GNOME’s weekly update showcases significant progress, including a redesigned Sushi file previewer now on GTK4, adding dark mode support, and enhanced document signing in Papers. Meanwhile, GNOME Boxes is undergoing a complete rebuild, with third-party tools introducing new features and improvements.
GNOME’s weekly project update for the period from July 31 to August 7 put Sushi, its file preview companion for GNOME Files, back in the spotlight. Peter Eisenmann said the revived tool has picked up a substantial round of work, including a redesigned plugin interface intended to make future extensions easier. He also pointed to smoother transitions between files, especially images, a simplified header bar, lower memory use after leak fixes and a set of smaller bug fixes and usability refinements. Phoronix separately noted that Sushi has also moved to GTK4, bringing a more modern interface and dark mode support.
The same update highlighted progress in Papers, GNOME’s document viewer. Lucas Baudin said version 51.beta can now add visual signatures to PDF files, a feature that came out of Malika’s internship. That gives Papers a more practical role for users who need to mark or approve documents without switching to another application.
GNOME Boxes also drew attention, with Felipe Borges announcing a rebuilt beta version now open for testing. He said the application has been reworked from the ground up and that more features are under development, with further background in his earlier “Future of Boxes” post. The week also brought personal notes from the GNOME Fellowship and Sovereign Tech Fellowship programmes, including reports from Sophie and Philipp Sauberzweig on their current work.
Outside the core desktop, third-party projects continued to move quickly. VidCom added AVC, or H.264, encoding, better queue handling and stronger protection against logout or suspend during video processing. Bazaar cut its background memory use by relying on a lightweight daemon for shell search and auto-updates. Other updates included new versions of Sitra and Embellish, while Whisp added OCR-based text extraction from images and screenshots, plus French localisation. Shell extensions also saw activity, with a Tailscale integration that works from Quick Settings and a workspace background extension that adds a bounce effect when users switch rapidly.
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