GNOME 48 is here, with some under-the-hood tweaks to improve performance even on low-end kit.

[1]This release brings improved support both for high and low-end display tech, a new media player, revamped notifications handling, and more. It should run faster and more smoothly even on low-end computers and on low-powered GPUs, and use less memory while doing it. The Orca screenreader works better in the default Wayland session, and GNOME's global default theme, Adwaita, now has new default fonts.

We [2]looked at the beta back in February, so we'll try not to go over the same features again. The [3]release notes are clear, readable, and aimed at a general audience, so for a full rundown you should give them a look.

[4]

GNOME 48 is the default desktop in the beta of Fedora 42 Workstation, shown here – click to enlarge

The release is codenamed Bengaluru after the city formerly known as Bangalore. The capital of Karnataka and such a major tech hub that it's sometimes known as India's Silicon Valley, the city was the venue for last year's [5]GNOME Asia conference .

Some of the bigger changes in version 48 are either under the hood, or less immediately obvious unless you've got an exceptionally keen eye for typography. Two that we're particularly pleased to hear about are changes that help performance on low-end computers and improve access for people with visual disabilities.

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At long last, support for [7]dynamic triple buffering has made it to this release. We say "at last" because it has been repeatedly postponed and missed several prior releases. The feature helps the computer to keep up with the GPU and the screen. On slower machines, it should mean smoother animations and movement such as scrolling. On higher-end machines, it can improve the performance of HiDPI displays. With matching driver support, it can also tell GPUs when they need to run faster.

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GNOME 48's applications grid. Note the dot under the name of the Settings app, which tells you it's currently open – click to enlarge

Less visible but still important are improvements to GNOME's built-in JavaScript engine, GJS, which now uses less memory and less CPU, as well as the background file-indexer, the GTK toolkit, and the Files app. All should now be more responsive. Also, GNOME's built-in screenreader Orca – which is also used with some other desktops, such as Elementary OS – has been upgraded and it now works better in Wayland.

Both these matter because as well as being the default desktop of all the big enterprise distros, GNOME is also part of [9]Endless OS , a nonprofit-backed distro aimed at lower-end machines. Endless is trying to improve access to computers in developing economies, especially in Latin America. Notably, this includes people without always-on internet access, where one of its main rivals, Google's ChromeOS and ChromeOS Flex, are less useful.

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With the screen resolution lowered to 800x600, it feels cramped and most apps' names get abbreviated to just a few letters – click to enlarge

On the high end, if you're lucky enough to have a [11]High Dynamic Range (HDR) display, then GNOME now natively supports this. It needs to be manually enabled and isn't compatible with many display subsystems yet, but it's an important first step. A slight snag is that on some displays, this means software brightness control no longer works, so it must be simulated in software.

As [12]we have covered before , the new global theme in GNOME 4x has caused controversy, even leading developers to implore [13]Please don't theme our apps . Now the Adwaita theme includes new default fonts both for the general UI as a whole, and a new monospace font that you'll see in terminal windows and so on. Adwaita Sans and Adwaita Mono are based on the [14]Inter and [15]Iosevka typefaces respectively.

[16]Dash to Panel maintainer quits after donations drive becomes dash to disaster

[17]GNOME 48 beta is another nail in X11's coffin

[18]FuriPhone FLX1: A Debian-powered brick that puts GNOME in your back pocket

[19]Both KDE and GNOME to offer official distros

The Settings app has a new Wellbeing section with tools to help you remember to get off your computer now and then. It can track how much time you've spent using the machine, switch the display to grayscale, and other helpful features. This vulture can attest that having such features on even a very low-end smartwatch helps remind the meatsack that it needs to get up and move around occasionally.

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We will try to keep you alive, meatsack, even if you forget to – click to enlarge

There are a range of tweaks and updates to most of the various accessory programs that come with GNOME, but we talked about the changes there when we looked at the beta last month.

We gave the new version a spin both on hardware and in VirtualBox. It is quite demanding of your GPU, and we had to make some tweaks in both environments. We tested on the metal on a [21]ThinkPad X301 , dating back to 2008 and one of the lowest-end machines in The Reg FOSS desk's test fleet. It has a Core 2 Duo SU9400 low-power CPU, with the chipset providing GMA 4500MHD graphics. Even so, GNOME 48 ran surprisingly well and felt smooth and responsive. Mostly we couldn't spot the difference with the new fonts, although at smaller sizes we did feel that Adwaita Sans looked slightly faint and fuzzy.

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GNOME 48 will be the default desktop environment in both Fedora 42 and Ubuntu 25.04, both of which are expected next month, and should also be included in Debian 13. ®

Get our [23]Tech Resources



[1] https://foundation.gnome.org/2025/03/19/introducing-gnome-48/

[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/18/gnome_48_beta/

[3] https://release.gnome.org/48/

[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/03/21/gnome_48_f42.jpg

[5] https://foundation.gnome.org/2024/09/12/gnome-asia-2024-in-bengaluru-india/

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z-GPstK8NiWtYBI9OfguWQAAAoU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[7] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/1441

[8] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/03/21/g48_appgrid.jpg

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/31/endless_os_6/

[10] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/03/21/g48_grid_8x6.jpg

[11] https://displayhdr.org/faq/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/28/gnome_42_inconsistent_themes/

[13] https://stopthemingmy.app/

[14] https://rsms.me/inter/

[15] https://typeof.net/Iosevka/

[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/14/dashtopanel_maintainer_quits/

[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/18/gnome_48_beta/

[18] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/03/furiphone_flx1/

[19] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/29/kde_and_gnome_distros/

[20] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/03/21/g48_wellbeing.jpg

[21] https://www.theregister.com/2008/10/10/lenovo_wimax_thinkpads/?td=keepreading-original-aua_4p-top

[22] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z-GPstK8NiWtYBI9OfguWQAAAoU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[23] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/