the release notes.

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

See also the advice about the schedule and translation.

Also see feature plans for 3.32.

Also see release-notes#8 for a working list of items that are tracked for inclusion in the release notes.

Attention Press/Reviewers This is a work in progress. Items aren't checked for correctness. Statements may be completely wrong. Very large changes could be forgotten. Please wait until the final release notes are done. This page will not contain everything that will be in the final release notes.

Contents

3.32 Release Notes Items

How-to

List any changes that:

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

Even small changes are interesting, and can sometimes be combined into wider themes.

Provide this information:

What the module (application) is.
What the change is.
How it will look and work from a user perspective.
Why it is better than what we had before.

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

What's new for users

Application Settings and Flatpak Permissions

New settings panel shows an overview of the settings for each application. This includes existing settings for notifications, sound and search. It also includes permissions for Flatpak applications. These are split into two types:

Built-in permissions that can't be changed
User-controlled permissions - here access is granted by the user when they use the app. The settings panel allows these permissions to be revoked, should the user want to.

Flatpak permissions are also shown in Software now, so you can see what each app will get access to before you install it.

App menu retirement

The content of app menus has been moved elsewhere. This is response to some long-running issues we've had with them. It also makes the GNOME platform easier for apps to target, since app menus were a GNOME-specific convention.

The HIG has been updated with guidelines for application developers.

Blog post with background: https://blogs.gnome.org/aday/2018/10/09/farewell-application-menus/
Initiative page: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/Initiatives/issues/4

We haven't fully decided what to do about the indicator in the top bar (see https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/624).

New Application Icons

The style of the application icons has been updated. The new style provide a more modern visual style that is consistent with that used by the majority of 3rd party applications.

Initiative page: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/Initiatives/issues/2
Blog post: http://jimmac.musichall.cz/blog/2019-01-23-the-big-app-icon-redesign/

Updated Visual Style

Should be landing in 3.32, but worth checking!

Updated visual style for UI - flatter, lighter, more modern. Main changes are to header bars, buttons and switches. The colors are consistent with the new app icons.

Blog post: https://blog.gtk.org/2019/01/14/theme-changes-in-gtk-3/

Terminal

It got a header bar, apparently (worth checking).

Seahorse

Implemented a header bar and some other small UI changes.

Performance improvements

A few things in the shell:

On-Screen Keyboard

Now allows emoji to be inputted: https://blogs.gnome.org/carlosg/2019/01/31/a-mutter-and-gnome-shell-update/

Region & Language Settings

Input sources can be rearranged by drag and drop - https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-control-center/merge_requests/197 (assuming the work is merged)

Five or More

Complete rewrite (in Vala) and revamp, improved user interface, new theme - http://curiositydrivendevelopment.blogspot.com/2018/08/five-or-more-gsoc.html