elementaryEverything you love, made even better. OS 8.1 improves the Secure Session and Dock, enhances accessibility, improves support for your devices, and addresses your feedback with over 1,100 issue reports fixed
In OS 8 we kept the Classic Session as default with the option to try a Secure Session. Since then we’ve released updates fixing issues, app developers have updated, and hardware makers have fixed issues in their drivers. The Secure Session now provides a better experience for most people and supports a broader range of modern hardware
In OS 8.1, the Secure Session is now the default session, with the option to fall back to the Classic Session if you still need it
Password authentication dialogs have a new feature in a Secure Session: when opened, the rest of the screen will dim and other windows won’t be allowed to steal focus. This prevents accidentally typing your password anywhere other than the authentication dialog and you’ll be able to make sure these are legitimate system dialogs and not an application trying to read your password
When we ran our desktop survey 75% of you told us that you expected to see background apps in the Dock, so we now have support for the Background Portal!
You can always manage app permissions in System Settings → Applications and choose which apps are allowed to run in the background
We’ve brought the workspace switcher up from the Multitasking View directly into the Dock. You can press the “+” tile to open new workspaces or select an existing workspace to switch to it, drag-n-drop to rearrange workspaces and, clicking on a workspace that’s already open will show the Multitasking View
In AppCenter we now show a simple percentage-based app rating when ratings are available from ODRS—the same ratings server used by apps like GNOME Software. When developers provide screenshots for multiple platforms, we now show you the ones intended for elementary OS. We’ve added support for app addons, and we now show when a game supports playing with controllers
This year @zersiax joined us again for another round of accessibility testing. Installer views should all have much improved accessible labels. Thanks to this feedback, OS 8.1 can be installed and set up completely blind in most cases.
Thanks to feedback from @fireborn, Notifications and the Shortcut Overlay both added screen reader support. We’ve also improved screen reader labels in Calendar, In System Settings → Firmware updates, and in AppCenter to name a few cases.
In System Settings → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Custom you can now choose from a list of installed apps and their actions—in addition to being able to execute custom commands. This makes it super straightforward to add a keyboard shortcut for your most common workflows like composing a new email or adding a new Calendar event. Plus System Settings will also now warn you if your desired keyboard shortcut conflicts with a common system shortcut like "Copy", "Paste", or "New Tab"
For the first time we now also offer ARM64 builds for devices that boot with UEFI. This means you'll be able to run OS 8.1 on M-series Apple Silicon and devices where you can load UEFI-supporting firmware like Raspberry Pi. This version of Linux also supports certain Qualcomm and Rockchip processors, for example
Many notebooks and tablets now ship with displays that aren’t quite HiDPI, but are more pixel dense than traditional displays. In OS 8.1, we now support fractional display scaling in the Secure Session
We love hearing from you and take pride in a tight feedback loop where we push updates in weeks not years. Since the release of OS 8, we’ve been able to address over 1,100 of the reports you filed!
~72% of them were fixed bugs—unexpected or disruptive software behaviors
~18% were new features or enhancements that you requested
The last 10% were things like project management tasks, tech debt, and code cleanup
OS 8.1 introduces a blur-behind effect for translucent desktop elements like the Dock, Notifications, and the Alt + Tab window switcher. This not only looks nice but helps visually separate these elements from applications while maintaining legibility
In OS 8.1, you can now directly deny access for apps to send notification bubbles in System Settings → Applications alongside other app permissions
Quick Settings added a new page where you can see which other people are logged in and quickly switch between accounts. Plus, we added a new "Prevent Sleep" toggle. This is useful when you're giving a presentation or have a long-running background task where you want to temporarily avoid letting the computer go to sleep on its normal schedule.
A system monitor app has been one of the top requested default app additions for quite some time, and we now ship with one!
We’re also now shipping Maps, which currently covers the basics like Explore and Transit maps, showing your current location, searching for locations, and handling `geo://` uri links. Plus Application settings now has a setting to select your default Maps app.
elementary OS 8.1 is available as a pay-what-you-can purchase at https://elementary.io now! Localized direct downloads and a torrent magnet link are provided.
OS 8.1 will receive additional feature and bug fix updates on a monthly schedule that will be reported on here and on our blog, so stay tuned for even more updates in the future!
Peter Hosey
@boredzo Thanks for alerting us! Filed an issue to track it here: https://github.com/elementary/website/issues/3939
@boredzo okay so we fixed the issue but then I just experienced a power outage haha so I can’t SSH to the server right now. Hopefully someone else with access can deploy it soon otherwise I’ll push as soon as my electricity comes back! Sorry for the inconvenience
@boredzo should be fixed now, thanks for your patience!