The GNOME Project has released the Release Candidate (RC) for GNOME 49, which is set to launch on September 17, 2025. One of the most significant updates in this version is the reactivation of X11 support by default in the GNOME Display Manager (GDM). This change comes after difficulties in separating GDM’s ability to launch modern X11 sessions from the overall X11 integration within GDM. In the earlier GNOME 49 alpha release, X11 support was disabled by default.<\/p>\n
The development team stated, \u201cWe found it difficult to cleanly separate GDM\u2019s ability to launch modern X11 sessions from the rest of GDM\u2019s X11 integration.\u201d They plan to ultimately remove full X11 integration in future releases, retaining only the capacity to launch modern X11 sessions.<\/p>\n
Beyond this update, the GNOME 49 RC includes enhancements across numerous components like GNOME Shell, Mutter, and the GNOME Control Center. Notable improvements include better media notification styling on the lock screen, enhanced legacy tray icon support, and the ability to connect to WPA(2) Enterprise networks. The Mutter window manager has also seen significant advancements, such as support for ICtCp Tone Mapping and ICC profiles, extended sRGB support, and better handling of color calibration via the D-Bus API.<\/p>\n
Other enhancements feature an increase in default virtual machine disk sizes in GNOME Boxes from 20 GB to 30 GB, performance improvements in GNOME Calculator for managing large numbers, and a more prominent display of month names in GNOME Calendar. Additionally, the GNOME Remote Desktop app now supports relative pointer movements and virtual monitor extensions via RDP.<\/p>\n
The Orca screen reader within GNOME has received various updates, including a new systemd user service and improved navigation capabilities across applications.<\/p>\n