GNOME 51 Beta released with new fingerprint management, blur effects

The beta version of the GNOME 51 desktop environment is now available, featuring updates including support for blur effects and a new interface for fingerprint management. The stable release is scheduled for September 16.

The GNOME team has entered a UI and API freeze for GNOME 51, with developers set to focus on bug fixes and finalizing existing features over the next month leading up to the official launch.

Key changes in this beta include enhanced support for reducing dynamic effects in GNOME Shell, aiming to improve user experience by minimizing interface animations. The update also brings improvements to screenshot keyboard navigation, addresses cursor scaling issues on HiDPI displays, and refreshes the authentication prompt interface.

The authentication functionality within GNOME Shell has been upgraded to include web login support and a unified authentication system, along with the ability to directly handle event notification alerts.

GNOME Mutter now supports the ext-background-effect-v1 Wayland protocol, allowing applications to request a blurred background behind their windows. The Settings application has gained a new interface for managing fingerprints and the option to disable focus timeouts. Additionally, the GNOME Web browser, Epiphany, now supports pinning URLs in history and overview pages, alongside fixes for several crashes and memory leaks.