Mon Sep 09 16:10:04 UTC 2024: ## GNOME 47 Release Candidate Ready for Public Testing

The GNOME Project has released the Release Candidate (RC) version of its upcoming GNOME 47 desktop environment, making it available for public testing. This follows the beta release two weeks prior and introduces a host of improvements and new features.

**Key highlights of GNOME 47 RC:**

* **Improved color management:** The Mutter window and composite manager now support experimental color management protocols.
* **Enhanced PipeWire support:** Initial PipeWire explicit sync support has been added.
* **Backlight API exposed:** The new backlight API is now accessible to gnome-settings-daemon.
* **Performance improvements:** Cursor smoothness under load is enhanced, drag and drop functionality is improved, and issues related to hybrid machine cursor freezing have been addressed.
* **Nautilus updates:** The File Chooser receives a “choices” menu, drag-and-drop functionality, and the ability to extract bzip2 tar files.
* **Epiphany enhancements:** The web browser boasts improvements to Web App installation, CSV password import, and privacy reports.
* **GNOME Calendar upgrades:** The calendar app now sets a user agent for remote servers, improves URL validation, and offers better accessibility features.
* **GNOME Control Center refinements:** The Settings app features performance improvements, bug fixes, and UI updates.

**Other notable additions:**

* **GNOME Shell:** Uses rst2man for generating man pages.
* **GNOME Sudoku:** Features mouse wheel zoom and a new default size.
* **GNOME Remote Desktop:** Reduces resource usage for unauthenticated sessions.
* **GNOME Maps:** Integrates Transitous support for public transit routing.
* **GNOME Calculator:** Introduces brand colors.
* **GNOME Text Editor:** Leverages libspelling for spellchecking and enables implicit trailing newline by default.

The GNOME 47 RC also includes numerous bug fixes and updated translations. For detailed information on these changes, refer to the changelog on the release announcement page.

Users can test drive GNOME 47 RC by downloading the GNOME OS 47 RC ISO image and installing it on a virtual machine with UEFI support, such as the GNOME Boxes version from Flathub.

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