Looking Ahead at GNOME 2

Able writes "This is a good article that will teach you how to use the new and improved libraries available with GNOME 2 so that you can write your own Nautilus view, and panel applets. It also provides you with the understanding to compile a few sample GTK+ 2 programs that will give you a good understanding of GTK+ 2's many improvements over GTK+ 1."

Comments

Worried Gnome User.....

[CDWert]

I am a Gnome user, and athough I am NOT a sky is falling person, KDE seems to be making much more usefull strides, I am also concerned about the Ximian fork, (even though I use it) How long till XImian hack up all the libs to work for their effort and how compatible will it be ?

I have thought about switching to KDE for no other reason than they seem to have a much better, much more focused direction.

Does it seem to anyone else latley Gnome is becoming a throw in everything and if the kitchen sink dosent work its OK, or is it just me.

Admittedly Gnome 2 has some nice stuff but how much will be functional by first release ?

Re:Worried Gnome User.....

[dagoalieman]

KDE makes big strides, I'll grant you.

For me, even more interesting, but quietly mentioned, was the Accessibility Tool Kit (ATK). If you start pushing Linux out there to handicapped people, OLDER people, who need help hearing, seeing, what have you, they can help provide a major market push for linux. Obviously the needs of these people vary greatly, so customized solutions are a must.

In the same vein, it seems that KDE is for the people who want the solutions given to them, and Gnome is for the people who want to build their own customized solution (IE what they want.) That explains a little bit of the difference in the attitudes. Capt. Obvious does point out to me that the "build your own solution" approach is a general platform for Linux, KDE included, but I think Gnome really goes after that more.

I hope most of it will be functional, but like you, I fear that we're going to see a whole lot more of "build your own" than in the past from Gnome. It's not just you...

Re:Worried Gnome User.....

[Skeezix]

You don't have to purchase it and it's not instead of a Linux distribution, it's in addition to. The advantages include:

- a better tested set of packages. Ximian makes sure they all work together. If you download updates and build them on your own, well...you're on your own.

- Automatic dependancy resolution with Red Carpet.

- A cross-platform GNOME distribution that is consistent. Red Hat, Mandrake, Debian, etc. all package GNOME slightly differently, include different artwork, include different versions of the software and update at different times. Ximian provides one distribution of GNOME across something like 11 different Linux/UNIX platforms.

Re:Real Features

[Com2Kid]

That is precisly what I am talking about. It should require no user intervention at all. :(

In fact Asian Charecter support in Windows is also easy, just a single EXE file to be downloaded and run. Just select the desired language and spell things out phonicaly in romanized letters, watch the desired charecter appear.

More popular programs like this are needed on Linux, and need to be installed by default. A standard of some sort needs to be set that allows for all programs to easily use these features. Imagine every Gnome/KDE/ program having easy to implement naturalization.

Or a Hiragana flashcard program, or a Kanji flashcard program, or both intermixed with each other with no issues at all. The english letters/word choices being shown at the bottom of the screen.

Now imagine the Kanji charecters also being antialiased. Along with everything else.

All the user would know is that he/she is improving their Japanese skills on a very nice looking display and that it was even easier to get running that the Windows equivilent.

Re:Much better, but still behind KDE

[Shanep]

Have you used Star Office 6 beta?

Awesome, aa fonts and all. It may as well be Word, Excel and Powerpoint for Unix.