GNOME 3.16 released

GNOME 3.16 released

The GNOME desktop has certainly had its share of ups and downs over the last few years. Some users fell out of love with it, while others remained faithful to the vision of the GNOME developers. But now version 3.16 has been released, and it offers lots of new features and tweaks.

Marius Nestor reports for Softpedia:

This is a major release that includes countless new features, updated components, and dozens of bug fixes. Prominent features of GNOME 3.16 include new GNOME Shell theme, revamped notification system, more useful notification popups, overlay scrollbars for all GNOME applications, important usability improvements for Nautilus (Files), support for scroll wheel emulation in trackballs, NFS (Network File System) support in userspace, Foursquare support, Wayland login screen, and an updated Adwaita wallpaper.

Of course, numerous core components have been updated, including Eye of GNOME, GTK+, Tracker, GNOME Maps, GNOME Music, GNOME Control Center, Videos, GNOME Terminal, GLib2, gdk-pixbuf, libsoup, Iagno, GNOME Documents, GNOME Photos, Evince, Calculator, and Mutter, so we recommend that you read the complete release notes for more details.

More at Softpedia

You can also read the official release notes for GNOME 3.16:

GNOME 3.16 is the latest version of GNOME 3, and is the result of six months’ work by the GNOME project. It includes major new features, as well as a large number of smaller improvements and enhancements. The release incorporates 33525 changes, made by approximately 1043 contributors.

More at GNOME

Here’s a video preview of GNOME 3.16:

News of GNOME 3.16’s release spawned a large thread on the Linux subreddit:

Skilltheamps: “…Gnome on Wayland works beautifully and is super snappy. I’m damn close to ditch Xorg from my production machine now.”

Pogeymanz: “…I played around with it a bit and it is simply AMAZING how smooth everything is. In particular, window resizing and dragging.”

AssociationOfCowards: “Can’t wait for it to come to Debian. Thanks to everyone involved in the Gnome project!”

Formegadriverscustom: “Dear GNOME 3 haters: No one is forcing you to use GNOME 3. No one. There’s KDE, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE and tons of window managers if GNOME 3 is not to your liking. Why all the vitriol every time GNOME 3 is mentioned? It’s really tiring, you know. Why not just use something else? Many of us actually like GNOME 3. What a bunch of weirdos we are, huh? :)”

TinyEarl: “Basically what I’m saying is the GNOME 3 devs have a very poor attitude and don’t care about how their choices effect the rest of the community. Lots of desktop environments depend on certain things related to GNOME and GTK 3, but the GNOME 3 devs only want you using GNOME things on GNOME.”

Fluffbum: “Man I love gnome. As big KDE fan I made the switch recently as I prefer it.”

Arcticblue: “I can’t bring myself to call it “Guhnome”. When trying to talk to people who may be unfamiliar with it, it gets some funny looks like I don’t know how to pronounce a word properly (like people who say Marine “Corpse” instead of Marine Corps). It’s spelled exactly like the fantasy creature so that’s how I’m going to pronounce it.”

More at Reddit

Will Windows 10 Secure Boot kill Linux?

Microsoft’s decision to let PC manufacturers decide whether or not a user can disable Secure Boot has some Linux users up in arms. Will this force Linux users to buy desktops and laptops that come with Linux preinstalled? Or is it all much ado about nothing?

Chris Hoffman reports for PC World:

In this future, the worst-case scenario means you’ll need to hunt down special PCs designed for Linux—ones that will likely be more expensive. Say goodbye to running Linux on all those PCs that came with Windows, just as you can’t install Linux on an iPad today. Linux PCs will exist, but they’ll be specialty, expensive bits of kit.

But is that bleak future really so possible? We’re leaving out a big piece of the puzzle here. Modern versions of some Linux distributions, including Ubuntu and Fedora, will install just fine on a Windows PC that has Secure Boot enabled. Microsoft actually signs Canonical’s Ubuntu boot loader and Fedora’s boot loader with a Microsoft corporation key.

…it’s impossible to peer into the future at this point. Will Microsoft really continue signing these Linux loaders and allowing them to function in Secure Boot mode in the future, or will they eventually stop doing that, too? If “for security reasons” is a good enough reason to block Linux from installing on a Windows RT device or Windows 10 phone, perhaps that logic will be extended to full Windows PCs in the future.

More at PC World

HTC One M9 available tonight

HTC’s One M9 phone has gotten tons of attention lately, and tonight at midnight you’ll be able to order one directly from HTC. That’s a much quicker way of getting one than waiting until April 10 to buy one at a store.

Vlad Savov reports for the Verge:

The HTC One M9 will be available in stores across the United States from April 10th, but you can get one a little bit earlier by placing an order directly with HTC from midnight tonight. The Taiwanese company has priced its new flagship smartphone at $649 unlocked with 32GB of storage, matching the price of the 16GB iPhone 6. Carrier-specific variants will also be available from HTC.com on Friday, with all the big US operators supporting the new One: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon will all get a version of the device.

More at The Verge

You can get more information from the official HTC One M9 site:

An award-winning tradition continues: 20 MP camera with sapphire camera cover lens to deliver crisp, clear photos. Front-facing stereo speakers with built-in amp and Dolby Audio surround for the ultimate audio experience.

Dual-tone all-metal body features mirrored edges that are ergonomically tapered to effortlessly fit your grip. Its unibody back is curved to achieve the streamlined look and feel of the iconic HTC One series smartphones.

The HTC One M9 features more customizable options than ever. With the built-in HTC Themes app, you can change the look and feel of your phone using your favorite photo or online image. The HTC Themes app is able to pick colors from the photo and applies the theme you create to your wallpaper, icons, and more.

More at HTC

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