GNOME 3.28 got officially released today after six months of development. By looking at the new features, we can clearly say that this is a fantastic update from the GNOME team. All credits go to the hardworking GNOME developers, and to be precise, there are as many as 838 contributors! According to GNOME, this update ships with a profound 25832 changes.
GNOME 3.28 Desktop in OpenSUSE Tumbleweed
10 Best New Features of GNOME 3.28
With that many changes, we don’t want you to fall asleep looking at the changelog. We will make life easier for you. Here is a short and precise changelog that you care about – the ten best features!
1. New Boxes Features
If you are a GNOME user, you don’t need to install VMware or VirtualBox to try other Linux distros. Boxes, the built-in GNOME application, can run remote and locally installed virtual machines.
GNOME 3.28 Boxes
In GNOME 3.28, Boxes got much better. It can now automatically download operating systems, straight from the new box assistant, meaning all you have to do is pick the Linux distro you want to use, and Boxes will do the rest.
Apart from that, the new version now supports transferring files between your system and the virtual machines. Drag and drop are supported too.
2. All-New On-Screen Keyboard
New On-screen Keyboard
The brand new On-screen keyboard has been re-coded entirely in GNOME 3.28. The new keyboard is more user-friendly and automatically pops-up when a text is selected. Of course, the view gets pushed away to ensure you can see what you are typing.
3. Multimedia Apps – Photos, Video, Music, and Games
GNOME 3.28 Photos App
Photos App has a new import feature that allows you to easily add photos to your library from SD cards and USB drives. The app can now auto-detect storage devices that has unique images, and then gives you an option to organize the pictures into albums during import itself. Other multimedia enhancements include the ability to now play MJPEG video files through the video player and be able to reorder playlists by drag & drop in the music app.
Games app has an exciting feature. It now has a cool new CRT video filter that makes game visuals look like they are being played on an age-old CRT TV.
4. Favorites in Files
Add Files and Folders to Favorites list
In FIles, you can now select files and folders and add it to the favorites list so that you can quickly view them in a “Starred” list, as shown above. Additionally, Favorites capability has also been added to the Contacts application. You can pin your favorite contacts with whom you interact more.
5. Calendar Improvements
GNOME 3.28 Calendar
The enhanced month view in Calendar in GNOME 3.28 shows the Events in an easily readable manner. You can also expand cells that have several events overlapped. Even notice the weather info in the above picture beside the events – neat, isn’t’ it? Apart from these, the To-Do list has been revamped to be able to reorder tasks by drag & drop.
6. New App “Usage”
New Usage App in GNOME 3.28
GNOME 3.28 ships with a new technology preview app called Usage. Using this new App, you can see CPU and RAM consumption along with highlighted problem areas. This is an excellent feature that helps you in troubleshooting issues quicker than before. More features are planned in future updates to the App.
7. Clocks App
Clocks get UTC option
In Clocks, it’s now possible to add the UTC timezone to your world times.
8. Better Device Support
GNOME 3.28 comes with integrated Thunderbolt 3 connection support. Security checks that are added to prevent data theft through unauthorized Thunderbolt 3 connections. The top bar shows the Thunderbolt 3 connection status when active.
Touchpad Gestures
The touchpad now uses a gesture for a secondary click, which is nothing but right-click action n a mouse. To use the gesture, keep one finger in contact with the touchpad and tap with another finger.
9. Terminal
Terminal Preferences in GNOME 3.28
Terminal gets some enhancements as well. Notice the redesigned preferences window in the above screenshot. There are no longer separate Preferences and Profile Preferences. Both the options are clubbed into one window. You will also see a blinking text.
10. Flatpak
Flatpak GTK+ theme handling
Flatpak seems like one of the best things that have ever happened to Linux. It lets Developers distribute an app on every Linux distribution ease. The new GNOME includes GTK+ theme handling, as well as language configuration support.
11. GNOME Beautification
Last but not least, GNOME 3.28 looks more sleek and beautiful with the enhanced default interface font called Cantarell. Character forms and spacing have been improved to make the text more attractive.
Other beautiful things include a bunch of gorgeous looking background wallpapers that have been added.
Other tons of minor improvements
Apart from the significant changes discussed here, there are hundreds of small changes, among which some are noteworthy, and others do their work in the background (code optimizations and bug fixes).
- In Software App, the application categories can now be sorted by rating or by name.
- In the Contacts app, you can now sort the names list by surname or first name.
- Settings App now remembers the last opened settings, and you will be directed to that panel when launched next time.
Overall, we think this is one of the best releases of GNOME we have seen so far. Cheers to the GNOME team!
Where to experience GNOME 3.28 NOW?
With so many exciting features, no wonder you would like to test drive it right away! You can experience GNOME 3.28 in updates released on Manjaro, Solus, Fedora, and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed in a couple of weeks. Ubuntu users need to wait for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, which is planned to be released on April 26th for use on production machines. But, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS daily builds available if you want to test drive it, but remember you won’t get full GNOME experience as Ubuntu uses Nautilus File Manager. Here is the download link of Fedora nightlies.
Download Fedora 28 Nightlies with GNOME 3.28
