GNOME 2.10 Beta 1 Screenshot Demo 480
linuxbeta writes "GNOME 2.10 Beta 1 has just been released. There is a nice screenshot demo here. Also known as 2.9.90, GNOME 2.10 Beta 1 is the first pre-release intended for wide public scrutiny before the final release in March. It is packed full of tasty GNOME goodness. This release is a feature frozen snapshot primarily intended for wide public scrutiny before the final GNOME 2.10 release in March. Like the good old days of Linux kernel development, GNOME uses odd minor version numbers to indicate development status. Please check the 2.9 start page for more info. - gnomedesktop.org/node/2138"
Re:What about Nautilus (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Truth: The State of Desktop Linux (Score:2, Informative)
Why would anyone bother using Linux, when a brand-new Mac can be had for $499?
Maybe you already have an x86 that you want to use.
Maybe you already have a mac?
Or maybe you don't like the fact that a Mac Mini only has a 32MB video card which can't (officialy) be upgraded, when to run nicely, OS X really needs at least 64MB?
Or maybe you prefer the various desktops available for linux to Mac OS X?
Re:Fonts look nice (Score:5, Informative)
I think this [gnome.org] is what you're looking for - of course this one is "old news" having been posted on Slashdot previously. It does a lot better of job of actually showing you what to expect in GNOME 2.10 than the selection of Ubuntu screenshots from OSDir though.
Jedidiah.
Re:Wow! It looks, it looks....(exactly the same?) (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Gnome? (Score:5, Informative)
Indeed, this story seems to be a waste of time. If you want screenshots that actually show you what you're getting that's different, look here [gnome.org]. It's old news (it's been up for some time), but it gives you a far better idea of what you're getting.
Jedidiah.
Re:Vectorized graphics (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Shitty SS's (Score:5, Informative)
If you look through the screenshots, it is an Ubuntu install, and has a number of the Ubuntu customisations already, so it's not even very representative of what the general GNOME 2.10 user is going to get. All up, the screenshots aren't worth your time, head here [gnome.org] to see what changes GNOME 2.10 has.
Jedidiah.
Better screenshots/descriptions (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Vectorized graphics (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Question? (Score:5, Informative)
You can right-click in the menus for some options. You can also, for example, open a nautilus browser window and type 'applications://' in the URL bar to edit the applications menus as if they were directories.
Check out the GNOME docs on menu editing. They're not perfect, but they aren't too bad.
Re:Difference (Score:5, Informative)
I am going to presume you meant really, rather then relay.
How about the places menu [osdir.com], the MultiMedia Systems Selector [osdir.com], maybe the Device Manager [osdir.com] or the Dictionay [osdir.com].
But honestly, this is an incremental release. What were you expecting? A complete revamp?
Re:fix the file selection (Score:3, Informative)
Better overview of new features (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I didn't RTFA but can it.... (Score:4, Informative)
You didn't actually try it did you? Come on, 'fess up...
Try any of the following:
1. Right click on the menu. Click "Enture Menu" -> "Add New Item To This Menu"
2. Open nautilus, go to "applications:///". Right click, click "Create Launcher".
3. Right click on the desktop, click "Create Launcher". Drag the resulting launcher to the panel.
4. Open the Applications menu, drag an item to your desktop (it would be nice if this worked the other way around, but it doesn't for me - YMMV).
Admittedly, 1 only works on launcher items in the menu, not items that are actually submenus. Even so, it would be nice if you could *try* the feature you're complaining about before you complain.
Note: The above works for me in GNOME 2.8, Debian/Sid edition. Not sure how much variation there is in other distros.
Re:Vectorized graphics (Score:3, Informative)
I don't know if that's part of X or not, but Gnome uses the monitor info to determine the DPI for the current resolution and thus, all gnome fonts are drawn at proper size regardless of what resolution or monitor you're on.
You can hold a pica pole up to the screen and see that yes, indeed, the font is 12pt.. etc.
(I work for a newspaper, and so I happen to have a pica pole handy)
As far as I know, no other OS does that. OS9 assumes everything is 72 dpi, OSX assumes everything is 100dpi, and windows assumes everything is 96dpi. Windows does let you change it though.
Re:I love gray, but GNOME ain't gray (Score:2, Informative)
You're suffering from an almost autistic lack of ability to perceive that somethings may be different for other people than they are for yourself.
Re:Difference (Score:4, Informative)
And you shouldn't if you don't use GNOME, because even if you did use it, you're not supposed to need to select a different backend for GStreamer. Some distros don't even include it in the menu [ubuntuforums.org] because its advanced configuration that most users will never need. It's purpose is to allow you to use a different sound server, like KDE's artsd. If you want to know more about it, google some of the terms you don't know about. I'm not trying to to belittle you, but you're coming out of nowhere trying to put down the design of things you've never even used. It shouldn't be a surprise that you don't know the purpose of some things.
Volume isn't related to sound controls? I think you'll find you're mistaken.
No, that's not what I said. Volume isn't related to the Multimedia Systems Selector. It's named that because that's exactly what it is. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it should have a volume control slapped on it. Like I said before, it's a window that you would never see unless you typed the command in the command line since it's not in the menu.
What's a panel, and what's an applet?
Panels are the bars at the top and bottom of the screen. they hold programs called applets. Look in the screenshot you were referring to [osdir.com]. See the little speaker icon at the top right? That's what any user trying to change the volume would go to, not the Multimedia Systems Selector, because, for the third and final time, it's an advanced configuration program not meant for most users to deal with.
Pop in one of the many live CDs that have been posted on Slashdot over the past week or so and try out GNOME. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how much easier it is to use than you think. There's still a lot of room for improvement though, and it gets better with every release. I hear 2.10 has a new volume control applet.
Re:Fonts suck (Score:3, Informative)
ATS (Apple Type Services) has been revised repeatedly in the years since. Font rendering certainly was something of a dog's breakfast in earlier OS X versions, and is no doubt not perfect today. But if you're going to make comparisons with the latest GNOME/FreeType/Whatever, it would be more valid to refer to the latest version of OS X.
This no longer works with gnome-2.10 (Score:1, Informative)
As of now there is no way to edit your gnome menu other than by hand, that is putting
But I sure hope that there will be a solution to this situation before 2.10 comes out. If anybody had any info about a menu-editor being planned for this release I'd greatly appreciate it.
Re:Chunky == blech! (Score:2, Informative)
Nautilus lets you customise your details view (right click -> visible columns)
Re:It's too bad (Score:1, Informative)
If you want to rebrand the splash screen, text, icons, backgrounds or any other data-related content, you can do so and that remains protected by copyright, not the GPL. You don't have to distribute any changes at all. That's why you can redistribute Red Hat's distro, but must remove their logos and references...
And the GPL states that you only have to give people access to source that you externally distribute the changed binaries to. So if you alter a program and only distribute it within your company, no problem. If you distribute it wider, to customers, or b2b, then you may have to release source.
Any applications that you write yourselves atop Linux are yours to licence as you wish.
The only time you'd ever have to give code access is if you made changes to a GPL program and then sold that at a profit. You've clearly used someone else's work to save you time, so that you don't have to implement it all yourself, and you want to make money from that short-cut. If you want to sell someone else's work without paying them for it, you have to give something back (that's the essence of the GPL, and that something is the code changes).
EO#2: "So what you're saying is that we would be paying our developers to work on this project, and essentially anyone else can just come along, pick up where we left off and that's that? That doesn't really seem fair, if you ask me."
Reponse: So we can essentially just come along, pick up where someone else left off and sell it? Making profit without putting any effort in or rewarding anyone for the use of a product?
Would a manager say that was fair? I think that all the ones I've ever worked for, and your one, would probably see their eyes light up at the prospect of free sellable products like that.
The GPL isn't onerous; all it does is maintain fairness and prevent abuse. Your task isn't abusive, and you can very happily co-exist with the GPL and it can be beneficial to all.
As for the GUI looking old, take a look at my desktop... It's SuSE 9.2, with KDE 3.3, Plastik and Nuvola icons. It's not the default, but it took me 10 minutes to do, and if you wanted to remaster a distro with those changes, you could certainly be done within a few hours.
http://gemini.cs.cf.ac.uk/~dawnrider/snapshot1.jp
As for naming, your manager seems very hung up on those, and there's not much to be done about that. For what it is worth, every other manager I know would shrug and say "If that's what it's called, that's what the customer will get. They'll get used to it in a day or two." And that is generally the case.
But if you can, I think you really should re-open the discussion in your workplace, perhaps by taking the time to carefully read the GPL yourself and asking your manager for a written list of questions about it (scenarios, what-ifs, descriptions of what changes you might need in the OS/desktop environment etc). Then you can ask GPL developers about the list (maybe the KDE or Gnome mailing lists?) and see what their responses are. I think that your manager would be very happy and impressed that he's getting response from the people who do this for a living, who directly program the software he's thinking of using, and it might also enable him to see whether they intend to make changes he needs in the near future anyway, saving work for his employees. It will also help alleviate management anxiety as to the ability to find intelligent support.
Re:It's too bad (Score:1, Informative)
IBM is pretty happy with linux. Perhaps you should have mentioned that instead of explaining the basics in an uninteresting way to IT staff and then come here crying.
Of course, there's the possibility that you just made that conversation up to merrily troll around.
Re:Fonts look nice (Score:1, Informative)
Re:I didn't RTFA but can it.... (Score:2, Informative)
This won't work in 2.9.90 (or 2.10 beta1) because GNOME switched to FDO XDG menu scheme and old VFS based approach was removed.
Currently there is no way to user-friendly edit the menus, in 2.10 there supposed to be a menu editor.