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Feature Preview of Gnome 2.8
Leonardo writes "The GNOME foundation should release the new version of this desktop environment on the 15th of September. While we waiting for version 2.8, Foot Notes has a link that explains what's new in this release. Improvements include both core parts (like VFS and Nautilus) and UI modules, like a new applet manager, an improved gconf editor and a new theme. In addition there are some proposed modules like new system tools and a new VNC server. Take a look at Davyd Madeley' site (mirror) if you want to view some sweet screenshots."
The inclusion of system tasks in the UI graphic selection seems to be a good way to allow the Linux newbies to more easily understand and control their non-Win computers. Once they get acclimated to the commands, they may venture into the faster cmd-line that 'experts' like to use.
This may even help faster corporate adoption, with the remote control software and other networking tools.
But here's what would have to change for me to use it:
.gnome or something
1. Jettison the whole gconf/registry thing in favor of a tree of plain text config files in
2. Resurrect the old GNOME control center
3. Give me a default window manager with the ability to select focus-follows-mouse mouse
4. Construct a usable menu editor somewhere so that I can customize my menus
5. Choose: either a) reincorporate gecko into Nautilus for Web browsing or b) go lightweight and jettison Nautilus for the old gmc
6. Create a base distribution of official GNOME applications from a lot of the GTK stuff out there, based on which authors agree to follow a rigidly follow a GNOME style guide and use the GNOME API rather than just GTK, so that there is more desktop consistency
7. Add compatibility with KDE themes to GTK, since they seem superior (ability to change colors, not just widget styles, etc.)
8. Give me an "advanced mode" to turn on all kinds of extra GUI configuration bells and whistles like keybindings, autoraise, MIME types, etc.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
is the best upcoming feature of 2.8 IMO. I will finally be able to just plug in my various USB drives into the computer and have them mount (and unmount!) automatically.
For me personally, this means that my non-ubergeek wife (who isn't aware of the root password or the commands mount -a and umount -f), and will be able to download pictures off of the camera without asking me to unmount the camera or to fix the multiple mount points that cropped up since she plugged in the camera multiple times.
Thank you Gnome hackers!
The new MIME system is "fixing" the old one by totally replacing it, no other approach would work. The new system by the way is a lot easier to use for both users and developers, and is a freedesktop standard shared with KDE :)
The rest of the desktop is not receiving any major new features really, just lots of bugfixing too small to go in these sort of "what's new" pages and various cleanups. Actually Gnome seems to have slowed down in this release as a lot of the Red Hat and Novell hackers are tied up with non-Gnome work as they round out the rest of the Linux desktop (so, hardware integration, management tools, backwards compatibility work etc).
I do use XFCE too, plus the Rox pinboard - makes the perfect combo, and still keeps the environment lean and fast.
However, I beg to disagree with your last sentence. The "bloat" in gnome is something relative - it may be heavier on the system, but Gnome and its apps feels far more integrated than XFCE. XFCE is pretty much only the panel, an eye-candied window manager, and a taskbar, and while it comes with easy to use configuration tools, they are very limited in the sense that there aren't not much room for customizing - something that gnome surely wins. The taskbar, for instance, have no real meaningful configuration, and always lives separated from the panel - IMHO, it should be a plugin, so you could attach the taskbar to the panel, thus freeing desktop space.
I can live with that tough. My main beef with the state of desktop on Linux is the fragmented situation of the GUI Tookits (mainly QT vs. GTK, though there are lesser ones). The problem is not having many toolkits per se, but the fact that this leaves the desktop with an unconsistent appearance. I'm all for having toolkit choices, but I wish they'd unite to create a standard themeing format, so a theme could be used on both toolkits, thus leaving a more or less consistent appearance to the desktop (there's still the GUI guidelines).
Well, not gonna happen anytime soon, tough... :-(
Yes, you need to support new hardware and stuff but it's not sustainable to keep adding it into the core product.
What do you base this on? Do you have any evidence?
You can choose to compile drivers into the kernel or as modules or not at all. Some people use the Linux kernel in embedded devices. It isn't necessary to compile most things into the kernel.
Third parties can also maintain drivers that are separate from the kernel and are loaded as modules. Do you think Windows shouldn't include drivers for hardware on its install CD?
He was referring to MS Word
Do you have any Linux examples?
Printing doesn't happen immediately because it's necessary to convert the data into a format the printer understands. Printers don't understand Word files or PDFs or whatever. They can't magically see what's on you screen and begin printing immediately.
Maybe back in the days of daisy wheel printers it was easy to generate stuff the printer would understand, but these days you need to produce postscript or something else. Unless you want to edit all your documents as postscript, it's going to take some processing beforehand.
But you know, personally I think the output of modern printers actually looks good. You can have good looking printouts, you can have speedy printouts, and you can edit in whatever document format you want, but you can only choose two of the above.
I know you were implying more generality, but I think you're wrong. Yes, you can't use brand new Gnome on old hardware. But that's because it's made to take advantage of new hardware. It does more stuff than old fast applications did.
If you want a speedy desktop, you can use XFCE or Fluxbox. Or you could use bugfixed versions of older apps/Gnome/KDE if they exist. Gnome isn't designed to be super speedy.
I've come for the woman, and your head.