The CAE Linux labs are making some important and potentially disruptive changes this Fall semester. In upgrading to the new stable version of the Debian Linux distribution, we are catching up to the rest of the Linux community in the transition from Xorg to Wayland graphical display systems. A summary of the history involved can be found here:
https://www.howtogeek.com/900698/what-is-wayland-on-linux-and-how-is-it-different-from-x/
Most other Linux distributions have already made the migration away from X11/Xorg and Debian is no exception. This means that we will be providing a Gnome desktop environment via XWayland as well as XFCE (which will eventually be deprecated and no longer function). The new Debian 12 (with Gnome/Wayland) lab image deployment will be available in Engineering Hall, Rm B555, while the older Debian 11 (with XFCE/Xorg) lab image will remain in Rm 2324.
CAE recommends that users begin familiarizing themselves with the new Gnome desktop environment, because the layout and experience for Gnome will be different from what was provided before with XFCE. There are options for customizing and some tutorials can be found here:
https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/
https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeShell/Extensions
https://opensource.com/article/19/12/gnome-linux-desktop
Students, faculty and staff that need to use the Linux labs are welcome to send in a ticket or contact the CAE Helpdesk for more information on how to customize the Gnome desktop experience. We have some recommendations for Extensions and Tweaks to enable for users that can change or modify the layout and usage of the desktop manager to provide customization, including the Applications Menu and Window List extensions.