News
News
In the news: System76 Developing a New Desktop Environment; Hetzner Opens New Location in the USA; KDE Plasma 5.24 Introduces Fingerprint Reader Support; Ubuntu 21.10 Released and Finally Includes Gnome 40; Hive Ransomware Hitting Linux and FreeBSD Systems; and SUSE Reaches Beyond the Edge with SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.1.
System76 Developing a New Desktop Environment
System76 is never one to settle. Consider what they've done to the Gnome desktop environment with their COSMIC treatment. Effectively, the company has made Gnome their own. But that wasn't enough, so the developers have set out to create a brand new DE, from scratch, using Rust.
Why? Michael Murphy, Pop!_OS maintainer for System76, said, "There are things we'd like to do that we can't simply achieve through extensions in Gnome. Extensions in general feel like a hack. And what we want to do with our desktop differs from Gnome, so it's not like the option to merge pop-shell and COSMIC into Gnome Shell would be a welcome thing."
Although the new desktop will not be a fork of Gnome, the developers do plan on reusing some of the current Gnome tooling, such as Mutter, KWin, and Wlroots. On this issue, Murphy said, "We're already using gtk-rs for all of our stuff. My assumption is that it's likely to see some components in GTK for the foreseeable future." Murphy continues, "The shell itself though is lower level than a traditional desktop GUI toolkit. It'll use primitives from the window manager it builds upon. If a mature Rust GUI turns up, then it could be used in the future of course. I'd generally like to use the best tools where possible."
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
CIQ Releases Compatibility Catalog for Rocky Linux
The company behind Rocky Linux is making an open catalog available to developers, hobbyists, and other contributors, so they can verify and publish compatibility with the CIQ lineup.
-
KDE Gets Some Resuscitation
KDE is bringing back two themes that vanished a few years ago, putting a bit more air under its wings.
-
Ubuntu 26.04 Beta Arrives with Some Surprises
Ubuntu 26.04 is almost here, but the beta version has been released, and it might surprise some people.
-
Ubuntu MATE Dev Leaving After 12 years
Martin Wimpress, the maintainer of Ubuntu MATE, is now searching for his successor. Are you the next in line?
-
Kali Linux Waxes Nostalgic with BackTrack Mode
For those who've used Kali Linux since its inception, the changes with the new release are sure to put a smile on your face.
-
Gnome 50 Smooths Out NVIDIA GPU Issues
Gamers rejoice, your favorite pastime just got better with Gnome 50 and NVIDIA GPUs.
-
System76 Retools Thelio Desktop
The new Thelio Mira has landed with improved performance, repairability, and front-facing ports alongside a high-quality tempered glass facade.
-
Some Linux Distros Skirt Age Verification Laws
After California introduced an age verification law recently, open source operating system developers have had to get creative with how they deal with it.
-
UN Creates Open Source Portal
In a quest to strengthen open source collaboration, the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology has created a new portal.
-
Latest Linux Kernel RC Contains Changes Galore
Linux kernel 7.0-rc3 includes more changes than have been made in a single release in recent history.