We reported at the beginning of the year that the GNOME developers are working hard on a completely redesigned UI of the GNOME Control Center application, which might land in the upcoming GNOME 3.22 desktop environment.
Today, May 22, 2016, GNOME developer Georges Basile Stavracas Neto published an update to the work done so far for the revamped GNOME Control Center app, which is being used by default in numerous GNU/Linux operating systems, such as Ubuntu.
We all know how GNOME Control Center looks like at the moment, with its icon grid and fixed window design, right? Well, things will change drastically as the GNOME devs are preparing a completely new layout.
"After meditating in the mountains, my mind entered in a state of absolute peace and no more doubts inhabit my spirit," said Georges Basile Stavracas Neto. "The path is clear now. We just have to walk through it. And finish this damn new layout."
A preview of GNOME Control Center will be available soon
As you can see from the screenshots attached at the end of the article, GNOME Control Center's new design will sport a list sidebar for navigation, where all the settings categories are listed, with icons and descriptions.
The sidebar remains located on the left side of the window, which is now (finally) resizable, but it looks like the GNOME developers have decided to drop the simple listing of settings categories for an icon-based list.
When clicking on one of the icons on the left pane, such as Mouse & Touchpad or Network, the respective settings will be displayed on the right, in a scrollable screen. We have to admit that we like the new design, and can't wait to test it out.
A first preview of the upcoming GNOME Control Center app should be available in the coming weeks or months as part of the GNOME 3.22 desktop environment development cycle, which will soon get its second milestone.
Unfortunately, GNOME devs haven't yet decided if the revamped GNOME Control Center will ship this cycle or the next one, as that will depend on how much work they'll be able to do until then, so fingers crossed for GNOME 3.22 on September 21, 2016.
