GNOME 51 is here! In this video, I walk through what’s new in the latest release of the GNOME desktop. We’ll cover what GNOME OS is, the biggest new features, improvements to GNOME Software and the file previewer, and the removal of support for legacy NVIDIA proprietary drivers. At the end, I’ll share my overall thoughts on whether GNOME 51 is worth the upgrade.

First, I want to spend a few moments talking about GNOME OS, a Linux distribution made by the GNOME project itself. Not everyone knows it exists, and while it isn’t for everyone, it’s worth knowing about.

The main purpose of GNOME OS is to let you try the latest release of the GNOME desktop. It isn’t a typical desktop distro meant to be your daily driver. It’s built for evaluating GNOME itself.

For example, maybe you’re a KDE Plasma user and you’re curious about GNOME, but you don’t want to replace your current setup. GNOME OS has a live mode, so you can boot it from a flash drive and try it out. That way, you can see what life is like in GNOME before making any commitment.

If you’re a content creator like me, it’s also great for recording review footage, for two reasons. First, it can take a while for distributions to ship a new GNOME release, but GNOME OS lets you try each one right away. Second, most distributions make their own tweaks to GNOME, while GNOME OS gives you GNOME exactly as its developers intended, with no changes.

And even though it’s meant for evaluation, you can still install it. Running a distro from a flash drive can be a bit sluggish, so installing GNOME OS directly on my hardware means better performance and better-quality footage for you.

So, in summary: GNOME OS is aimed at developers and enthusiasts. It’s not a replacement for distributions like Ubuntu or Fedora.

GNOME 51 New Features

Now, let’s check out GNOME 51. It was released earlier this month, and a big focus this time around was making the desktop smoother and more responsive. That means there aren’t any life-changing new features, but beyond the performance work, there are some notable improvements to talk about.

The first one is remote desktop. GNOME 51 improves its support for RDP, the Remote Desktop Protocol, with changes aimed at business and enterprise use. RDP itself isn’t new; GNOME has supported it for a few releases now. If you didn’t know, you can turn it on in GNOME’s Settings, and then connect to your GNOME desktop from any remote desktop client. For example, on a Mac you can use Microsoft’s Windows App: just add your GNOME machine and connect.

What’s new in GNOME 51 is support for smartcard redirection and Kerberos sign-in, which makes this feature more practical at work.

Next up, GNOME Maps can now download map areas for offline use, which will help anyone who travels and deals with a spotty connection from time to time. Maps also improves public transit directions. You can tap a station or stop to see live departures and arrivals, journey directions now show real-time delays, and you’ll get platform information and walking times to help with transfers.

Personally, I’ve never really used GNOME Maps, since I navigate from my phone, but I can see these features being helpful to some of you. And to be fair, these features are pretty standard nowadays, so I’m a little surprised GNOME Maps is only getting them now. But I digress.

Perhaps more interesting are the improvements to Files, GNOME’s default file manager. Nothing game-changing, but welcome all the same. One highlight is a new drag counter: when you drag multiple files, a small badge shows how many items you’re moving. Files you copy are now selected automatically, and notifications are grouped, which makes it easier to keep track of multiple file transfers. Files has also been tuned to feel snappier, so slow operations no longer freeze the app. Again, nothing life-changing, but welcome.

Next, let’s look at GNOME Software, the standard app for installing software in GNOME, unless your distro swaps it for something else. There’s a new feature here that I really appreciate: GNOME Software now warns you if you try to install an application that’s no longer maintained.

This matters, because a lot of people don’t think about it when installing software. An app that isn’t maintained anymore may not get security fixes, so now you’ll know before you install it. I do wish it also warned you when an app you’ve already installed stops being maintained, but this is a nice start.

Next, GNOME’s File Previewer gets a visual facelift. Honestly, I didn’t even know this feature existed until recently. It lets you preview a file without opening it in a separate app. For example, if you’ve downloaded a picture, just select it in Files and press the spacebar, and a preview window pops up.

If you’re a Mac user, this probably sounds a lot like Quick Look in Finder, and you’re right: it’s GNOME’s version of the same idea. What surprises me is that GNOME has had it for a very long time, and I only just found out. I guess even someone who’s used Linux for decades can still learn a thing or two.

In this release, the previewer has been rebuilt with GNOME’s modern design. It supports dark mode and shows images at their actual size.

If you work with PDFs, Papers, GNOME’s document viewer, now supports visual signatures. You can draw your signature with a mouse or touchscreen, or import an image of your handwritten one, and it’ll remove the background for you. Not everyone needs this, but it means you can sign a document without relying on proprietary tools. Papers also renders better with fractional scaling, which is nice.

There are plenty of other changes in GNOME 51, but most of them are small refinements. In terms of features, this release feels incremental. A couple of honorable mentions: devices with a rotation sensor, like convertible laptops and tablets, can now rotate the screen automatically, and there’s a redesigned screen for enrolling fingerprints. Unfortunately, I don’t have the hardware to test either of those.

Performance

So, GNOME 51 isn’t a show-stopping release, but that doesn’t mean the developers weren’t busy. I mentioned earlier that performance was a big focus this time around. Specifically, GNOME reworked how it schedules and delivers frames to your screen, so animations stay smooth even when your computer is under heavy load, like while it’s installing updates or compiling something.

On my end, I didn’t notice much of a difference, since GNOME has run well on my hardware for years. But if you’re on an older machine, or you tend to push your system hard, you might notice it feeling more responsive.

There’s also a change that may affect some NVIDIA users. GNOME 51 removes support for an older method that NVIDIA’s proprietary driver used for running Wayland. Modern NVIDIA drivers don’t need it, but if you have an older card that’s stuck on the 470 driver series, which includes the GeForce 600 and 700 series, the proprietary driver won’t work with GNOME 51. You may still be able to use the open-source Nouveau driver, but results will vary.

For most people, this won’t matter right away. Unless you’re on a rolling-release distro, you won’t run into it until your distro’s next major release, since distros don’t usually move to a new GNOME version in the middle of a release cycle. It’s more of an immediate concern if your distro updates every six months, like Fedora or Ubuntu. Either way, if you’re using an older NVIDIA card, check that it’s supported before you upgrade.

I understand this might frustrate some people. But NVIDIA itself moved to the modern approach years ago, and we can’t expect the GNOME developers to maintain legacy code forever. At some point, a line has to be drawn.

Overall Opinion

So, what do I think of GNOME 51 overall? It’s a great desktop with some welcome tweaks, and I appreciate the focus on under-the-hood improvements. But lately, every time I review a new GNOME release, I end up saying the same thing: it’s an incremental release, not one packed with new features. GNOME’s steady refinement over the years is welcome, but I’m starting to feel like it’s time for some bigger changes.

I’d love to review an upcoming release that has more exciting changes to highlight, and I might just get my wish. GNOME designer Tobias Bernard recently wrote a blog post about potential future plans for the desktop. One of the ideas is a new approach to tiling called “Mosaic,” where windows automatically resize to share the screen, a bit like auto-tiling on other desktops.

I’m also hoping GNOME brings back system tray icons, which were removed years ago. A system tray is pretty much a must-have feature these days, and I don’t think it should have been removed in the first place. Right now, you need a third-party extension to get it back, and I don’t love relying on third-party extensions for core functionality.

Either way, I’m looking forward to what’s next for GNOME, and I’ll keep reviewing new releases as they come out.

For now, GNOME 51 is a solid release. It won’t change the way you use your computer, but the performance work and overall enhancements are welcome. The only real downside is that NVIDIA users with older cards should check that their GPU is still supported before upgrading.