Slashdot Mirror
GNOME 2.0 Beta
xer.xes writes: "The first public beta release of the GNOME 2.0 Desktop is ready for your testing pleasure! It is available for immediate download here. Please read the release notes first! Due for general consumption in March, 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." LinuxToday or gnome-announce have the announcement. I don't see release notes anywhere - post a link in the comments if you find them. GNOME is having a bug day today.
I've always thought that GNOME looked nicer than the windows or mac desktops (almost as nice as BeOS), and it's really cool to see that it's getting even prettier. To anyone who reads this who works on GNOME: thank you very much for working on this, and even more thanks for releasing it under the GPL.
It's people like the ones who work on GNOME who are going to make Linux into the desktop OS it has the potential to be.
I'm the stranger...posting to
new accessibility features for disabled users
:(
Having just broken both my wrists 2 weeks ago while snowboarding (right in 3 places, left in 2) this is suddenly of great interest. (took 10 minutes just to type this in
No, it's the proper, internationalized anti-aliasing that's been in the works for a while. For a good list of all the user-visible changes in Gnome 2, check out Havoc Pennington's "What's New in Gnome 2" page.
-- Some things are to be believed, though not susceptible to rational proof.
Acts@core.mailboks.com Acrux@core.mailboks.com Adam@core.mailboks.com Adar@core.mailboks.com Ada@core.mailboks.com
Sure, its called linux. It replaces windows' shell completly!
Jeroen
Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
please ignore the following text (lameness filter):
* mportant Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic.
* Try to reply to other people comments instead of starting new threads.
* Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
* Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about.
* Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page)
Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal.
The main FTP site seems to be down, but at ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/MIRRORS.html you can find a list of mirrors.
A few of them are:
ftp://ftp.cse.buffalo.edu/pub/Gnome
ftp://ftp.rpmfind.net/linux/gnome.org/
ftp://ftp.sourceforge.net/pub/mirrors/gnome/
ftp://ftp.twoguys.org/GNOME
I see tar.gz and some RPM's but no .debs. Is there someone packaging them, or will I have to wait till march when it gets out of beta for it to be put in unstable?
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
Add the following lines to your sources.list
And if you still don't have apt-get, then visit Freshrpms, download it, use it, and wonder how you ever got along without it.
PS - If any of you have the bandwidth to host a publically avaliable apt repository for Red Hat, then please post to the freshrpms mailing list and tell us all about it.
It (gnome 2) just hit public beta ... why would there be a lot of people using it before it even hit beta?
I know this dicussion can start the many flame wars so let me ask this from a personal perspective
I am a relative Linux on the desktop newbie (although very comfortable deploying on servers) and still prefer the ease of use and performance of the Windows interface. One day, I installed Linux to try out and had a go at both KDE and GNOME (about a year ago) but didn't like it. Today, I sadly develop on Windows to be deployed on Linux
I found KDE took ages to start up, GNOME was slightly better but Nautilus while featureful was horribly slow. Both were rather confusing with respect to my favourite shortcut keys and mouse commands (especially clipboards and window control) although I hear KDE has a "Windows emulation" mode it wasn't convincing
So the things that are on my mind are:
- Have the environments improved a lot in the past 12 months in terms of usability and performance and startup speed?
- Is it getting much easier for the Windows user like me to get into?
- What are the main goals that GNOME are trying to accomplish over their new releases? KDE?
Otherwise, I guess I'll keep my "desktop environment" to nothing but an xterm console and only use Linux when I have to
Thanks
This
screenshot and this can be so cool if implemeted correctly.
Any other screenshots along this line?
I'm just wondering what's innovative about Gnome 2 -- what makes this something special or different? And why did it need to be incompatible with apps written for previous versions? I can still run old Win 95 apps on Win 2K, for the most part.
I'll appreciate polite and informative answers...
All about me
You're right that GNOME1 applications don't work *on* GNOME2, but they do work *with* GNOME2, since the GNOME1 libraries are fully parallel installable with the GNOME2 libraries. In other words, you can have your new desktop environment, the applications that make use of the new and better libraries, and still use your favorite applications that haven't been ported yet. It's a beautiful world.
;-)
I can't really comment on comparisons with KDE, as I'm not familiar with KDE's accessibility. However, accessibility has been a driving force in GNOME2 development. Sun, in particular, has been very active in this area. See, for example, their work on the Accessibility Toolkit (ATK) or the GNOME on-screen keyboard or the screen-magnifier (see here). You can find more about the GNOME Accessibility Project (GAP) here. All this is being designed for GNOME2; so, we'll see more of the implementation of the accessibility stuff with this release onward.
As for the question of who is using GNOME2, well, the developers are using it mostly -- which you might expect since GNOME2 beta just came out!
Cheers!
~~~~~~~~~
dissertus scribendo latine videri volo.
Dude, that would be, like, taking freedom of choice away from the people. Every application needs to be free to negotiate data transfer with other apps as it sees fit.
What if an application knows that it handles data better than anyone else? Why should it give up its data to some inferior process? Why should it accept data from some flawed source? Remember, it's Garbage In, Garbage Out. Apps need to be able to protect themselves from other people's garbage.
We could start a project to map xlib calls to corresponding Windows API calls.. But we'd have to name it using a recursive acronym..
I've got it!
LINE - Line is not an emulator!!
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
The problem is that you can cut/paste fine between gnome apps. Or KDE apps. Or java apps. Or motif apps. Each with their own way of doing it, and each with a 50% chance of being able to cut/paste from one type to another, and have it work the same way.
:\
IE: cut in gnumeric and paste into gedit. Not a big deal. But cutting text in xarchie (the original) and paste into say, gimp? I don't think so. Or maybe, but it won't be the same way as it works for other apps.
The other thing I miss is cut/paste of non-text elements. I'm not talking full OLE, but why can't I cut an image in the gimp and paste it into abiword? That's what I want from gnome
I just saw it as well, great ad!
It says:
This is a box. -- the ad is inside a border (a box)
Then it says:
You may think outside of it. -- And what is outside of the box? Well the Slashdot page is.
MS might want to rethink that ad.
Reducing the barrier to entry is a big potential advantage, and I think that you're wrong to underestimate it. Every user interface difference between what people are using now and what you want them to switch to is one possible reason for them not to switch. Integrate over every difference, and you wind up with a big barrier to changing. Of course every beneficial difference is one reason for people to make the switch, so you shouldn't be afraid of making improvements. But there are a lot of cosmetic things that probably should be kept the same just because people expect them to be that way.
The net result is that the "start button" is going to be in the lower left corner, new icons are going to be placed starting in the upper left, etc. There's no fundamental reason that those things have to be in those places, but people are used to them being there from using Windows, so they will automatically look for them there. If that makes it easier for a Windows user to switch desktops, it's more than enough justification for making that the default behavior. And yes, I do realize that the menu bar in Windows can be moved around; the fact that it's still on the bottom with the start menu at the far left on essentially every Windows desktop is simply proof of how conservative most users are.
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
An xlib port to windows is already underway, and Donald Becker is doing it. See w11
I hate having to download and install 23092039 diffrent files, ill never update gnome.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac