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GNOME 44 is out now finally adding thumbnails to the file picker

By - | Views: 36,414

One thing I genuinely hated about GNOME has finally been solved with the GNOME 44 release. It includes some big improvements and new features.

As dumb as it sounds, one of the most important new features is the added grid view for the file picker. Honestly, I still can't believe it took this long but it's finally in. You can now actually see proper previews of images. As they said in the release announcement that for years GNOME users have been requesting it. Apps will need to use GTK4 though, so hopefully plenty will.

There's also various security improvements, accessibility upgrades like redesigned settings for accessibility with these new features:

  • An over-amplification setting has been added, to increase the volume above the usual maximum threshold.
  • Under Typing, an option has been added to enable accessibility features using the keyboard.
  • There is now a test area for the cursor blinking setting.
  • A new setting to make scrollbars be always visible has been added to the Seeing section.

Sound settings also got upgraded:

  • Volume level control has been moved into a separate window, making the more commonly used output and input controls easier to access.
  • It’s now possible to disable the alert sound, and a new alert sound window makes it easy to browse the available sounds that are available.
  • The sound test window has been redesigned, eliminating previous scaling issues when there are many outputs, and providing a more attractive interface.

Mouse and touchpad settings were overhauled, updates to the quick settings menu like being able to see a list of running apps without a window (Flatpak only for now), the GNOME Software app should be faster now and it has better Flatpak support, the terminal app Console now has a tab overview option, you can share from the Contacts app with a QR code, the GNOME Web browser was upgraded to GTK4 and the list goes on.

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32 comments
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SirBubbles Mar 23, 2023
Quoting: ElectricPrism
QuoteGNOME 44 is out now finally adding thumbnails to the file picker

Well, that's it. Hell has frozen over.
No, that'll probably be what happens if GNOME ever allow proper theming back in "their" desktop environment again. Anyone else looking for an alternative that lets you fiddle with it?
fenglengshun Mar 23, 2023
Well, at least it's finally there, and with the work done on Treeview on Nautilus, maybe I don't have to groan whenever I see gtk filepicker because it's just so much less feature complete than KDE. It was to the point that I remember I turned on the debug feature to try to force everything to use portal, so that it'd use the KDE filepicker.

I really don't care which toolkit or DE or whatever it is -- if it works, it works, and thank god someone finally did the work. Even if it's not the most thanked job, I salute the devs tackling this ages old issue.
mattiasb Mar 23, 2023
Quoting: LoftyNobody is 'forcing' anybody to do anything with their time. Im not sure if this escaped you but this is a discussion forum, where people in particular tend to voice their opinions.

Whether you like them or not.

That's a text book straw man argument. The thing that you're arguing against neither represent my views nor what I have said. Please be better.


Last edited by mattiasb on 23 March 2023 at 8:45 am UTC
Liam Dawe Mar 23, 2023
Quoting: mattiasb
Quoting: LoftyNobody is 'forcing' anybody to do anything with their time. Im not sure if this escaped you but this is a discussion forum, where people in particular tend to voice their opinions.

Whether you like them or not.

That's a text book straw man argument. The thing that you're arguing against neither represent my views nor what I have said. Please be better.
I think the problem is more what you're doing is a rather tiring argument, that people often repeat against others in the FOSS space when this type of thing comes up again and again.

Yes, people are free to spend their time developing what they want - but the whole point of this discussion and the years of discussion on the feature in question is people wanted it. Trying to argue it away and silence people because of how they spend their free time is just unhelpful. Because with that line of thinking: we might as well never want or discuss anything about FOSS, because the answer will always be the same: you don't have to use it / it's their free time they do what they want etc. Let people discuss and want things.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 23 March 2023 at 10:13 am UTC
CyborgZeta Mar 23, 2023
Quoting: mr-victory
QuoteApps will need to use GTK4 though, so hopefully plenty will.
Ouch, IIRC Firefox still uses gtk3.
I don't think this is an issue if you use something like the Firefox Flatpak, which uses. I know that, ever since I switched to the Flatpak, Firefox has always used the KDE file picker OOTB without me needing to do anything; unlike when I used the .deb package.

Honestly, the file picker is one of the reasons I left GTK behind for KDE/Qt. I was never a big GNOME user, but I was/am a fan of Xfce (Xubuntu); the lack of thumbnails in the file picker always bugged me.
Lofty Mar 23, 2023
Quoting: mattiasbPlease be better.

I'm working on a list of extensions i can add to myself to make me more functional.
mattiasb Mar 23, 2023
Quoting: Lofty
Quoting: mattiasbPlease be better.

I'm working on a list of extensions i can add to myself to make me more functional.

Haha! ❤️
mattiasb Mar 23, 2023
Quoting: Liam DaweI think the problem is more what you're doing is a rather tiring argument, that people often repeat against others in the FOSS space when this type of thing comes up again and again.

Yes, people are free to spend their time developing what they want - but the whole point of this discussion and the years of discussion on the feature in question is people wanted it.

Trying to argue it away and silence people because of how they spend their free time is just unhelpful. Because with that line of thinking: we might as well never want or discuss anything about FOSS, because the answer will always be the same: you don't have to use it / it's their free time they do what they want etc. Let people discuss and want things.

I understand *fully* that people have wanted this and I don't think anyone mind when people express their wishes. Honestly people being excited about software you're making and having ideas for improvement is, when put forward in a nice way, just gravy! Just be humble about it and be aware that you're not customers and therefore don't get to send *demands*.

But *please* discuss the software and send ideas for improvements. That is generally appreciated.

(Also there's no need to imply that I'm trying to "silence" anyone).
slaapliedje Mar 24, 2023
Quoting: ElectricPrism
QuoteGNOME 44 is out now finally adding thumbnails to the file picker

Well, that's it. Hell has frozen over.
Well, Utah is hell, and it Froze over earlier this year... :P
mattiasb Mar 24, 2023
Quoting: Guest[...]
Jokes aside, if a thing is free, it doesn't mean we can't talk about its flaws.

Ofcourse, that's obvious.
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