The latest GNOME Shell source package can be downloaded from Softpedia

Sep 5, 2014 11:17 GMT  ·  By

GNOME Shell, a user interface that provides functions for the GNOME desktop environment, has just received its second Beta for the 3.14 development branch.

GNOME Shell is the most visible packages in the entire GNOME stack. This is where the users will be spending most of the time and any changes that you make to the shell will be noticed right away by the users. It's hard to say if the shell is the most important component, but it's there at the top.

The developers have been working hard to improve GNOME Shell since the 3.12 release and users will definitely notice some changes when they start the new Shell version for the first time. It's also worth noting that GNOME is also working to support Wayland by default by the time of the official release.

The Wayland support was supposed to be implemented with the previous GNOME release, but it wasn't ready and the devs chose to postpone the integration. Until now, it looks like everything is on track and that Wayland will get its support.

According to the changelog, keynav now works properly into session menu on login screen, a gesture has been added to summon the message tray, scrolls and swipes are now accepted either way on the screen shield, opening the app picker now has an animation, the app folder animations have been improved, the app icons are now animated when launching a new window, and the on-screen keyboard is now displayed when the touch input is being used.

Also, GLSL is now optional, the on-screen-keyboard position on monitor has been updated, the window manager animations have been improved, touch events are now handled better, the "New Window" action for single-window apps is no longer shown, the overview is no longer exceeding the screen size when many apps are installed, GNOME Software has been added to the default favorites, and a special background to use for performance testing has been added.

Unfortunately, the only way to test the new GNOME Shell is to compile your own version or to use a PPA, which is not official.

A changelog featuring a complete list of updates and improvements can be found in the official announcement. You can download GNOME Shell 3.14 Beta 2 source right now from Softpedia.

Remember that this is a development version and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.