GNOME 3.6 Released 230
kthreadd writes "Gnome 3.6 is out. The announcement reads: 'The GNOME Project is proud to present GNOME 3.6, the third update to the 3.x series. This latest version of GNOME 3 includes a number of new features and enhancements, as well as many bug fixes and minor improvements. Together, they represent a significant upgrade to the GNOME 3 user experience.' Andreas Nilsson, President of the GNOME Foundation, said: 'The GNOME Foundation is proud to present this latest GNOME release, and I would like to congratulate the GNOME community on its achievement.' He described the release as 'an important milestone in our mission to bring a free and open computing environment to everyone.' New applications include Clocks and Boxes. Clocks is a world time clock, which allows you to keep an eye on what the local time is around the world. Boxes allows you to connect to other machines, either virtual or remote. For developers there's the new GtkLevelBar widget in GTK+, and GtkEntry can now use Pango attributes."
Happily running KDE (Score:3, Interesting)
Happily running KDE. Stable, pretty, highly configurable, defaults require minimal tweaking by me, just does the job. Kubuntu introduces some minor blemishes but survivable. Had to run Windows for a few days, was impressed what a poor experience it is compared to KDE. Just one of many annoying Windows habits: likes to wake up from sleep in the middle of the night and nag me about spending money on McAffey and Norton. Likes to shut down without asking instead of sleep if I make the tinyiest miss with the mouse. Like to reboot a lot. Sometimes just acts strange until rebooted. Argh.
obligatory comments (Score:5, Interesting)
<sarcasm>
GNOME 3 is the worst desktop ever!
Actually, Unity is even worse!
This is why Linux on the desktop will never succeed!
GNOME 2 was the only decent Linux desktop!
I haven't seriously used Linux for 10 years, but I know that my Mac is 1000x better in all possible ways!
</sarcasm>
Personally, I'm looking forward to checking out the new GNOME.
Re:After years (Score:4, Interesting)
And good network-transparent file managers (and file dialogs). And a wallet to remember your passports. And desktop search, and integrated utilities. And app launchers more clever than xterm, and the magic that is alt-F2 with launchers. Seriously, under KDE, you can do "Alt-F2 ; =1V*1A" and it answers 1W. How cool is that ?
Re:Don't waste your time with GNOME 3.6 (Score:5, Interesting)
I abandoned Ubuntu after it incorporated Unity. My loss of productivity was too big to continue using it. I was used to a functional desktop with Gnome 2. Gnome 3 is bad enough, but Unity? There is no way in hell I'm sticking with that. Hell, it's so bad I even thought about using Windows, and that's really something for someone who's been using Linux for about 17 years.
I found out Mint, a very nice distro, based on Ubuntu, made by people like me who couldn't stand Ubuntu+Unity. 2 flavores there, one using MATE (a fork of Gnome 2), and another running Cinnamon (a fork of Gnome 3, customized to look and function like Gnome 2).
I'm really happy after the switch. I'm back to having a functional desktop. I still miss Compiz for some stuff (screen glitches and some things missing), but I can live without it. I'm not going back to Ubuntu, or "upgrading" to Gnome 3.x.
After being bashed by so many people, I really don't know what Gnome devs got on their minds. We used to have something wonderful, and they stick going in the wrong direction (IMO, of course).
Typical Douchebags out in force (Score:2, Interesting)
When I'm not on OS X my Linux boxes are happily testing and running KDE 4.8.2 and GNOME 3.4.2 from Debian. I look forward to 3.6 and especially the day I can modify the magnetic attraction to the upper left corner that takes control of my mouse when moving menu windows and I happen to miss. I also look forward to being able to not have my applications always launch and position themselves upper left (0,0) [relative to the menu top bar] of Gnome which often has me dealing with the mouse flying up and bringing out the hidden list of application options. I cannot effin' stand KDE's little widget approach--embarrassing relative to OS X, and it's Plasma puke all over the desktop environment so I reduce it's presence to the limit allowed.
The experience for both is different but grow on you. GNOME 2.x is overtly dated and always looked like an aborted version of the old Mac OS desktop. WindowMaker reminds me of how little people understand NeXTSTEP and what Keith Ohlfs and the Graphics Team at NeXT did to make it.
When Debian gets around to KDE 4.9.x I hope it's more refined because there are many areas [System Settings for example] that are just garbage, especially the toxic multimedia settings section
Personal experience with both Gnome3 and KDE (Score:4, Interesting)
Many of us are aware of KDE's strengths.. for me, configurability, familiarity, visual appeal, stability and speed. One can make the interface visually dense and informative. Scrolling cpu/memory/network stats, rotating yawp weather reports, and various application status indicators are on my desktop.
Gnome3 removes me from this. I love the way it dynamically manages the virtual desktops, and the clean 'distraction-free' environment. I feel like I can reach 'flow' easier here. Simply hitting the 'windows' key or snapping the mouse to the top-left corner to visually see the desktops and their running applications, dragging my emacs or xterm sessions around as needed. It gives me a different and visual way to logically organize and partition the tasks at hand. Yes, KDE and Unity both support these features, too, but in my experience they're not quite as clean. Also, Gnome3's notifications system is brilliant, and I'm looking forward to the enhancements found in 3.6.
While many of the complaints of Gnome3 are valid, I do appreciate that Gnome has had the courage to try something different and controversial. It works for me.
Re:Don't waste your time with GNOME 3.6 (Score:5, Interesting)
I abandoned Ubuntu after it incorporated Unity. My loss of productivity was too big to continue using it.
I don't have a problem with Unity. It works well enough to install Kubuntu, which I do immediately, then I can sit back with popcorn and watch the Unity devs continue on their voyage of discovery. I'm even willing to admit that Unity has some cool ideas, provided I'm not forced to use it. From time to time I log into it and play around a bit, then go back to KDE pretty soon. Which does exactly what I want in exactly the way I want to do it.
Re:So much hatred for it... (Score:4, Interesting)
Have you looked at the direction Gnome kept after 3.0? As TFA speaks about 3.6, Nautilus changes are a prime example. They break four things for one being fixed.
Re:I have been using it for awhile (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess I expected more from /. . Somehow I remember the desktop/editor/distro flamewars being a bit more technical in nature. Maybe that's just me looking at the past with rose colored glasses. Either way, it makes me feel old.