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"

Comments

Shitty SS's

[wdd1040]

Yeah... 640x480 screenshots with a shitty theme really show us the changes to Gnome.

Is it me, or does this look worse than the stock ubuntu install Gnome?

Re:Shitty SS's

[Coryoth]

Is it me, or does this look worse than the stock ubuntu install Gnome?

If you look through the screenshots, it is an Ubuntu install, and has a number of the Ubuntu customisations already, so it's not even very representative of what the general GNOME 2.10 user is going to get. All up, the screenshots aren't worth your time, head here to see what changes GNOME 2.10 has.

Jedidiah.

Fonts look nice

[Dancin_Santa]

But everything is so huge. The screen resolution looks really terrible. What is that 640x480? Did GNOme just enter the VGA world?

And I'm not sure I'd like that "Courtesy of OSshots" banner at the top. Ugly.

So my initial reaction, is, "Hey, that's cool. Where did the mouse pointer go?" Then my second reaction was, "It looks like every other window manager out there."

Screenshots are nice, but what are they trying to show us that can't be done with any other window manager?

Re:Fonts look nice

[daijo78]

Would be nice with some comments and screenshots showing whats new. I really couldnt tell any difference from the previous releases (could have tried hrder but I m lazy:) Also that theme muust be the most ugly one they could have choosen...

Re:Fonts look nice

[Coryoth]

Would be nice with some comments and screenshots showing whats new. I really couldnt tell any difference from the previous releases (could have tried hrder but I m lazy:) Also that theme muust be the most ugly one they could have choosen...

I think this is what you're looking for - of course this one is "old news" having been posted on Slashdot previously. It does a lot better of job of actually showing you what to expect in GNOME 2.10 than the selection of Ubuntu screenshots from OSDir though.

Jedidiah.

Re:Fonts look nice

[Admiral Burrito]

If you want to see how a good desktop environment renders text, look no further than Mac OS X.

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.

Vectorized graphics

[st3v]

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.

Re:Vectorized graphics

[be-fan]

Fonts are already vectorial. If you've got a high-resolution screen, just go to "Preferences", then "Fonts", click the "Details" button, and set the "Resolution" spinner to get the fonts to the right size. For a UXGA laptop, presuming a 15" screen, 133dpi is the proper resolution, and 8-9 is the right-size for the UI font. I have such a screen, and I use Albany AMT 9pt at 130dpi, with sub-pixel anti-aliasing disabled (but the auto-hinter enabled). I've also heard of good results with 8pt or 9pt Tahoma at 133 dpi with sub-pixel AA enabled.

Re:Vectorized graphics

[ticktockticktock]

Hmm. I thought the font issue was already solved, at least in SUSE, where font sizes at a given point are exactly the same size (or very close to it) in different resolutions. I vaguely remember reading somewhere, that it was actually an X related feature where it calculates the actual pixel heights/widths based on the DDC info from the monitor that contained the monitor's actual height/width, and if it cannot get that info, it defaults to something (I think).

Re:Vectorized graphics

[Brandybuck]

Tell me about it. I did an SVG icon recently for an app of mine. It looked great at 48x48. But when I went to create bitmaps for the Mac OSX icon (which required a greater range of resolutions), I discovered that what looks good at 48x48 often looks like crap at 16x16, and fugly at 128x128. The problem is that when you scale an SVG image, everything scales, including the line widths. I had to manually tweak each resolution by hand.

Why would you need so many resolutions? Why can't everything be 128x128? Because that same icon is going to be used as the app icon in the folder or destkop, a smaller size if the folder is in a columnar view mode, as a quick launch icon on the panel, and as a mini icon in the titlebar or task manager. You will also have the rude heretic users who will change the GNOME defaults.

Re:Vectorized graphics

[prockcore]

I vaguely remember reading somewhere, that it was actually an X related feature where it calculates the actual pixel heights/widths based on the DDC info from the monitor that contained the monitor's actual height/width

I don't know if that's part of X or not, but Gnome uses the monitor info to determine the DPI for the current resolution and thus, all gnome fonts are drawn at proper size regardless of what resolution or monitor you're on.

You can hold a pica pole up to the screen and see that yes, indeed, the font is 12pt.. etc.

(I work for a newspaper, and so I happen to have a pica pole handy)

As far as I know, no other OS does that. OS9 assumes everything is 72 dpi, OSX assumes everything is 100dpi, and windows assumes everything is 96dpi. Windows does let you change it though.

Re:What about Nautilus

[wdd1040]

You can do that now by going into your Desktop | Preferences | File Management applet.

Difference

[mboverload]

Honestly, I relaly don't see much of a difference.

Re:Difference

[tpgp]

Honestly, I relaly don't see much of a difference.

I am going to presume you meant really, rather then relay.

How about the places menu, the MultiMedia Systems Selector, maybe the Device Manager or the Dictionay.

But honestly, this is an incremental release. What were you expecting? A complete revamp?

Re:Difference

[Leo McGarry]

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.

Re:Difference

[yobbo]

It took you 10 years, and you still can't see Gnome's theme feature.

Even worse, you're considered informative on slashdot.

Let's do the timewarp again!

Re:Difference

[Brandybuck]

I understand what you're saying, but the "gestural paradigm" doesn't work when you have lots of available actions. Some of them are fine. But to do everything with some sort of gesture, you're going to end up with dozens of keys to press while dragging. You can't remember them all. Alt+P+drag equals print, Alt+Y+drop equals compress, Shift+Alt+M equals upgrade the package the icon came from, etc, etc. What if you do Alt+P+drag on a binary executable? Does it print out the splash screen?

That's why there are context menus. The most common items can remain gestures (copy, delete), but you're going to have to put actions in a context menu, especially if they are not universal to the object being manipulated.

Drag-and-drop and other gestural interfaces are far more obvious.

Nonsense. The only reason it seems that way is because so many people have prior experience with other desktops. There are no analogues in real life to holding down a key while dragging. Some people may stick their tongues out while trying to thread a needle, but that's an individual behavioral quirk, and not a universal instinct applicatble to the computer desktop.

Re:Difference

[cortana]

> No, it's right up there next to the "Audio" tab ...you know, the one that should
> read "Sound."

Then I don't understand how the fact that the multimedia systems selector is *not* a volume control, could have escaped your understanding.

> Sound and video are two different things. They don't belong together. Break
> one out and call it -- I'm gonna get wacky here --"Sound," and the other
> "Video."

The actions of picking which subsystems to use for audio/video (hence the 'multi' in multimedia) capture/output belong together. The actions are known as "selecting which multimedia systems to use". Hence, "multimedia system selector".

> Of course, if you have no video card attached to your computer, a "Video"
> control panel is superfluous. No video output, no need for a "Video" control,
> see? So if there's no video output (composite, 601, 292M, whatever), there
> should be no video control panel.

Quite incorrect. I may wish to select one of the video sinks that records a stream to disk, shunts it accross a network, or calculates MD5sums of the data stream. Not to mention configuring video capture.

> To change the volume, you click on the little volume icon shown at the top
> right of the screen.

Because:
* the multimedia systems selector is not a "sound" control panel; strcmp("multimedia systems selector", "sound") != 0
* if changing the volume was hidden away in a control panel then unskilled users would never find it
* if it were hidden away in a control panel then anyone who did find it would be annoyed that it was hidden away!

Re:Difference

[natrius]

I don't have the first fucking idea what that's supposed to mean.

And you shouldn't if you don't use GNOME, because even if you did use it, you're not supposed to need to select a different backend for GStreamer. Some distros don't even include it in the menu because its advanced configuration that most users will never need. It's purpose is to allow you to use a different sound server, like KDE's artsd. If you want to know more about it, google some of the terms you don't know about. I'm not trying to to belittle you, but you're coming out of nowhere trying to put down the design of things you've never even used. It shouldn't be a surprise that you don't know the purpose of some things.

Volume isn't related to sound controls? I think you'll find you're mistaken.

No, that's not what I said. Volume isn't related to the Multimedia Systems Selector. It's named that because that's exactly what it is. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it should have a volume control slapped on it. Like I said before, it's a window that you would never see unless you typed the command in the command line since it's not in the menu.

What's a panel, and what's an applet?

Panels are the bars at the top and bottom of the screen. they hold programs called applets. Look in the screenshot you were referring to. See the little speaker icon at the top right? That's what any user trying to change the volume would go to, not the Multimedia Systems Selector, because, for the third and final time, it's an advanced configuration program not meant for most users to deal with.

Pop in one of the many live CDs that have been posted on Slashdot over the past week or so and try out GNOME. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how much easier it is to use than you think. There's still a lot of room for improvement though, and it gets better with every release. I hear 2.10 has a new volume control applet.

Re:Difference

[Bloater]

yeah, the "Audio" tab should be "Sound", and the "Video" tab should be "TV"

Gnome?

[Anonymous Coward]

A changelog be more useful than crappy screenshots...

And why is this news anyway? There's several hundred current distros. Wheres the news posts for all those?

Re:Gnome?

[Coryoth]

A changelog be more useful than crappy screenshots...

Indeed, this story seems to be a waste of time. If you want screenshots that actually show you what you're getting that's different, look here. It's old news (it's been up for some time), but it gives you a far better idea of what you're getting.

Jedidiah.

Wow! It looks, it looks....(exactly the same?)

[RootsLINUX]

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...

Re:Wow! It looks, it looks....(exactly the same?)

[be-fan]

"Assistive Technology" is technology to help the disabled use computers. Stuff like screen magnifiers, screen-readers, high-contrast colors and icons, etc.

Re:Wow! It looks, it looks....(exactly the same?)

[akulbe]

I'm thankful I'm not the only one that has been thinking this for a LONG time.

In my opinion, Gnome has looked the same since around 2.2 - 2.4. Nothing new, really.

Call me a naysayer if you will, but I'm not impressed.

Volume Control

[espergreen]

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.

Re:What about Nautilus

[sewagemaster]

Anyone know if 2.10 can have a tree view for directory hierarcies?

It's not nautilus, but try xfe. It has tree view and is LIGHTENING quick - even faster then Rox file manager. I've been looking for the ultimate file manager on linux desktop and this one might just cut it.

bad menu UI

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a big space between the "foot" and "Applications" (same spacing as between other menus), yet they're the same menu?! Either glue the foot to Applications, or call it foot *or* applications. What where they thinking?

Re:Truth: The State of Desktop Linux

[maglor_83]

Why would anyone bother using Linux, when a brand-new Mac can be had for $499?

Maybe you already have an x86 that you want to use.
Maybe you already have a mac?
Or maybe you don't like the fact that a Mac Mini only has a 32MB video card which can't (officialy) be upgraded, when to run nicely, OS X really needs at least 64MB?
Or maybe you prefer the various desktops available for linux to Mac OS X?

Re:Truth: The State of Desktop Linux

[mboverload]

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.

Difference? Difference!

[nxtr]

Look at the version number!!! It's one more than the other versions! C'mon! Just look!

still only one background for workspaces

[DeathAndTaxes]

This is just about the only complaint I have with gnome. You're stuck with the same desktop pic on all your workspaces. It's gone on too long, and it's silly.

What, does it go to 11 ?

[anti-NAT]

I didn't think there could be much room left for new invention in volume controls.

Re:What, does it go to 11 ?

[prockcore]

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.

A geeks wishlist...

[rmdir -r *]

Smaller GTK widgets (Maybe its just perceived, but GNOME, and GTK apps in general seem to waste waay to much real estate... not everyone has a 21' monitor..)

A decent default theme (Grey is ugly. Get over it.)

KISS: Ubuntu and Gnome

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Backwards?

[hokputooy]

2.10 is actually 2.1 mathematically.

Question?

[Vectorferret]

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.

Re:Question?

[chazwurth]

Yes, several.

You can right-click in the menus for some options. You can also, for example, open a nautilus browser window and type 'applications://' in the URL bar to edit the applications menus as if they were directories.

Check out the GNOME docs on menu editing. They're not perfect, but they aren't too bad.

gnomeflexiserver tied in with xscreensaver

[Sark666]

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.

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 .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.

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 /. 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.

Xp and MacX have now had this for ages. The DE's for linux really need to catch up in this regard.

Perhaps I'm missing something...

[hatrisc]

But screenshots of the next version of a piece of software do absolutely nothing if it looks exactly the same!

Wow!

[gustgr]

I can't wait to see the ScreeShots of Gnome 2.10 Beta 2!

Better screenshots/descriptions

[kasparov]

Here are some better screenshots of apps in this release with descriptions. Much better than the 640x480 screenshots linked to in the article.

Innovation at Slashdot!

[SuperBanana]

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.

To those who say the Slashdot staff are resting on their laurels, I present you with what I believe to be the first case of single-story duplicity!

Re:Innovation at Slashdot!

[forkazoo]

It's called either a pre-emptive dupe, or a demidupe.

Re:Truth: The State of Desktop Linux

[ScytheBlade1]

Oh really?

Besides, I thought that personal tastes are just that. Personal.

Re:Truth: The State of Desktop Linux

[Anubis350]

as both a mac and linux user I'm bothered by both you trolls, stop being jerks and actually realize that a) both platforms have their merits and drawbacks and b) competition is good.

[begin rant]

I'm getting goddamn sick and tired of fan-boy posts, be they linux, mac, windows, goddamn paper tape, etc. Take the time to actually use a platform and you'll realize that it probably has its merits (yes even windows). Go out, stop trolling, and get a life. Posts like the parent and grandparent are the reason why slashdot is sometimes such a pain to read.

[end rant]

fix the file selection

[wotevah]

I just hope they fix that godawful file selection thing. I have never found a tool so unfriendly to "power users". I mean, what's up with forcing people to browse instead of letting them type the path.

I mean having to browse through to /usr/bin and waiting minutes for it to build a fancy list so I can finally select what I already knew I wanted, that annoyance is worth wanting to switch to KDE or something else that allows me to TYPE stuff. Yaknow, like the old interface.

Re:fix the file selection

[Sark666]

You can press ctrl-L to get a cli for typing the path.

GNOME

[Codifex Maximus]

There was once a day when I was in the GNOME camp. I didn't like the non-free Qt stuff. These days, Qt is not much of an issue. I still appreciate the GNOME guys for giving us an alternative but...

Why does GNOME always seem to be in a state of trying to define itself - to always be in the concept stage? Perpetually in ALPHA state.

Is GNOME still the GNU Network Object Model Environment of old?

Now, in favor of GNOME I must add: There are some GNOME apps that just rock. I really like the process list, some of the games and the panel apps. The widgets are crisp, beautiful and intuitive just like they were on the original GIMP.

The GNOME guys have got alot of impressive code. Now to use that code to form a cohesive and easy to use interface that doesn't change drastically with every point release.

Re:Truth: The State of Desktop Linux

[hazah]

So a Pretty GUI is the beall/endall? Comon, linux functions on many layers, and a GUI is only one of them. Yes.. it lags behind your precious Darwin (of which I'm fond of, of course). But that's hardly an obsticle for the OS itself.

Better overview of new features

[Xofer D]

Davyd Madeley's page (coral cache) shows a cute overview of the new features that you can't see at all in those stupid screenshots.

Re:I love gray, but GNOME ain't gray

[Leo McGarry]

Gray is a beautiful colour.

Um. It seems like you either misspelled "grey" or you misspelled "color." Pick one and stick with it, huh?

Re:Truth: The State of Desktop Linux

[l3v1]

Hahahaha! And you know what the worst thing is? You probably actually believe yourself.

You know what, Mr. AC ? If we would judge an OS by it's looks, noone would ever buy WinXP or else, and Apple would've become world leader with OSX.

Thing is, which is not necessarily sad, but nevertheless true, that the most part of computer users are not in any way developers, nor do they want to do anything development related, nor do they wish to know the insides or power usabilities of any OS they ever coem in conatct with. And that means that usually the GUIs will not be suited for a power user.

From that point of view - developer, geek, power user, etc. - Linux could really prevail in the x86 world. And these prople also are in perfect knowledge of an OS's power lies not in the GUI, so your parent post has quite a bit of truth in it. On the other hand, a KDE GUI is much more user-friendly than many others, for the simple fact that be _very_ easily customized to one's needs. I've seen and heard many opinions according to whom this is exactly a drawback of KDE (too many places to tweak on too many locations), but I've come to appreciate this approach over the years.

Re:I didn't RTFA but can it....

[DeathToBill]

*sigh*

You didn't actually try it did you? Come on, 'fess up...

Try any of the following:

1. Right click on the menu. Click "Enture Menu" -> "Add New Item To This Menu"
2. Open nautilus, go to "applications:///". Right click, click "Create Launcher".
3. Right click on the desktop, click "Create Launcher". Drag the resulting launcher to the panel.
4. Open the Applications menu, drag an item to your desktop (it would be nice if this worked the other way around, but it doesn't for me - YMMV).

Admittedly, 1 only works on launcher items in the menu, not items that are actually submenus. Even so, it would be nice if you could *try* the feature you're complaining about before you complain.

Note: The above works for me in GNOME 2.8, Debian/Sid edition. Not sure how much variation there is in other distros.

Re:I love gray, but GNOME ain't gray

[oliverthered]

There are a number of different dialects of English, and I'm expect there's one where both gray and colour are correct. [hint Scotland]

You're suffering from an almost autistic lack of ability to perceive that somethings may be different for other people than they are for yourself.

Everything changes but change itself.

[Doc Ruby]

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.

Screenshoots? Is this a fashion site or what?

[jotaeleemeese]

What about posting articles talking about features, bug fixes and enhancements. I mean, we are talking about software after all, aren't we?

It's the fonts, stupid

[ortholattice]

OK, I'm going to go off on a limb here with a rant that's probably an unpopular opinion. But what do I hate about virtually all Linux distros (and the current Mac)? It's this fad of antialiased fonts.

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.)

Re: It's the fonts, stupid

[gidds]

Please don't think that everyone dislikes anti-aliased fonts. Personally, I love 'em; I find 'em much easier on my eyes. Non-AA fonts may be 'sharper', but that sharpness is just an artefact of the rasterisation. To me, they look gritty, awkward and uneven; AA fonts are much smoother and easier to read, even at fairly small sizes. (At least, here on OS X.) And they're a more accurate representation of the glyphs.

As others have said, you can usually disable AA on your fonts; but if you're running at a reasonably high resolution, on a reasonable quality monitor, with a reasonable font renderer, then it's worth giving them a second try.

Re:Fonts suck

[displaced80]

From the title bar (more pronounced pinstripes), that OS X screenshot is from v10.2.x (Jaguar) which was released in August 2002.

ATS (Apple Type Services) has been revised repeatedly in the years since. Font rendering certainly was something of a dog's breakfast in earlier OS X versions, and is no doubt not perfect today. But if you're going to make comparisons with the latest GNOME/FreeType/Whatever, it would be more valid to refer to the latest version of OS X.

Re:Chunky == blech!

[redtux1]

Your joking right?

Nautilus lets you customise your details view (right click -> visible columns)

file chooser still broken

[coaxial]

So after much out cry over the file chooser in 2.6, they decided to change it again. The problem with the 2.6 dialog was that there wasn't a way to type in filenames. GNOME is the only framework that doesn't allow users to type in filenames. Almost 30 years of GUI research and development had this, but GNOME decided that was dumb. Now, GNOME did allow users to type in a directory names if they hit CTRL-L. The problem with that is that it's hidden from the user.

Now, GNOME has added typeahead find to the dialog. Well, that got rid of the CTRL-L nonsense, but it's still hidden functionality, and doesn't allow users to paste in filenames.

This is just incompetence.

Gnome Sucks

[Icephreak1]

I never did like Gnome. It reminds me of those big utility crayons you give to first-graders to teach them dexterity.

Enlightenment. Now that's a man's GUI.

- IP

Re:I didn't RTFA but can it....

[gothfox]

This won't work in 2.9.90 (or 2.10 beta1) because GNOME switched to FDO XDG menu scheme and old VFS based approach was removed.

Currently there is no way to user-friendly edit the menus, in 2.10 there supposed to be a menu editor.

no significative change

[nazsco]

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!

Re:no significative change

[water-and-sewer]

KDE has had this for ages. You can implement keyboard shortcuts that launch programs, shortcuts for all the windowing operations you can think of, and shortcuts for all the functionality within programs.

I agree with you that keyboard shortcuts are important. I'm a keyboard person, not a mouse person, and for the moment it's one of the reasons I stick with KDE. From the desktop, I can do the following to send an email message, just using keyboard shortcuts:

Cntl-M to launch KDE.
Cntl-N to open a new message
Cntl-enter to send it (Cntl-Alt-enter) to queue it for sending later.

Those are all keystrokes I chose myself. Is that what you were looking for?

Re:But does it now have a usable interface ?

[BenjyD]

The first complaint is moot, as you can select multiple files in the open dialog in the standard way by holding down shift.

Your second point seems to have been corrupted by slashdot filters or something. Let me try to rephrase that for you:

Bug Submission #1
Severity: Enhancement
Title: Allow quicker navigation through nautilus file windows through keyboard navigation
Description: Finding files in a Nautilus directory view could be made much quicker if simple type-ahead find was implemented. Several other GUIs (such as Windows 95) on a keypress in a directory view move the focus to the first file beginning with that letter in the view. This makes keyboard navigation much quicker and reduces the need for the user to move their hand to the mouse.

Personally I like spatial Nautilus, and so do many people. Turn it off if you don't like it.

Re:I love gray, but GNOME ain't gray

[Leo McGarry]

Ah that depends on your perspective. Assuming the poster is writing English, I think you'll find that they spelt "colour" correctly.

I'm startled by the number of people who didn't get the joke.

In Commonwealth countries, the word we use as a synonym for hue is spelled "colour," and the word we use for a shade of black is spelled "grey." In the US, it's "color" and "gray."

The guy wrote "colour" and "gray," which means that one of those two words was misspelled. But we can't know which one, see, because we don't know from context which regionalism he's using. So when I said that he misspelled one of them, but didn't specify which, I was being clever.

Get it? It's a joke, ya dumbasses. A statement meant primarily to amuse. And along come all these dipshits who think they know what's going on and feel compelled to correct me. Sheesh.

(By the way, anti-Americanism is so 2003. It's 2005 now, the year of the ink-stained fingertip. Get with the program.)