GNOME 3.24 Released (softpedia.com) 118
prisoninmate quotes a report from Softpedia: GNOME 3.24 just finished its six-month development cycle, and it's now the most advanced stable version of the modern and popular desktop environment used by default in numerous GNU/Linux distributions. It was developed since October 2016 under the GNOME 3.23.x umbrella, during which it received numerous improvements. Prominent new features of the GNOME 3.24 desktop environment include a Night Light functionality that promises to automatically shift the colors of your display to the warmer end of the spectrum after sunset, and a brand-new GNOME Control Center with redesigned Users, Keyboard and Mouse, Online Accounts, Bluetooth, and Printer panels. As for the GNOME apps, we can mention that the Nautilus file manager now lets users browse files as root (system administrator), GNOME Photos imitates Darktable's exposure and blacks adjustment tool, GNOME Music comes with ownCloud integration and lets you edit tags, and GNOME Calendar finally brings the Week view. New apps like GNOME Recipes are also part of this release. The full release notes can be viewed here. Softpedia notes in conclusion: "As mentioned before, it will take at least a couple of weeks for the new GNOME 3.24 packages to land on the stable repositories of your favorite distro, which means that you'll most probably be able to upgrade from GNOME 3.22 when the first point release, GNOME 3.24.1, is out on April 12, 2017."
Finally, I can switch to Gnome! (Score:5, Insightful)
Said no one, ever.
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You obviously never had to use Motif. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:Finally, I can switch to Gnome! (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, I have, and would rather use Motif thatn GNOME.
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Motif is more like GTK. Maybe you meant CDE? I'd always figure out how to add GNU tools and fvwm to those systems!
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Ugh, no. Nobody means CDE. Though frankly I'm not clear why anyone would use mwm when they could use fvwm2. It looks just as bad, out of the box it works pretty much the same way, but it has all the bells and whistles that we expect to at minimum be contained in a vaguely modern window mangler. I have used mwm without the rest of CDE — I forget what the panel was called, ISTR it had some long and descriptive name which is no doubt why I can't remember. But the panel was arse, whereas just good old mwm
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Given how sloooooooow gnome can be at times despite using video acceleration hardware to attempt to make up for poor coding (problably in gtk and not the actual window manager) it's tempting to use almost anything else other than gnome once you have a few windows up.
While the idea seems to have been to sacrifice speed for shiny it falls well behind on both to things like Enlightenment.
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fvwm is the most common desktop where I work, by a large margin.
Re:Finally, I can switch to Gnome! (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, I have, and would rather use Motif thatn GNOME.
I do use mwm. It works great. They haven't broken things like being able to paste into a window without changing z-order.
I also use a hammer that isn't painted a uniform color and doesn't play El Condor Pasa when I hit something.
It's not about bells and whistles, it's about productivity.
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Actually, I have, and would rather use Motif thatn GNOME.
I use a slightly modified WindowMaker (which means that I use a version I compiled myself after making a few changes). Many people are surprised at how minimal it is, but the productivity gains make it fully worth it.
Re:Finally, I can switch to Gnome! (Score:5, Insightful)
I used CDE (and thus Motif) for many years. It may look outdated now, but it was years ahead of its time. While it may not be as usable as, say, GNOME 2 or KDE 3 were, it's actually still managed to be better to use than GNOME 3 or KDE 4+ have been. That's how far our "modern" open source desktop projects have regressed.
Gedit, a simple text editor for GNOME, is a perfect example of how stupid things have gotten. This is what Gedit's UI used to look like [wikimedia.org], back before the GNOME 3 disaster. And this is a more recent GNOME 3 version [wikimedia.org] of Gedit. It's unbelievable how far it has regressed, and how quickly this has happened.
And that's just a text editor! We see the same sort of nonsense throughout so much of GNOME 3. What were once usable and consistent menus and toolbars have been replaced with jumbled buttons and hamburger menus, among various other idiotic UI changes.
What's worse is that all of these regressions are justified as making the applications "easier to use on tablets", yet most GNOME 3 users are likely using a desktop with a mouse! They've ruined the desktop's entire user experience for a class of users that doesn't even exist!
Hate on Motif if you must. It and CDE provided a much better UI than GNOME 3 ever has or ever will.
Re:Finally, I can switch to Gnome! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd upvote you a thousand times if I had mod points today.
Ubuntu (via Unity), GNOME, and Microsoft have all completely jumped the shark to support a class of users that, as best as I can tell, does not exist. I use Linux as my main work OS, day-in day-out. I know exactly zero people who use Ubuntu, GNOME, or Windows on tablets. These three are removing usability piece by piece to support a glorious future that no one wants. At least on Linux there are sensible UI alternatives like xfce that allow people like me to get work done, but that does not spare us from the destruction of useful apps running in that UI, like gedit as mentioned above.
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Don't whinge about Gnome 3 and its applications, just use MATE
Exactly. I don't like Gnome, and I found this incredibly simple trick to avoid it. You won't believe what happens next!
I use Ubuntu Mate. Works a trick. If I didn't use Mate, I'd use Mint. Seems weird about people crying about an interface thy don't like, then there are so many alternatives, a few of them exemplary.
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Mmm. I love WindowMaker, especially on older systems. I for a couple of years I went with AfterStep as my primary desktop too. I've actually found that Unity (Desktop) reminds me of the NeXT Interface, like an alternative that it could have actually evolved into had it not evolved into OS X.
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I know of quite a few people using Surface Pros and they love them. I've even heard of long-time mac users considering moving the Surface Pro. On the tablet, Windows 10 actually works pretty well. I recently bought an el cheap windows 10 tablet to do a bit of development on and it was surprising how usable it was. I still prefer my Android apps, but if you need to use traditional apps like MS office, they work surprisingly well on the tablet.
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The stupid thing is, you could easily make a secondary UI for tablet users and even protocols for a UI switch for when a tablet becomes a desktop (ie: docking).
But, no. UIs are not built by engineers anymore. We've got to hire touchy-feely liberal arts guys that have no idea what good UI design means to make these decisions.
For instance, I like the close/minimize/maximize buttons on the top left of the window. Linux Mint Cinnamon allows me to set that without a problem. But Gnome applications don't foll
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Actually, line wrapping can be switched from the next menu to the right (where you see the LN xx, COL xx). It is not buried so far (at least in Gedit 3.22)
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I used CDE (and thus Motif) for many years. It may look outdated now, but it was years ahead of its time. While it may not be as usable as, say, GNOME 2 or KDE 3 were, it's actually still managed to be better to use than GNOME 3 or KDE 4+ have been.
I have seen CDE a few times (e.g. on Solaris), and found it very unusable, so much so that installing KDE or GNOME was much easier than trying to just use CDE.
While KDE 4.0 was very rough, and 4.1 only addressed the roughest edges, from 4.4 KDE has had almost complete feature-parity with KDE 3. At least they aren't applying non-optional Mac-like interfaces (where the menus are 100s of pixels away from the Window they apply to like GNOME 3). It's quite frustrating using GNOME 3 apps (about the only one I use
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I looked at the screenshots and GNOME 3 looks better. Perhaps you can clarify your dissatisfaction? What I see:
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I am using Fedora/gedit in my workplace. I moved from Ubuntu to Fedora because each release of GNOME gave me better work tools. My favourites so far:
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It is left as an exercise for the reader (Score:3, Funny)
It is left as an exercise for the reader to make a sarcastic quip about systemd.
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Well of course, there's CentOS 6.8. Using it right now. It won't be in support for ever, though.
I'm hoping that either they get the bugs out of shitstemd or find something better before the plug gets pulled.
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ignoring the fact that systemd isn't an init.
Isn'it?
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Seems odd that some people can get so upset about other people choosing not to have their code on their system, let alone run it.
Kinda have that the wrong way around Cowboy. You can't make a thread about Linux without systemd trolling.
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It is left as an exercise for the reader to make a sarcastic quip about systemd.
I have one: people complain about Gnome. Maybe the reason is because Gnome is not part of systemd?
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I have one: people complain about Gnome. Maybe the reason is because Gnome is not part of systemd?
Yet.
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Historically Austria is a part of systemd.
So? (Score:1)
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Just wait for the next version that will randomly poke the user in the eye. Users demand features so they're working on one.
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Can you actually still do anything, or have all useful features been removed?
I was going to ask which features had been removed this iteration! Restricting users options seems to be an ongoing trend with the Gnome.
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Unfortunately not, due to a bug, you can still launch a web browser. Fortunately, there is a work around which is to make Google Chrome [slashdot.org] the default.
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Mod parent up! (Score:2)
MATE is far better than Gnome 3.
No thanks (Score:1)
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Fortunately Gnome 2's gedit is alive and well in the form of the poorly-named xed (formerly Pluma). Still works very well and development is ongoing.
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I'm really surprised that you (and others) care so much about gedit. Regardless of whether we're talking about the gnome 2 gedit or the gnome 3 one, neither of them are serious text editors for power users.
All it does is provide a simple-to-use default editor for new users (who edit text files very occasionally). It's like Notepad on Windows. And the current gedit serves this purpose just fine.
Serious users will install a serious text editor (e.g. vim, emacs, sublime, atom). This was true back in the gnome
Re:No thanks (Score:4, Insightful)
No but it's a good example of drastic changes to a functioning piece of software that leave some users unimpressed.
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Back in the GNOME 2 days I used to use KATE instead of GEdit myself. Now I think I use vim more then any other editor.
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The best thing about Gnome (Score:2)
They lost me at 3.0 (Score:2)
I preferred Gnome 2.x to KDE but when Gnome 3.0 came out, I jumped ship because they took a usable desktop and redesigned it for tablets and then tried to push it to desktop users. I chose something more lightweight and isn't ensnared in Systemd: LXQt. I use Linux so I don't have to put up with people's bullshit, not so I have to put up with the bullshit of different people.
I see no reason why anyone should use Gnome anymore.
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Been using icewm for nearly twenty years now, I rarely know what you guys are talking about.
One of the nice things about icewm is no one ever re-designs the UI on you, so there are still keyboard alternates for everything.
And no one had the bright idea to shove everything one click down in the hamburger.
What I want to see is a cranky-old farts distro that maintains old versions of things any time someone changes the UI.
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I jumped ship because they took a usable desktop and redesigned it for tablets and then tried to push it to desktop users.
What made you think GNOME was designed for tablets? The 3.0 was totally unusable on tablets. Further releases got slightly better, but I have not seen any GNOME developer actively working on making it work on tablets, bar fixing bugs being reported. Was it the big application icons in grid layout and removal of “start menu”? This is a visual similarity at best and functionally very different:
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sunset mode (Score:2, Funny)
Prominent new features of the GNOME 3.24 desktop environment include a Night Light functionality that promises to automatically shift the colors of your display to the warmer end of the spectrum after sunset,
Please tell me you're joking. ....
OMG, you're not joking! Seriously, why is this a thing?
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Seriously, why is this a thing?
Because iOS has it? Not because it's like killer-app useful or anything, but just because, wow, that's neat, we oughta do that so that we can say we got that?
Gnome has gone off the rails... rather than work on making it more useful, so people might want to use it and stick with it, they put all this effort into keep-up-with-the-Joneses sugar-coating shit? This has been going on for years! The Gnome project has their priorities fucked, kicking the bugs and non-useability down the road so they can toot abo
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Seriously, why is this a thing?
So someone held a gun to your head and forced you to use it? Go to distrowatch, and get one of the distros that doesn't cause you to blow your stack
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Every project goes this way eventually. Firefox is usually the other poster child, right after GNOME. For my part, I really miss avant-window-navigator and compiz+emerald. For me that was kind of the apex of eye candy and usability. I haven't tried to build that stuff recently, but last time I gave it a shot, it was a long and uphill battle with very little satisfaction at the end.
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Well it will be nice to not have to install Redshift for my GNOME users, but since most of my Linux users do not use GNOME as their desktop environment this isn't going to affect me much.
A useful feature for GNOME users though, but hardly worth top billing in the feature list.
Re:sunset mode (Score:4, Informative)
No, that is a serious thing. Colour temperature of the ambient light around you affects with your day-night cycle. We are made to respond to the sun's light which is colder in the morning (to wake you up) and warmer in the evening (which helps you sleep).
When the primary light source is your computer/device screen then that is what affects you the most.
This has been covered several times before here on Slashdot. Some that are easy to find.
Can Blocking Blue Light Help Bipolar Disorder As Well as Sleep Issues? [slashdot.org]
Microsoft To Add Flux Like Night Mode In Windows 10, Rendering 3rd-Party App's Existence Useless [slashdot.org]
However, I think that the change should not be abrupt but be gradual to better cohere with the sun's natural cycle. But I suspect that they chose to make it a special mode so as not to interfere with colour accuracy during work time.
Myself, I wish that I could also get LED bulbs that changed colour temperature gradually depending on the time of day, and that they wouldn't be expensive and hackable (Like Phillips ... ). I live in the North where some winter days are darker than summer nights, and thus artificial light is important all day.
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Sorry, but this is just not true.
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...Myself, I wish that I could also get LED bulbs that changed colour temperature gradually depending on the time of day, and that they wouldn't be expensive and hackable (Like Phillips ... ). I live in the North where some winter days are darker than summer nights, and thus artificial light is important all day.
I wanted to try Phillips wake-up [amazon.ca] light but thought they were too expensive for something that might not work
I had an old digital picture frame that wasn't being used by a family member.
I quickly created and saved about 50 pictures that gradually moved from black to orange to yellow.
photoshop -> adjust brightness -> save
I set the digital picture frame to auto turn on at 6am. It worked!
embarrassing hack? maybe.
Well I'm gonna break up the hate party (Score:4, Informative)
There is a perplexing amount of GNOME hate in the top comments. I'm a very happy user. I've been using Linux almost exclusively in all capacities since about 1999 and have sampled and/or used a lot of desktop environments. GNOME is the best, IMHO.
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There is a perplexing amount of GNOME hate in the top comments. I'm a very happy user. I've been using Linux almost exclusively in all capacities since about 1999 and have sampled and/or used a lot of desktop environments. GNOME is the best, IMHO.
If its what you like, it's all you need. Too many slashdot users seem to think that something they don't like must suck.
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Damn you happy Gnome user, and your HO... No one likes a party pooper.
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I've also been using Linux for the same amount of time as my primary dev platform. I, like many others, hated Gnome 3 when it first came out. I still grumble about it when something weird breaks, but I wouldn't go back to Gnome 2 now if you paid me. Gnome shell with the right extensions is in fact now my favorite desktop. I wish more things were customizable but with extensions I can get most of what is needed to make it the way I want it. I don't care if those who prefer MATE or whatever use that inst
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Look at North-Korea. One leader. One lifestyle.
Look at the TCP/IP. One solution. One standard protocol. There are good examples, and there are shitty examples. North Korea tends to fit into the latter.
Now look at the western world. Republicans vs. Democrats vs. Greens. Conservatives vs. Liberals vs. a bunch of other flavors. McDonald's vs. Burger King vs. Pizza etc... It's the Organized Kaos of contradicting interests, with followers locked in endless battles over which system is The Best(TM).
Democracy never finding true peace is exactly why it must never stagnate into The One Right Solution.
True peace should be viewed and treated as a goal and a positive thing, not a fucking stagnation point.
And my analogy was centered around religious warmongering, which much like the KDE/GNOME/EMACS/BSD/Linux/vi bickering, can be far more pointless and futile than mere politics.
I pass on your supposed flame war, was just thinking about how much I'd need a Strong Leader...
Ever read a rant from the likes of Linus or Theo? We've had plenty of Stron
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How can you get so much wrong in one short post?
> Look at Microsoft. One browser. One Office suite.
Lots of browsers are used on Windows. I use LibreOffice on Windows.
> Now look at Linux. KDE vs. GNOME
Okay, that is true.
> EMACS vs. vi.
Lots of editors are used with Windows.
> BSD vs. Linux.
BSD is not Linux. It would make as much sense to claim: "MacOS vs. Windows"
> It's the Organized Religion of software, with followers locked in endless battles over which system is The One.
Hardly exclusive to L
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The comparison to Windows was meant to highlight the utter lack of infighting, unlike the Linux community, riddled with "trigger words" such as EMACS, vi, BSD, Linux, GNOME, or KDE, which manage to incite flame wars every time.
Yes, there are many options in Windows, but the overwhelming majority of the user base doesn't give a shit enough to argue endlessly about it.
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