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GNOME 2.10 Beta 1 Screenshot Demo
linuxbeta writes "GNOME 2.10 Beta 1 has just been released. There is a nice screenshot demo here. Also known as 2.9.90, GNOME 2.10 Beta 1 is the first pre-release intended for wide public scrutiny before the final release in March. It is packed full of tasty GNOME goodness. This release is a feature frozen snapshot primarily intended for wide public scrutiny before the final GNOME 2.10 release in March. Like the good old days of Linux kernel development, GNOME uses odd minor version numbers to indicate development status. Please check the 2.9 start page for more info. - gnomedesktop.org/node/2138"
A screen shot in there seems to hint that we'll be able disable the annoying feature where nautilus opens new windows for each directory you select instead of the real estate saving tree view.
Anyone know if 2.10 can have a tree view for directory hierarcies?
I hope GNOME will take a step ahead and use vector graphics. Then those of us that use large screen resolutions (such as those UXGA laptops) will have nice looking fonts without a magnifying glass. I know it might be easier said than done, but this will push the Linux desktop miles ahead.
Visually I can see no leaps and bounds here, so I'm a little baffled at the purpose of the "screenshot slideshow". Then again, graphics certainly aren't everything. I haven't been reading up on GNOME developments lately but what is "Assistive Technology"? It sounds like something dubious and misleading that Microsoft would promote...
Hero of Allacrost, a FOSS RPG for *NIX/*BSD/OS X/Win
Having used gnome 2.92 in Ubuntu Hoary, I have to say the best new feature is the volume control. The old one had way to much information, the new one is amazing. It's hard to describe, but it's much better than the old one. It may not seem like a big deal. But gnome currently only has a mediocre volume control. In the next release it will have the best volume control I have ever used on any platform.
Aye. I wish linux was purtyer. I am probably going to get a new mini instead of make a machine with linux on it. OSX with it's security and programs makes it a better option. If you had talked to me 5 years ago, I would be pissing on macs all day. However, Apple has make a great turn-around and the price makes getting a regular machine and putting linux on it unreasonable.
Congrats to the Gnome and Ubuntu teams. You have taken Linux from depths of desktop mediocrity and confusion and transformed it into something that real people can use to get work done.
As a real question (not trolling), does Gnome have a graphical way to edit the menus yet? My primary reason for staying with KDE is I don't want to have to edit them manually.
I tried gnome recently and found out about this cmd to graphically quick user switch a la xp/osx. So one user can log in and leave other(s) still logged in.
.asoundrc file for software mixing with alsa, and used esd for gnome sounds and piped to alsa. I get sound in pretty much everything simultaneously, nothing holding the soundcard, but if another user uses gdmflexiserver to log in, that user will have no sound.
/. users deal with this with multiple users in the household. Esp wanting to lock out kids from ones login by xscreensaver but not locking them out from theirs.
This has some issues but what would give almost complete functionality right now, would be if the screensaver had an option to run gnomeflexiserver.
The other problem with this though, is if logged in as another user, the other users settings for xscreensaver will kick in after the idle time and bog down the other user(s). I also believe this will take over the 3d functionality of the users card and not allow another user to use it.
Also, I recently set up my
Afaik, this is also a bit of a kludge, tying another Xscreen to a vert terminal similar to some users using ctrl alt f8 for the other X session. I'm not sure if there would be a way to tie multiple users to one Xsession, but I would think it would save resources and potentionally avoid sound/video accel getting taken over by just one login.
I know this is somewhat off topic as I don't believe gdm is being enhanced in the coming future in this regard, but I'd like to know how
Xp and MacX have now had this for ages. The DE's for linux really need to catch up in this regard.
Oh really?
Besides, I thought that personal tastes are just that. Personal.
That's fine in principle, but in practice it works like reverse Polish notation. It's something you can learn, yes, but it's backwards.
In English, we "do this to that." That is to say, we apply an action to an object. We don't specify an object and then describe an action. We "open door," we don't "door open."
The nut is that trying to teach people to think object-then-action is a chore. It's a process that has to be learned.
A far, far better paradigm is the gestural paradigm. Click, double-click, click-and-drag. For instance, consider drag and drop. Drag and drop is one of the easiest things to learn. We deal with the same basic paradigm every day. In order to put the banana guacamole in the freezer, I pick it up and put it on the shelf. I don't point to the banana guacamole and then point to the freezer and then give a command. In fact, drag-and-drop is so intuitive that people who have a lot of experience with primitive computer systems often have trouble mastering it. It doesn't seem "natural" to them because they've gone out of their way to learn a different syntax.
Select-then-act has to be learned. Drag-and-drop and other gestural interfaces are far more obvious.
I'm sorry, but I never agree when people say fonts on Linux look good. For instance, take a look at the "W" characters in those shots. The diagonal lines in that letter are thicker than the others. It also happens in certain digits and special characters. Diagonal lines and curves in general are uneven. People often tell me the fonts in Linux render better than in Windows, and I just look at comparison shots between the two and shake my head at their apparent delusions, especially when comparing to a shot from OS X (probably the best I've seen from any OS...everything is smoothed, and somehow it antialiases very tiny characters without making them appear too thick or too thin).
In the old days, a release came with release notes, so we knew whether we cared about a release. Maybe GNOME's release notes release is just very hard to use, but I don't see a meaningful list of changes. And I don't mean a ChangeLog, which is meaningful only to developers, people waiting for a specific bugfix, or others involved in the project enough to be upgrading from daily build snapshots.
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make install -not war
Am I the only one left who prefers clean bit-mapped fonts?
Sure, the screenshots shown in the article look pretty snappy from a distance, because the fonts are large. But to get a lot of work done you want small, even tiny fonts. That's the whole point of high screen resolution, right?
Antialiased small fonts look awful. Compare the crisp, clean bitmaps of NeXTSTEP or even Windows to the small blurry fonts in GNUStep or the Mac. With aliasing letters bleed together , the shapes aren't quite right, etc. It gets so tiring to read after a while.
And if you turn off antialiasing they're barely legible (and sometimes even touch each other - I hate it when letters touch each other!) because no one takes the time to produce correct bitmaps for specific font sizes. (OK, to be honest I haven't seen the Mac with antialiasing turned off.) I don't even care about a zillion different sizes, just give me a couple of fixed sizes, small and smaller, that look right.
As much as I hate Windows, one thing it has going for it is that the fonts are very clean and legible with antialiasing turned off. I tried the latest Ubuntu for a while, playing with all the font settings available (even LCD subpixel) and in end couldn't stand it because of the fonts. Such a beautiful OS gone to waste because it's unreadable with antialiasing turned off, and I can't stand it turned on. Isn't readability like half the point of a computer in the first place? Or do all people care about anymore is just getting a pretty "printed page" effect from a blurry distance?
The irony is that font bitmaps are not even copyrightable! Heck, just steal them from NEXTStep! Or even Windows! (The bitmaps, that is.) Why doesn't anyone do this?
(End rant.)
I didn't think there could be much room left for new invention in volume controls.
Sure there is.. someone out there needs to invent a volume control that will mute Flash without muting itunes/rhythmbox etc.
Seen it. Not impressed. Many vertical strokes were anti-aliased to be two pixels wide when they should render one wide. It makes the text look blurry. I've seen that on Linux before too, though it's since been fixed (problem with the font hinting?).
I use Gnome. Looks great on my LCD with sub-pixel anti-aliasing. I suspect the problem with the screenshots is that they use the default fonts (the free Bitstream ones I think). I use the Microsoft fonts, mostly Verdana. Verdana may not be pretty but it's designed for on-screen readability, and renders well.
I am an avid GNOME user. It is my preferred desktop platform. However, compared to OS X and Windows XP(especially), GNOME's user interface animations leaves me wanting for more.
Rashly speaking, why does GNOME's user interface animation suck so much? Is it GTK+ that is the culprit, or is Metacity to blame? And when can we expect animations on par, or better, than OS X or Windows XP in GNOME.
Outside the aforementioned issues, it my opinion that GNOME rocks! Yes, Johnny, I'm a sucker for eye-candy!
until gnome and it's programs has a nice keyboard shortcut system. i will stick with windows. Linux sucks when it came with global shortcuts ...probably because IT DON'T HAVE ANY!
i like to see my IM alerts flashing in the status bar and then press some key combination when i'm confortable to read them. But with gnome + gaim, i have two options. Let the message pops on the screen when it arrives, no matter if it will cause me trouble depending on who is near my workstation, or i have to use the mouse to click the damn thing.
GLOBAL KEYBOARDS SHORTCUT NOW!