Software Spotlight: Gnome 40 & Pop!

Welcome back to the Nottingham Nerds blog! We are covering some exciting news in the Linux world today! For those of you who are unaware, Gnome (Guh-Nome, the 'G' is not silent in this case) is a Linux desktop environment (the graphical user interface that is used as the default environment for the majority of Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, Fedora 34 - are all distributions based on the Linux Kernel). Gnome is very simple in it's design and offers some really great features out of the box, but it is also very customizable via Extensions. We did a write up on how to install some basic extensions in the Make It Just Right section of our new users documentation if you're interested! Gnome 40 is technically released and available on distributions like Fedora 34, distributions like Ubuntu will not be adopting it until the 21.10 release which occurs this October.

Some major updates came to us in Gnome 40 including a newly designed overview with workspaces found on top of the view rather than on the right, some changed aesthetics, and workspaces now scroll left to right instead of top to bottom - so expect some keyboard shortcut changes (if you use them). Gnome 40 is meant to allow for a more focused, distraction-free computing experience. They have also added new navigation methods that work on touchpad (gestures!), keyboard, and mouse. The app grid also got some changes to make it easier to get to, more customizable (folder structures!) and more intuitive to navigate. Your application dash also keeps running applications and favorited applications separated to give the dash more structure and organization, not to mention many of the built-in applications have been revamped and redesigned for a better look and feel. Lastly, Gnome 40 brings us easier methods to set up keyboard shortcuts, improved WiFi selection/configuration, and a compose key that allows us to intuitively enter special characters like ™, ½ or °C. You can go check these new changes out at Gnome's website!

If you bought a product from us, you are running Pop!_OS which until 21.04 (2021, April), was running Gnome (you're likely running 20.04 based on time of writing). Just recently, however, Pop!_OS released their own version of Gnome with some major customizations and tweaks - enough to label it as a brand new Gnome-based desktop environment they've dubbed COSMIC, which stands for Computer Operating System Main Interface Components. They have added their own set of navigation features (similar to Gnome 40) that work with touchpad, keyboard, and mouse. They have also added an update to the overview interface where work spaces appear on the left (instead of the right with Gnome 3.38 and the top with Gnome 40), an updated and customizable application dock, as well as changes to the top bar which allow for customizations to workspaces and applications button removal, data/time & notifications to be moved from top-left to top-right, and a "hot-corner" where to can flick your mouse to the top-left of the screen to enter the Gnome Overview (or workspaces view). They also changed the default for the Super (Windows) key - instead of opening your overview/workspaces view by default, it now opens just an application launcher - of course this is customizable by the user. Like Gnome 40, COSMIC brings us a nice set of touchpad gestures for desktop navigation. Lastly, COSMIC brings us a swath of updates to the built-in Pop Shell Window Tiling Manager (which allows us to auto tile our windows) and now we can tile windows with our mouse instead of only using keyboard shortcuts! Check out their blog post for some more details!