The first point release to GNOME Shell 45 only hit Ubuntu 23.10 at the end of last month, and now a second one is already on its way!
GNOME Shell 45.2 was released upstream at the start of December, now Ubuntu’s developers have packaged it up and pushed it out to users of Ubuntu 23.10.
It hit the mantic-proposed repo today so assuming no unexpected issues are found in the coming days the update will be pushed out to all users through the regular update channel in the coming week or two.
Think of it as an early Christmas treat 🎁!
GNOME Shell 45.1, the latest release, introduces a plethora of bug fixes. This includes several enhancements to performance, namely:
- Correction of performance degradation due to repeated signal leak
- Application search optimisation
- Resolution of on-screen keyboard backspace sticking issue
- Fixing of arrow navigation in search results
- Async code support in D-Bus method Eval()
- Correction of sliders not requesting any size
- Showing prefs dialog only after the extension is loaded
- High-contrast styling improvement
- Fixing of tablet ring/strips mapping
- Addition of support for “version-name” field in extension metainfo
I find the first two items on this list most intriguing.
The optimised app search feature might provide the most notable benefit, especially for those using GNOME Shell on devices or virtual machines with restricted resources, as this reduces the delay before search results appear.
As well as the above, devs also calmed a crop of crash-causing calamities, fixed up a flurry of finicky flaws, and had a bit of code cleanup to keep things ship shape.
So yeah: if you’re on Ubuntu 23.10, keeps an eye out for this update. It’s not the most ground-breaking one but, as point releases go, it’s packing in some appreciable performance patches.