Gnome 51 has been officially presented, and under the codename 'A Coruña,' it continues to strengthen its position as a standard in the Linux world. Although the appearance of the new version remains largely unchanged, it brings a number of functional innovations, as well as improvements in performance and security.
Developers emphasize that in this version, Gnome makes the animations of the Mutter window manager smoother, even under high CPU load. The ability to take screenshots more quickly is also noted.
Visually, Gnome 51 can now remember the screen brightness level even after multiple reboots and switching to HDR mode, saving the user from constantly manually adjusting this parameter.
The main changes concern applications. Gnome Maps has received a feature to download maps for offline use and can also display public transport schedules. As for the native file manager, it now automatically selects recently created or copied files to simplify related operations. Furthermore, it displays a counter of selected items when dragging multiple files, and its performance has been optimized.
The document visualizer Papers allows users to either draw or import signature images to insert into PDF files with background removal capability. Meanwhile, the image viewer Loupe has started displaying more metadata, such as creator information, copyrights, and color profiles.
Other updates include, but are not limited to, new capabilities. Since Gnome 51 is a desktop environment, users should consider that the new version will appear in the Linux distribution they use. For example, Fedora Linux 45 already includes Gnome 51, although it is in beta phase. It is also expected that Ubuntu 26.10, scheduled for release in October, will contain this version. Similarly, future releases of projects such as Arch Linux, openSUSE, and Manjaro Linux will also receive Gnome 51.
