Mr. Cassidy Blaede, co-founder of elementary has announced the arrival of elementary OS 5.1 with the code name Hera. It is an incremental update to elementary OS 5 Juno release and ships all the improvements and enhancements that the elementary team provided after the release of Juno.

As an incremental release on top of elementary 5.0 Juno, Hera is identified with a version number 5.1. It shares the same foundation as the Juno release. At the same time, there are significant updates in user experience and under the hood system. This makes this release eligible to have another code. Following the tradition of naming elementary releases after Greek gods, elementary 5.1 release is recognized by the code name Hera.

What is new in elementary OS 5.1 Hera?

In simple words, elementary OS 5.1 is a summary of all the updates delivered by the team in the last few months. The main highlights can be enumerated as,

1. A brand new first-run experience with Greeter and Onboarding
2. Flatpak support with Sideload and AppCenter
3. Major updates around accessibility and System Settings
4. Iterative improvements across nearly all apps
5. The latest hardware support with a new Linux kernel and hardware enablement stack

Following section briefs some of the remarkable highlights in elementary Hera. A detailed description of elementary OS 5.1 changes are available in the official release announcement.

Improved Greeter, and Onboarding

After the release of Juno, the elementary team has redesigned the login screen. It fixes HiDPi issues and focus issues and provides better localization. The users are listed in a more accessible and appealing way. The lock screen is also updated with the same design principles.

The Onboarding app is a new member of the elementary family. It provides various options to tweak the system and manage users.

AppCenter, Sideload & Flatpak support

The elementary AppCenter has received extensive improvements in Hera. The performance is improved by 10x times and it has a lower memory footprint.

One of the key highlights in AppCenter is support for Flatpak. It provides a straight forward way for installing and updating Flatpak applications.

The Sideload is a new tool that helps to add 3rd party flatpak repositories. It advises on the consequences of adding 3rd party repositories before adding the repositories. Once the repository is added, the applications can be installed as usual.

Accessibility improvements.

After the release of Juno, the elementary team has worked on improving the overall accessibility of the system. Most of the components in system settings have been updated with this aim in mind. The changes are most visible in Sound Settings, Mouse & Touchpad Settings, Desktop Settings, Display Settings, Bluetooth Settings, Date & Time Settings, Language & Region Settings, Network Settings, and Power Settings.

Update & Improved applications.

The elementary team has put extensive effort into updating and improving the in-house made applications such as Calendar, Camera, Photos, Music, Videos, Files, Code, and Terminal. You can read more about the updated applications in elementary OS 5.1 Hera in the official release announcement.

Download elementary OS 5.1 Hera

elementary OS 5.1 Hera screenshots

Following section showcases some screenshots captured on elementary OS 5.1 Hera - preview. Since it is a preview release shared with the press, it includes some references to Juno instead of Hera.

---

---

01 elementary Hera Desktop - First impression02 About elementary OS03 Application Menu04 Application Menu - Category listing05 Pantheon Files06 Pantheon Terminal07 Keyboard Shortcuts View08 Epiphany Web Browser09 Multitasking View10 Busy Desktop11 Alt plus tab window switching12 Pantheon Videos13 Pantheon Photos14 Pantheon Music15 Calendar17 Pantheon Switchboard18 Background Settings19 AppCenter - Home20 AppCenter application view21 Pantheon Code22 Battery applet23 Calendar widget24 System Menu25 Shutdown confirmation