by 
Solus maintainer Joshua Strobl announced today the release and general availability of the Budgie 10.5.2 desktop environment, a maintenance update brining lots of improvements and some new features.
More than a year in the works, Budgie 10.5.2 is here with a wide range of changes, starting with support for GNOME Project’s latest GNOME 3.38 stack. However, Budgie still supports the older GNOME 3.36 stack to make it easier for Linux OS maintainers to backport it to older operating systems.
The biggest new feature in this release is the new desktop icons implementation called Budgie Desktop View. While an initial release, it already supports single (default) or double-click for launching items. However, future releases will bring drag and drop support, keyboard navigation, and GTK4 support.
“We have always recognized that for many, desktop icons is an important part of their workflow, and so retaining that support in a sustainable manner was paramount for the release of Budgie 10.5.2,” said Joshua Strobl.
Budgie 10.5.2 also brings a redesigned Sound applet that makes it easier for users to mute audio, an improved Budgie Menu applet that no longer shows empty categories and alphabetically sorts category names, as well as a completely revamped System Tray applet that now lets you set space between icons.
The Icon Tasklist applet was improved as well, and it now supports launching of apps using middle click and double click. Moreover, the applet now offers a more consistent behavior of the Icon Tasklist and individual Icon Buttons, among several other enhancements.
Furthermore, the Budgie Desktop Settings have been updated to provide users with a dedicated button for removing a panel in the Panel’s applet list, and to remove the option to disable the panel removal confirmation dialog.
Last but not least, the Raven notification center in Budgie 10.5.2 received a new option that lets you choose its location on the screen as left or right. Of course, there’s also an “Automatic” behavior.
Smaller improvement were also implemented in Budgie’s application switcher, which now supports more custom keyboard layouts and mappings, as well as the Run dialog, which can now check keywords for improved search.
Of course, there are numerous bug fixes all over and you can read all about them in the release announcement page. Meanwhile, if you’re using Solus, go ahead and update your Budgie desktop to version 10.5.2. If you’re using Budgie on another distribution, it should be available there too in the coming days.
Image credits: Solus Project/Joshua Strobl
Last updated 3 years ago
