GNOME 3.8 Released Featuring New "Classic" Mode 267
Hot on the heels of the Gtk+ 3.8 release comes GNOME 3.8. There are a few general UI improvements, but the highlight for many is the new Classic mode that replaces fallback. Instead of using code based on the old GNOME panel, Classic emulates the feel of GNOME 2 through Shell extensions (just like Linux Mint's Cinnamon interface). From the release notes: "Classic mode is a new feature for those people who prefer a more traditional desktop experience. Built entirely from GNOME 3 technologies, it adds a number of features such as an application menu, a places menu and a window switcher along the bottom of the screen. Each of these features can be used individually or in combination with other GNOME extensions."
Re:So, they heard the complaints... (Score:3, Insightful)
Sadly, the KDE experience had a SEVERE problem when they "upgraded" Kmail. The import was severely broken and for several days I was simply unable to get email at all until I have up on kmail (having used it since KDE 1.x days!) and switched to Thunderbird. It's not bad, but I sorely wish I could go back to Kmail on KDE 3.
Yes, I like now mostly like KDE4 and it's finally stabilized to something I don't mind much, but they've lost me for years when it comes to trusting my data.
Re:Too late (Score:4, Insightful)
You're like an Ubuntu user that shuns Debian.
Re:So, they heard the complaints... (Score:2, Insightful)
...and did something about it that didn't ruin their code base. Kudos Gnome Team. I kinda like the KDE they forced me to try with their second-to-latest abortion, but I'll give Gnome 3.8 a try.
I still don't understand what all the hullaballoo is about, I like the new Gnome 3 interface. I can use the search tool to locate and/or launch practically anything I need which means that I am blessedly rid of that horrid Winodows-esque Applications button with it's sub-menus and endless click paths. Now I just hit the search button with my thumb, type app name, hit return and my app launches. Since I got a keyboard with an integrated trackpad I could also dump that useless bloody mouse so now I hardly ever have to take my hand off the keyboard. I only use the trackpad to reposition the cursor, move/resize windows and click buttons and that I can do with the thumb or index finger of my right hand.
Re:So, they heard the complaints... (Score:1, Insightful)
You always could launch applications with a keyboard: it's called the command line.
Now, I'm a big fan of the command line. I'm a sysadmin, after all. But when I use a mouse, I want to use a friggen mouse and not have to touch the keyboard to guess at the name of the application I'm trying to find.
Gnome 3 is a fucking disaster. Their attempts to fix it have come too late; I've switched to XFCE, and I don't trust the Gnome team not to do something brain-dead again in the future.
with it's sub-menus and endless click paths.
You do know that the Gnome 2 menu only ever went two levels deep, right? That's hardly endless.
Re:So, they heard the complaints... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So, they heard the complaints... (Score:5, Insightful)
Change for change's sake is hardly progress. When I have to search for a damned TERMINAL window, one of the more used things in Linux, it's pretty damned sad. Why must I remember the name of every app I might want to use? Why can I not be given a selection of apps so that I can find that one I use least often who's name escapes me? Why must I be trapped in a Win8 like HELL trying to use my computer?
Sorry, the "new" Gnome sucked ass and I along with MANY others avoid it like the plague. Enough apparently that the Gnome team heard the cries of agony and gave us a way to, in theory, alleviate the damned pain. Should that not be evidence enough that it was a bad damned UI decision?!
Re:Does the fallback pager include little previews (Score:5, Insightful)
Why should he have to go hunt for something that was a standard feature since about 1995?
Re:So, they heard the complaints... (Score:5, Insightful)
1. having search boxes on menus and windows is just a crutch. the whole point is to see what you're looking for in a graphically intuitive way. Adding search boxes is just admitting the design sucks.
2. Hotkeys easily make window/menu based search boxes redundant, but if you want a keyboard only experience, just dump your gui entirely and run applications from the shell, using xinit when you need a gui application. bash and its brothers are a lot more powerful than some idiotic 'semantic' search box.
Re:So, they heard the complaints... (Score:5, Insightful)
I realize justifying change for its own sake based on emotional needs is the current trend, but it's led us to interfaces that are frustrating to use for even the most basic tasks. Things like pointless whitespace, huge, low density text, extra clicking/dragging/touching/searching, and long winded, laggy animations and transitions do little but add stress and time to the process of getting things done. For example, what the hell happened to the basic control panel, with simple, logically named areas and which contained the whole sum of just about anything that 99% of users would want to tweak? The windows 2k/xp control panel was nothing to write home about, but compared with the overdesigned crapola that's in vista/7, it's a godsend. This is not better. It's worse.
Perhaps it's time to demote the 'designers' a bit in development hierarchies as these people obviously care more about appearance and bottom barrel 'accessibility' than capability and efficiency. In fact, many of those up and coming people you mentioned have trouble with the new designs as well. It's just that fewer and fewer of them have relevant experience with the traditional menu-in-a-corner+modeless window desktop to compare the two. It's fine to keep the interface simple for fixed function devices like media players or ATMs, but workstations are different as they're used for complex, user-defined workflows. These cannot really be optimized for. Attempts to do so cause more problems than they solve. The people who do want their interfaces on rails really don't need workstations in the first place.
It's not just gnome that suffers from this. Microsoft, apple, and google are guilty as well. In their race to the bottom, they're not differentiating at the top, where innovation happens.
Re:So, they heard the complaints... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not sure that's true - plenty of folks such as myself had the hardware that could run it but barfed when we saw it and hated it. This had little to do with apps, my apps ran on it but finding them or finding apps who's name I couldn't recall was a joke. I hated the experience and I stopped using it - simple as that. In fact of the Linux users I know all of them, in unison, pretty much tell me they HATE Unity and recommend everything from Kbuntu to Mint to other options just to get rid of it. Hell I've still got a box on 10.04 just so I don't have to deal with this mess of a UI.
Re:So, they heard the complaints... (Score:5, Insightful)
So we're back to playing "guess the verb"? Is it called a "console", a "command prompt", a "shell", or a "terminal"?
Re:So, they heard the complaints... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So, they heard the complaints... (Score:2, Insightful)
1. having search boxes on menus and windows is just a crutch. the whole point is to see what you're looking for in a graphically intuitive way. Adding search boxes is just admitting the design sucks.
No, it isn't. How do you meaningfully represent the thousands of different things? As it is, the Gnome and Unity app menus with masses of identical little boxes is confusing enough.
You don't walk into a shop and point at stuff behind the counter and say "that" "that" "that" to get it, you ask the person for what you want.