Woohoo! A ton of features are here in Evolve along with bug fixes and performance improvements.
Online Wallpapers
This tiny new icon packs a lot! (literally) The entire Pexels photo library now available for download directly from inside Evolve!
Just type whatever you want and hit search. Results are fetched in a few seconds. Just click any one of them and apply! Notice how the mouse when hovered reveals the image size along with the alt text and the name of the photographer for appropriate credits.
The wallpaper view page shows the selected wallpaper in a larger format along with the name of the person who posted the picture on Pexels. Clicking Apply Wallpaper directly applies it as your GNOME desktop background.
All downloaded wallpapers are available as an Album!
New Adaptive Theming
The previous code is completely replaced by a new algorithm which is faster and more efficient! This means Evolve now applies Adaptive theme in a few seconds compared to the long wait in the previous release. There are 4 different types of colour mix techniques now available.
Don't like the hue/saturation/value levels? Set them manually. The saturation and value levels change based on factors, so that there is contrast safety enabling adequate distinction between background and foreground elements.
Whether it is Conky, Rofi or Polybar (or anything else)
Make them Adaptive!
You can add config files as paths which will be modified too when adaptive theme is applied. This only modifies the config. Does not relaunch or apply the config.
Online Themes and Icons Store
(Powered by GitHub)
You can now access official theme and icon repositories on GitHub, clone them, and install them through the official method. While the search page resembles the Extensions Search page, I believe it could benefit from an improved design, though I currently don't have any specific ideas for enhancements.
Each theme and icon pack has its own dedicated page, similar to the online extensions feature introduced in v1.4. These pages display previews and screenshots of the themes and icon packs. Installing them is straightforward: simply click the install button. While downloading all the files and completing the installation may take some time, the process works quite well!
I installed this icon pack (kora) for the first time using Evolve by directly fetching it from GitHub and it installed fine! The official install procedure is probably not available as a script but Evolve figured out a way.
If no installation procedure is successful then you can manually clone the repository to your system and try installing it. You can also access the official GitHub page of that particular theme/icon by clicking open repo which launches the GitHub page of the project. The git clone link is also available for copying from here.
The theme/icon store requires you to install the "git" command.
Results shown in search may not always be a compatible "icon" or "theme" pack. Install only if you trust the author. The repos are not tested for security or compatibility.
Performance updates
Caching significantly speeds up search results by reducing the need for repeated internet fetches, thereby decreasing server load. This is crucial for app development, as frequent fetching during testing could potentially result in an IP address ban. Cached results have been invaluable in preventing this issue. You can view cache-related data on the app's settings page, where you can see how much space the cache is using. Clear the cache whenever you need!
Config Page Updates
Major updates and changes in the config tab! Let us start with the new features :)
This thing happens a lot, I have a ton of extensions installed but I only have enabled a few of them. So instead of installing and enabling all installed extensions on your new setup, you can choose to only backup the enabled extensions instead.
AND... More options?
You can compress your configs further for sharing them on the internet.
Smarter background backup ensure smooth app performance while the backup is done in the background if you have a lot of files.
Evolve now can show system notifications!
Fixed a ton of bugs!
Added more locations for backup (applicator not prepared for them yet)
This means backups made through v1.4.1 release will contain the extra location themes/icons info and can be applied through later releases of Evolve too.
Added support for locations with spaces/brackets or other characters
Evolve now stores the configuration of your extensions so that they look just the same when you apply the config.zip file on a separate system.
Upto 85% smaller config.zip!
Upto 90% faster config file creation!
Extensions!
Directly uninstall an extension by right clicking on it.
Older config.zip files exported with v1.4 won't work on this release of Evolve. For applying them get the older v1.4 release or update the config.zip.
UI Improvements
Background blurring is now more performant. The current blur algorithm avoids the previously existing jitters and makes the app look more professional. The live blur is so very beautiful! Even the buttons now support the same glassmorphism. Check the wallpaper page for the look!
Alpha software. Bugs are present.
Separate uninstall script available which uninstalls Evolve from your system.
Download link to ver 1.5 not working