#237 Article Rendering

February 20, 2026 • 12 Notes • Curated by Felix

Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from February 13 to February 20.

GNOME Circle Apps and Libraries

NewsFlash feed reader ↗

Follow your favorite blogs & news sites.

Jan Lukas announces

I released Newsflash 5.0-beta1 to the beta channel of flathub. The headlining feature is a new native article view rendering everything with the help of Gtk. This also made it possible to overhaul everything media related (images, videos and audio). It should now closer resemble what can be found in fractal or tuba.

Jan Lukas reports

In related news: Newsflash now has a brother. The core newsflash library was used to create a TUI application by Christopher Auer. So if you like what Newsflash has to offer but prefer to stay in the terminal, check out eilmeldung: https://github.com/christo-auer/eilmeldung

Third Party Projects

Diego Povliuk announces

Cine, the video player, got some quality of life updates on version 1.0.9:

  • The volume is now always restored on startup
  • Icon indicators for mute and subtitles on/off
  • Toggle elapsed/remaining time
  • Option to add folder to playlist
  • Unmute when changing volume
  • Hold click to double playback speed

Install via Flathub

ranfdev announces

Lobjur has just received a big update!

  • It now works as a client for multiple link aggregators: Lobsters and Hacker News.
  • An integrated WebView has been added
  • The UI has been improved, with a new split layout
  • The comments are now displayed with complex formatting, converting HTML tags to GTK widgets

Check it out on Flathub

Anton Isaiev announces

I’ve released RustConn 0.8.9, a major update driven largely by user feedback and feature requests. This version expands protocol support, security and refines the user experience.

Key highlights:

  • New Protocols: Added full Kubernetes support (shell access/exec), Serial Console (via picocom), and SFTP integration (via URI or Midnight Commander).
  • Virtualization: Added support for importing Virt-Viewer (.vv) files (Proxmox/oVirt) and SPICE proxy tunneling.
  • Connectivity & Security: Added FIDO2/Security Key support for SSH, Wake on LAN (WoL) GUI, and improved RDP rendering on HiDPI displays.
  • UX & i18n: Added Regex-capable terminal search and translations for 14 languages (including UK, DE, FR, IT, PL).

https://github.com/totoshko88/RustConn https://flathub.org/apps/io.github.totoshko88.RustConn

Phosh ↗

A pure wayland shell for mobile devices.

Guido says

Phosh 0.53 is out:

Phosh’s overview now shows a splash for launching apps and the Polkit dialog has more user details. The on-screen keyboard scales better in landscape and adds new completion dictionaries. The Wayland compositor phoc got initial support for the xx-cutout-v1 Wayland protocol to inform clients about notches and display cutouts.

There’s more — see the full details here.

Parabolic ↗

Download web video and audio.

Nick reports

Parabolic is at V2026.2.4 this week with new features and many bug fixes!

Here’s the full changelog:

  • Added a search bar for subtitles in the add download dialog
  • Added the ability to specify extra yt-dlp arguments for the discovery process
  • Added the ability to specify extra yt-dlp arguments for the download process
  • Fixed an issue where pausing and resuming downloads did not work correctly
  • Fixed an issue where video passwords were not working when specified
  • Fixed an issue where yt-dlp progress was not always displayed correctly
  • Fixed an issue where instagram stories did not download correctly
  • Fixed an issue where the encoder field was not properly cleared on FLAC files when remove source data was enabled
  • Fixed an issue where Parabolic would not detect translation languages correctly
  • Fixed an issue where Parabolic would use a previous save folder even if it no longer existed
  • Fixed an issue where downloaded yt-dlp version were not getting executable permissions on Linux
  • Fixed an issue where Parabolic wouldn’t open on Linux
  • Fixed an issue where playlist video downloads may not have had sound on Windows

Crosswords ↗

A crossword puzzle game and creator.

jrb says

I’ve released GNOME Crosswords 0.3.17. This is a strong release, featuring both a new interface for the game and multiple features for the editor. Read the announcement here.

Crosswords

The game got a full UI refresh in preparation for GNOME Circle.

  • The game sports a new layout and design, including a sidebar for easier navigation
  • The welcome screen was cleaned up
  • A hints dialog was added to help players learn game controls
  • Fullscreen support was redone
  • Sorting and filtering was added to puzzle pickers
  • We improved the adaptive functionality and accent color support
  • Many polishing touches and bug fixes

Crosswords Editor

The editor also got some quality of life improvements as a result of user testing.

  • The new puzzle dialog got a complete overhaul, including the addition of almost a thousand additional templates
    • This dialog also gained a theme word editor to preset crossword themes before grid creation.
  • A new wordplay indicator dialog was added to help write cryptic clues
  • Printing support was added, so the final product can be printed.
  • Many polishing touches and bug fixes

Finally, a request for TWIG readers. GNOME Crosswords could really benefit from improved artwork, and we’ve reached the limits of my Inkscape skills. If you’d like to get involved with artwork for GNOME, this could be a great place to begin. Drop me a line if you’re interested!

Shell Extensions

Miklós Zsitva says

Matrix Status Monitor v5

Matrix Status Monitor v5 has been released, focusing on deeper desktop integration and security awareness.

New features include:

  • End-to-End Encryption Indicators: Encrypted rooms now feature a lock icon in the room list for immediate security verification.
  • Selectable Matrix Clients: Users can now toggle between Element and Fractal in the preferences. The extension handles URI dispatching to ensure the correct application is launched.
  • Settings UI Update: A refined preference window for easier API configuration and client selection.
  • Performance: Optimized asynchronous /sync calls using Libsoup3 to minimize impact on Shell performance.

Extension Link: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/9328/matrix-status-monitor/ Source Code: https://github.com/nurefexc/matrix-status

Just Perfection says

The extensions porting guide for GNOME Shell 50 has been released and we are now accepting version 50 packages on EGO.

Miscellaneous

GNOME OS ↗

The GNOME operating system, development and testing platform

Ada Magicat ❤️🧡🤍🩷💜 reports

For a few months now, the gnome-build-meta repository - home of GNOME OS and the GNOME flatpak runtime - has been generating and publishing debug tarballs to our new debuginfod server. This week, Jordan added the final bits of configuration needed to use this infrastructure.

As a result, debugging tools (like gdb) running in GNOME OS and the upcoming version 50 release of the GNOME flatpak SDK can dynamically fetch the debug symbols they need at that moment, no longer requiring developers to download and update large debug extensions on their system for debugging.

GNOME Foundation

Allan Day announces

A new GNOME Foundation update post is available this week, covering highlights from the past two weeks. Notable items include the LAS 2026 announcement and a report from the latest Board of Directors meeting.

That’s all for this week!

See you next week, and be sure to stop by #thisweek:gnome.org with updates on your own projects!