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Gnome 2.0 Beta 2 Released

plastercast writes: "Following the release of GTK2, the second beta of gnome 2.0 is available. There are also release notes here. From Gnotices: '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.'"

237 comments

  1. installing gnome2.0 beta by gol64738 · · Score: 1

    does anyone know if gnome2.0 beta can be installed via red-carpet?

    1. Re:installing gnome2.0 beta by JanneM · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There's a Gnome2 snapshot channel there (it's down this weekend, though). I wouldn't expect the second beta to show up until monday at the earliest.

      It is a pretty convenient way to test it out; all the Gnome1 programs will of course still work as usual. It _is_ a Beta, of course, so don't expect a pillar of stability :)

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    2. Re:installing gnome2.0 beta by fader · · Score: 3, Insightful

      all the Gnome1 programs will of course still work as usual

      So they claim. :( I've used that channel twice now. Twice it's hosed my entire GNOME install and I've had to uninstall everything and go back to the original RPMs from my install CDs. (On a RedHat 7.2 install.)

      The last time it hosed some system libraries somewhere in the process, and half my applications wouldn't run. (Anything using Python or Perl, apparently... plus X was very... flaky.)

      My advice would be to only use the Red-Carpet snapshots on a machine you're willing to lose.

      --
      - fader
    3. Re:installing gnome2.0 beta by georgeb · · Score: 1

      My advice would be to only use the Red-Carpet snapshots on a machine you're willing to lose.

      Isn't that the common meaning of "beta" or "snapshot"? Oh well, I know we got used to having beta-released projects that are stable enough by closed-source standards to be sold out, but I have the feeling that in the desktop world, things are less likely to be bug-free without huge cummunity support (bug reporting and hard bashing).

      So I say anytime you think about testing beta software, think about that dusty box in the corner of the room..

    4. Re:installing gnome2.0 beta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the gnome people dont give a fuck for bugreports. if you report a bug they mark it TROLL. at least you need to use their bugzilla crap where one needs a PhD to understand howto use it. for me gnome developers are ignorant assholes and hopefully one day they fall really hard to the ground from their pridefull high position. not necessary in gnome or linux world but maybe in real life so the effect is much harder.

    5. Re:installing gnome2.0 beta by georgeb · · Score: 1

      the gnome people dont give a fuck for bugreports. if you report a bug they mark it TROLL. at least you need to use their bugzilla crap where one needs a PhD to understand howto use it. for me gnome developers are ignorant assholes and hopefully one day they fall really hard to the ground from their pridefull high position. not necessary in gnome or linux world but maybe in real life so the effect is much harder.

      Curious. I find it quite trivial to SUBMIT a bug to bugzilla.gnome.org. I find it easy to SEARCH the bug database too, so you can check if someone has submitted your bug already.

      Maybe your understanding of the word "PhD" is different from the common people...

      Have you thought about WHY do the gnome developers mark your bugreports as troll? I guess that if you report something like "GNOME IS CRAP AND YOU WILL ALL BE DOOMED TO HELL" to bugzilla, then maybe they are right to consider you a troll... Cosider reading a bugreporting howto and some etiquette refferences

  2. GNOME 2.0 by nzkoz · · Score: 4, Informative

    For those of you who aren't too keen on manually downloading all the individual packages and their dependencies, you may wish to try garnome (http://www.gnome.org/~jdub/garnome/).

    It behaves a bit like the BSD ports tree as it'll download and install all the necessary packages. Even better, it'll install them in an out-of-the-way place so you can keep running gnome1.2!

    --
    Cheers Koz
    1. Re:GNOME 2.0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      come again sir?

      IOW, please explain in clear english non-ub3r-g33k talk!

    2. Re:GNOME 2.0 by HanzoSan · · Score: 1, Interesting


      Why dont they just release one big RPM ?

      --
      If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
    3. Re:GNOME 2.0 by nzkoz · · Score: 3, Informative

      Because a few of the libraries (libxml, libxslt etc.) are useful without the whole gnome desktop, and some packages aren't needed by everyone.

      If you want an easy way to install gnome, use Ximian's redcarpet or the garnome system.

      --
      Cheers Koz
    4. Re:GNOME 2.0 by tempest303 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Why dont they just release one big RPM ?

      Because that would be Compeltely Retarded(TM) and go against the whole damn idea of having things installed as components.

      On the other hand, a nice little gtk-perl/pygtk frontend to a downloader script would be great.

      Also, if you use Ximian Gnome, there is a "Gnome 2 Developer Snapshots" channel that you can use to get everything in just a few clicks...

    5. Re:GNOME 2.0 by thammoud · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      It seems to me that you are the one that is retarded. When I install MS office, I just click on one executable and there it goes. I do not download the hunder of separate "components" that make it up.

    6. Re:GNOME 2.0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hey, maybe you should just stick with windows then!

    7. Re:GNOME 2.0 by spectral · · Score: 1

      When installing office, you shouldn't download ANY of the components, otherwise it's probably illegal :) If they released it on CD, it'd be kinda odd to not have a somewhat decent installer. But here, the best they could/should do is a front end downloader.. or just expect people to wait til their distribution does it for them.

    8. Re:GNOME 2.0 by uchian · · Score: 2

      Ummm... you don't download them, but the install _is_ package/component based

      Or have you never noticed the "Custom" option during installation :-P

      * * *

      An OT annecdote - MS Office and how I converted to Linux.

      Windows 98 was starting to p*ss me off again - ever time I tried to load it, it was getting slower and slower, so I guessed I had to free up some hard drive space - I was running pretty low. I started uninstalling some software that I didn't use very often. Each and every one required me to reboot the computer (WHY?!?). Still, it wasn't speeding up. So I uninstalled MS Office 97. Hey - I wasn't using it much anyway, and I have it on CD.

      Tumpty tumpty tum, Uninstall complete, Windows must now restart.

      Tumpty tumpty tum, rebooting... Cannot find win.com

      "WTF???"

      So I gave up, reformatted the harddrive and gave linux a try.

      That was 6 months ago.

    9. Re:GNOME 2.0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like a filesystem problem to me, but one never knows.

    10. Re:GNOME 2.0 by BELG · · Score: 1

      This isnt really a response to the question though :). Releasing one big RPM wouldnt prevent the release of everything as single packages.

      Extra packaging work not being taken into account, of course.

    11. Re:GNOME 2.0 by sydneyfong · · Score: 1

      Alternatively you can use the viscious-build-scripts

      Aside from some problems in compiling nautilus, and some other minor hassles, it compiled nicely for me, and builds all dependencies itself.

      --
      Don't quote me on this.
    12. Re:GNOME 2.0 by FooBarWidget · · Score: 1

      Let's see... Somebody detected a major bug in Bonobo and now you'll have to download and install that 50 MB RPM again. Isn't that fun?

      Splitting everything in small packages has advantages, and is The Unix Way(tm).
      Upgrading individual components will be easier because you only have to download small files and it makes maintenance easier.
      It may be a little more difficult to install because of the dependencies, but since almost everybody use vicious-build-scripts or gargnome, there's no problem.

    13. Re:GNOME 2.0 by be-fan · · Score: 2


      Because that would be Compeltely Retarded(TM)
      >>>>>
      Umm, what's completely retarted as that GNOME consists of a dozen RPMS with circular dependencies! Components mean crap if you have to install everything anyway! (Especially bad on Mandrake. I tried installing ssh-server, and it asked to install XFree86!)

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    14. Re:GNOME 2.0 by tempest303 · · Score: 2

      (Especially bad on Mandrake. I tried installing ssh-server, and it asked to install XFree86!)

      And there, my friend, is the crux of your issue. While Mandrake has some GREAT featues, and is, IMHO, the best distro for newbies, hands down, it also has *serious* packaging issues. The kinds of problems you're describing are part of the reason I switched to Red Hat. While they aren't as bleeding edge, I find Red Hat to be a much more maintainable, stable distro. (Debian is very nice too, but way too steep a learning curve for newbies)

      BTW: you said you wanted ssh server, but it wanted XFree86? This implies you didn't have XFree installed, which in turn implies you're using Mandrake as a *dedicated server*... can't say that's something I recommend for *anyone*, newbies or otherwise. ;)

    15. Re:GNOME 2.0 by argel · · Score: 1
      Why dont they just release one big RPM ?

      Because that would be Compeltely Retarded(TM) and go against the whole damn idea of having things installed as components.

      That's a pretty simplistic notion. SUN has this concept of meta-packages, where a package can be a superset of packages. Anyone who has installed Solaris has run into this (where you are asked what you want to install and given options such as Everything Plus OEM). Couldn't something similar be done with RPM?

      For example, divide the compnent RPM's into 3 or 4 major categories and then create an RPM for each one whose sole purpose was to install several RPMs (based said categories). Then one big tarball could be created, giving those who want to be picky their flexibility while still making it easy for those who want to install all or almost all of it.

      --

      -- Argel
  3. Slightly repetitive... by seldolivaw · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

    Thanks for that info, it's not like we didn't read exactly that same blurb when beta 1 was released... :-)

    1. Re:Slightly repetitive... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Nice. How many times have we all seen "Linux does that better than Windows" craziness modded to the moon and yet here we have the exact same thing in reverse instantly silenced.

      Wow, good thing there's no groupthink around Slashdot. You all must be very proud of those open minds. Pfft.

    2. Re:Slightly repetitive... by Snowfox · · Score: 1
      Nice. How many times have we all seen "Linux does that better than Windows" craziness modded to the moon and yet here we have the exact same thing in reverse instantly silenced.

      Wow, good thing there's no groupthink around Slashdot. You all must be very proud of those open minds. Pfft.

      It would probably have been moderated more kindly if it weren't voiced with so much sarcasm. While many wear their anti-MS blinders here, that doesn't seem to be what came into play here.
    3. Re:Slightly repetitive... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Speaking of groupthink, it's nice to see you haven't been brainwashed by M$ propaganda. This is a company that has fucked over pretty much everybody (Netscape, BeOS, hardware vendors, etc.), but we'll run their POS because it has anti-aliased fonts. Fantastic, now i know why the hell i need to run this shit.

      Also, Windoze has less than stellar performance and flexibility (file systems come to mind), which you should take into account.

    4. Re:Slightly repetitive... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm glad we have freethinkers such as yourself to deliver independant information about "M$ Windoze". Thank you for elevating the discussion here, sir! This bud's for you.

    5. Re:Slightly repetitive... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, my terminology was inflamatory, but at this point i have very little love left for MS (see, no $). You see, i think Judge Jackson was right the first time.

    6. Re:Slightly repetitive... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and it's been available in the Mac OS since before you knew what antialiased text was.

    7. Re:Slightly repetitive... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too bad the appeals court found him biased and incompetent. But hey, he's your kind of guy.

    8. Re:Slightly repetitive... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Please. "Fuck Windows" is generally good enough to get at least a +2, so the tone has nothing to do with it.

      Can we please just admit that this place is not a haven of openmindedness and move on? I'll bet that half the trolls would go away if Slashdot users would just come clean about the bias and Microsoft jealousy instead of the constant "yeah, but..." lies.

      I, for one, would have much less reason to constantly bust the zealots if they didn't instantly deny, deny, deny. Half the trolling around this place has everything to do with a hate for the hypocrisy.

    9. Re:Slightly repetitive... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and Mac's have also been available since the dinosaurs walked, but they still aren't half as pratcical as wintel platforms, with their inflated price tags. w00t.

      i'll stick with windows2k thankyouverymuch!

  4. release codename by bob@dB.org · · Score: 5, Informative

    I bastun bor vi allihopa = we all live in the sauna (it's swedish)

    --
    Acts@core.mailboks.com Acrux@core.mailboks.com Adam@core.mailboks.com Adar@core.mailboks.com Ada@core.mailboks.com
    1. Re:release codename by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 1
      We all live in the sauna

      Amen to that! I think that's something we should all remember once the KDE/GNOME trolls start to fly: we're in this together, so let's work together.

      How soon before we get cross-toolkit theming support?

  5. Gnome 2.0 potentially unstable? by CodeBuster · · Score: 0

    Keep in mind that right now, building the GNOME 2.0 Desktop from CVS is NOT for the faint-hearted! However, if your idea of support is prompt integration of your patches, please consider testing, using and contributing to it.

    Why take the chance? Is anti-aliased text and multilanguage support really worth it?

    1. Re:Gnome 2.0 potentially unstable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      A potentially unstable beta? Never!

    2. Re:Gnome 2.0 potentially unstable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      heh nice that you name it beta but it is more an EARLY alpha on 29 march 2002 than anything else.

    3. Re:Gnome 2.0 potentially unstable? by Forge · · Score: 2

      Agreed. That discription dose not sound like something you attach to a BETA.

      A BETA is software that the developers think might actualy be ready for the general public so they put it out on the street to let the general public prove them wrong.

      This quote is something you attach to ALPHA software.

      --
      --= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
    4. Re:Gnome 2.0 potentially unstable? by WhyCause · · Score: 2

      I was always under the impression (not certain here, I didn't study CompSci in undergrad), that Alpha state implied that functionality / API / interface, etc., were all in a state of flux, in addition to (sometimes complete) instability.

      I always took Beta to mean that functions, etc., were frozen, and that the bugs and performance issues were being ironed out. Hence the need for rigorous testing to insure that all possible use cases were accounted for.

      What better a way to do that in an opensource environment than to release it to the public?

  6. Call me lazy, but... by gid · · Score: 2

    If there was a way for me to grab one tarball and ./configure; make install, then I'd actually check it out this. I simply don't have the time (ok I have the time, but there's other things I should be doing) to do that to 20 different packages.

    Oh and even if I did configure 20, ok now that I look at it again, 30+ packages, what's uninstallation like to clean up if I decide to go back to plain old wmaker? I've always how hated linux spreads it's files all over the place :/ Or is there a way to ./configure; make debs?

    I know, there this page which simplifies compiling a lot for stable sources, but I can't find a page like this for gnome 2 beta 2.

    1. Re:Call me lazy, but... by urmensch · · Score: 1

      this script downloads and installs it wherever you want. it takes a while though...

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

    2. Re:Call me lazy, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All the help you need
      MonkeyTongue

    3. Re:Call me lazy, but... by gid · · Score: 1

      Ya, saw that post after I already posted. I'll have to check it out.

    4. Re:Call me lazy, but... by HanzoSan · · Score: 2

      and how exactly do you use this

      --
      If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
    5. Re:Call me lazy, but... by urmensch · · Score: 1

      download and read INSTALL, README etc

    6. Re:Call me lazy, but... by jdub! · · Score: 1

      Sure, that's what GARNOME is for.

      There will be a beta 2 version ready when I get home from work tonight. :-)

    7. Re:Call me lazy, but... by HanzoSan · · Score: 1

      there isnt any

      --
      If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
    8. Re:Call me lazy, but... by HoaryCripple · · Score: 1
      I've always how hated linux spreads it's files all over the place
      Uhh, spreading files around??? Why not just do:

      ./configure --prefix=/opt/packagename-x.x.x
      make
      su
      make install

      Now you have all the "optional" progs in /opt
    9. Re:Call me lazy, but... by Bios_Hakr · · Score: 2

      Well, for starters, I think the beauty of GNOME is that there are 30+ packages. During the build, it is easier to troubleshoot one failure in 5 or 6 packages than to troubleshoot 6 failures in one package. Also, from what I've seen, most of the dependencies are part of a standard install anyway.

      As for uninstall try setting:

      "alias gcfg=./configure prefix=/opt/gnome_beta"

      then do:

      gcfg && make && make install

      for all the packages you need. If you want to uninstall, just delete the gnome_beta directory.

      You can also do a make uninstall on most packages to remove them. Or even boot off a floppy and tar your system to another disk before trying gnome2. If you don't like it, just do an untar and you are back where you started.

      --
      I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
    10. Re:Call me lazy, but... by urmensch · · Score: 1

      yeah, sorry... the page i referenced gives a very good step by step though.

      here's the key lines

      cd garnome7.5/gnome/meta-gnome-desktop/
      make install

      that's more or less all there is to it

  7. Re:Gnome Kaputnik! Hail KDE! by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 1
    Yeah yeah yeah, I used to think that, until I noticed that many of my other linux using friends preferred GNOME to KDE, and don't want to be forced to switch to KDE.

    I just wish they'd work more on interoperability

  8. It's all so windowesque ... by Khazunga · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    ... that I'll keep sticking to my ol'faithfull windowmaker.

    Seriously, though, with De Icaza chasing MS tail lights on one side, and KDE creating monolitic frameworks -- kcalc has the biggest footprint I've ever seen for a calculator -- on the other, I fail to see anything appealing with the current linux desktop solutions.

    --
    If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you
    1. Re:It's all so windowesque ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      linux:windows :: coyote:road runner

    2. Re:It's all so windowesque ... by WasterDave · · Score: 4, Informative

      kcalc has the biggest footprint I've ever seen for a calculator

      I have a suspicion this is to do with the C++ linker problem. In a nutshell, GCC"s handling of relocating libraries when they address collide sucks. It's slow. Really slow. The KDE team have been attempting to get over this by creating one process that loads most of the libraries - kdeinit, then forking the process to be the individual applications. The long and the short of this is the libraries remain loaded at the same address, don't have to reload and relocate, and all the processes can share the same code pages since they're copy on write.

      Don't worry, they know it's a hack too.

      There's a lot of work going into making it such that the GCC linker can build libraries to different default virtual memory addresses, hence stopping the loader from having to relocate libraries. When this happens the individual distros can be built with non colliding libraries, the kdeinit hack can go away and all will be at peace in KDE land. Personally, I'd delay 3.0 until the situation is sorted, but it's not my project.

      Dave

      --
      I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
  9. If the site seems a little slow by cdrj · · Score: 2, Informative

    Then I am hosting the same page here: http://65.35.12.207:8080

    1. Re:If the site seems a little slow by cdrj · · Score: 1

      Ok, took it down. No longer up.

    2. Re:If the site seems a little slow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    3. Re:If the site seems a little slow by cdrj · · Score: 1

      Sorry about that, I accidently put that up. I just changed it back

  10. I'm not tryinng to be flamebait but by HanzoSan · · Score: 1, Troll


    Gnome needs full install RPMs. I'm on broadband and i refuse to download a file in 200 diffrent peices.

    I want a 150meg RPM of Gnome2 and then i'll try it.

    --
    If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
  11. It's hot in here. Let me out. by scorcherer · · Score: 2
    Did you just opensource my reply to the GTK+ 2.0 post?

    Seriously, it's too hot and crowded with all those packages. My plain Sawfish is working just fine, and a lot cooler.

    --

    --
    The Cap is nigh. Time to get a fresh new account.

    1. Re:It's hot in here. Let me out. by bob@dB.org · · Score: 1

      sorry, but i didn't read your comment... just saw this one and figured the question would come up. don't suppose you have any insights into why people have started codenaming in swedish lately?

      --
      Acts@core.mailboks.com Acrux@core.mailboks.com Adam@core.mailboks.com Adar@core.mailboks.com Ada@core.mailboks.com
    2. Re:It's hot in here. Let me out. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      because they are swedish. the swedes are launching an invasion to achieve global domination of the high tech industry.

  12. Re: but at least we have gnome 2.0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and we still have AC's getting First Post.

    Another triumph for the AC.

  13. Speaking of Mexicans... by Commienst · · Score: 0, Interesting

    REVOLT IN SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS, MÉXICO ON EVENING OF 7TH
    MARCH 2002

    Large crowds repel police, set police vehicles on fire, and loot supermarket
    and big shops.
    A carnival atmosphere prevails as crowds control the streets for over 3
    hours.
    Later police enter area, fire tear gas and make a reported 50 arrests
    The conflict occurred in the area around the public market, a poor area
    where many indigenous people live and work, and followed a police operation
    against sellers of pirated merchandise.
    On the morning of 8 March police with riot gear cordon off an area around
    the public market.

    This is an incomplete report written a few hours after the events from eye
    witness reports, and info in the local press and radio. More info hopefully
    to follow. Feel free to circulate but please remove e mail address.

    A major revolt with thousands on the streets engulfed the area around the
    public market in San Cristobal de Las Casas on the evening of 7 March.
    Large crowds broke into at least 3 big stores, including a supermarket and
    department store. In a festive atmosphere men, women and children joyfully
    carted off large amounts of food, drink, clothes and furniture over a period
    of over 2 hours. Onlookers, including women with babies, elderly people and
    children watched with interest, and some shouted advice to the looters about
    the best route to take to avoid the police.

    Two police vehicles were set on fire and burnt in the middle of the street.
    The crowd repulsed an attempt by the police to enter the area, hurling
    missiles. A shop was set alight and the fire was still burning at midnight.
    From before 7pm till after 10pm thousands were on the streets, and the
    police seemed to have little or no presence an no control over the
    situation.

    The conflict reportedly started at 6pm after a police operation to arrest
    sellers of pirated CDs etc.. Local newspaper La Foja reports that a police
    attempt to enter the area around this time was repulsed by the crowd
    throwing missiles.

    By 7pm a police vehicle was ablaze in the street by the public market,
    hundreds, if not thousands were in the streets and police were not to be
    seen. Around 8pm missiles were seen being hurled, and slightly later a line
    of riot police were formed across the road behind Santo Domingo church.

    Around 8pm the crowd began to break into large shops by the market, breaking
    plate glass windows and tearing off iron grilles on the entrances. Tela de
    Mexico, Alamanecenes Grandes, and then the supermarket which is opposite
    the last named, on a side street by the market, were all sacked. Around the
    same time another fire was burning in the street by the market, reportedly a
    second police car ablaze.

    Large crowds of men, women and children carried off bags and boxes of food
    and groceries, sacks of rice or beans, bottles of wine and spirits,
    mattresses, sofas and much more. Eye witnesses reported a joyful and
    excited atmosphere. There were few vehicles in the area, but taxis and cars
    that strayed into the area were allowed to pass unhindered.

    Around 10.15pm a large fire was seen burning near the market, reportedly a
    shop. Around 10.- 10.30pm police, some armed and some with riot shields and
    helmets, entered the area, charged the crowd and made arrests. According to
    local radio 50 men, women and children were arrested. La Foca paper reports
    the use of ?an excessive use of force? by the police when making arrests.
    Police fired tear gas on more than one occasion, and tear gas swept down
    nearby streets, causing discomfort to inhabitants of houses. Fire fighters
    entered the area to combat the fires.

    By 11.30 pm police appeared to have regained control of the situation,
    though there were still crowds in the street, the shop continued to burn and
    there were remnants of a fire in the street. Local radio reports 6 police
    received hospital treatment. It is not known how many civilians were
    injured by the police violence.

    Reports in the media that some of the crowd applauded the entry of the
    police into the area were not confirmed by eye witnesses who reported
    instead mass participation in looting, and many onlookers observing without
    any worries. The reactions observed to the arrival of the police were
    either resistance or flight.

    At 9am the next morning, 8 March, an area around the public market was
    cordoned off by police with riot gear who were preventing entry by the
    public.

    More news may follow, and there may be reports on Indymedia Chiapas (this
    report is not however from Indymedia Chiapas or any organization)

    Note San Cristobal de Las Casas in Chiapas, southern Mexico has a
    population of over 130,000, many of whom live in poverty, many lack basic
    services such as electricity, piped water and drainage in their houses. A
    large proportion of the population are indigenous people, the majority
    Tzotziles, and suffer racist discrimination.

    --

    I am into the copy and paste.
  14. Hee :D by The+Great+Wakka · · Score: 2

    At the end of the announcement, there is the phrase:
    *bounce*bounce*bounce*
    Apparently the GNOME developers are bouncing with joy. I hope that is what it is, at least.

    --
    Everything is mainstream now.
    1. Re:Hee :D by scorcherer · · Score: 2
      *bounce*bounce*bounce*ka-BOOM* "Is that supposed to happen?" "Let me check my notes."

      Apparently the GNOME developers are bouncing with joy, at least until the whole system crashes.

      --

      --
      The Cap is nigh. Time to get a fresh new account.

    2. Re:Hee :D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      *bounce*bounce*bounce*

      Actually when they were done writing the email in their text editor, that was how many bounces it took to open "Mail" on OS X.

    3. Re:Hee :D by jdub! · · Score: 1

      It's actually ...&nbsp ;*bounce*bounce*bounce*, and it's the sound of a thousand bouncing Miguels.

  15. I bastun bor vi allihopa by Tim · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I bastun bor vi allihopa = we all live in the sauna (it's swedish)"

    Damn. You mean it's not "I'm cuckoo for cocoa puffs"?

    All my hopes for this release are dashed.

    --
    Let's try not to let fact interfere with our speculation here, OK?
    1. Re:I bastun bor vi allihopa by Speare · · Score: 2
      • "I bastun bor vi allihopa = we all live in the sauna (it's swedish)"

        Damn. You mean it's not "I'm cuckoo for cocoa puffs"?

        All my hopes for this release are dashed.

      You're in luck. Beta 3 will be codenamed "Tous mes espoirs pour ce dégagement sont à tiret," which is pidgin French for "All my hopes for this release are dashed."
      --
      [ .sig file not found ]
  16. Whoa... by drik00 · · Score: 1
    Gnome 2 is out? I thought it was released along time ago....eerrr....ooh...no, that was Leprechaun 2...my bad.

    --
    Beer, now there's a temporary solution -- Homer Jay S.
    1. Re:Whoa... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      %s/gnome was free/cde gets commercial/g

  17. Re:The battle of the guis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    funny, but your line word-wrapped in my browser and both vim and Gnome appeared all the way to the left.

  18. NOT TROLL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That was NOT a troll! It was just a simple opinion of all the guis that i tried over the years, and yes i HATE GNOME! Windows 95 was the best desktop ever until micro$oft had to fuck it up!

  19. yay for accessibility features by perdida · · Score: 2

    This is the sort of thing that will make open source software broad and popular. You get a dedicated audience who (literally) depends on the product, and the social brownie points racked up by catering to the disabled improves the image of GNOME in broader tech and policy circles.

  20. call me jaded . . . by augros · · Score: 0, Troll

    but the new features just aren't doin' it for me. i'm not handicapped and i don't plan to be any time soon. i don't speak hungarian, and will probably only start once i'm handicapped. and i'm comfortable enough with gdkxft hack to stick with it until a new install. gnome has MUCH more it needs to work on before catering to hungarian handicaps. and i'm sick of seeing that blurb time and time again. why not just say, "Gnome 2.0 released: so who cares?"

    1. Re:call me jaded . . . by HanzoSan · · Score: 1, Redundant



      Dont forget none of your programs will work either. I dont think Gnome too will be standard until maybe 6 months to a year from now.

      --
      If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
    2. Re:call me jaded . . . by tempest303 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Uh.... no.

      Gnome 1 programs will run FINE on a Gnome 2 desktop. Ever tried running a KDE app on Gnome, or vice-versa? It works fine. Gnome 1 apps on Gnome 2 desktop is just like that.

      BTW, this is like your 3rd quasi-troll post on this thead. How exactly do you post with a +1 bonus?!

  21. NOT TROLL AND I BELIVE YOU! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    never mind my friend i recently switched from linux/gnome to windows 2000 and i think it was a good decission, things simply work and if something fuck up completely you can reinstall it within 1-2 hours instead wasting 2-3 days for gnome.

    1. Re:NOT TROLL AND I BELIVE YOU! by corps_inc · · Score: 0

      Since Windoze couldn't save preferences as Linux and most apps must be installed again. 1-2 hours I just don't believe you, 1-2 days but 2-3 days to install gnome. So you are: 1. extremly dumb secretary 2. rocket scientist Beta sources are not made for beginners! Go sell magazines

    2. Re:NOT TROLL AND I BELIVE YOU! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      whats so wrong with 1-2 hours ?

      fdisk, format c:, smartdrv, winnt.exe some mins later (maybe 40 mins) you are presented with a full installed and fully functioning windows 2000 desktop now get the service pack and well 50 mins all in all. you have mailer, browser, filemanager etc. things that you need to install separately under linux/gnome. windows 2000 comes exactly with all necessary tools. all essential and elementary tools. so what do you want ?

  22. Re:Here come the KDE trolls. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Erm, there hasn't been a KDE vs Gnome troll yet in this thread. In fact, you are the troll.

  23. Stop the flames! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if (gnome_article & some_one_mentions_kde)
    {
    moderate(-1)
    }
    else if (kde_article & some_one_mentions_gnome)
    {
    moderate(-1)
    }

    That no language in particular code is how the moderators act on slashdot!

    Stop this fucking flame war, its the same thing, people flame each oither over which is better! Other examples include emacs and vim, linux and windows ,qt and gtk+. just scrap one program and improve the other!

    1. Re:Stop the flames! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you forgot the semicolons....

  24. Anti-aliased support. by fialar · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Does this mean the new GNOME will incorporate the new Xft Hack?

    Or did they finally release an anti-alias process for fonts that doesn't make them look fugly? :)

    -f-

    1. Re:Anti-aliased support. by taion · · Score: 1

      You seem to be rather mistaken.

      The Xft hack is for X, not GNOME.

      --

      ----------
      Floccinaucinihilipilification - the action or habit of judging something to be worthless
    2. Re:Anti-aliased support. by Junta · · Score: 2

      Of course, that was simply disabling hinting, which is nothing new, it is a freetype option, the better, but illegal way is to enable the proper bytecode interpreter of freetype, that does 'proper' hinting, but infringes on a patent...

      Between that modification and MS fonts, my desktop looks much better now :) Sawfish, gnome-panel and ROX look great with GTK2 :)

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    3. Re:Anti-aliased support. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      the better, but illegal way is to enable the proper bytecode interpreter of freetype, that does 'proper' hinting, but infringes on a patent...

      How do you enable that? wouldn't mind infringing on that patent...

      (post AC because I'm a coward though)

    4. Re:Anti-aliased support. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, I use sawfish, gnome-panel, rox and gtk2 too. Good stuff! :-)

    5. Re:Anti-aliased support. by Junta · · Score: 2

      From sourcecode, in the file include/freetype/config/ftoption.h, there is a line that says
      #undef TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER
      change that to #define and recompile and install freetype, now you have a much nicer, if not patent infringing font engine for X to work with...

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  25. Internationalisation by CodeMonkey555 · · Score: 1

    Don't you think that is their internationalization was so good, it would have changed that 's' into a 'z' for those of us in the US.

    1. Re:Internationalisation by Menthos · · Score: 1

      The internationalization in GNOME *is* good, but the "internationalisation" above was the Slashdot poster's words. :)

      --

      GNU/Linux. The Freshmaker.

    2. Re:Internationalisation by gumleef · · Score: 1

      plus hte small fact that everywhere in the world cept america it is spelt with an s. once again i must state that the world does not revolve around america

  26. Re:COMMON SLASHDOT MYTHS by flacco · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Fact: Linux is not, and never will be, ready for the desktop.

    Clue 1: Linux IS ready for the desktop.
    Clue 2: You cannot predict the future.

    Myth: Open-source is a viable business strategy.
    Fact: No it isn't. [yahoo.com]

    Clue 1: Open source is a development model, not a business anything.
    Clue 2: Citing a company's stock performance is pretty much entirely irrelevant to open source.
    Clue 3: Allow me to cite a stock: Microsoft. Huge stock value, huge bank accounts. You know whose money that used to be? Software USERS' money. Open source is first and foremost good for software USERS - including companies who are not in the business of selling software. You know it. I know it. Microsoft knows it. They're scared shitless.

    Myth: Slashdot is a nice place to go for intelligent conversation about technology and political issues.
    Fact: Slashdot is full of 14 year-old fanboys who toe the party line for the "approval" of people they will never meet and fascist Janitors who resort to low minded trickery and censorship to further their narrow world-view and agenda. If you want to read posts that are Insightful and Funny, read at -1.

    Both the myth and fact have elements of truth. And please continue to piss off the 14-year-olds. After all, they're the decision-makers and software customers of the future, and a healthy ingrained dislike for Microsoft toadies inculcated at an early age can only be good.

    Myth: Information wants to be free.
    Fact: Musicians want to be paid.

    Clue 1: Musicians want to be paid
    Clue 2: ...almost as much as I want non-crippled consumer electronics that don't assume I'm a thieving scumbag.

    Myth: Constantly putting down popular music and culture shows your uber-intelligence and good taste.
    Fact: Constantly putting down popular music and culture shows you are a stuck-up fuckwit with no friends.

    Clue 1: Popular music and popular culture are a sickly green phlem whose only two purposes are 1) to stick to and remove money from the purses and wallets of naive prepubescent idiots and no-nothing wage-slaves who labor only to enrich their nakedly contempuous corporate masters, and 2) make the veins on my forehead throb as I ponder the worth of continuing to live.
    Clue 2: I'm a stuck-up fuckwit with no friends.

    Myth: The government is taking away our rights. WAAAAH!!
    Fact: While you're busy complaining and stuffing your fat face with pork rinds and cheese puffs, the government is busy keeping you, and the American way of life, safe from harm.

    Another misuse of the either-or proposition. They're both true - paradoxical.

    Myth: Libertarianism is a good solution to our problems.
    Fact: Libertarianism would result in a worse country than the USSR, with political and economic instability, horrific human rights violations, and exploitation of workers of a scale not seen since slavery was outlawed.

    Libertarianism is good because it strives to control the concentration of power in goverment. It sucks because it does nothing to control the power of wealth.

    Myth: Microsoft is an evil monopoly bent on world domination.

    Yes they are, just like any corporation, whose only reason for existence is to enrich its shareholders. I'm not saying that's good or bad, but let's recognize and admit the obvious.

    Fact: Microsoft is a software company based in Redmond, WA,

    Well, you got that right.

    that produces fine software

    Depending on which definition of the word "fine" you're using, I could agree or disagree with you.

    and believes that programmers should get paid for their work.

    Well, I'm all for getting paid. I'd just rather get paid to write software that is open, standards-compliant, and is friendly with other open standards-compliant software. Microsoft, on the other hand, does absolutely everything in its power to make choosing Microsoft software a one-way proposition. Basically it's a big Labrea Tarpit-like Roach Motel for unsuspecting software developers and users - you can check in, but you can't check out.

    Have I missed any?

    Well, you were all over the map with sporadic accuracy and no real focus aside from your own personal frustrations and feelings of inadequacy, so it's kind of hard to say.

    --
    pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
  27. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by bonch · · Score: 1

    I agree. Unfortunately, every time I mention this to someone, they point out that I'm running on slow hardware and should upgrade. I don't want to upgrade a computer just to speed up windowing code. My PII266mhz/96MB/Voodoo3 runs Win98 just fine, so why should it take so long for KDE/GNOME apps to load up, and why should I see so many artifacts when I simply move a window?

    It's been my experience that mentioning the slowness of KDE or GNOME has no effect, as it is always pointed to as the fault of something else, such as hardware, or something you did to misconfigure it, or drivers, and so forth. Nobody wants to admit anything!

    Having said all that, I greatly appreciate the work put into both of these projects. In fact, I'd like to check out the source myself and see if I can help out with any optimizations. :) I hope the final releases of both KDE and GNOME see some much-needed speedups, because I really do enjoy using them. It's just that the slowness is very annoying.

  28. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by uchian · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Have you ever noticed how, on Windows, after the desktop appears it still takes a good thirty seconds to a minute until your computer actually starts responding to what you want to do? (for me the time seems to increase proportional to how many programs you have uninstalled)

    The issue is not that IE takes less time to load than say, Konqueror or Netscape, it's that it loads at startup, whether you want it to or not.

    Here's a question I don't know the answer to - what happens when Internet Explorer crashes? Does it get completely unloaded from memory, like any crashes program should, or does partially remain?

    An unrelated point (as in that I never thought about the relation between the two until now) but I realise that at any point that Internet Explorer has ever crashed on me before, I've had to reboot Windows before my computer "feels" stable again, and I'm the kind of person who picks up on the warning signs when a computer/program are about to crash...

    Anyway, that's (some of) the reasons I use KDE on linux...

  29. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by JanneM · · Score: 1

    YEs, many KDE and Gnome apps _are_ slow on old hardware. All software is written for a target architecture, and plainly, these desktops (and especially their apps) are aiming for beefier stuff than you have. That said, I occasionally run Gnome on my p133/32Mb laptop and it's acceptable as long as I don't try to run a modern browser and a number of other memory-intensive stuff at the same time.

    What I _do_ run instead is XFce. It's quite fast even on that humble machine - and I can still use gnome apps on it as usual. Others speak warmly about Blackbox or WindowMaker. Remember, just because you're not using the desktop itself, it doesn't mean you can't use all the apps and other stuff.

    /Janne

    --
    Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  30. Re:who wants to belive ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    who ever modded this down -1 and troll i have pages over pages of #gnome ircchannel logs floating here whoever wants them can get and read them they contain a couple of lines from developers of gnome that says exactly the same. whoever modded this is mostly a little fucking asshole THAT only wants to hear how GOOD and FINE GNOME 2 is. but it is not it is a pile unstable notworking piece of shit its basically the truth no matter how hard you try to modd things down its sadly TRUE everyone who tested it now SAYS the same thing. ITS FUCKING NIGGERWARE look the final GNOME 2 will be out in 2 weeks as mentioned on their roadmap and look at what gnome 2 beta 2 is right now ? you seriously BELIVE that they get everything done till ènd of march ? come on dude. compare beta 1 with beta 2 and the timespace between these 2 announces its now a few days ago and nearly nothign changed its THE SAME.

  31. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by Zapdos · · Score: 2

    All it would take is to preload all of your apps the way windows does, but that would increase instability.
    For example here is a preload application for openoffice with the preload app openoffice starts in 1 second. The same thing can easily be done for mozilla etc. Galeon starts for me in 1.5 seconds. If gnome is so slow why can I record a CD at my cd-recorders max speed listen to wolf fm, edit a report, browse the web, and do so many diffrent things at once without fear.

  32. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ive used linux under a 450mhz machine with 64 mbs of ram and kde is really fast! Gnome kept weezing and my hard drive nearly died! But then you should try windows 2000 with 128 mb of ram. its sloooooooooooooow!

  33. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by phyxeld · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I want to have a nice looking, easy to use desktop. With a nice file manager, good web browser, extensive control panel, something that rivals windows.

    Considered Mac OS X?

    --
    __
    Choose mnemonic identifiers. If you can't remember what mnemonic means, you've got a problem. - Larry Wall
  34. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IE is already loaded. Win98 is based around Explorer. When you open IE, essentially all you are doing is opening another window, hence, no wait. Mozilla/Netscape 6 doesn't seem to load any faster in Windows than Linux and to call WindowMaker slow is absurd. I believe there is even an option in Mozilla/Netscape 6 to have it load with your window manager, thus making it open instantly when needed. I ran Gnome 1.4 for a time and did find it to be slightly slower than Windows 2000 but not significantly. My advice is to stick to WindowMaker. As a window manager, it runs circles around Windows.

  35. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by Arker · · Score: 2

    I don't want the simplest windows manager available so I can get similar performace to XP running on the same hardware.

    This is exagerration for sure. Yes, GNOME and KDE can be quite bloated. But I've run both satisfactorily on hardware that XP won't even try to run on.

    You probably are trying to use some really fancy themes if you're having a problem at that level. Solution is easy, get rid of the big pixmap-heavy themes and put something simple up. If you're using GNOME use a lightweight WM - one of the best things about GNOME is it is WM agnostic.

    If I can run GNOME/WindowMaker and GNOME/IceWM on a k6-233 with 32 MB RAM at a reasonable speed I know you can run it on anything that XP would run on, easily. And yes, Windows*95* definitely feels a little faster on the same hardware. It runs all the graphics routines at privilege, of course it's going to be faster. It's also unstable as all hell - that's the price you pay.

    However if you want to compare XP, well, good luck getting XP to even boot up on that box.

    With KDE, Netscape takes a good 10 seconds to load. Konqueror isn't much better. Fair enough, gimp loads quicker than photoshop. But when I can load internet explorer in a blink on a win98 machine, I find this frustrating.

    IE is loading itself during the boot sequence. You can have Konq or Netscape do the same thing if you fiddle with your x init routines.

    --
    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
  36. Guess what? by Penguinoflight · · Score: 1

    If you're not willing to go to any effort, why should the Gnome project worry about you?

    Perhaps if you dowloaded all the rpms yourself and formed them into 1, then setup a ftp server for other like-minded people, you'd be more help.

    --
    "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
    1 John 4:14
  37. Re:woo... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yes, as long as the name is KDE. only 3 packages to download and compile. simple and easy. dont play with gnome 2 yet its not worth all the hours of compile.

  38. Re:who wants to belive ? by CodeMonkey555 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Should we create a new obfuscated English contest?

  39. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by Arandir · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I did an informal test a while back. At work I have a Win2K machine (PIV 1.4Ghz) which I converted to a dual boot FreeBSD machine. Having to reboot into Windows on occasion caused me no end of aggravation, one of which was the sucky speed. So I started timing stuff.

    From power on to IExplorer showing my homepage, Win2K takes 90 seconds. From power on to Konqueror showing my homepage, FreeBSD/KDE takes 65 seconds.

    I don't want the simplest windows manager available so I can get similar performace to XP running on the same hardware.

    I've never used XP, but the window manager for 95/98/2K sucks! It is the simplest window manager available! Maybe I've just gotten used to X window manager, but I find the Windows GUI to be horribly awkward. If you have a window obscuring another one, you have to minimize it because there's no way to send it to the back (that I've found). There's no snap to edges or other windows. No rollups. No vertical or horizontal maximizes. And the automatic placement of windows is downright primitive. Frankly, it feels like it designed for users that only have one window open at a time.

    --
    A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
  40. Why linux isn't on the desktop by NavelFozz · · Score: 1, Insightful

    "Q. How do I use anti-aliased fonts?
    A. Set the GDK_USE_XFT environment variable. eg.: export GDK_USE_XFT=1"

    and in windows I just click this button here...

    1. Re:Why linux isn't on the desktop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      um, dude -- this is a beta release, intended for developers.

      also, KDE has a variable that you export as well to get anti-aliased fonts. they did make a graphical frontend for it too, fwiw.

      I'm sure gnome will eventually do that as well. don't shortchange something really cool over one little point, especially when it is a beta release intended for developers.

    2. Re:Why linux isn't on the desktop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > um, dude -- this is a beta release, intended for developers.

      It's intended for users, read the announcement.

      > KDE has a variable that you export as well to get anti-aliased fonts.

      You speak about Qt 2, not true anymore with Qt 3.

    3. Re:Why linux isn't on the desktop by gumleef · · Score: 1

      and how difficult would it be to export an environment variable and restart the font renderer when i click on a purdy gtk widget?

    4. Re:Why linux isn't on the desktop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hahaha, you guys are really funny.

      so you are trying to compare beta products with finished ones, ahahaha.

      You should be talking about this in the Comedy Channel:

      "Hey listen, do you know this? I have no idea of linux or programming, but I said, Okay, I am going to install gnome2, a beta product, from scratch."-hahahaha-"and I'm gonna tell you one thing"-hahahha hahaha-"I was not easy"-hahahohoahahahahaha".

      Good job man, laughing makes you live longer.
      nestor di

    5. Re:Why linux isn't on the desktop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so you expect many changes till he final release ? hohoho hshahahaha hihihihi

    6. Re:Why linux isn't on the desktop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no, but my distro will do all changes and compile it for me. :).
      nestordi

    7. Re:Why linux isn't on the desktop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what a creative reply of yours :)

  41. Re:Gnome Kaputnik! Hail KDE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Even if you consider gnome to be worthless as a desktop UI, without it KDE and therefore QT would have had a monopoly on integrated opensource desktops. Without the threat of the gnome project (and the considerable industry backing it has) TrollTech (creators of QT) would not have released QT under the GPL. Gnome has helped KDE to be free more than you can imagine.

    Hi mum!

  42. Re:COMMON SLASHDOT MYTHS by wurp · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Wow, that is one of the most insightfful responses I've ever seen regarding open source and corporatism. You consistently dodged his straw men and demonstrated the fundamental difference in mindset between people who just want your money and people who want to make products that help.

    Thanks!

  43. Re:The TRUTH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    well, partially i agree to this. well nautilus 2 is a hell of times faster than its previous nautilus 1 version. but compared to konqueror its useless with a shitload of bugs and problems. simply try getting files or directories from FTP. it is also not that flexible than konqueror or windows explorer. well you are right with your percentual values. if i compare windows kde and gnome now then the row should look like:

    windows 80%
    kde 19%
    gnome 1%

    gnome is nice to look at but nice icons and design doesnt make it usable. i wish jimmac or tigert would make such icons for kde and i bet it is going to dominate again. i for my own moved to windows 2000 since both desktops doesnt satisfy my needs they are not intuitive and not really usable (at least kde comes really close to windows) but gnome is anything else than usable.

  44. Re:COMMON SLASHDOT MYTHS by flacco · · Score: 1
    You Open-Sauce Zealots are really something, you know that?

    Gee, I know, almost as head-shakingly perturbing as a Microsoft toadie.

    Here you are talking about brainwashing innocent children into thinking bad things about a software company

    Did you learn to write watching Barney or something?

    And yes, I think it's a good idea for young people to question the role Microsoft has assumed in their lives. Christ, the kids coming on-line today can't even conceive of a world without Microsoft. They don't stop to consider the implications of using closed software, or how their operating systems and software products treat them like milkable cow-teats. That sounds EXTREMELY unhealthy to me, and EXTREMELY profitable and positive for Microsoft.

    but when Microsoft tries to give software to schools you rant and scream like it's the end of the world.

    Ok, you're clearly trolling for fun and profit now, but I'll bite. Just re-read the previous paragraph and append the usual canned (but valid) paragraph regarding "monopoly".

    --
    pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
  45. Re:COMMON SLASHDOT MYTHS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The original poster is a troll, look at his posting history. Best thing to do about trolls is to ignore them, they thrive on others' reactions to their bait.

  46. Re:The TRUTH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    sorry.

    your post is most definately a troll. on my 3-year old system, I run Gnome as my primary desktop. it flies here. maybe you tried nautilus 1.0 - 1.0.4. check out 1.0.6, as in releases 1.0.4, 1.0.5, and 1.0.6, there were many speedups. nautilus 2 is also much faster, and will be a part of gnome 2.

    one of the reasons why gnome takes up more space is because you're comparing the source and the binaries of gnome vs just the binaries of kde... also, gnome has many more apps, all of which are much better as well. koffice sucks in comparison to gnumeric and abiword, for instance.

  47. Explorer.exe by cpeterso · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here's a question I don't know the answer to - what happens when Internet Explorer crashes? Does it get completely unloaded from memory, like any crashes program should, or does partially remain?


    Explorer.exe and IExplore.exe are just regular processes. Why would they "partially remain" after they crash? Here's a Windows experiment. CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to open your Windows Task Manager and kill Explorer.exe. Your computer does not crash, but your shell just disappeared. From the Windows Task Manager, File \ New Task Run explorer.exe and your shell just came back.

    1. Re:Explorer.exe by uchian · · Score: 1

      I've had experiences before where an application would crash whilst in a DLL, (or a VXD but I could be wrong - it's been a long time), and then within the course of say, the next five minutes, the computer would appear to become more and more unstable.

      This isn't the same kind of thing that ever crashed IE - the error messages always came from explorer.exe or iexplorer.exe (I can't remember which) - but the system would feel like it was in the same unstable state.

    2. Re:Explorer.exe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) Windows 98 sucks balls in so many ways that it's pointless to delve into it. A VXD is a Win 9x device driver or kernel extention.

      2) On NT, it is possible for IE to blow up your shell and force you to logoff/logon again, but it certainly doesn't crash the computer.

    3. Re:Explorer.exe by cpeterso · · Score: 0, Redundant

      I've had experiences before where an application would crash whilst in a DLL, (or a VXD but I could be wrong - it's been a long time), and then within the course of say, the next five minutes, the computer would appear to become more and more unstable

      I'm confused about your claim that your computer "appears" more unstable? If it doesn't crash, then how is it unstable?

    4. Re:Explorer.exe by spitzak · · Score: 2
      You don't seem to know the full horrors of what Windows DLL's can do. If you have to program it for awhile you will learn.

      I would very much expect a crashed IE to leave the system unusable if it really is "part of the os" like MicroSoft claims. Because of the way the DLL's work it would be like a program on X being able to write over the structures in the X server with random garbage before crashing (this is possible with some of the dubuous hardware acceleration hacks being done). You can be sure that that X server is going down soon!

    5. Re:Explorer.exe by Skjellifetti · · Score: 1

      Heh, I tried that on WinNT once. Instant BSOD.

    6. Re:Explorer.exe by uchian · · Score: 1

      Ok, in reference to the part that you quoted I shouldn't have said appeared - it actually _did_ become more unstable - Trying to run various programs would cause similar errors, and very quickly, the keyboard/mouse would lock up, forcing a reboot.

      In the case of Internet Explorer crashing, you get used to the way that your computer responds when it is stable - how long it takes for software to boot up, how the mouse moves across the screen, how long it takes for the start menu to respond, and how it draws itself on the screen, how often the hard drive whirs, when it is likely to spin up, and what it sounds like when it does, etc. When these things change for no reason, then it's a warning sign - you know something is happening which doesn't in the normal operation of your computer, and in my experience, it normally means that the computer is about to crash.

  48. Re:who wants to belive ? by Perdition · · Score: 1

    This is what happens when someone uses a gui while logged in as root to their brains... yikes.

    --
    Windows XP SP2 told me to install third-party software that prevents viruses and protects stability... I chose Ubuntu
  49. Re:who wants to belive ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    go and stick your own penis into your fucking smelly butt.

  50. Re:COMMON SLASHDOT MYTHS by flacco · · Score: 2
    The original poster is a troll, look at his posting history. Best thing to do about trolls is to ignore them, they thrive on others' reactions to their bait.

    Yes, but newbies can't tell truth from trollery, so sometimes you do a good deed by wasting a few precious minutes of your time responding to it.

    --
    pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
  51. Re:The TRUTH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    sad that nautilus will be part of gnome 2 specially for people that dont like desktop shells. not to say that nautilus still behaves different than gnome 2 itself e.g. integration between nautilus and the core of gnome 2. e.g. redrawing the desktop and background.

    anyways the point i want to do here is that ABIWORD is no GNOME application that comes from a gnome team its made by abisoft http://www.abiword.org/ so please dont spread bullshit. it has basically nothing to do with the core of gnome its mainly a separate application done by someone. not to mention that it totally doesnt fit into the gnome environment at all. it looks different, its dialogs are different and it uses its own fonts. so please dont spread shit. abiword core is done by a company (see link above) they spent a lot of time and work into this project where kde people do this in their free spare time.

  52. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Try this super secret addition to your .xsession (or .bashrc, or add it to your session... Hmmm, X is kind of pain in the ass sometimes. Where was I? Oh yeah...):
    cat `which mozilla` > /dev/null &

    Extra credit if you nice it!
  53. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    try ROX with IceWM, its easy, comfortable and fast :)

  54. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by King+of+the+World · · Score: 0

    I'm not in front of a Linux box right now. What does this do?

  55. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by johnnyb · · Score: 2

    This is kind of hacky, but do a

    ps afx

    and look for your X window process. Then do a

    renice -20 PIDOFYOURXPROCESS

    Doing the same on the panel and window manager also helps. I'm not sure why the GUI-based dists don't do this by default.

    You will be able to see a difference immediately.

  56. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I realise that at any point that Internet Explorer has ever crashed on me before, I've had to reboot Windows before my computer "feels" stable again, and I'm the kind of person who picks up on the warning signs when a computer/program are about to crash...

    Here's one possible explanation of this...

    Not all crashes are caused by software bugs. They can be the result of hardware problems, such as memory errors, e.g. a single bit of memory suddenly having the wrong value when it is accessed by the CPU. It is quite possible for memory which behaves reliably most of the time to occasionally have such problems. Unless your system uses ECC memory you will have no way of knowing that these errors are occurring. Even software that exhaustively tests memory will not neccessarily detect the errors if they are relatively rare.

    If a memory error occurs in memory that is used by the OS, this might show up first as application software crashes, but later lead to system instability. Because different OS's will obviously use different portions of memory for different things, if a particular part of physical memory is causing problems then the symptoms under, e.g., Linux and Windows 98 may be different on the same computer.

    The solution, of course, is to use ECC memory. Unfortunately this relatively inexpensive technology has been neglected by the consumer market.

  57. Re:The TRUTH by DrSpin · · Score: 1
    Gnome also appears to depend on every other piece of software ever written - and all known releases of it. In some cases, it even depends on beta versions, and "unstable versions". I have never seen it compile, let alone load - so I can't say whether its slow or bloated.

    KDE not only compiles, it runs! Too bad that it depends on a mass of sound software, even if you don't own a sound card.

    what is with these people and dependencies?

  58. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by uchian · · Score: 1

    Ok, it doesn't work on my system, but what he's trying to do is to find out whichever Mozilla you are using, and see how long it takes to read it, piping the output to /dev/null so that you don't see it.

    Unfortunately, it doesn't work - the mozilla found on my system is a tiny script which calls the _real_ mozilla. This script is only about 5K in size and therefore minimal

  59. *linux is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you want to run Gnome, it runs even better
    on BSD.

  60. I sympathize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gnome and KDE are just too much for older hardware. If you want a good, fast windowmanager, I'd recommend WindowMaker. It's not as feature-full as a desktop, but it's speedy and pretty good.



    As for Gnome programmes, install and use some of the gtk-engines, like gtk-flat (my personal fave) and gtk-xenophillia. They'll speed up the UI of your gtk apps considerably compared to most standard gtk-pixmap-based themes.



    Lastly, console is always your friend. :)

  61. desktop thoughts by al3x · · Score: 1

    i, for one, am excited about the evolution of GNOME, not so much as a desktop platform but as a pleasantly competitive basis for designing GUI apps on *nix. i think the desktop thing should be a matter of preference, and while some interoperability between GNOME and KDE would be swell, they're two very different project right now. as far as people wanting a quick-fix easy desktop on linux, well.. *nix has never been friendly, but i think the people who can get by with a few terminal windows, a couple GTK/QT apps, their gkrellm, and their window manager of choice are right at home. why be all-or-nothing about this stuff? choice is a wonderful thing.

    1. Re:desktop thoughts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      its a joke right ?

      i mean 'designing GUI apps' .... you should say. fuck together some buttons and menues and call it an app. i have not seen one app yet that was designed intuitive, consistent etc...

  62. Re:What is? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Gnome and KDE are both "desktop environments". What this means is that applications written for their respective environments are supposed to interoperate like windows or macintosh applications.

    As for the two major desktops hurting linux, I'd have to agree. Competition has it's benefits, but overall I believe not having one major desktop is detrimental to linux.

  63. Re:The TRUTH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apparently you forget that theKompany has contributed to KOffice as well? ;-)

    also some of the KDE hackers work full time on KDE because the company that employs them to do so.

    (this is true of GNOME too)

  64. Re:COMMON SLASHDOT MYTHS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The definition of a newbie is someone who bites on trolls. Why don't you just raise your threshold and stop doubling all of the noise around here, or better yet, go back to AOL.

  65. Wow, agreeing with a near troll. I feel dirty now. by Archan · · Score: 1

    I have to agree with a couple of posts here. One, yes I personally can't stand the slower speed of GNOME, but as of right now, that's the only thing keeping me on KDE. KDE is faster, but GNOME has the programming tools to make more exciting programs on it. Speed up GNOME, and KDE has a worthy challenger.

    Either way, keep the competition going, choice is a great thing, hell, lets get a third project started here!

    And to imagine M$ actually releases propaganda that says having a choice of desktops is a bad thing... heh.

    -Archan

    --
    Blah to the skins and Blah to the punks and Blah to the world and everybody sucks.
  66. What about speed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gnome and KDE are embarrassing sloths. High cpu, memory and disk usage.

    My example:

    I installed redhat 7.2 on a dual Pentium 133, 96MB, /w two 4MB scsi drives. Started with 48mb, then 64, 80 and 96. 80MB got it over 'the hump' of constantly being slow. Instead, there were just 'dead spots' where gnome or kde were pegging both cpus(disk io was nill).

    So I've also aquired a single cpu p133, 64mb, /w two scsi drives, that had w95 already on it. The
    single p133 with less memory is faster in w95 than the dual p133 with 96mb. Fast enough that I almost don't notice that it's a p133.

    Sooo, what happend? The less capable box /w w95 shouldn't be faster than the more capable box /w linux.

    1. Re:What about speed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      meant to type 4MB/s

    2. Re:What about speed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I've run Gnome on a p133( 96M, slow IDE drive) before, it runs pretty good (faster than KDE). Make sure to pick a fast theme and to disable nautilus.

      win95 has a real simple gui interface (no real theming) so you can expect it to be faster. For proper comparison, try winXP or install winblinds.

    3. Re:What about speed? by MAurelius · · Score: 1

      This may not apply to your system, since I don't know all the relevant details, like what kernel you are running, but did you by chance enable dual processor support when you compiled your kernel? If not, Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) might need to be enabled via a recompile to let you take advantage of your dual-proc system. Did you check the bogomips on each processor to see if one is working a lot harder than the other? Here's a link with more info on dual processor systems: http://www.lugu.org/HOWTO/SMP-HOWTO-3.html Marcus

    4. Re:What about speed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The kernel was smp; both cpus functioning correctly. There is no hardware problem, other than that I need somewhere beyond double the hardware requirements to run linux+gnome/kde than w95. Quite an about face considering Linux used to tout requiring less system resources than windows.

  67. Re:COMMON SLASHDOT MYTHS by flacco · · Score: 2
    The definition of a newbie is someone who bites on trolls.

    That is factually incorrect.

    Why don't you just raise your threshold

    For what?

    and stop doubling all of the noise around here, or better yet, go back to AOL.

    Some people define noise as "that which I do not want to hear".

    --
    pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
  68. Re:please read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are the same person that wrote that completely uniformed review and installation guide of gnome2.

  69. Re:please read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no i am not but feel free to install gnome 1 and gnome 2 on your system and find out yourself. you can confirm yourself.

  70. i believe it took windows 10 years to be any good by Drazi100 · · Score: 0

    so to say gnome or kde will never be ready for the consumer is ridiculous.
    kde has been around for only 4 years I believe.

    I also believe if I am not mistaken that people do get paid for developing php web sites or jboss and tomcat. I also believe that a company like hancom sells quite a few linux word processing programs in asia.

    On the server front, mysql (despite my reservations about its iodotic ideas about foreign keys) just kicked sql servers ass on PC mags benchmarks.

    Youre just a microsoft fan boy that is afraid of the inevitable. Microsoft can't kill kde or gnome like it did to the vastly superior Beos, since it does not play by the rules of marketshare.

    I also believe that pure libertarianism would allow a monopoly like microsoft to stand.
    I think the biggest myth you forgot to mention is that youre intelligent and have any insight at all.

  71. Not yet... by salimma · · Score: 2, Insightful

    GARNOME has not been updated for the beta 2 release, but you can download the latest GARNOME (0.7.5) for the 20020225 snapshot and manually change the version info for the latest packages and their checksums, and then it will work just as normal :)

    HTH,

    Michel Salim

    --
    Michel
    Fedora Project Contribut
  72. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by Arker · · Score: 3

    Good theory. But false. I DO use ECC and still have that problem in windows, not in Linux, on the same box.

    --
    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
  73. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes the window handling in ms-windows sucks badly. I actually prefer anything with sloppy-focus like fvwm or icewm. Imagine having a small 1/3 screen x-term and typing something into it from a maximized web-browser and ocasional scrolling down the page.

  74. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by Tim+C · · Score: 2

    My PII266mhz/96MB/Voodoo3 runs Win98 just fine

    Win98 was released in 1998, and so was designed for the hardware that was around then. This is 2002, 4 years later, so you should expect an OS/desktop shell (like Gnome and KDE) to be designed for the hardware that is commonplace now.

    Taking into account Moore's Law, PCs are roughly 5 times the speed they were in '98, so to run an OS released this year "just fine", you'd want a machine around 1.33GHz (5 times the speed of your laptop). That's probably about the average that consumers are being told is the right speed for surfing the web at the moment...

    Yes, it does suck that old hardware sometimes struggles with the latest software, but that's just the way it is. Owning a computer is like owning a car - you never stop spending money on it.

    That said, I do feel your pain - my work machine is desperately slow, and it can be extremely frustrating.

    Cheers,

    Tim

  75. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by statusbar · · Score: 2

    Well, the fact that the typical computer is faster nowadays doesn't mean that programmers should make inefficient code and algorithms.

    It would be a good project to do real profiling on gtk/gnome apps to find out where the time is really being wasted.

    --Jeff

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  76. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by bonch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's all true, but I had always appreciated the "selling point" that Linux and its respective apps didn't necessarily require the latest hardware specs to run--they were supposed to be efficient and speedy enough to get the job done on lower-end hardware.

    By the way, I'm running Windows XP as I type this--with full effects, visual styles, etc.--and it is smoother and faster than KDE. Windows XP actually runs faster than Windows 98 did on this same hardware configuration, so I don't agree with the argument that KDE/GNOME should generally be run on the hardware of the current time, because if that's true, does that mean Windows XP is more optimized since it runs better on older hardware?

    It's not as though I'm doing anything particularly processor-intensive. If it takes 10 seconds for KDE to load up a listing of my home directory--even on my PII266--there's a problem, IMO. :)

  77. Re:Wow, agreeing with a near troll. I feel dirty n by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Strange

    The reason i switched from KDE is because Gnome hogs less memory than KDE does.

    I atually find Gnome to be faster than KDE. I guess it depends on what settings you choose to enable/disable (themes etc) and how your window manager is set up. The only slow Gnome thing is the new Nautilus filemanager/porn-viewer

    I'm looking forward to Gnome2 so I can get some AA fonts...

  78. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by felix+void · · Score: 1

    From my personal experience, GNOME or KDE seems to lag compared to windows XX. The apps themselves are often faster and more responsive, but the mous pointer, dragging of windows, etc. always lag. By lag I mean there is a delay much more perceptible on XFree86 than Windows.

    I am very sensitive to delays and skips in visuals, this kind of stuff annoys me, as a screen with lower refresh than 85 hz annoys me. Some people won't notice the difference.

    --
    . void
  79. It wouldn't matter if it were in 10000 peices.. by ozzmosis · · Score: 1

    well not with this handy little gadget.

    wget -c --retr-symlinks ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/pre-gnome2/releases/ gnome-2.0-desktop-beta2/*bz2

  80. Re:Swedish world domination by scorcherer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Good point. Is it a coincidence that Linus the Great is a native speaker of Swedish (although a Finnish national)? Methinks not.

    --

    --
    The Cap is nigh. Time to get a fresh new account.

  81. Re:COMMON SLASHDOT MYTHS by rutledjw · · Score: 1
    Bravo. I think portions of this post, or perhaps the entire thing would do well as a FAQ type posting for newbies to read. It'll help them:
    • Recognize trolls
    • Learn to give intelligent answers to mind-numbing blather
    --

    Computer Science is Applied Philosophy
  82. Re: YES, it is slow? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude, you're not the Only one. XFree is the bloat.

  83. nay for accessibility features by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, appealing to the minority is the way to win popularity. Because, if you get the smallest group possible to like you, the majority will follow... wouldn't they? Yeah, I think so. Y'see, it's all about marketing. And if you market yourself for the smallest group possible, then you'll be more likely to succeed.

    Aside from all that, Windows accessibility features are what make Windows popular. That's why I use windows - GIANT icons, HUGE cursor, and the Narrator (oh how I find that useful!). Yes, so by making Gnome available to disabled people, it'll surge in popularity. And just because it has such features, I'm ditching KDE. Those brownie points are too difficult to resist.

    Congrats to the Gnome developers, this feature was sooo worth it. Now there'll be 3 more Linux users. That's right, THREE!!! Totally worth it.

  84. I recently installed both W2K Server and Linux... by MsGeek · · Score: 3, Informative

    Windows 2K Server takes about an hour to install. However, it comes with a paucity of useful software...c'mon...Wordpad? Pinball? IE? LookOut Express? Paint? Also there's the time it takes to patch. That takes MUCH longer than the install.

    I installed Red Hat 7.2 today. Again, it took me an hour. But I now have tons of useful software and even some of my favorite timesink games. Yeah, I know there's patching to do here too. But most of the patches don't require rebooting.

    Don't get me wrong...I like Windows 2000. It's way better than 9x and arguably better than XP. And unlike Win2K I still have a lot to learn about Linux. But as far as tweak factors, installing Linux and installing 2K are about even. And Linux just plain gives you more good stuff to play with.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
  85. Re:COMMON SLASHDOT MYTHS by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 2, Offtopic

    Libertanariasm (as in the political party of that name in the US, not the general philosophy) is based on the idea that the ideal form of government for Gilligan's Island scales up to entire countries.

  86. You're fucking dumb for being trolled. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    YHBT. YHL. HAND.

  87. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by MsGeek · · Score: 2
    But then you should try windows 2000 with 128 mb of ram. its sloooooooooooooow!

    Umm...I use W2K Pro all the time with 128MB of RAM at work and it's just fine, thank you very much. No disk churn, no swap-o-rama...it's fine.

    Now if you were talking XP with 128MB RAM...that's a whole different kettle of fish. XP likes 256MB at minimum to keep it happy, and only truly takes off with 512MB.

    KDE 2.2 is very nimble compared to previous versions. I think the work that The Kompany has been doing on embedded KDE/Qt has perhaps encouraged tighter, leaner, faster code. There is no such impetus on Gnome's side. I like it.

    And if you are tight on RAM there's always IceWM or BlackBox as an alternative. IceWM is immediately recognizable and usable for Windows refugees, and BlackBox is actually kinda fun once you get the hang of it.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
  88. Re:Wow, agreeing with a near troll. I feel dirty n by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've heard that Nautilus is slow, but I've never installed it on my computer, and I assure you that GNOME is a lot faster than KDE on my box.

    The great thing about GNOME is that it isn't one giant inseparable blob -- you can use just what you want to use.

  89. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by Ogerman · · Score: 2

    I know what you're talking about. I'm the same way with lower than 85Hz. refresh, visual glitches, etc. There are several possible causes for this and likewise a number of possible solutions:

    1.) Your mouse sampling rate is set too low. This would cause even a very fast system to seem sluggish at dragging windows whilst displaying their contents because the system simply doesn't even try to update any faster. You could edit your XF86Config under the section "InputDevice" and add a line something like:

    Option "SampleRate" "100"
    ## I think the maximum is 200 and default 50.

    2.) Your video card is not fully accelerated by the XFree86 driver you're using. You'll have to read the docs to find out what is and isn't. Make sure you're using the latest X release. New versions often have improved drivers. If you're using an NVidia board, you might need to get their proprietary drivers for full performance. (lame!)

    3.) Bitmapped titlebars, widgets, etc. always slow things down a little. That goes for KDE's various 'gradient' themes too. Disable these on a slow machine. Win95-2k didn't use them either so no fair comparing apples and oranges.

    4.) Depending on what else you're running, you might want to give X itself a higher priority. Set it's nice value to -10 or something.

    5.) Windows builds the GDI right into the OS kernel, thereby sacrificing stability and wasting resources if a GUI is unneeded. This, on the other hand, improves responsiveness somewhat. XFree86 sits on top of the kernel like any other app. If X dies, your system doesn't. Modular design allows more flexibility too. And X is far more feature rich than the Windows GDI to begin with.

  90. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by spitzak · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The delays are due to the seperate window manager and the rather kludgy communication between the program, X server, and window manager.

    Everybody here had better learn to admit this is a problem.

    The solution should also be looked at, and it is a killer: get rid of the "window manager". Most people seem to think this means that the window manager must be built into X, like Windows. But that only eliminates 1/2 the slow communication, and has the unfortunate effect of completely freezing window management design, which is a problem Windows is having relative to Linux right now (read the above comments!)

    What I mean is "window managment" (meaning the positioning, decoration, moving, resizing, etc) of windows, should be part of the toolkit. The window border is no different than a button or anything elss. All sane people (there are some exceptions here) know that the drawing of the button should be up to the appliation or the shared libraries it decides to load, so why not the window borders?

    But all the window borders will look different! Yes, they will. That is because it is impossible to have "consistency" and at the same time have "innovation". Think about it. And all those people who worry about "consistent user interface" should go and talk to some real users and they will find out that "consistency" is way overrated. Why aren't games "consistent"? Because they want to advance the state of the art. And I'm sure somebody will say "hey I was confused by the inconsistent Linux GUI", but think about it: what you really were confused by was two different interfaces, one a "stupid" design and one a (possibly) "smart" design. You were not confused by the inconsistency, you were confused because one of the interfaces was stupid. Also, look at the toolkits, with no requirements that they share code, they are pretty damn consistent, because they copy the working ideas from each other! If X had envorced "consistency" we would all be using the Athena widget set right now and trying to brag to Windows users that we can swap white and black in our preferences.

    When we get rid of the window manager you will probably see some real innovation, like windows without borders (you move/raise them by grabbing any inactive area), and intellegent window stacking and ordering by programs that know exactly what window is important right now.

    There will have to be a "task manager" (go ahead and take the Windows term, it won't bite). It would be like the "panel" in Gnome and programs would indicate they are running and respond to messages saying "appear" and "disappear" (or they can ignore the messages just to cause trouble, but it should be allowed).

    Ok enough ranting on Slashdot.

  91. Re:Gnome Kaputnik! Hail KDE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know one person that uses KDE, and over thirty that use GNOME. GNOME has way more support and more developers. I wouldn't worry about being "forced to switch".

  92. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by raistlinne · · Score: 1
    What I mean is "window managment" (meaning the positioning, decoration, moving, resizing, etc) of windows, should be part of the toolkit . The window border is no different than a button or anything elss. All sane people (there are some exceptions here) know that the drawing of the button should be up to the appliation or the shared libraries it decides to load, so why not the window borders?

    First off, the window manager has nothing to do with where the mouse is. Secondly, on a local display, the communication involved between these various programs is so damn close to instantaneous that no human is going to be able to tell (note: this is on a fairly recent machine, I have no recent experience with a 486). The most likely culprit in any percieved slowness is going to be some sort of pixmap-using theme, so that for every refresh a whole bunch of pictures need to be drawn.

    Anyhow, to address what you said, moving the window borders and such into the application is pure insanity. Do you really want to not be able to move, minimize, or kill an application which has frozen or is taking a long time to respond? Windows does this and it frustrates the hell out of anyone used to unix who has to use windows.

    Moreover, who on earth wants to reimplement all of this every time you write an X program? It would be a bloody waste of time with no practical benefits and only problems such as someone forget to implement window shading in some particular application that you like. No, this is one of the times when we should all learn from the billions of dollars in R&D that microsoft apparently hasn't done and run away from this sort of thing like the plague.

    I feel that I should note, btw, that what you want already exists. All you have to do as an X app is provide a window manager hint that you want to be an unmanaged window, and the window manager will have nothing to do with you and you're on your own to prove all the appropriate functionality. The only program that I know of that does this is xmms, though I'm sure that there are others.

    --
    They laughed at Einstein. They laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. -- C. Sagan
  93. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by imroy · · Score: 1
    What I mean is "window managment" (meaning the positioning, decoration, moving, resizing, etc) of windows, should be part of the toolkit . The window border is no different than a button or anything elss. All sane people (there are some exceptions here) know that the drawing of the button should be up to the appliation or the shared libraries it decides to load, so why not the window borders?

    I'll give you a good reason: because then all the window manipulations (moving, resizing, max/minimising) is dependent on the applications' process. Better dedicate a thread to handling those events, otherwise the window won't move or anything until the application isn't busy. Oh, and if the process hangs, the window(s) will be stuck on the desktop.

    If you've use MS-Windows heavily, you'll have noticed these two problems with it. I know I do. At a previous employer we had to use an application to build documents, with the data files over the network. I'm not sure where the bottle neck was, but it was damn slow - it wasn't taking up much CPU, but the application was bogged down with something (network I/O?) and it would bog down the rest of the GUI waiting for it to get around to respond to events. At least minimizing the window would get it out of the way and allow everything else to operate normally, but it still took around 20 seconds for the window/application to respond to the minimize event.

    No thanks, I appreciate the use of a seperate window manager. I think you way overestimate the overhead or inefficiencies of this system and don't understand the advantages it provides.

  94. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by sparcv9 · · Score: 2
    When we get rid of the window manager you will probably see some real innovation, like windows without borders (you move/raise them by grabbing any inactive area)...
    You can do this already. I have dozens of aterms running just dandy on multiple desktops under WindowMaker with no titlebars, no resize bars (the bar across the bottom), no window borders, transparent backgrounds, and transparent scrollbars. I click the window I want to be active (or, more often than not, hotkey cycle through them), and can CTRL+click to grab it and drag it around. A hotkey combo pops up the window commands menu so I can resize it with my cursor keys, or use CTRL+cursor to resize it. Hell, I can even turn the scrollbars off for applications with built-in scrollback, like ircii. IRC looks pretty damn swank when it's seamlessly and transparently overlaid on my root window.
    --

    This is not a Fugazi .sig
  95. Re:I recently installed both W2K Server and Linux. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > And Linux just plain gives you more good stuff to play with.

    ... and this is the important point. i want to use my system not play with it. there is no need to run into excuses or something. i was using linux for over 10 years now and i for sure get back onto linux as soon as i am allowed to but for my current TASK i'd better use windows.

  96. Re:please read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i bet some fucking fag modded this down anyways its true facts. gnome 1 and gnome 2 does not work together. everyone comes to this conclusion.

  97. Re:please read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    why is this offtopic ?

    i was up to exactly do this kind of installation. thanks to this person mentioning this. thank you.

  98. Re:Gnome Kaputnik! Hail KDE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i fully agree to this.

  99. Re:The TRUTH by sydneyfong · · Score: 1

    Gnome 1.x depends on stable libraries. Gnome 2 is not yet released, so that is the reason why it depends on beta software - It is beta software itself.

    I've compiled GNOME 1.4 and prereleases of GNOME 2 myself, so what is your problem here?

    --
    Don't quote me on this.
  100. Libertarianism by steveha · · Score: 2

    Libertarianism, the general philosophy, is based on the idea that you own yourself and the fruits of your labor, and that you have the right to decide what is best for yourself. A libertarian government would be very small and do very little: it would enforce the laws against fraud and force, and it would enforce contracts, and it would handle national defense. "Victimless" crimes (such as using drugs, or paying for sex) would not be crimes. If you had cancer and wanted to take an experimental drug, there would be no FDA to forbid you to do it. It would still be illegal to hurt people or steal their stuff, or fool people into giving their money to you. Pollution would still be regulated but the mechanisms used might be different from what you see today.

    Sadly, while most people would love to live in a libertarian society, almost everyone has some pet feature of government that they like, or else they don't want other people to be fully free, or both. (For example, some people who disapprove of drugs want drugs to be illegal.) Take the union of all the things people want government to do, and you have a large, complex government.

    As this is off the main topic, I won't make this much longer, but will close with two final points:

    0) libertarians don't, as a rule, want poor people to suffer and die; rather they think private charities would do a better job of helping the poor.

    1) Not only do libertarians want to end things like welfare, but they also want tax burdens to be remarkably lower. Right now charities get lots of donations, even though the tax rate is over 50% for most people (add up state and federal income tax, sales and restaurant taxes, car and gas tax, etc. etc. and include things like Social Security "contributions" and you will go over 50% quickly). If the overall tax rate for people went down to 10% or less, charitable contributions would increase.

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  101. Multiple, simultaneous language support?! by taiwanjohn · · Score: 1
    Enhancements include anti-aliased text and first class internationalisation support

    Does this mean that now I can finally get Chinese/Japanese input methods (*Wnn) working without having to change my entire frickin' GUI (including menus, calendar, etc) over to the target language? ...ie: the way it's supposed to work? ...eg: the way it works in that other OS?

    The way it is now (Gnome 1.4, stock RH7.2 install), I had to set up a separate user account, with the LANG variable set to zh_TW, and run a separate X session (all in Chinese) just to get the ability to key-in some text. Wnn won't work without the LANG variable set, but setting it changes the global Gnome environment too. If there's a way around this, nobody I know has been able to figure it out yet...

    --jrd

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
  102. garnome install instructions - (WAS: Re:Call me l) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmm, is it me or are INSTALL and README missing from all of the archives of garnome.

  103. Alternatives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Either way, keep the competition going, choice is a great thing, hell, lets get a third project started here!"

    Like Enlightenment.
    http://www.enlightenment.org/pages /shots.html
    Or GnuStep.
    http://www.gnustep.org/

  104. Re:Warning! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's because GNOME wasn't made for the single purpose of shoving it up your rectum.
    If foreign rectal bodies is your cup of tea, then KDE or Windows should be right up your alley.

  105. gnome sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    i hate these release named for all gnome packages and sourcereleases they sound dumb.

    gnome 2 final 'the i want to fuck anal cocks wife into her other eye so she walks around without seeing the light of her life because i am so fucking dumb gay and a homo fag nigger anus nigger arse then i make a cum festival with anal cocks, richard m. stallman and miguel the toiletcleaner icaza in a dark house with cool bukkake release' released today 29 march 2002.

  106. Re:Wow, agreeing with a near troll. I feel dirty n by WhyCause · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Either way, keep the competition going, choice is a great thing, hell, lets get a third project started here!

    There already is one. It's called Enlightenment. That's the new one I'm waitin' for.

  107. Huh? by Arker · · Score: 1

    This is a really odd argument. You seem to be implying that software must get more bloated and slow as new hardware gets faster.


    Wouldn't it make more sense to use new hardware capabilities for actually doing work, rather than doing what the old software did, only slower?

    --
    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
  108. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by t_hunger · · Score: 1

    You might want to take a look at Berlin (http://www.berlin-consortium.org/). We don't have a windowmanager (nor toolkits for that matter;-).

    (Allmost) everything is a graphic that gets generated in the server. So it does not need to talk to clients at all when redrawing, greatly reducing communications between client and server. Of course the whole thing is multithreaded.

    Since most graphics are generated by the server there is consistency: You exchange the 'DesktopKit' and all windows change their look and feel. At the same time you can have inovation: Berlin is fully device independent (able to render to a framebuffer, openGL or Postscript, allways making full use of the devices), it is fully 3D capable (allowing for 3D monitors and 3D objects outside of windows, even windows are 3D objects), can handle powerful input devices (like datagloves, etc.) and much more.

    The downside: It still needs a lot of work. You are welcome to help :-)

    Regards,
    Tobias

    --
    Regards, Tobias
  109. and one (two, three, ...) more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Don't forget my favourite, GNUstep. Not all of the API is implemented yet, and Display PostScript is mad slow, and it's butt-ugly, but it's coming along. Another year or so to finish off the API (I think it's mainly Cocoa stuff they haven't finished yet), maybe (accelerated) DPS in XFree86 itself, and themeable support and it'll be nicer than any of that KDE/GNOME hogwash.

    Also one can't forget XFce, which is a pretty nice (and damned light-weight) desktop.

    Then there's one of those BeOS projects (I can never keep them straight) that's putting the BeOS API on X (and eventually on DirectFB I believe).

    And if Wine ever matures, you could actually start using Microsoft Windows as your desktop system on X. It'll be a scary day when I actually start seeing native Linux ELF binaries written in the Win32 API.

  110. High CPU? by FooBarWidget · · Score: 1

    I run GNOME and KDE on a Pentium 166 with 48 MB RAM, and they almost don't use ANY CPU power at all!
    They just use a lot of memory, but ALL modern software use a lot of memory so that doesn't surprise me.

    And about Win95 vs GNOME: the Win95 desktop environment isn't nearly as advanced and modular as GNOME (or KDE). More features = more RAM usage (have you used Win98 on that same system yet?).
    But minimal environments like IceWM are just as fast as Win95.

  111. Re: YES, it is slow? by FooBarWidget · · Score: 1

    No it's not. Ever tried standalone IceWM/WindowMaker/Xfce/Fvwm yet? They run fast as hell.

  112. Speed? by be-fan · · Score: 2

    GTK+ has been pretty good with speed (as far as Linux goes). Does the 2.0 release make it worse or better? I just upgraded to a Athlon 1700+ and KDE-2 finally runs as fast as Win2K did on my PII-300. Some things, like resizing the web browser, are even a bit faster. Not as much as I was expecting for 5X the clock speed, but at least the Konqueror prefs panel opens about as fast as Word used to...

    --
    A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  113. Re:gnome sucks (OT) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you spend too much time searching for porn my friend....

  114. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by fredrik70 · · Score: 1

    Got no problem running both WIn2K Pro and Mandrake 8 on my 400MHz box with 128MB...
    Only reason I would like a faster box would be to get compile times down...

    --
    if (!signature) { throw std::runtime_error("No sig!"); }
  115. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by spitzak · · Score: 2
    That's because those programs are doing exactly what I propose. Turning off the window borders pretty much reduces the window manager to the role of "task manager". (using override-redirect, as others have said, does not work, as the window manager and thus the "taskbar" do not see the app at all).

    This may be a way to evolve X into what I propose. It needs more appliations to do this so that standards are agreed on, and there needs to be an interface so a "task" can announce itself without having to create a (mapped) window.

  116. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by spitzak · · Score: 2
    Berlin's design is the exact opposite, and there are good arguments for doing it this way. At least it is consistent in that *everything* is on the same side. NeWS was also like this. In NeWS, even on slower hardware, the fact that all widgets could synchronize with the moving and resizing of the window made performace *much* better than X.

    The current X design is to have all the widgets on the client side except for this one special widget, the "window". That seems wrong to me, everything should be together.

    Personally though I think everything should be on the client side. The reason is that any interface to widgets will freeze us into present-day design. You can think the Berlin interface is really cool and customizable, but it probably locks in ideas like "scrollbar" and "text editing field" and "menu" that may be considered archaic in 10 years. I think that if X had done this approach we would all be using Athena widgets in lovely black&white and trying to defend why you need to use the middle mouse button to move the scrollbar, and Linux on the desktop would be a total joke. I don't want to see this happen, which is why I don't think Berlin is the right solution.

  117. Re:Linux GUIs slow? by t_hunger · · Score: 1

    > Personally though I think everything should be
    > on the client side. The reason is that any
    > interface to widgets will freeze us into
    > present-day design. You can think the Berlin
    > interface is really cool and customizable, but
    > it probably locks in ideas like "scrollbar"
    > and "text editing field" and "menu" that may be
    > considered archaic in 10 years.

    A very good point!

    We try to address this by minimizing the assumptions for widgets. A Berlin client can request a button and he will get something that executes a client-specified command on a certain event and that incorporates a given graphic soemhow.

    The current implementation of the WidgetKit produces a tree of objects that form a motifish looking button (all straight lines, very easy to implement, but ugly) that is drawn 'around' a given graphic (usually a textlabel), reacting to mouseclicks (better: mouse releases).

    Of course you could do a diffrent implementation of the WidgetKit interface, using a completly diffrent look (lets say MacOSX-ish or a texture-mapped 3D Mesh) and feel (voice controlled?).

    'Minimizing' the assumptions made about Widgets, or better the interface for requesting them, is a very central task in designing Berlin. We think that this very general approach can at least handle anything from a athena-widget-button to those themable button we fancy so much nowadays.

    --
    Regards, Tobias
  118. Re:I recently installed both W2K Server and Linux. by Razorviro · · Score: 1

    I installed RedHat 7.2 in under 8 minutes on my new computer. It has a Pentium 4 1.7GHz processor and 512 MB RAM. I'm downloading Gnome2 Pre-2 right now using garnome. I'll post back here once I get it all downloaded and running.