Repeated panel updates rebuilt unchanged controls and SVG artwork, cloned composition data, and kept unused workspace icon resources. This reuses controls when their layout stays the same, bounds the SVG cache, removes temporary layout allocations, and releases icon resources when apps close or the workspace style changes.
Rapidly closing a modal could also leave a native surface behind when its asynchronous creation finished after the close. Late openings now get destroyed when their owner is gone. Ferese uses the published `ferese-v0.1.2` Iced/libcosmic fixes so a temporary software buffer/viewport size mismatch retries the frame instead of crashing.
Two runs per version of the same workspace/overview/reload workload measured **26% fewer allocated bytes and 23% fewer allocation calls**. A separate 1,800-cycle notification/modal stress run retained about **40 MiB less shell memory**, including shared-buffer retention falling from 28.2 MiB to 272 KiB. These are measured workload results, not an overall desktop speedup claim.
Validation:
- 1,350 workspace tests passed, including GPU Settings text rendering (50 optional tests ignored); formatting and Clippy passed.
- Native continuous/island panel tests passed rapid notification resizing, modal cancellation, and live material/input-region changes.
- A Wayland lifetime trace confirmed all 280 created modal surfaces were destroyed; longer DHAT traces and Intel GPU memory measurements were checked separately.
- All installation binaries rebuilt and the installation bundle passed inventory and checksum verification.
* Integrate panel composition, adaptive sizing, and overflow
* Add instance editing controls to panel settings
* Add panel group editing and measured composition preview
* Reorganize panel settings and add drag-and-drop item editing
* Simplify panel settings and place inspectors beside the editor
* Refine Panel & Shell settings, previews, and panel rendering
* Organize settings navigation and modernize packaged panel config
* Support top and bottom panels and refine shell surfaces
Add edge-aware settings, previews, popup placement, notifications, margins, and corner rendering. Preserve translucency in notification and dialog controls, and tighten spacing around the clock and display-mode icon.
* Add workspace styles and fix Settings text rendering
* Make panel allocation independent of measurement order
* Normalize panel item settings and visibility
* Move shell geometry into each panel
* Add independent group surfaces and finalize panel configuration
* Keep panel fit checks and restoration consistent with allocation
* Reject unknown panel item options and namespace metadata
* Reject invalid shell startup configuration and remove old radius fields
* Discover workspace application icons in a background task
* Remove the panel architecture document and improve reference prose
* Let panel media fill available space and improve Settings scrolling
* Preserve panel labels across clipped GPU rendering
* Use matching alpine lake wallpapers for light and dark modes
* Fix panel accessibility and popup lifecycle
Apply Reduce Transparency to panel opacity in the shell, compositor, and
Settings preview. Reject unknown theme tokens before snapshot substitution
and validate the current geometry fields in both consumers.
Dismiss popovers and workspace tooltips after panel layout changes. Handle
bar pointer exits directly and recover workspace hover after reentry without
repeated motion updates. Cover the transitions with regression tests and
update the wallpaper dimensions check for the bundled lake defaults.
* Use tagged Ferese toolkit fixes
* Fix center-only panel spacing and headless text rendering
* Bundle native 4K abstract wallpapers for both appearances
* Dismiss workspace tooltips before captured pointer dispatch
* Verify installed JPEG wallpapers when replacing a release
Use shared corner geometry for shell controls, window clipping, materials and blur masks. Preserve circular pills and controls where appropriate, track contour changes in damage, and use tagged ferese-shape and libcosmic dependencies.
Resolve light, dark and automatic appearance centrally and publish live theme snapshots to native surfaces and the appearance portal. Add paired preset families, custom theme imports, accessibility transforms and contrast-safe transitions.
Refine the Settings gallery and Auto controls, move overrides under advanced customization, and share palette-aware switches and circular slider thumbs. Document configuration and include theme licenses and integration coverage.
Centralize native palettes, presets, typography, controls, menus, calendar rendering, and icon assets in ferese-theme. Reuse the shared components across the shell, settings, lock screen, authentication prompt, and screen-sharing chooser.
Attach themed dialogs to compositor-owned materials, correct backdrop capture and sampling across output transforms, smooth patterned backgrounds, and prevent clipped picker buttons with the configured shell font.
Samuel Onoja