GNOME 3.16 will be officially released on March 25, 2015

Feb 12, 2015 15:08 GMT  ·  By

We can bet that many of you are eagerly awaiting for the forthcoming GNOME 3.16 open-source graphical desktop environment, which is used with great success on numerous Linux kernel-based operating systems, including Fedora, openSUSE, and Ubuntu GNOME.

Currently, GNOME 3.16 is in heavy development (see below for details) and the features to be implemented are still discussed by its developers. However, we’ve managed to compile a list of upcoming features of GNOME 3.16 and decided to share it with you on this space.

Therefore, without further ado, GNOME 3.16 will include support for EPUB eBooks in the GNOME Documents application, a revamped notification system, the addition of the GNOME Taquin sliding-block puzzle game, a redesigned Nautilus (Files) file manager, as well as numerous Mutter and GTK+ improvements, including native monitor hot-plugging and OpenGL support.

In addition, the upcoming desktop environment, which will be used by default in the forthcoming Fedora 22 Linux operating system, due for release this Summer, will also include improvements to the High Contrast theme, Foursquare and Facebook check-ins in GNOME Maps, and CTRL+Tab window switching.

The final release of GNOME 3.16 will arrive on March 25

The development cycle of GNOME 3.16 has begun last year, on October 29, with the 3.15.1 version. After the release of GNOME 3.15.2 on November 26 and GNOME 3.15.3 on December 17, 2014, the GNOME 3.15.4 version was introduced after the winter holidays, on January 21, 2015.

The first Beta of GNOME 3.16 will arrive in the upcoming weeks, around February 18, followed by the second GNOME 3.16 Beta on March 4, as well as the Release Candidate (RC) version on March 18. The final release of GNOME 3.16 will arrive to users worldwide on March 25, 2015, followed closely by the first point release, GNOME 3.16.1, on April 15.