What's New in the GNOME 40 Desktop: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 for Workstation

RHEL for Workstation pairs everything you know from RHEL for Server with a world-class Linux desktop, backed by a ten-year life cycle. In this video I take you on a tour of the refreshed GNOME 40 desktop that ships with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 for Workstation.

A few things worth carrying away from this one:

• Wayland is the default now. Starting with RHEL 9.0, Workstation ships with the Wayland compositor enabled by default, pulling functions like audio and video into the desktop as first-class citizens, though I show you can still pick X11 at the login screen if an app needs it.
• Workspaces spread horizontally and drag-and-drop. In GNOME 40 you log straight into the activities overview, and I demonstrate dragging windows between horizontally arranged workspaces, one for email and chat, another for the blog you’re writing, and navigating them with Super+Alt+arrow keys.
• There are features aimed at regulated shops. I call out the classification banners in GNOME 40 that let you display access or usage warnings, along with the accessibility and memory-utilization improvements that come with this release.

If you’re standing up a fleet of Linux workstations, this is the desktop your users will actually live in.