Manjaro Linux 26.1 Preview Brings GNOME 50, Plasma 6.6, and Kernel 7.0 to Your Desk
The Manjaro team just dropped the Bian-May preview release, and it finally brings desktop environments up to speed with modern display tech and actual usability tweaks. Users upgrading from older builds will notice a heavy focus on screen scaling, remote desktop performance, and accessibility filters that actually work without breaking the window manager. This preview skips the usual fluff and focuses on fixing real friction points that have plagued Linux desktops for years.
GNOME 50 Finally Gets Screen Scaling and Remote Desktop That Does Not Lag
The GNOME edition now ships with the polished 50 series, which means fractional scaling actually behaves itself on high density monitors. Users can pick exact percentages like one hundred twenty five percent without fighting the compositor for hours. Parental controls got a serious overhaul too, letting guardians set bedtime limits and auto lock screens when time runs out. The remote desktop feature finally uses Vulkan and VA API hardware acceleration, which matters because streaming to another machine does not drain the CPU or stutter on every frame. NVIDIA users will appreciate the explicit sync integration that stops those weird tearing issues from ruining video calls. System administrators often see this happen after a bad driver update, but the new compositor tweaks keep window animations smooth even when graphics stacks misbehave.
Plasma 6.6 Adds Custom Themes and Accessibility Filters Without Breaking Settings
KDE fans get Plasma 6.6 with Frameworks 6.25 and Gear 26.04. The desktop now lets users save their current layout as a global theme that switches automatically between day and night modes. Accessibility got a practical boost with a new grayscale filter for colorblindness, bringing the total correction options to four. Spectacle can extract text from scanned images now, which saves time when writing alt text or grabbing quick data from screenshots. The installer also splits disk partitioning away from account setup, so users who want full control over their drive layout do not have to guess through a single massive wizard. Legacy configuration utilities that used to clutter the settings menu are completely pointless now since modern panels handle everything in one place anyway.
XFCE 4.20 and Kernel 7.0 Round Out the Manjaro Linux 26.1 Preview
The lightweight edition ships Xfce 4.20 with Thunar file manager updates that actually matter. Users can now highlight specific files with custom background colors to spot them in crowded folders, and recursive search finally works without opening a terminal window. Panel configuration switched from percentages to pixel values, which stops the taskbar from jumping around when monitors change resolution. A new option keeps the panel floating above maximized windows instead of forcing apps to shrink behind it. The default kernel jumped to 7.0 for fresh hardware support, while 6.18 and 6.12 LTS builds remain available for older machines that refuse to die.
Manjaro 26.1 Bian-May - Preview released
Note: This is a preview release of the upcoming Manjaro 26.1 “Bian-May”! We are looking for your feedback on these install medias … Manjaro 26.1 (Preview) Since we released Anh-Linh in January 2026 we worked hard to get the next release of Manjaro out there. We call it Bian-May. The GNOME edition has received several updates to Gnome 50 series. This includes a lot of fixes and polish when Gnome 50 originally was released in March 2026.
Give the preview a spin if you want to test these desktop tweaks before they hit stable. Report any compositor crashes back to the bug tracker so the team can patch them before the final release rolls out next month.
