In January of this year, Co-founder & CXO of elementary OS Cassidy James Blaede revealed that the upcoming elementary OS 6 will be based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. In the latest update blog, he has now further highlighted the new features coming in this major version.
Though before a beta release, a lot of work is still to be done on elementary OS 6, the planned features are still undergoing work. Surprisingly, you can also try the pre-release build of elementary OS 6 using recently launched Early Access Builds.
Elementary OS 6: Planned Features
Refined Visual Appearance
To make the look and feel of elementary OS more appealing, OS 6 has refreshed the user interface including typography and the system stylesheet. Subsequently, it has improved the contrast of elementary OS while retaining its signature depth and shadows.
Thanks to Libhandy’s HdyWindow, you will also experience a neat design in apps like Terminal that now have a rounded bottom corner. For system components like Dock, Panel indicators, and system dialogs, Dark style is Work-In-Progress (WIP).
Updates To Apps
Communications and organization apps like Mail and Calendar events are receiving major updates to enable data syncing with a wider variety of account providers. It has even rewritten its Mail app that now relies on Evolution data servers instead of the custom Geary mail engine.
The new Tasks app also handles both local and all task lists synced with the Evolution data server on the backend.
More Multi-Touch Support
Using the Libhandy library, elementary OS is bringing more gestures to make its app highly accessible using touch screens, trackpads, and mouse scroll wheels. For instance, you can use swipe track with your fingers on the screen or trackpad to go back and forward in Epiphany web browser.
Elementary OS 5.1.7
Alongside OS 6, Elementary OS 5.1 has also received new updates, leading to a new point release 5.1.7. Here is a brief list of new enhancements:
- Added a new Input Methods view in Keyboard Settings
- Update to the Music Indicator in the top Panel
- Minor update to AppCenter
- Fixes for BootHole vulnerability
If you’re using v5.1, you can update your system by opening AppCenter and hitting “Update All” to get all updates including bug fixes. However, for fresh installation, the ISO images of elementary OS 5.1.7 will soon be available at the official site.