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GNOME GUI

Gnome 2.0 RC1 314

Posted by michael from the fever-when-you-kiss-me-fever-when-you-hold-me-tight dept.
lurgyman writes "The GNOME Desktop 2.0 release candidate 1 has been released! It looks like it's finally on schedule for its projected June 21 release." The release notes have some good information.
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Gnome 2.0 RC1 More

Gnome 2.0 RC1

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  • Well, if we have a GNOME 2.0 release candidate, maybe it's time to finally ditch XP. What do you think, is there any reason for anyone to still own that anti-privacy OS anymore, or should we just make do with Win2K so we can play some games?
    • Or just buy a Dreamcast...

      A real steal...typically $50 for the system, and a controller. Games run $10-$20. Of course, if you can find theme, there are always the loki ports.
      • Check out Best Buy and GameStop - they're clearing out their Dreamcast inventory, and if you do some scouring, you can pick up lots of stuff. I've picked up 5 games so far for $5 apiece, and some extra controllers to bank for when my current ones die. The only games I've seen that are still in the $40 - $50 range are recent sports titles.

    • Yeah, I thought gnome 1 was pretty nice -- except for the time i logged in and my gnome panel refused to start -- kinda annoying. But i'm *sure* they fixed such things by now.

      PS: Just wondering if someone can actually try this before saying it is better than windows XP or just leave god damn windows out of the discussion. Don't praise something by defecating on something else.

    • With warcraft3 comming out in a couple of weeks, I won't be ditching windows for a while.

      The audio production I do also makes me stick with windows, as well as IE.
      • The audio production I do also makes me stick with windows, as well as IE.

        Since when does Warcraft III and audio production require IE? IE sucks and you could be using Opera or Mozilla on windows at the very least.

        • Re:time to ditch Microserf XP? (Score:1, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward
          You're a tool if you think IE sucks. Anyone who uses something other than IE on windows is forcing himself out of ideology or something, not because it's better.
          • Or maybe someone uses something other that IE on windows because they need CSS1 to render properly in their browser. The only release of IE that I've seen come close to getting CSS1 right is IE 5 for the Mac.
          • While I think IE is a great browser and have used it for years, I recently started using Mozilla and love it. The main reasons I'm using it are:

            1) I find it faster.
            2) I like the tabbed browsing.

            I highly recommend giving it a go. And even if you don't like it, realize that it has benefits and some people (not all) choose it not because it's Non-Microsoft, but because they find it provides a better browsing experience.
      • Well, warcraft 3 hasn't even been released yet but it works perfectly in WineX (or at least the betas did).
    • ...more than just niche companies are writing desktop applications for it. Your video games comment illustrated the point nicely. I personally believe that KDE3 is superior to windows, and with any luck GNOME2 will be as well (downloading it now). Yet I still run a system with windows 2000 on it so I can play video games.

      I have, through my years of computer experience felt the pain of using the better product despite it's lack of broad acceptance. I started off with an Atari 800, and then later worked on an Atari 1040ST. For their respective times both of these computers offered exceptional value over what else existed. The only problem was the market share problem; not enough people writing software to make them worth using.

      So, expect to be paying the Microsoft tax for some time to come to use certain pieces of software...
  • GNOME 2.0 Desktop Release Candidate 1: "Fever Pitch"

    The GNOME 2.0 Desktop Release Candidate 1, "Fever Pitch", is ready for your
    bug-busting and testing pleasure! It is available for immediate download
    here:

    http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/pre-gnome2/releases / nome-2.0-desktop-rc1/

    The GNOME 2.0 Desktop is a greatly improved user environment for existing
    GNOME applications. Enhancements include anti-aliased text and first class
    internationalisation support, new accessibility features for disabled users,
    and many improvements throughout GNOME's highly regarded user interface.

    Progress

    The following tarballs have been updated since last week's snapshot release:

    at-spi, eel, eog, esound, gail, GConf, gdm, gedit2, gnome-applets,
    gnome-desktop, gnome-games, gnome-media, gnome-mime-data, gnome-panel,
    gnome-session, gnome-system-monitor, gnome-terminal, gnome-utils,
    gnome-vfs, libgail-gnome, libgnome, libgnomecanvas, libgnomeui, libgtop,
    librep, libwnck, libzvt, nautilus, rep-gtk, sawfish, yelp

    Testing the GNOME 2.0 Desktop

    Binary packages and build scripts have been contributed to make installation
    and testing of the GNOME 2.0 Desktop simpler.

    Debian:

    The following sources.list line will allow you to install the latest
    experimental packages. Please see the debian-gtk-gnome list for more
    information about these releases.

    deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian ../project/experimenta l main

    GARNOME: http://www.gnome.org/~jdub/garnome/

    GARNOME downloads and builds from released tarballs. It includes a
    number of ported applications and utilities, and is designed to be a
    distribution of GNOME rather than an updater.

    jhbuild: http://cvs.gnome.org/lxr/source/jhbuild/README

    jhbuild builds directly from CVS, and includes required developer tools.
    It handles dependencies and errors gracefully, to minimise build time
    and frustration.

    vicious-build-scripts: http://cvs.gnome.org/lxr/source/vicious-build-scri pts/README

    v-b-s builds directly from CVS, and includes required developer tools
    such as autoconf, gettext, etc.

    Ximian Red Carpet Snapshots: (See the GMOME2 Snapshots Channel in Red Carpet.)

    Binary packages for Red Hat 7.2 and 7.3 are available from Ximian's Red
    Carpet. These are built nightly from CVS snapshots.

    Build Requirements

    - The tarballs included in the release. :-)

    - Some very basic packages not distributed with this release, such as
    image libraries, popt and freetype. These should all be included with or
    available for your distribution.

    - Python 2 with expat xml modules for libglade (some modules still require
    the libglade-convert script, however we do plan to ship glade2 files).

    - Docbook DTD 4.1.2, Docbook XSL stylesheets and a valid system catalogue
    file for scrollkeeper (which in turn is required by many desktop
    components for documentation).

    - You need recent GNOME 1.4 developer platform packages if you plan to
    install the GNOME 2.0 platform libraries alongside 1.4.

    A dependency graph for the developer platform and desktop release is
    available on the dot.plan website:

    http://developer.gnome.org/dotplan/notes/

    Testers

    If you have incredible talents at breaking GNOME, perhaps even to rival
    Telsa's infamous path of destruction (and excellent bug reporting of said
    path), this release is made for you!

    When reporting bugs, use http://bugzilla.gnome.org/ or bug-buddy. Make sure
    you choose the correct version number, as reports against particular
    versions are easier to triage reports against unspecified releases.

    Before submitting a bug report, try running the software from your terminal
    to see if it provides extra information, and please make sure that you build
    everything with full debugging support.

    Bug Squad

    Whether you're testing GNOME 2.0 or not, you can still help out with the bug
    busting efforts by triaging and tracking bugs in bugzilla. Join the bugsquad
    mailing list, and hang out on #bugs (on irc.gnome.org) to get involved -
    Thursday is always bug-busting day!

    http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-bugsq uad/

    For help with bugzilla accounts, email bugmaster@gnome.org.

    Distributors

    This release is not intended for inclusion in distributions. However, binary
    packages for bleeding edge testers on your platform are very welcome. Please
    email the release team if you have built
    packages for your platform.

    Hackers

    When reporting bugs is simply not enough, and you'd prefer to make your own
    (or, indeed, fix the ones you find), this release is also made for you!
    Have a look through bugzilla or the TODO file included with many modules,
    and make sure to send your patches to the maintainers via the appropriate
    mailing list, or bugzilla.

    Happy testing!

    - The GNOME 2.0 Release Team
  • Its times like this, when I really *HATE* having Dial-Up,

    alas there is no alternative out here in the stix.

  • great, now all the big distros are going to scramble to put out another release to include this. *sigh*

    oh for a stable desktop!
    • Who holds a gun to your head and forces you to upgrade?
      If you think it's too unstable, don't download it!

      • Re:again?? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by ArsonSmith ( 13997 )
        Nobody is holding a gun to anyone over this, but it does look bad when distrobutions are releaseing versions constantly.

        By stable I don't the the original poster ment how often things crash but more likely how much things change from version to version. I would agree with him/her entirely with that idea. The problem with current open source desktop software is that it is playing a lot of catchup. People are use to all the "features" of MS software and don't think that open source is quality utill it gets all of them.

        This is putting major strees on the desktop developers that the older OS projects didn't have (ie Linux kernel, Apache, Perl, etc...) The all developed slow because the could so everything was over anylized and implemented in near to the best way possible. Desktop software on the other hand has been pumped out as fast as possible with little attention to doing it right. This will work its way out on its own over time, but it is giveing us changeing standards on an almost daily basis.

        I still stand behind my assumption that Linux will be 100% ready to compete with MS software on the desktop in 2005. Maybe not till the end but it will be there. Things at that point will not change as much. 90% of everything will work out of the box. projects like Mozilla and Openoffice will be HUGE players in desktop role out.

        I thikn Linux is ready for the desktop now. Actuall I think it was ready in 1998 when I first started useing it as a full time desktop. I do think that it takes a lot of work that people not interested in doing shouldn't have to do, witch is why I think it will still be ~3 years before it is ready.

        Just my take on the situation.

        • In my opinion by 2005 Linux will have buried MS from the software perspective. I'm basing this opinion on the rate at which Open Source software develops. I've been a 100% Linux person for a year or two now and I'm still constantly amazed at how fast the projects evolve.

          An example would be KDE - I don't use KDE (I prefer FVWM2), but I do occasionally check it out to see how it's progressing and the advances that it's made since v2 are impressive to say the least. What I particularly enjoy is the way that OSS seems to get more efficient and faster with successive releases when MS stuff traditionally gets slower and heavier with successive releases (compare Mozilla 0.96 with 1.1a, or KDE 2 with KDE 3).

          Whether having superior software will be enough to help Linux displace MS in the short-medium term is debatable, but if you're prepared to wait a few years I think the difference in quality is going to become so extreme that short of purchased legislation or major adaptaion on their part MS is doomed to lose it's dominance.

          --
          Andy
          • I think you are pretty much agreeing with me. Although it will take more than just great software to bury MS. Even if MS doesn't try to adapt to open source methods they will easily be around till 2015+, but I think they will adapt and they will be with us for a really long time to come.

            What I did want to point out, because it is makeing a shaky stance for open source, is that in the past, mainly the '80s and '90s, open source was devoloped one feature at a time. For example lets take Apache. First serve static conntent, then serve dynamic content then build a full featured web server. Everything was build slowly and the new was built on the old.

            With the current desktops it was a race to get all the features in as fast as they could. The building process was not as well thought out as the older projects and things were excepted because they were done, not because they were done right.

            Being open source this is really only a short term problem and is really almost completly fixed already. kde3 and gnome2 are going to be very good desktops and they are an excelent start, but I don't think they are that stable yet. Again, not stable on an aplication level (I have had some gnome apps open and running for more than a month at a time at work with only locking my desktop and not logging out.) but the other development things like UI or API and libs and architectures are going to take a little longer to hammer out.

            Although version numbers dont really mean anything and it is completly upto the developers weather it will be or not, but this is my prediction:
            somewhere around 2005 there will be kde5 and gnome5. This will be when updates will only come out ever 1-6 months (because everything is already done and there is only cleanup left). This will be a time when third party developers and more open source developers will be programming for open source than closed by far. And the geeks will rule the world (ha as if we don't already)

    • Huh? (Score:2, Informative)

      by bogie ( 31020 )
      I don't know what distro you use, but as far as Redhat or Debian goes, they pretty much release whenever they feel the product is ready, not when a new desktop comes out. In fact ever time a new Redhat Desktop comes out, everyone whines "why are they realeasing now and not including X with it?". If your distro puts out a new release the day Gnome 2 comes out, I suggest you find a new distro.

      • Re:Huh? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Afrosheen ( 42464 )
        I know exactly what you mean. When Mandrake 8.2 was released a few months ago it came with KDE2.2.2 and Gnome 1.whatever. Alot of people were crying about it because SuSE was promising a later release date so they could include KDE3. Mandrake users are still whining about the lack of KDE3 in the distro. Personally I think it was wise on Mandrake's part. They've been criticized many times for being a little too bleeding edge, and including KDE3.0 would've meant adding an unstable default desktop environment to a new, slicker distro. Big huge mistake.

        Everyone knows that KDE doesn't get good and stable until the dotted releases hit. 3.01 was for bugfixes and 3.1 is coming soon with some extra features. Gnome is the same way AFAIK.

        When maintaining a distro with new stuff coming out daily, I think the hardest decision to make is 'where do you draw the line'. What do you wait for to include or what do you exclude? Tough.
    • now all the big distros are going to scramble to put out another release

      Mandrake 8.2 shipped with KDE 2, but now has an update to KDE 3. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to do the same for GNOME 2. I'd give it a couple of months, though, for testing.

      I don't know that GNOME 2 will drive up too many distro version numbers. It's pretty safe to assume that Red Hat is already working on 8.0 with GCC 3.

  • Is FreeBSD supported out of the box?
    • depends on what you mean out of the box.

      There is /usr/ports/x11/gnome2, which has not yet been updated yet to rc1.
    • There has only been one reported, duplicated BSD-specific bug of which I'm aware[1]. That doesn't mean that there aren't bugs there, but if there are, they aren't really being reported. Sun's porting work has helped portability a great deal, so it all 'should' work- we can't really know if no one has tried, though.

      [1]http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=841 17

  • GARNOME rules.... (Score:4, Informative)

    by reaper20 ( 23396 ) on Friday June 14, 2002 @01:27PM (#3702968) Homepage
    The Garnome part of GNOME is such an underrated program. Without it, I definately would not be using GNOME2 today, I'm not that much of a gearhead.

    Garnome makes it braindead easy to have a GNOME2 desktop ... it also does KDE(!) ... kudos to jeff and the other gnome hackers.

  • Please test it! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 14, 2002 @01:27PM (#3702978)
    Gnome will not be a good product without testing.
    Please don't wait for the final product to come out.
    It is you obligation (ok, maybe not) as a user of "software libre" to contribute something. If you cannot program, you can at least test the stuff on your hardware.

    You would be sureprised at how few tester there are. I have found that if I submit a valid bug, it is fixed quickly. YOUR INPUT COUNTS!

  • screenshots (Score:4, Informative)

    by jglow ( 525234 ) on Friday June 14, 2002 @01:28PM (#3702980) Homepage Journal
    here are some gnome 2.0 (beta) screenshots:

    http://www.gnomedesktop.com/scr/gdb3-1.jpg [gnomedesktop.com]
    http://www.gnomedesktop.com/scr/gdb3-2.jpg [gnomedesktop.com]
    http://www.gnomedesktop.com/scr/gdb3-3.jpg [gnomedesktop.com]
    http://www.gnomedesktop.com/scr/gdb3-4.jpg [gnomedesktop.com]
    http://www.gnomedesktop.com/scr/gdb3.jpg [gnomedesktop.com]
    http://gnomedesktop.com/scr/limebubble.jpg [gnomedesktop.com]
    http://gnomedesktop.com/scr/beta2-8.jpg [gnomedesktop.com]
    • I think they need to boost their bandwidth on that site somewhat..
    • They look foul - what have they done to gnumeric - it is all giant toolbars and no spreadsheet. Where is the pager? I am a gnome user - I hope you can customize it to something better than this.
      • remember, these are beta screenshots... so it the final release might look different.

      • Re:screenshots (Score:4, Insightful)

        by phantomlord ( 38815 ) on Friday June 14, 2002 @02:34PM (#3703507) Journal
        Where is the pager? I am a gnome user - I hope you can customize it to something better than this.

        If you want to use gnome 1.x style viewports, don't switch to gnome 2. Their "usability experts" decided it was too complicated to have both viewports and workspaces so they ripped viewports out, stating tht "we can do the same thing with workspaces". Well, after that, the programmer(s) responsible for that portion of gnome decided that the functionality provided by viewports was extra cruft that they wouldn't implement and everyone would just have to get used to doing things the way they liked it. Gone are the days when gnome offered ultimate flexibility because some usability pinheads know what's best for all of us.

        Not trolling... I've been using gnome for years and downloaded/compiled/installed new gnome 2 tarballs up until the end of april when I got completely frustrated with the lack of progress. Yeah... it's open source so put up my code. I'm just a gnome user - I do have more things to do than work on gnome 2 when gnome 1 does everything that I want already. Alas, as much as I wanted to stay bleeding edge, I'm going to have to wait until the developers start listening to real users rather than "experts" again.

        • Re:screenshots (Score:5, Informative)

          by epukinsk ( 120536 ) on Friday June 14, 2002 @04:50PM (#3704242) Homepage Journal
          The following was posted on desktop-devel-list@gnome.org:
          From: Rui Miguel Silva Seabra
          To: GNOME Desktop Hackers
          Subject: Re: GNOME 2.0.0 Desktop Release Notes Contributions
          Date: 14 Jun 2002 12:37:21 +0100

          A sawfish known issue that people might pointout: viewports are
          ''gone''.
          Suggest adding the following to ~/.sawfishrc
          ;; Get viewports back
          (setq customize-command-classes '(default viewport))

          ;; (setq viewport-dimensions '(NUMBER_OF_COLS . NUMBER_OF_ROWS))
          (setq viewport-dimensions '(6 . 1)) ;; example
          Not only do GNOME developers know this is an issue, there are GNOME developers who want the functionality viewports offer to be a part of GNOME. I wouldn't be surprised to see there be a GConf key that enables viewports in 2.0.1, BUT...

          GNOME 2 developers can't listen to GNOME 2 users unless the users speak directly to them. File a bug in bugzilla.gnome.org. That's the best way to put this request on the developers' plate. And don't just say "RE-ENABLE VIEWPORTS," explain exactly what it is about viewports that you miss... is it that windows can straddle viewports? Is it navigation?

          It's my understanding (after lurking on the gnome lists for a while) that the intention is not to leave viewport users in the dust, but to try to allow viewport users to use workspaces in the same way they used to used viewports. I.e. put a checkbox somewhere that says "allow windows to straddle workspaces" etc.

          But this functionality won't be implemented unless the GNOME developers know people want it. So file a bug. File several bugs, one for each bit of functionality you miss that viewports had.

          -Erik
        • I agree with the parent. Just being vocal about it =)

      • Re:screenshots (Score:5, Informative)

        by Tack ( 4642 ) on Friday June 14, 2002 @03:00PM (#3703654) Homepage
        If you're looking for GNOME 2 screenshots that don't look like barf (and I agree, the ones posted here look hideous), then try these images from Jimmac's site:

        • One [musichall.cz]
        • Two [musichall.cz]
        • Three [musichall.cz] (sexy)
        • Four [musichall.cz]
        • and Five [musichall.cz].

        Jason.

    • It seems slow, here is a mirror:

    • The changes in GNOME2 must be deeper than screenshots can show. Those look rather like enlightenment wanna be shots (to me).

      I think that screenshots have become less and less important as Gnome and KDE have grown. It all looks pretty much the same (or very different with themes). But it really doesn't tell much of the story as far as speed and useability.
  • I wish Gnome would put up some updated screenshots. I guess I'll have to install it myself and make the screenshots myself [isn't that what Open Source is all about? the good angel whispers on my right shoulder].
  • I'm glad to see the release candidate available, but it's actually a week overdue, not ontime.

  • On schedule? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by cow_licker ( 172474 )
    According to this (from the dot.plan):

    June 07 RELEASE - Gnome 2.0 Desktop Release Candidate 1

    They are are a week behind schedule.

  • the only real windowmanager (Score:3, Funny)

    by paradesign ( 561561 ) on Friday June 14, 2002 @01:47PM (#3703157) Homepage
    Aqua [apple.com]

    wipe your drool!

  • Mabey it'll beat duke nukem forever!

  • Some News For You (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If you haven't already tried, gnome 2 and all packages are really sweet. If you are using gnome 1.4 definitely switch. I use a Pentium II 450 w/384mb of ram and gnome 2 flies. Even nautilus 2 is snappy on my old clunker. The windows move around much faster, programs load quicker and everything is really futuristic looking. You can really spruce up the desktop with nautilus themes such as those found on ximian's site. Definitely check it out, KDE is just plain ugly to me (it also feels blocky). Let me emphasize IT'S FAST!
    • If you haven't already tried, gnome 2 and all packages are really sweet.

      I'm waiting to hear from others who are brave enough to do the upgrade. How painful is it? How many days of downtime are we looking at? :-)

      • Re:Some News For You (Score:2, Informative)

        by CMonk ( 20789 )
        I did the upgrade some months ago when Ximian release their first snapshots. For the most part (having not used it in 3 weeks as I moved and have not yet got connected to the net at my new place yet) it's been a VERY positive experience. I've had no down time. Nautilus is actually functional and USEABLE. Gnome now starts up in between 2 and 5 seconds. Everything just seems a little bit "prettier". I haven't had any problems running the older gnome1 apps within gnome2 either. Give it a try, you'll like it.
    • Agree! I just upgraded to Gnome 2.0 on this old 400 Mhz AMD machine and it's *a lot* faster than old Gnome 1.4. I'm no longer deathly afraid to start up Nautilus!

      Good work guys! This release is amazing. I'm still exploring all the new cool features...
      • I noticed KDE2/3 is faster than GNOME v1.4 on my old Pentium II 300 Mhz with Red Hat Linux 7.1 and 384 MB of RAM. How much faster/slower is GNOME v2.0?

        This faster speed than v1.4 is great news for me. I don't use Nautlius in GNOME because of the slowness.

        Thank you in advance. :)

        • gnome 2 is faster. (Score:2, Informative)

          by mr.e ( 182543 )
          Personally i found that kde2.x was generally slower than gnome 1.4, but if you used nautilus then that made gnome1.4 a bit slower than kde. Then i upgraded to redhat 7.3, kde3 feels far slower than kde2.x and gnome1.x, and gnome2 (from the ximian snapshots on redcarpet) is significantly faster than the previous versions of gnome (probably because nautilus2 is really fast) and any version of kde (especially kde3). This is most obvious on my slowest machine, a P2 266 where kde3 is basically unusable, but gnome2 feels pretty responsive - fast enough to use happily.

  • Language supported (Score:1, Redundant)

    by sebol ( 112743 )
    What language supported in gnome2?

    here is the list

    [gnome.org]
    http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gtp/status/g no me-2.0-core/

  • more gnome 2 screenshots (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 14, 2002 @02:29PM (#3703476)
    here you can find some other screenshots of gnome 2, enjoy!
    screenshots [2good.nu]

    pretty, isn't it? ;-)

    just in case you are wondering where those wallpapers come from, I guess some of them are from deskmod [deskmod.com] , or a similar site, but I could be wrong...

  • UI Features? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by king_ ( 143380 ) on Friday June 14, 2002 @02:36PM (#3703522) Homepage

    While I realize this release wasnt supposed to 'look' much different, they still could have taken advantage of new eyecandy availible to x and gtk2. Even kde supports tranparent menus. Besides anti-aliased fonts and alpha blending in widgets, nothing else looks much different. These hackers dont realize the reason why MS and OSX look so professional is for 2 reasons.

    1.) consistancy (yes! we have metathemes, but kde and gnome themes are completly incompatible)
    2.) cool little features like drop shadows on the menus and windows, alpha blending and animations on mouse over widgets or icons, faded menus, transparency, etc....

    As long as there is no inovation, these desktops will never look as good. e17 has the right idea, its a shame that their development process is so slow (no one has enough time to develop on the half written libs they created).

    • Re:UI Features? (Score:5, Informative)

      by IamTheRealMike ( 537420 ) on Friday June 14, 2002 @03:14PM (#3703724)
      While I realize this release wasnt supposed to 'look' much different, they still could have taken advantage of new eyecandy availible to x and gtk2. Even kde supports tranparent menus. Besides anti-aliased fonts and alpha blending in widgets, nothing else looks much different.

      Well like you said, this release is about under the hood changes, much like the difference between Windows 95 and 98 - a lot of good changes, but not really in the visuals department.

      2.) cool little features like drop shadows on the menus and windows, alpha blending and animations on mouse over widgets or icons, faded menus, transparency, etc....

      Drop shadows on menus will have to wait for real transparency, which doesn't rely on taking a screen grab of the underside (which is how current X transparency is implemented, it means once blended it'll get out of date). This doesn't exist in X yet, but will once Keith Packard has finished his transparency server. I wish I knew when this would be.

      Animations on mouse over widgets and icons is implemented in KDE3, so I dunno why GNOME doesn't have it either - guess it's just priorities. For faded menus, I guess you mean transparent menus, see above. In fact, that list basically comes down to "transparency". It's coming. Hold tight.

      Meanwhile, here is a shot of GNOME that actually looks good [2good.nu]. And look - the terminal is transparent. Happy now?

  • An appeal from a would-be applications hacker (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Speare ( 84249 ) on Friday June 14, 2002 @02:49PM (#3703598) Homepage Journal

    Whatever the GNOME team is planning after GNOME2 is release, I make one solemn plea from the point of view of many would-be app hackers out there:

    • Please please please!
    • Let GNOME2 stabilize for at least 18mo before anyone mentions a push to "port" anything to Gtk3 or GNOME3 or anything.
    • Let newcomers to the API get used to the API, and to get nontrivial code written which uses it.
    • Let the existing API level get rounded out and fixed.
    • Let all the cross-language binding libraries like Gtk-Perl catch up and cover the api fully and clearly.
    • Let all the plugin APIs enjoy some time of being binary compatible.

    I'm an app writer who knows Win32 but wants to learn/use Linux to its fullest. However, learning a moving target has been rough. "Why are you writing to Gtk1 when Gtk2 is almost out?" I hear all the time. Because I have Gtk1 and new snapshot libraries don't break everything every other week. Because I like a stable dev platform so I spend my time fixing my code, not fixing library problems.

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