The GNOME 3.16 branch is getting closer to release

Mar 6, 2015 09:05 GMT  ·  By

GNOME Shell, a user interface that provides functions for the GNOME desktop environment, has just received its second Beta update for the 3.16 branch.

GNOME Shell is one of the first things a user sees when he boots up a system powered by GNOME. It's one of the more complex components of GNOME and a lot of work goes into it. You might think that, if the development cycle is coming to a close, we might get to see less changes made to the shell, but the developers still have some important changes to make.

Our colleague, Marius Nestor, already wrote that a new GNOME Shell theme would arrive and would be a rather flat one. Besides that particular upgrade, there are a ton of smaller ones just as important, even if they are not as visible.

GNOME Shell 3.16 Beta is an exciting release

It's hard to say from that version number that this could be all that interesting. The developers are working to get everything in place for the release scheduled to happen on March 25, which is just a couple of weeks away.

According to the changelog, the default shortcut for viewing notifications has been modified, a shortcut to dismiss notifications from list has been implemented, Polari is now used by default for IRC conversations instead of Empathy, a hideable bottom tray for legacy status icons has been implemented, and the window thumbnail scaling should now work just fine in overview.

Also, the shortcuts are no longer disabled when non-panel menus are open, an unminimize animation has been added, disabled notification no longer wakes up the screen, and numerous smaller fixes have been implemented.

A changelog featuring a complete list of updates and improvements can be found in the official announcement. You can download GNOME Shell 3.16 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.