A Shift in GNOME’s Core Applications

For over two decades, Eye of GNOME (often shortened to EOG) was the silent workhorse of the GNOME desktop environment. It wasn’t flashy, but it did exactly what most people expected: double-click a picture, and it opened instantly. Yet, with the arrival of GNOME 45 in late 2023, a new name appeared in the lineup of “core” apps: Loupe. From that moment forward, Loupe became the official default image viewer on GNOME desktops, displacing EOG.

This decision wasn’t made lightly. GNOME has been steadily refreshing its default applications in recent years, Gedit was replaced by GNOME Text Editor, and Cheese gave way to Snapshot. Loupe is the continuation of this modernization trend. Eye of GNOME is still available in repositories for those who want it, but the GNOME team has shifted its endorsement to Loupe as the better long-term solution.

What Loupe Brings to the Table

Loupe isn’t just a reskin of EOG. It was built from scratch with today’s hardware, design standards, and security expectations in mind. At first glance, the interface looks minimal, but there’s more happening beneath the hood than many realize.

• Rust-Powered Foundation – Unlike Eye of GNOME’s decades-old C codebase, Loupe is written in Rust. This choice immediately grants it memory safety, helping avoid whole categories of crashes and vulnerabilities. For an app that regularly opens untrusted files, this is an important safeguard.

• GPU-Accelerated Image Handling – Instead of pushing all rendering to the CPU, Loupe leverages the GPU. Panning across a large image or zooming into a 50-megapixel photo feels fluid, even on high-resolution displays.

• Touch-Friendly Navigation – GNOME has been preparing for a future that includes more touch devices. Loupe fits right in, supporting pinch-to-zoom, two-finger swipes to move between images, and smooth transitions that feel natural on both touchscreens and trackpads.

• Streamlined Metadata View – Instead of burying photo information behind a separate dialog, Loupe integrates an optional sidebar. With a click, you can see dimensions, file size, EXIF data, and even location details without leaving the main view.

• Security Through Sandboxing – Image decoding is handled in isolated processes using a new backend called Glycin. If a corrupt or malicious image tries to crash the decoder, it won’t take the entire viewer down with it.

Even with this list of improvements, Loupe isn’t trying to compete with heavyweights like GIMP. It’s designed to remain lightweight and focused, while still offering just enough editing power for day-to-day adjustments such as rotation, cropping, and flipping, features that are being steadily introduced as the app matures.

How It Differs From Eye of GNOME

Eye of GNOME was reliable, but it carried the design and technical weight of its long history. The differences between the two applications highlight why a clean break was necessary.

• Legacy vs. Modern Toolkits – EOG was built on older GTK frameworks and depended heavily on GdkPixbuf for image loading. Loupe is firmly rooted in GTK4 and Libadwaita, ensuring it takes advantage of the latest GNOME visual guidelines and rendering pipelines.

• CPU vs. GPU Rendering – EOG relied entirely on the CPU, which meant high-resolution images could stutter when zoomed or panned. Loupe’s GPU acceleration eliminates that bottleneck.

• UI Philosophy – The EOG interface followed a traditional model with toolbars and menus, which made sense in its era. Loupe embraces GNOME’s current design vision with a single header bar, context-sensitive controls, and adaptive layouts that resize elegantly across desktops, tablets, and phones.

• Gesture Support – EOG was never built with multitouch in mind. Loupe, by contrast, integrates gestures as a first-class way of interacting with images, making it far more natural on modern devices.

• Safety Model – Where EOG loaded everything into its main process, Loupe isolates decoders. This not only prevents full-app crashes but also strengthens security against crafted image exploits.

In other words, Loupe doesn’t just look new, it reflects GNOME’s current priorities: performance, safety, and adaptability.

Why the Switch Happened

From the GNOME project’s perspective, several motivations converged to make Loupe the obvious choice.

• Maintainability – EOG’s codebase was old and difficult to extend. Porting it to GTK4 would have required rewriting huge sections anyway, so starting fresh was easier.

• Energy Behind Loupe – New contributors, excited to experiment with Rust and GTK4, were actively building Loupe. It made sense to back the app with momentum rather than trying to revive EOG’s slower development pace.

• Security Benefits – Rust and sandboxing offered an immediate upgrade in safety, something increasingly important in an age of frequent zero-day exploits.

• Consistency Across Core Apps – GNOME has been working to ensure its suite of defaults shares a unified design and code philosophy. Loupe fits that mission better than EOG.

• Performance Gains – Users who tried Loupe immediately noticed it was snappier when dealing with large or complex images.

• Modern Usability – The clean interface and gesture support made navigation feel natural.

• Everyday Editing – The promise of lightweight editing tools, like cropping and flipping, addresses long-standing complaints about EOG being too minimal.

• Unified Look and Feel – Loupe visually matches GNOME’s other modern apps, giving the whole desktop environment a more cohesive polish.

Taken together, these reasons show why GNOME opted to promote Loupe to the spotlight.

Community Response

Reactions across forums and distro communities have been largely favorable. Fedora, which typically adopts GNOME changes quickly, shipped Loupe as its default almost immediately. Ubuntu was more cautious, sticking with Eye of GNOME at first, but with Loupe proving stable and gaining features, that hesitation is beginning to fade.

Users have praised Loupe’s smooth navigation and its modern design language. Many who previously installed alternatives like gThumb or Shotwell for features missing in EOG are now reconsidering, as Loupe gradually closes those gaps. The development story has also drawn goodwill, Loupe wasn’t backed by a company but emerged from volunteers in the GNOME community, something many users found inspiring.

Of course, there have been critiques. A few file formats supported in EOG didn’t initially open in Loupe, and some power users worried about missing plugins. But the maintainers have been quick to acknowledge these gaps and work on improvements.

Where Loupe Is Headed Next

Loupe is still evolving, and its roadmap shows promise:

• Expanded Editing – Work is already underway to bring cropping, flipping, and more intuitive rotation into upcoming releases. Additional format support for edits (JPEG, WebP, HEIC) is in progress.

• UI Refinements – Features like grid overlays for cropping, better full-screen defaults, and tighter integration with the GNOME Files app are all being discussed.

• Polish and Performance – Developers continue to tune SVG handling, high-DPI rendering, and fallback modes for low-end hardware.

• Community-Driven Growth – With its open development model, Loupe is attracting new contributors, ensuring the app doesn’t stagnate as EOG once did.

The long-term vision is clear: Loupe will remain a lightweight yet capable viewer. It isn’t meant to be a photo organizer or a heavy editor, but rather a fast, safe, and user-friendly way to open any picture on your GNOME system.

Closing Thoughts

The replacement of Eye of GNOME with Loupe marks more than just a new default application. It represents GNOME’s broader push toward modern, touch-friendly, and secure apps that feel at home on today’s devices. Loupe isn’t perfect yet, but it’s already a leap forward in responsiveness, safety, and usability.

For long-time GNOME users, it may feel strange to say goodbye to Eye of GNOME after so many years. But if you give Loupe a try, you’ll quickly see why it has earned its place. It’s not just an image viewer, it’s a statement of where GNOME wants to go: fast, secure, and beautifully simple.