Tracking Gnome Releases

[derenv]

Problem

With Gnome 47 due for release in mid/late september and likely to be in Ubuntu 24.10 and Fedora 41, I think we need to change how we deal with API changes. We're consistently on the back foot re Gnome releases and API changes, waiting for new Ubuntu/Fedora/etc versions with bumped gnome-shell versions and the ensuing bug reports from users - this interval where new Gnome users see an "outdated" warning on the extensions website probably reduces the number of users.

Potential Solution

To remedy this, I think we should consider automated tracking of the Gnome upstream - see this example for an example of tracking upstream GitHub repos. This way we have a decent early warning on new releases, giving us time to update and test the extension before distro releases leave us playing catch-up.

The main repository is on GitLab, but there is also a mirror on GitHub - I wonder if we can use the above GitHub Action (or a modified version) for tracking these? It's also probably worth checking if/how other extensions track upstream. thoughts @kenohassler @ethanwharris ?

Other links

Gnome release calender