The GNOME developer team has revealed the release plan of GNOME desktop version 45 last night on April 10.
GNOME is a popular Linux desktop environment that’s default in Ubuntu, Fedora workstation, and optional in many other Linux, including Debian, Arch, OpenSUSE, and RHEL.
A new major release is usually released one month before the release date of new Ubuntu & Fedora edition. And, GNOME 45 is due in September 20, 2023. Which, will be most probably the default desktop environment for Ubuntu 23.10 and Fedora 39 Workstation.
Before the stable release, there will be a alpha, beta, and rc releases for testing purpose. And, there will be a GUADEC conference, bringing together hundreds of users, contributors, community members, and enthusiastic supporters for a week of talks and workshops.
GNOME 45 Release Schedule
| July 1, 2023 | GNOME 45, Alpha Release |
| July 26,27,28,29,30,31, 2023 | GUADEC conference |
| August 5, 2023 | GNOME 45, Beta Release. UI, Feature, ABI/API Freeze |
| August 26, 2023 | String Freeze |
| September 2, 2023 | GNOME 45, RC Release |
| September 13, 2023 | Soft translation deadline |
| September 20, 2023 | GNOME 45 Stable Release |
| October 21, 2023 | GNOME 45.1 Release |
As you see in the table, the release date of GNOME 45 Beta is also the UI, feature and API/ABI freeze. Meaning no UI changes, no new features and functions may be made without approval from the release-team. Developers focus on stability, and bug-fixes for the existing features. So does the ‘String Freeze’ on August 26.
via: GNOME Wiki.