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GNOME GUI Open Source Software Linux News

GNOME 3 Released 353

Blacklaw writes "The GNOME Desktop team has sent its latest creation into the wild, officially launching GNOME 3.0 — the biggest redesign the project has enjoyed in around nine years. 'We've taken a pretty different approach in the GNOME 3 design that focuses on the desired experience and lets the interface design follow from that,' designer Jon McCann explained during the launch. 'With any luck you will feel more focused, aware, effective, capable, respected, delighted, and at ease.'"
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GNOME 3 Released

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  • lol wut (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by Alex Belits ( 437 ) *

    Ooooops. Something is not here.

    The page you tried to access was not found.

    • Re:lol wut (Score:5, Informative)

      by slaxative ( 1867220 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @05:46PM (#35738988)
      • Re:lol wut (Score:5, Informative)

        by mmj638 ( 905944 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @06:17PM (#35739222)

        Why can't I click any links in slashdot comments anymore? I'm using Firefox 4. Can't even right click.

        Any why is that yellow box overlapping everything when I'm previewing a message? Slashdot seems a bit messed up

        • I'm using IceWeasel 4.0 and also can't left-click a link but I can right-click them and open in a new tab.
          • It's happening in Chrome too.

            Slashdot: making us all glad we're better at our jobs than them.

            • by Lennie ( 16154 )

              It actually works for me in the latest nightly build of Firefox, so maybe someone is working on it. :-)

        • Same for me.
          So I've gone back to the old comments system (again)... without the javascriptiness it seems fine.

        • Why can't I click any links in slashdot comments anymore? I'm using Firefox 4. Can't even right click.

          Any why is that yellow box overlapping everything when I'm previewing a message? Slashdot seems a bit messed up

          Same here in Chrome, FireFox 4, and IE 9 on Windows. Also does not work on Mac in Chrome.

          A quick check of element in the inspector shows:
          <a href="http://www.xfce.org/" title="xfce.org" rel="nofollow" id="aeaoofnhgocdbnbeljkmbjdmhbcokfdb-mousedown">Xfce</a>

          That does not look right to me...

          This is really a hassle. Can somebody that actually manages the site please at least try to read the comments here?

          • Why can't I click any links in slashdot comments anymore? I'm using Firefox 4. Can't even right click.

            Any why is that yellow box overlapping everything when I'm previewing a message? Slashdot seems a bit messed up

            Same here in Chrome, FireFox 4, and IE 9 on Windows. Also does not work on Mac in Chrome.
            A quick check of element in the inspector shows:
            <a href="http://www.xfce.org/" title="xfce.org" rel="nofollow" id="aeaoofnhgocdbnbeljkmbjdmhbcokfdb-mousedown">Xfce</a>
            That does not look right to me...
            This is really a hassle. Can somebody that actually manages the site please at least try to read the comments here?

            Curiously it all works fine in Opera and Chrome on XP.

    • Re:lol wut (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @05:51PM (#35739028)

      They ran out of features to remove from GNOME itself so they just took down the website.

      • Re:lol wut (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Noitatsidem ( 1701520 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @06:46PM (#35739486)

        I actually emailed the press team. Here's what I wrote:
        "I think a thank you is in order from the XFCE team, as the release of GNOME3 has urged me (and many others) to switch to XFCE. With XFCE 4.8 released, the featuresessentiallymirror those found in GNOME2. With that being said, I think you can confidently send the XFCE team a "you're welcome" message for addingnumerousnumbers of people to their user base. Remind them that without the GNOME team ignoring the myriads of complaints about thedirectionof the GNOME project, none of this would of happened.

        Thank you very much for reading"
        Anyone here should feel more than welcome to use this message, no credit needed. Spread the word, the XFCE team NEEDS to thank the gnome team for all of their hard work removing everything we needed, and giving us everything we didn't.

        • Not that I doubt you're right, but out of curiosity, what did they take out now? All I have are production machines now and I wasn't going to mess with beta releases of any software that tends to be beta quality after it's been out for 8 years...

          • Not that I doubt you're right, but out of curiosity, what did they take out now?

            The maximize and minimize buttons, and the window menu which contained those and other actions. Only the close button remains as a common to all windows (although an application can make window-specific action buttons). Maximize and minimize functions are available still, in a non-intuitive way. This is one of the most irksome changes which has rubbed many people the wrong way. I'm delaying any decision on embracing/rejecting Gnome 3 until I've tried it out for a while.

            • Maximize and minimize functions are available still, in a non-intuitive way. This is one of the most irksome changes which has rubbed many people the wrong way.

              Seriously, when I read this in the heading:

              'With any luck you will feel more focused, aware, effective, capable, respected, delighted, and at ease.'

              I almost laughed. I don't think I've ever used a massively changed GUI and ever felt "delighted, and at ease". I expect if I tried using GNOME 3 I would be frustrated, irritated, and cursing out loud.

              • I'm specially insulted by the

                you will feel [...] respected

                You will, you must, it's imperative that you feel respected.

                That's the most disrespectful thing they could say, I love how they speak with their feet in their mouth like that.

                Gnome 3 will have you do our way. You have no configuration. Start feeling respected now.

            • Yes you may never ever change the current paradigm! Evil!

              Seriously. If min/max buttons are what pisses you off, GNOME3 is a success.

              If you have ever used Mylyn for example, you will notice that some, more focussed UIs make you much more productive. I think it is good that the GNOME team tries to go down this road.

              • More focused UIs make you much more productive when doing focused tasks. How do you "focus" a general-purpose desktop environment?

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by bregmata ( 1749266 )
          I actually emailed the press team.

          Don't bother. They only read the email messages they've written themselves.

    • by mangu ( 126918 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @06:07PM (#35739144)

      Maybe it just escaped.

    • "more focused, aware, effective, capable, respected, delighted, and at ease." Wow! If it also made me more continent, gas free, fresh, and leave me with cleaner hair, it would be perfect!
      • "more focused, aware, effective, capable, respected, delighted, and at ease." Wow! If it also made me more continent, gas free, fresh, and leave me with cleaner hair, it would be perfect!

        Forget the hair, I think it's cleaner air that you need.

  • Xfce (Score:5, Informative)

    by Moderator ( 189749 ) * on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @05:43PM (#35738968)

    There's always Xfce [xfce.org] for those of you who still want a traditional, stable environment. Uses the same Gtk+ themes that Gnome used, and the panel is flexible enough to emulate Gnome 2.x, KDE/Windows, or CDE.

    I know, they turned their back on the *BSD's with Xfce 4.8, but it's still the only desktop environment worth using anymore.

    Oh yeah, and they plan on sticking with Gtk+ 2.2 for the next couple of years.

    • Re:Xfce (Score:5, Interesting)

      by arth1 ( 260657 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @06:02PM (#35739104) Homepage Journal

      I'm seriously considering switching from Gnome.
      The main reason is that I use remote logins and lots of VMware. Gnome shell won't even work unless you have hardware acceleration, so you can forget a consistent UI, and have to fall back to Gnome 2. So you now need both.
      Never mind getting the file manager to work remotely. I still remember with fondness how easy it was in IRIX to just enter "fm ." in a remote session, and get the file manager for whichever directory you were in. Try that with cutter or nautilus.

      So, yes, I expect I will be migrating. But not to Gnome 3. I'll migrate to something functional, and Gnome ain't it.

      • Give it time. Gnome 2 was buggy as heck when it came out too, but things got fixed and compatibility increased as time went on.

        Its linux. Linux folks see software like wine. Give it some time, and you'll get something special, or just jump right in if you don't mind a few rough edges.

        I think Gnome 3 is welcome. Gnome 2 and XFCE are great environs, but they are showing their ages a little bit, and I think a lot of good UI useability thinkings gone into Gnome 3. But theres no rush. Give them time to get the w

    • by jmv ( 93421 )

      Thanks for reminding me. I think I'll try Xfce when I upgrade my distro (and get gnome2 replaced by gnome3). From experience with gnome and kde, it always takes them ~2 years to get a new release right and kde4 is probably still a bit too new. I still don't understand this idea that "rewriting the code with about half the features is a good thing".

  • It works! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @05:45PM (#35738986)
    I _do_ feel more focused, aware, effective, capable, respected, delighted, and at ease... of course, that might just be the Ritalin...
    • I _do_ feel more focused, aware, effective, capable, respected, delighted, and at ease... of course, that might just be the Ritalin...

      Personally, I go for Valium: it doesn't make me particularly focused, effective, capable or respected, true. But I am delighted and very much at ease.

    • by jedidiah ( 1196 )

      There is an inverse relationship between quality/usefulness and the number of marketing buzzwords used.

      I don't like the originals of the Mac knockoff bits. I doubt I will like them any better force fed to me by Gnome or Ubuntu.

  • by ReinoutS ( 1919 ) <{moc.liamg} {ta} {tuonier}> on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @05:47PM (#35738992) Homepage
    Read the release notes in your favorite language here: http://library.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.0/ [gnome.org]
  • by Greguar ( 1225686 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @05:48PM (#35739000)
    The press release link is a moving target. It's now: http://www.gnome.org/press/2011/04/gnome-3-0-released-better-for-users-developers-3/ [gnome.org]
  • Official site (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @05:49PM (#35739002)

    Here's a link to the official GNOME 3 site [gnome3.org].

    To me it looks more like a smartphone interface (nice for a tablet PC), but errrr.... quite a paradigm change for notebook and desktop users.

  • by bogaboga ( 793279 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @05:52PM (#35739030)

    Now, before I get flamed for what I have written, let me remind everyone that what I have written reflects my personal opinion...and I am entitled to that.

    And remember...I am not alone. When will these GNOME folks produce a shell that is a beauty to look at by default?

    • You're certainly not the only one, and your words were rather kind, considering some of the other criticism I've read.

    • by kat_skan ( 5219 )

      Hopefully sooner than later considering they took out even the ability to change the color scheme.

    • by geekoid ( 135745 )

      and we are entitled to mod you down to hell!

      hah!

    • Give them a break, they're short on time.
      Gnome body Gnomes the trouble they've seen!
      At least they have decided on a Gnomenclature.

      and so on...

  • How To Tweak GNOME 3 (Score:4, Informative)

    by supersloshy ( 1273442 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @05:57PM (#35739068)

    I wrote a blog post all about how to tweak GNOME 3's hidden settings to be more like how you want it to be. You can read it at my blog, here [wordpress.com]. To summarize, I explain how to go back to GNOME 2, install extensions, change themes, and much more. However, I do want to note that I don't even use my own tips; GNOME 3 so far has been nearly perfect for me and I see very little need to change the settings I mention, or even use any extensions. In fact, I wrote another blog post [wordpress.com] detailing the 10 things that I love about GNOME 3 in a sort of mini-review.

    To summarize my latter post, I love how GNOME 3 "puts me in the driver's seat". There's no annoying, blinking lights, there's no "are you sure?" dialogs, the design is minimalist and takes up very little screen space, and it only gives me things like the window list, application list, and even notifications when I explicitly ask for them. If I don't want notifications I just mark myself as "busy" and check up on them at my leisure. If I want to switch a window I just tap the Windows key and click the one I want; fast and simple! Yes, that's "one more step", but it takes barely any more time than any persistent window list would take up (and less screen space, too). I love how easy and fast searching for applications and places in the Activities search bar is (you don't even need to click it; just start typing!), which gives it a GNOME Do vibe. Regardless of the search, I also love how easy it is to launch applications with the favorites list on the dashboard. GNOME 3 lets me add extensions as well just like any modern web browser so I can customize it or add features as I choose. No other desktop combines empowerment, distraction-free working, extensibility, and simplicity like GNOME 3 does and I have to say that it is the greatest desktop environment I've ever had the pleasure of working with so far. Even better, it looks like it will only get more awesome as time goes on!

    Congrats, GNOME team, for your amazing work! :)

    • by arose ( 644256 )
      Do you know if the ability to show all workspaces at once is gone for good? That was the best part about the earlier gnome-shell previews.
      • Just press the activities key (Windows/Super/Meta) and move your mouse to the right. All of them are right there, and they auto-generate when you need more. If you need to move a window to another workspace, just click and drag. Double-click the workspace to zoom in or click the specific window you want. You can also scroll the workspaces using the mouse wheel on the workspaces list (very handy) or dragging the middle of the screen up or down (useful for touch screens). Don't forget that you can switch work

        • by arose ( 644256 )
          What I loved was the ability to see all windows at once, seems like I'll have to keep better track of which workspaces I put them on now.
          • by Nutria ( 679911 )

            What I loved was the ability to see all windows at once

            But that's too complicated. You're too stupid to use that function.

            • by arose ( 644256 )
              It's probably more related to how much space windows in workspaces takes up. I expect options to be added over the next few dot versions, just how GNOME works.
        • by jedidiah ( 1196 )

          > Just press the activities key

          In other words its more Mac wannabe nonsense that doesn't actually work better in practice.

        • by Nutria ( 679911 )

          Just press the activities key (Windows/Super/Meta) and move your mouse to the right.

          And those of us who are physically disabled and can only use one hand?

          • You do know how GNOME Shell works, right? Click the activities button or flick your mouse to the top left. The Windows key is just a keyboard shortcut to that.

    • by O(+inf) ( 2033618 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @06:58PM (#35739584)

      To summarize my latter post, I love how GNOME 3 "puts me in the driver's seat".

      My problem with GNOME 3 is that it does put you into the driver's seat alright - that of a train on a single track.

      • it does put you into the driver's seat alright - that of a train on a single track.

        Hint: the passive voice was used in the summary.

        We've taken a pretty different approach in the GNOME 3 design that focuses on the desired experience and lets the interface design follow from that

        Well, the experience desired by whom? Me? Well, no GNOME developer ever asked me. I bet they didn't ask you either. I think they just sat around and discussed among themselves what users should want, and then created whatever they decided people should want.

        FVWM FTW :-)

    • by techno-vampire ( 666512 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @07:30PM (#35739840) Homepage
      To summarize my latter post, I love how GNOME 3 "puts me in the driver's seat".

      That's not what I see in your review. What I see is a new interface that's designed with the assumption that there's One True Way to configure a desktop and that there's no reason to let mere users decide for themselves how they want things to work. As an example, that "feature" of showing the desktop when you move the mouse to the top right corner of the desktop is the first thing I got rid of when I started using Compiz because I personally find it obnoxious and repellent. If this is how you want your desktop to look and work, enjoy the new Gnome. Personally, I'm in the process of abandoning Gnome altogether and moving both my laptop and desktop to XFCE.

      That, I might add, is one of the reasons I use Linux, not Windows: when Microsoft comes out with a new "look and feel" for Windows, you have no choice but to learn how to use it; with Linux, if you don't like one DE, you're free to try a different one.

      • showing the desktop when you move the mouse to the top right corner of the desktop

        Correction: showing the activities overlay when you move the mouse to the top left corner of the desktop.

        What I see is a new interface that's designed with the assumption that there's One True Way to configure a desktop and that there's no reason to let mere users decide for themselves how they want things to work

        GNOME 3 is not perfect, neither is any DE. You do realize that it is configurable, yes? Because it doesn't provide every single configuration option in the world is no reason to dislike a desktop environment. Acting like GNOME 3 is not configurable or extensible whatsoever, which is contrary to the System Settings menu and the blog post I linked to, is just illogical and trollish. You know that there's A

    • by Nutria ( 679911 )

      There's no annoying, blinking lights, there's no "are you sure?" dialogs, the design is minimalist and takes up very little screen space

      Setting the gnome panel to Autohide gives me as clean a desktop as one could imagine.

      The "stuff" in my (slightly) customized GNOME 2.x desktop is where I like it, and the mouse movement, keyboard clicks and "eye movements" are What I Expect. Same with FireFox 4: even after customizing it as much as possible, there's still stuff that's *different* that what my muscles have been trained to do since Netscape 2.0.

      GNOME 2.3x and FF 3.6 *work* the way that I've become accustomed to using a *desktop*. Which isn'

    • by epyT-R ( 613989 ) on Thursday April 07, 2011 @12:23AM (#35741418)

      like kde 4, windows vista/7 and osx, it suffers from web 2.0 syndrome:
      1. useless extra borders, huge icons with lots of space between them. computers are tools, not art museums. no, not a false dichotomy as it's possible to make an efficient space look decent. the problems come when the artists and marketers get free reign over interface design and coherence.

      2. searching for everything? god I hate this garbage. It's a lot easier to just know where the icon is and click it. I don't want to search for every god damned thing on my computer when I want to use it. this 'feature' is just a crutch for a shitty launch interface. I always turn that indexing garbage off no matter what OS I use because it's always indexing when I'm trying to do something intensive that it's useless heuristics assume isn't 'that' intensive. please stop. just stop.. do things when I tell you to do them. if I want something automated, I'll automate it.. leave the feature in if you like just leave it off by default, thanks.

      3. useless animations.. Instant response is important and should be expected from computers clocking at microwave frequencies. if your bloated OS/app/desktop environment lags on a modern desktop, you're doing it wrong.

      4. the final thing. tons of extra clicks. why? every new desktop env seems to take longer to configure to a usable state, longer to get at the software and files I need, and more difficult to back up in such a way that I know I got my data and (here's the hard part) my custom configurations stored in a way so that when I have to format, I don't have to work that hard restoring everything. then there's the little bits of functionality spread all over the place syndrome. all modern interfaces suffer from this.. gnome 3 is no different.

  • by pushing-robot ( 1037830 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @06:01PM (#35739094)

    "With any luck you will feel more focused, aware, effective, capable, respected, delighted, and at ease."

    So... they're outsourcing their marketing to Taiwan?

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Respected? Right. "The reason we take away all the UI for configuring options is because we respect you. It certainly wouldn't be because we feel you're too dumb to decide how you want your own desktop configured or because we worry that users, if left to themselves, might configure their software to work the mundane way they want it rather than the superior way we UI elite have envisioned."

  • by Ritz_Just_Ritz ( 883997 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @06:08PM (#35739158)

    Changing the user experience for the sake of "changing the user experience" doesn't do it for me. Gnome3 is a downgrade for me and a nudge to check out KDE.

    I guess you can't please all the people all the time, but this effort is headed in the wrong direction.

    Best,

    • by geekoid ( 135745 )

      nothing says wrong direction then trying to create a better user experience.
      Oh noes! he might check out KDE! quick appease the power user, appease HIM!

      Why haven't you checked it out already? I'm not saying its better or worse, but in most environment I have used it's pretty easy to set up Gnome and KDE.

    • by Draek ( 916851 )

      You hate changing the user experience for the sake of changing the user experience, so you'll change your user experience to a completely different one that doesn't even pay lip service to the one you switched from, and which recently changed the user experience for the sake of changing the user experience as well.

      Your logic is astounding.

    • You do realize that GNOME 3 has an extensive design history [gnome.org], yes? They did lots of usability testing, and just because the interface isn't exactly "familiar" does not instantly mean that they changed it for the sake of change. Please, do some research next time and read the GNOME Shell design documents.

      • by epyT-R ( 613989 )

        just because lots of idiots use-curves peak the annoyance factors of bad guis below their conscious perceptions, doesn't mean new-guis are superior to what came before. change for the sake of change is not always better.

      • by fwarren ( 579763 )

        The people at Coke had done extensive testing. In a blind taste test, New Coke beat Classic Coke hands down. Every time, by a wide margin. But "Which one tastes better" was the wrong question to ask. As it turns out the correct question was, "do you like the taste of this "new coke" so well that it would be ok with you if we made "classic coke" go away, forever, so that the Coke you grew up with as a kid and your parents, and grandparents and great grandparents loved was never to bee seen again?" While the

  • I just noticed that on gnome.org it says "Hosted by Canonical" at the bottom. Isn't it great how they're getting along, what with all the drama? :)

    • I just noticed that on gnome.org it says "Hosted by Canonical" at the bottom. Isn't it great how they're getting along, what with all the drama? :)

      Yes, it is. Of course, I notice that there's no Ubuntu release on their download page ...

  • by Duncan J Murray ( 1678632 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @06:12PM (#35739196) Homepage

    I am all for rethinking the desktop paradigm, but I'm not sure whether Gnome 3 is a complete rethink or a desperate attempt to break out of the Windows 95 mould (which I think most linux users, given the popularity of mint and pclinuxos, would grudgingly admit is a sensible way of organising a desktop).

    When I moved from Win XP to Gnome 2, I appreciated the rapid access the upper and lower bars gave me to applications, places, open applications, control of access, desktop, shortcuts, other panels and a full calendar - something that greatly improved productivity. Gone were the days of clicking on the same spot in the lower left, and then trying to manoeuvre your mouse around the nested menu upon menu just to find the setting or application you were after, which often led to the mouse losing focus and frustration all round. I feel like Gnome 3 is a step back in this regard, channelling almost all operations through the same spot in the corner could create exactly the same sort of inefficiency and bottleneck.

    When I can get Gnome 3 to work properly on my setup, and give it a go for a decent period of time, maybe I'll change my mind. But I think it's more likely I'll find the answer to my own question, and realise that the problem is Linux struggling to clearly define it's niche and uniqueness between Mac OS X and Windows 7.

    • Complacency. Gnome users haven't had to re-learn their desktop in a while, and the devs are helpfully breaking those users out of their rut.

    • by Haeleth ( 414428 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @08:01PM (#35740066) Journal

      the Windows 95 mould (which I think most linux users, given the popularity of mint and pclinuxos, would grudgingly admit is a sensible way of organising a desktop).

      No, it's a dreadful way of organising a desktop. The "start button" design buries applications deep in menus miles away from wherever your mouse is. The task bar view of running programs manages to display minimal information while also lacking any spatial element that might help you find the window you're looking for. The icons-on-desktop design puts all your files and shortcuts in the single least accessible place on your screen. Etc.

      In all honesty, Windows 95's interface was terrible. It managed to be a step back from Windows 3 in many respects. It caught on because Windows 95 was so much better in every other way. It has stuck around because Windows acquired a monopoly and the entire business world would scream blue murder if Microsoft tried anything radical. And Linux distributions that copy it are only popular because it is familiar. People really do prefer the devil they know.

      I'm not claiming GNOME 3 is the solution. I haven't tried it yet, and what I've read has not sounded very appealing. But I will give them credit for trying, just like I gave KDE credit for trying even though I'm not a great fan of their interface either.

      Shakeups like this are essential. If you only ever go for incremental improvements, you will at best find a local maximum. Your chance of finding the best solution increases if you try radically new ideas. And putting them out as concepts that nobody every really uses won't get us anywhere either -- interfaces can only be evaluated properly if they are forced into mainstream distributions and real people actually make an effort to use them for real things. It has to be this way. This is a good thing. Honest.

      • by lennier ( 44736 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @08:38PM (#35740354) Homepage

        In all honesty, Windows 95's interface was terrible. It managed to be a step back from Windows 3 in many respects.

        Interesting. I have a contrary opinion: to me, Windows 95 was the high-water mark of Microsoft's interface design and got some things right which everyone else - 2000s-era Microsoft included - have been strugging to even understand since.

        Granted, the cascading Start Menu was horrible. But that can be fixed. The underlying "a shortcut on the menu is just a desktop shortcut inside a Menu folder" architecture was a stroke of utter genius, one GNOME completely failed to get. They had to create two incompatible kinds of launchers, and make it near-impossible to edit menus, or to drag one to the other. Why? The Win 95 way was so perfect.

        The taskbar, too, is something that was brilliant compared to the Dock or anything else: an area that could show you at a glance where all your currently running stuff is. Yes, it's simplistic, and needs to be expanded - but the basic idea of dividing the screen into separate permanently-there areas, one which gives you an overview, one which gives you a closeup, was awesome. The big win of the Start Button is that (unless you really mess with things) it's always there in a known location. Same principle as Apple's menu (possibly they couldn't just do that because of look-and-feel patents? they were still a big deal in the mid-90s).

        What I'd like is an interface which lets me extend this principle, to let me create user-defined fixed 'trays' in various parts of my desktop where I can guarantee that windows can't spill out of. For a while I thought Gnome's panels were going to be this, and I loved having one at the top and one at the bottom, one for menu and one for taskbar, but knowing that under the hood they were just identical instances of Panel.

        I think the ultimate desktop still will be document-oriented - something like a Zoomable User Interface - rather than application-oriented, but we seem to have abandoned the quest for this and keep iterating on tiny visual variations of a half-finished underlying architecture, but now with the added pain that the user can't change the visual look and feel anymore. This seems like going in precisely the wrong direction. I'm at a loss to understand why this is. If we'd invested half the effort that's gone into force-feeding rigid visual look-and-feels onto an unwilling userbase, instead into creating an underlying architecture that seriously splits the look and feel from the underlying data and lets the userbase create and remix their own 'look' while the application developers can focus on the data processing - wouldn't we be a lot further ahead?

        tldr: I don't want application designers telling me how to organise my desktop. I want them to give me the tools that let me organise my desktop however I want. But they're not. Why?

    • Here is the GNOME 3 Design History page [gnome.org]. In short, they wanted to get rid of the hacked-together nature of GNOME 2 while innovating at the same time. They wanted a more integrated desktop that didn't get in your way, and for the most part it succeeds :)

  • 'With any luck you will feel more focused, aware, effective, capable, respected, delighted, and at ease.'" ... "Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? " -- Dirty Harry

    • I know what you're thinking. "Did he apply six patches or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is Windows, the most pwned O/S in the world, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
  • Is the new page for GTK2 docs [gnome.org] a horrible textvomit for anyone else? Did they break this specifically for this release?
  • Gnome 3 and 4 will be held until the ransom is paid.

  • It looks like they decided to stop copying Apple indirectly by copying Windows, and start directly mimicking Apple's OS X. The universal search, the dock, and the integrated settings all look like OS X, without the fancy quartz graphics.

  • Slow news day...

  • I look forward to using this new version of GNOME sometime around 2014.

"To take a significant step forward, you must make a series of finite improvements." -- Donald J. Atwood, General Motors

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