GNOME 50 is a brilliant release - but I had to look twice to see why

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• GNOME 50 is upon us, but don't expect a massive parade.
• This release is all about what's under the hood.
• All the changes come together to make a brilliant release.

I cannot remember the last time I installed a version of GNOME and got excited about the dramatic changes the developers made. The evolution of this Linux desktop has become a slow, prodding process.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

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GNOME has been very slow to change. The GNOME Shell we have today is very much the GNOME Shell we've always had. And that consistency delivers a level of familiarity that users can always count on.

However, that doesn ...