14 DAY TRIAL // GNOME Shell, a user interface that provides functions for the GNOME desktop environment, has been updated yet again and brings even more changes and improvements.
This is the third update in the new development cycle and the GNOME developers have continued to make some very important contributions to this package. This is one of the first things a user sees when booting into a system powered by GNOME, which means that some of the changes and improvements for the shell can sometimes be noticed right away in the interface.
GNOME developers have been working to integrate Wayland and to use GNOME Shell as the compositor, but it's a little bit more complicated than originally anticipated. The Wayland integration was supposed to be ready for GNOME 3.12, but the devs had to postpone it for the next version. This means that it's very likely that GNOME 3.14 will probably take that important step.
“GNOME Shell provides core user interface functions for the GNOME 3 desktop, like switching to windows and launching applications. GNOME Shell takes advantage of the capabilities of modern graphics hardware and introduces innovative user interface concepts to provide a visually attractive and easy to use experience,” reads the official announcement.
According to the changelog, portal login requests are now handled properly, the fonts on Wayland for HiDPI devices are now scaled correctly, the default ibus candidate index labels have been fixed, a number of gestures for various system actions have been added, a performance test script for the perf.gnome.org has been added, a new restart framework has been implemented to improve restart visuals, the key navigation has been improved in app folder popups, the truncation of app search results has been fixed, and the renamed desktop files in favorites are automatically updated.
Also, closing windows with attached modals is no longer permitted, self-restarting on OpenBSD is no longer allowed, the behavior of window buttons with compositor menus has been improved, a workaround the atspi-related performance regression has been added, and miscellaneous bug fixes and cleanups have been made.
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 3.13.4 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.