What’s new in GNOME Initial Setup 3.34.0 Beta:
- !38 systemd user instance support. This is inert without corresponding changes in other GNOME modules, and can be disabled entirely with `-Dsystemd=false` at build time.
- Other improvements and bug fixes:
- !37 summary: don’t free borrowed password string
GNOME Initial Setup is an open source software package specifically designed for the GNOME project, allowing users to configure various basic aspects of their Linux desktop environment. It does not work with other DEs or WMs.
Designed for GNOME
It acts as a one-time-only application that pop-ups before users can actually use the GNOME desktop environment. It runs in a temporary account on top of GNOME’s login screen, and it will be automatically removed when the setup is finished.
GNOME Initial Setup is a “wizard” type of application designed to provide users with a straightforward way to select a language for their GNOME desktop, setup network connections, create a user account, set the correct location and timezone, and set up online accounts.
Features at a glance
It also offers an animated Welcome Tour, teaching users how to use the GNOME desktop environment. GNOME Initial Setup is part of and distributed with the latest version of the GNOME desktop environment.
Another interesting fact about this application is that it depends on various GNOME core components, such as the GNOME Online Accounts (GOA) and GNOME Display Manager (GDM) programs, which means that it will not work on Linux-based operating systems that don’t provide this packages.
Availability
The application is distributed as a source archive, which can be configure, compiled and installed on any Linux-based operating system, as long as the GNOME desktop is already installed.
Actually, the program should be installed from the default software repositories of your Linux distribution along with the entire GNOME desktop environment, because it is designed to be used immediately after a clean installation of GNOME.
Bottom line
Overall, GNOME Initial Setup is one of those tiny and insignificant applications that makes all the difference when you try to migrate to a different operating system/desktop environment from the one you used. It’s exactly what GNOME needed!
