Notices by elementary (elementary@mastodon.social)

The best gift this holiday season might be something upcycled! Give your computer a longer life with an Open Source operating system like elementary OS 🎄 https://elementary.io

Photo by @sthwlrts@threads.net

OS 8 updates already?! It must be a holiday miracle! https://blog.elementary.io/updates-for-december-2024/

This giving Tuesday consider sponsoring your favorite Open Source operating system 🩷 Your sponsorship helps us pay for infrastructure, purchase new equipment, attend important events, and sponsor other projects we rely on. We’re currently at 23% of our monthly funding goal! https://github.com/sponsors/elementary

OS 8 is available to download now for a pay-what-you-can price on our website! https://elementary.io

Power settings now shows the charging level and status for both internal batteries and connected battery devices like mice and keyboards. You can also choose to automatically set different power profiles based on whether your device is plugged in or on battery power, and power modes can be quickly changed from the power menu in the panel. Plus the battery icon in the panel will now show much more accurate battery levels for mobile computers.

Driver management has moved from AppCenter to System Settings → System. The new design for drivers is more in line with how drivers are managed on other operating systems and is easier to work with, especially for hardware that has multiple driver options like NVIDIA graphics.

Pointers were completely redrawn in OS 8 to be more consistent, make better use of color, and be more precise. The new design is more fun and playful with softer edges and rounder corners while maintaining high contrast and legibility. The new design feels extremely familiar but also more modern.

OS 8 also brings a new Quick Settings menu that improves access to features while reducing clutter in the panel. We’ve started by combining the accessibility and session menus which contain useful controls, but don’t indicate a change in status. We’ve also added hotly requested controls like Dark Mode and Rotation Lock.

System Settings has been refreshed with a modern space-saving dual-pane design that is more responsive for small and large displays. We’ve also vastly improved support for text scaling, screen readers, keyboard navigation, right-to-left language layouts, and improved contrast in illustrations. Plus search now returns more relevant results and the titles of those results now reflect both the exact setting name they’re matching and the path to that setting.

OS 8 includes the latest long-term support Hardware Enablement stack from @ubuntu, including #Linux 6.8. We’re also shipping with Pipewire which improves latency and bluetooth audio quality while being architected for the world of sandboxed Flatpak apps running in the Secure Session. This is an especially big deal for folks doing audio production tasks on elementary OS.

Thanks @ubuntu 😘

Instead of a plain dark gray background, Multitasking View now features a blurred version of your wallpaper that is adjusted for light and dark modes. Workspace cards now have rounded corners and the switcher at the bottom of the screen has been updated for light and dark modes as well.

I want to give special thanks to all of our volunteer contributors for working hard over the last 13 months to make this an incredible release. I’m also eternally grateful to our individual Early Access sponsors for providing consistent funding to keep producing our operating system and distributing it under our pay-what-you-can model. If you’d like to help build and improve elementary OS, don’t hesitate to Get Involved. https://elementary.io/get-involved

Keyboard navigation and screen reader support during Installation, Initial Setup, and Onboarding has been rewritten and the entire first run experience has been much improved for blind folks in OS 8. We also now have screen reader support in the Alt + Tab window switcher and we’ve made sure that there’s audio feedback when we’re unable to complete window management tasks

We took the opportunity a few years ago to run a survey and get better insights into the way you multitask on elementary OS and other operating systems. We then combined those insights with the feedback we’ve received in GitHub over the years and carefully reconsidered the role of the Dock in our desktop. This has resulted in a new Dock that retains the features you love from OS 7 and before and introduces whole new features to improve your multitasking workflow

In OS 8 we’re expanding your access to apps even further by including the most popular app store for Linux out of the box: @flathub

You’ll be able to access apps made specifically for elementary OS, apps made for Linux, and popular cross-platform apps like Discord and Spotify all directly from #AppCenter without having to manually sideload or configure an alt store.

Application settings has an all-new design that expands your control over permissions. We now support adjusting the run-time permissions in Flatpak’s Permissions Store. So if you’ve previously denied an app access to run in the background or granted an app permission to set the wallpaper, you can change your mind at any time and adjust permissions here

In OS 8 operating system updates will now appear in System Settings. The new system updates mechanism is super fast and includes the option to download updates automatically. Plus there are new options in the system shutdown dialog so you can install updates before shutting down or choose to skip a pending update, even when automatic updates are enabled.

Over the past several years we’ve been building features to improve the trust relationship with your computer by requiring your explicit informed consent and disallowing untrustworthy behavior on a technical level. Now we’re extending that story with both new settings to put you in control of the system features apps can access and a new Secure Session powered by Wayland.

Carefree because you're cared for! OS 8 brings a Secure Session that ensures apps respect your privacy and require your consent, a brand new Dock with productive multitasking and window management features, and empowers our diverse community through Inclusive Design. https://blog.elementary.io/os-8-available-now

It’s happening!