domferr / domferr/tilingshell

[Release Candidate] Tiling Shell v18.0 | GNOME 50 support, right mouse button as activation key, keybinding to untile all the windows, bug fixes and more

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Description

# Release Strategy Update

Starting with **Tiling Shell v18.0**, the release strategy is changing! Tiling Shell has grown significantly over the years. It now supports **GNOME 42 through GNOME 50**, and every release requires extensive testing across multiple GNOME versions, desktop configurations, and features.

As a solo maintainer, thoroughly testing every feature has become increasingly time-consuming. Some features are also difficult for me to test directly because they require specific hardware or setups (for example, drawing tablet support).

From now on, new versions will first be published on **GitHub** as release candidates when they are considered feature-complete and nearly production-ready. This allows interested users to try new features earlier and provide feedback. Once the release has been validated by the community, it will be published on **extensions.gnome.org**.

Thank you to everyone who tests pre-releases and reports issues. Your feedback helps make Tiling Shell better for everyone!

## How you can help

Testing is useful even when you don't find any issues. If you try a release candidate, please leave feedback and tell me:

- Your GNOME version
- Your distribution
- Whether everything worked as expected
- Any special setup worth to share (multiple monitors, drawing tablets, touchscreens, etc.)

A simple "Tested on GNOME 48 + Fedora 42, everything works fine" is extremely valuable because it helps confirm the release is ready for publication on extensions.gnome.org.

# Release notes | Comment to share your testing results!
The release will be published after enough successful test reports across supported GNOME versions.

- **new**: added support for Right Mouse Button as activation key. This was one of the most requested feature, mainly because PowerToys from Windows does it and people love it. GNOME gave some technical challenges, but thanks to [egme](https://github.com/egme) those were solved
- **new**: updated :it: translation. Thanks [albanobattistella](https://github.com/albanobattistella)
- **new**: updated :poland: translation. Thanks [alewicki95](https://github.com/alewicki95)
- **new**: updated :de: translation. Thanks [ChrisLauinger77](https://github.com/ChrisLauinger77)
- **new**: added support to GNOME 50. Closes #501 (This was already published when GNOME 50 came out, we are just including it in this release notes for the records :smiley: )
- **new**: added keybinding to untile all the windows. Thanks [RemyL](https://github.com/RemyL)
- **new**: added setting to allow changing the layouts of all the workspaces when selecting a layout in one workspace. Disabled by default, keeping the current behaviour. Thanks [thameem-abbas](https://github.com/thameem-abbas)
- **new**: Tiling Shell has a setting, normally disabled, to allow raising all the windows together when raising only one. In this update we are adding a second option to limit this raise-together behaviour to current display. Thanks [timheide](https://github.com/timheide).
- **fix**: the Super key, when chosen as activation key, was no longer triggering tiling mode when dragging windows. Closes #485. Thanks [liuxiaopai-ai](https://github.com/liuxiaopai-ai)
- **fix**: disconnect some signals with the right ordering. Thanks [brenjn](https://github.com/brenjn)
- **fix**: alt-tab race condition and signal handler leak. Thanks [toabctl](https://github.com/toabctl)

## Manual installation

There are two builds and you need only one of them, according to your GNOME Shell version:
- For GNOME Shell versions 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 and 50: `tilingshell@ferrarodomenico.com.zip`
- For GNOME Shell versions from 42, 43 and 44: `GNOME.42-44.tilingshell@ferrarodomenico.com.zip`

To know your GNOME Shell version, run `gnome-shell --version`.

Extract the downloaded archive. Copy its content to `~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/tilingshell@ferrarodomenico.com` directory. You need to reload GNOME Shell afterwards (e.g. by logging out). Then you can enable the extension:
```
/usr/bin/gnome-extensions enable tilingshell@ferrarodomenico.com
```

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with the release notes and manual installation instructions in this issue. Check the installed version with `gnome-shell --version`, install the matching archive, enable the extension, and exercise the listed features on your GNOME version and distribution. Done means reporting whether it worked and noting monitors, drawing tablets, touchscreens, or other special setup.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
desktop, release, testing-qa
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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