While disk management improvements might not be the first thing you think of when it comes to a desktop environment update, the disk utility (Disks) and udev within GNOME 3.6 will offer some new features.

Among the Disks/udev improvements for the forthcoming GNOME 3.6 include new dialogs for power management of ATA disks, indications if a disk is in its stand-by mode, support for ATA SECURE ERASE, a "Disk Image Mounter" application for mounting ISO files automatically by setting up the loop device, GVfs changes, the GNOME Shell offers to save LUKS pass-phrases in the GNOME Keyring again, Disks now supports libpwquality for password quality indications, and the simple disk benchmark feature is back.

Meanwhile, planned on the disk side for GNOME 3.8 is support for file-system/partition resizing from Disks, Linux MD RAID support in Disks/udisks, and simple iSCSI initiator support.

Find out more about the disk work going on for GNOME 3.6 within this blog post by David Zeuthen of Red Hat.

GNOME 3.6 is due for release in September.