This Week in GNOME: #77 Happy New Year!
Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from December 30 to January 06.
Tux Machines
Do you waddle the waddle?
Do you waddle the waddle?
The platform is offered in multiple configurations, including a standard model with an Intel Core i3-1215U processor and a Pro variant based on the Intel Core i5-1235U. A Creator Pack configuration is also available, adding a discrete GPU along with increased memory and storage capacity.
The platform combines a Zen 5-based CPU with up to 16 cores and 32 threads, integrated AMD Radeon 8060S graphics, and an AMD XDNA 2 NPU rated for up to 50 TOPS. The system supports both Windows 11 and Linux operating systems.
Powered by the latest Pop!_OS Linux 24.04 LTS operating system with the Rust-based COSMIC desktop environment, the new Thelio Mira PC introduces a new design that conveniently places front ports alongside a high-quality tempered glass facade.
Launched in December 2025, the TUXEDO Gemini 17 Gen4 Linux notebook shipped with the Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, but, due to demand from customers, the laptop can be configured with an AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX CPU with 16 cores, 32 threads, 80 MB cache, and up to 5.4 GHz clock speeds.
Coming two weeks after KDE Plasma 6.6.2, the KDE Plasma 6.6.3 release makes KWin’s screencasting feature more robust when using PipeWire 1.6 or newer and promises to reduce CPU and GPU load for full-screen windows for screens using more fractional scale factors.
Highlights of Blender 5.1 include hardware ray-tracing enablement for AMD GPUs by default through HIP RT, improved GPU rendering performance by up to 10 percent on various benchmark scenes, and a new F-Curve modifier called “Gaussian Smooth” that allows non-destructive smoothing of F-Curves.
Coming almost seven months after FFmpeg 8.0, the FFmpeg 8.1 release introduces D3D12 H.264 and AV1 encoding, support for parsing and forwarding metadata for LCEVC, and an experimental xHE-AAC Mps212 MPEG-H decoder via the libmpeghdec library.
PipeWire 1.6.2 is here to fix an optimization with shared memory over some links that could cause errors later on, fix the SOFA filter and default control input in the LADSPA and LV modules, and add some small optimizations to the audio mixer.
Derived from the upcoming Debian 14 “Forky” software repositories (Debian Testing), the SparkyLinux 2026.03 release is powered by the latest and greatest Linux 6.19 kernel series (Linux 6.19.6 is installed by default), along with support for the upcoming Linux 7.0 kernel for those feeling adventurous.
Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from December 30 to January 06.