Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Gnome 2.10 Released

Posted by timothy on from the getcher-torrent-on dept.

Mad_Rain writes "The new version of Gnome (you know, the desktop of many Linux users?) has just been released. You can even try it out with a LiveCD (bittorrent link). There is a video player and CD-ripping utility included, and the all-important new splash screen!"

36 of 526 comments (clear)

  1. The complete release notes... by tcopeland · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...are here.

    --
    The Army reading list
  2. Screenshots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    New screenies here.
    It's only a matter of time.

  3. Speaking of the new splash screen by Drunken_Jackass · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does anyone else find something wrong with the progress/height chart on the new splash screen?

    2.10
    2.8
    2.6
    2.4
    2.2
    2.0

    --
    There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
    1. Re:Speaking of the new splash screen by akzeac · · Score: 5, Informative

      Think of them more like IPs, you can have 127.0.0.1. Between 2.8 and 2.9 can come 2.8.1, 2.8.2, 2.8.2.1, and so on.

    2. Re:Speaking of the new splash screen by nine-times · · Score: 3, Informative
      Ok, so at least I'm not the blind or stupid one.

      FYI: 2.10==2.1 when 2.10 is a decimal. If it's a version number, 2.10!=2.1. Well, at least depending on your numbering convention. Some people treat version numbers like decimals, but many do not. Gnome (and Apple, and the Linux kernel), use a whole number point-release system (my terminology, made up on the spot). So how that works is, when you want to divide releases, you put a point (not a decimal) and at another whole number. Therefore, 2.6.1 falls under version 2.6, as does 2.6.7. 2.6.10 comes directly after and is an upgrade on 2.6.9 in the same way that 2.6.7 comes after 2.6.6.

      So 10.0 comes way after 1.0, 10.10 comes a while after 10.1, 10.10.10 comes a few patches after 10.1.1. If we wanted to further sub-divide, 10.10.10.10 would come directly after 10.10.10.9. (but that would look too much like an IP address, so maybe that's why nobody divides that far, but instead seem to label releases "r1" or "rc1" or "beta" or whatever. I could go on, but hopefully you get the idea.

      Also FYI, in both gnome and the linux kernel, there's another thing to know about their versioning scheme: even and odd numbered 0.x releases should probably not be thought of as upgrades on each other. I thought that might have been the source of confusion, seeing as the list 2.2, 2.4, 2.6, 2.8, 2.10 skips the odd .x releases. The reason for that is, odd .x releases are development branches, and not everything in the 2.9 branch automatically goes into the 2.10 branch. Only the new features that are stable and ready make it. Some things might be dropped, and other things might be carried over to the 2.11 branch for further work.

      Now, I know a lot of what I've just written is well known to a lot of people here, but part of my confusion (thinking I was missing something) came from assuming that this was common knowledge, which I guess maybe it isn't. Or was the OP trying to be funny?

  4. GNOME 2.10 by pathological+liar · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now with no new exciting features!

  5. Hoary by peterprior · · Score: 5, Informative

    Packages are already in ubuntu hoary.

    just do an apt-get update and then an apt-get dist-upgrade :)

    1. Re:Hoary by advocate_one · · Score: 3, Informative

      yeah... that was a rather sneaky upgrade on us... we got KDE3.4 as well at the same time... ;)

      --
      Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  6. Future viability in question? by Sheetrock · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Most people I talk to who use Linux have expressed a strong preference for KDE over GNOME. I don't know if this is because they get KDE with X-Windows on there system or if they switched in disgust, but they usually say that they think it's crisper and the look is more consistent across applications.

    I suppose it's another example of form over function, but there you go. Hopefully Enlightenment comes out soon.

    --

    Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
    -- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.




    1. Re:Future viability in question? by kebes · · Score: 3, Informative

      As a windows user migrating over to linux, I really tried to get a good sense of which desktop was "better" and would be supported in the coming years. I was never able to get a good answer. Both have their pros and cons, and both have an enthusiastic user base. So I think both KDE and GNOME are with us for a good while now... which is a good thing!

      That having been said, I use KDE.

    2. Re:Future viability in question? by rainman_bc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Admittedly, the transition to Gnome from Windows is easier, for the icon standards are similar.

      KDE pisses me off with how cluttered the icons in the applications look. There appears to be little spacing between icons. It makes for a crammed, cluttered looking appearance.

      Gnome pisses me off because its menu editing is so friggin' stupid. FWIW FC3 dropped the Gnome menue editor because it was too buggy.

      I like both. However I lean towards Gnome because it's cleaner, and more polished.

      If I want performance, I'll use XFce

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    3. Re:Future viability in question? by phidipides · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I attempted to use KDE on my laptop recently because it felt more refined to me than Gnome. The menus that came up seemed to offer a more intuitive way of doing things, and the system as a whole just felt more polished. I got the sense that someone was working to make sure that the KDE experience had some consistency to it, which was much appreciated.

      But I still wasn't as happy with the KDE desktop as I had been with Windows XP, so I figured I'd give Gnome a shot. After all, it had things like Beagle and Dashboard that sounded pretty cool. Plus, Hula and several other new applications were all being announced for Gnome. But I found that for a new user, there wasn't the same consistency to the Gnome experience as there was with KDE. Lots of things seemed (to me) to work differently from app to app. Changing settings could be done lots of different ways, it wasn't always clear what the preferred method of doing something was (true for the file manager, getting help, etc).

      Consistency issues aside, my biggest difficulty with each of the desktops was that there wasn't an easy way to install new software. I use Debian, and apt-get is great, but half the time after choosing to install something new I couldn't find it by looking through the menus. I never even tried installing something that didn't have a Debian package, but can imagine it would have been pretty evil. I realize that the LSB and freedesktop.org are working to improve this situation, but at the moment Windows is worlds ahead with its simple software installations.

      So in the end I went back to Windows XP for my desktop; I'm comfortable with it, it is stable (I've had fewer crashes/lockups with XP than I did with either Gnome or KDE), and I'm smart enough to be able to deal with the spyware & viruses. I still use Linux on my web server, and will try the Linux desktops again in the future, but for now I'll go with the evil empire simply because I like the product better. True, had I spent more time learning to use the Linux desktops I might have eventually preferred one of them, but for now the comfort factor just wasn't high enough to make me feel it was worth investing the effort.

      --
      JAMWiki Java-based Wiki engine
    4. Re:Future viability in question? by jdclucidly · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Disclaimer: I'm a KDE user.

      I always give Gnome due dilligence for each release. Each time a new version comes out I test it out for one full week and see how it works for me. Since the release of 2.0 I have always gone back to KDE for this reason:

      [on #gnome on irc.freenode.net]
      Me: Where is feature X? It seems like I ought to be able to do X but I can't seem to find it.
      Dev/Zealot A1: Yea we think that's a good idea but we haven't gotten to it yet.
      or
      Dev/Zealot A2: Well, X is too complicated so we did Y. You must use Y. X is not implemented.

      As with other releases I will try 2.10 out and see how it's progressed but here's a list of show stoppers in previous versions:

      * Inability to edit or affect the panel menus in an intuitive way (somewhat addressed through the addition of applications:/// which was hard to find)
      * Inability to hold down the mouse button (drag through) while navigating the menus. The thinking was accessibility related. A click event occurs after some arbitrary criteria has been met that convinces Gnome that the user really wanted to click and just didn't know to let go of the mouse button and then click again. Very annoying.
      * No window snapping
      * Non-existance of KIO-slaves equivalent (ability to open and work with files on arbitrary network resources) -- very useful
      * Gnome terminal lacking ability to rename tabs by interacting with the tab (can be done through menu option somewhere)
      * Gedit lacking features as compared with KEdit
      * Epiphany / Galeon (which is it now?) not as feature complete as Firefox
      * Until recently, the Gnome file open dialog box was a nightmare. It still has some problems, though. Many of its features are hidden in shortcut keys that one would only know existed if one scoured the Gnome manuals.

      A lot of people bitch about spacial Nautilus but I don't think that's nearly important as some other basic needed features (window snapping). I can modify the way my brain works with a particular computer paradigm if I think it might be more sensible but I cannot do without features that increase my productivity.

      So here's to hoping.

    5. Re:Future viability in question? by Loco3KGT · · Score: 5, Funny

      Personally I've always thought they both sucked. In the meantime I've fallen for every damn "E .17 RELEASED!" April Fool's Day joke on Slashdot ever since .16.5 was released.

      I never pay attention to my calendar so come that fateful day I go "HOLY CRAP! FINALLY!" and tell atleast 6 people.

      Then my world crashes around me.

      --
      Blessed be he who reads this post, Cursed be he who tells my boss.
    6. Re:Future viability in question? by arose · · Score: 4, Informative
      No window snapping

      Shift+Drag

      Until recently, the Gnome file open dialog box was a nightmare. It still has some problems, though. Many of its features are hidden in shortcut keys that one would only know existed if one scoured the Gnome manuals.

      Many? As far as I know it's only the location dialog . I can't think of a good way to show it without clutering the dialog. At least it does not have the horizontal-scrolling-through-files "feature"...
      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    7. Re:Future viability in question? by arose · · Score: 5, Funny

      But spatial Nautilus is simple. One window per folder, just a menu and a parent folders button.

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    8. Re:Future viability in question? by natrius · · Score: 5, Funny

      Getting modded funny when you're serious is the ultimate bitch slap.

  7. A BitTorrent link... by thepurplemonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    in the actual article. At least we still have the splash screens we can smoke their server with.

  8. Re:KDE trolls are coming by Otter · · Score: 5, Funny
    KDE trolls are coming

    Err, that should be "KDE trolls are koming"!

    OK, that's my contribution to the obligatory stupid DE-related comments. I won't throw in a "But I just emerged 2.8!" (even though I just did).

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  9. Nice release by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    From using the betas and now Gnome-2.10 on Hoary for some time now I have to say that this is indeed a great release. It's probably not so much about new incredible features, like including hal in 2.8, but a lot about small polishes and cleanups.

    My only problem is that the Gnome devs thought it was a good idea not to have a menu editor and no other (easy) way to edit the menus. There will be one in 2.12 afaik, but right now I'm stuck without an easy way to edit my menu and that's annoying.

    Anyway, great release and a pleasure to use. Thanks to all those involved.

  10. Finally... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the past, while typing something into one application when suddenly your instant messenger offered a chat request from your friend, your words would be typed into the chat window. Imagine if you were typing your password at the time. This should no longer happen in GNOME 2.10.

    Ahh, finally. This was the most annoying thing for the longest time. I actually had to change my password twice because I unintentionally IMed it to someone else. I'm actually surprised that they didn't fix this a long time ago. It was a usability/security nightmare.

  11. Karma Whoring? by suwain_2 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The gnome.org site is apparently having a devil of a time keeping up with the bandwidth.

    Give the CoralCache a try. Nice and speedy for me.

    --
    ________________________________________________
    suwain_2 :: quality slashdot p
  12. Wow by stepson · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think Microsoft has some competition, finally! Check out this from the release notes:

    * The path button is now more obviously a button.

    Wow, a button this is ... MORE OBVIOUSLY, a button! Alright!

    * GNOME 2.10 introduces a new applet for controlling your Modem, integrated with GNOME System Tools.

    Words fail me. I'm going to go out and get a modem, just so I can try this!

    Finally,

    * daily weather forecasts / Get even more weather

    This one, I am not so sure of. Geeks don't leave the house! Why couldn't they make an applet that checks how much of their parents money they've spent living in their basements? How about how much more money they need before Scott Bakula will agree to do the next season of Enterprise? THAT would have been helpful.

  13. LiveCD by lakeland · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When KDE's last beta was announced on slashdot, many people commented that a live CD was a really cool way of showing off the new system. Now we see Gnome taking this really cool feature out of KDE and incorporating it.

    That is why we need to keep two desktops around. Whenever either one invents something cool, both get it. (Friendly) compertition seems by far the best form of improving software.

    Oh, and why wasn't a garnome link posted? ;-)

  14. Re:Why so modest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >> I fail to see why I should get so worked up everytime a new version is released >>

    I'm always amazed at how regardless of what is being announced, there is some ludicrously arrogant dork who complains that the announcement does not make him (one in six billion people on the planet) happy as if anyone would care.

    Where do these people come from? Why are they unable to appreciate others' accomplishments? Is their ego so fragile that they can't accept a reality outside their subjective delusions of grandeur?

    Mod these "snipers" as trolls, please, and let's get on with talking about Gnome.

  15. Re:Why so modest? by eln · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I tend to use enlightenment (without all the eye candy effects) specifically because it DOESN'T try to imitate Windows like KDE and Gnome do. Maybe it's because my first real GUI (even before I used Windows) was twm, but I just find the KDE and Gnome default desktops to be far too clunky. I also find they tend to waste a lot of valuable screen real estate on silly things.

    But yah, I also see the GUI primarily as a vehicle to more easily handle several concurrent CLI (xterm) instances, so I guess I'm just one of the old school nerds.

  16. Things I'd like to see from GNOME. by Speare · · Score: 4, Insightful
    • Less feature churn.
    • Less feature-creeping bloat.
    • More consolidation of dependencies.
    • More fixing of the long-standing bugs.
    • More delivery of long-standing promises.
    Every release seems to have a lot of superficial changes that don't seem to buy anything, but don't really address the issues that everyone seems to complain about. Example: you'd think that the gnome-panel would be pretty ironed out after a few years, but there are still at least a dozen "critical" unresolved bugs for it, where the panel just decides to crash or hang.

    It's not as glamorous as mating a couple of Bonobos and getting a new SVG Pango baby, but please, for the sake of your users, focus on the fit and finish. What good is a HIG if the average user is put off by all the splinters?

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
  17. Hula Hype by twener · · Score: 3, Insightful

    > Hula and several other new applications were all being announced for Gnome.

    Hula has absolutely nothing specific to GNOME.

  18. crappy by diegocgteleline.es · · Score: 4, Informative

    Goneme was a project started in 2004 by someone who didn't like the placement of "accept" and "cancel" buttons and who spent countless hour trolling in osnews/slashdot. The only patch released is from July 2004, and it weights 24 KB. As it can be seen, the mailing list is full of everything except patches.

    I only can define it as "dead project" - you really have to have something more than "button order preferences is wrong", "I hate windows registry" and "spatial nautilus is broken" to fork a project. Wow, "Mac OS X is better" - what a surprise. Tell me something I don't know. Not using gecko, use KHTML? Well...wow.

    I'm not against forking projects, but this fork is ridiculous. No real reasons, real gnome problems are not mentioned, half of it can be solved by changing the default preferences and no code, etc etc

  19. Still no flashing notification by astralbat · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Looking through the release notes, there is still the problem of missing flashing notification for programs such as instant messenger clients. When minimizing the window, I would expect it to start flashing when a new message arrives (like Microsoft Windows)

    Many a time have I minimised a conversation only to realise after forgetting about it that I have several messages unread

  20. Re:Why so modest? by m50d · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Personally I've tried the lightweight window managers and found them wanting. I can do more, more easily, in KDE, or Gnome once I've rethemed it, than any of the "old-school" lightweight WMs. And I care about new releases because they usually bring very useful improvements. I haven't tried this release, but I certainly noticed important differences last time I upgraded, and they did make it more efficient for me.

    --
    I am trolling
  21. whoa by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's such a long post that I think you should've included a BitTorrent link to it.

  22. 2.10 is nice but 2.12 is where it's at... by Stalyn · · Score: 5, Informative

    The 2.12 release is what i'm excited about... the cairo implementation, better compositing support (aka transparency and shadows... fading in and out of windows etc), gstreamer, dbus, Beagle, Mono, memory reduction...

    2.10 has some nice improvements and what one should consider as a release that smooths over some issues. But it's nothing terribly exciting and new. Hopefully 2.12 will be a release that blows people away.

    --
    The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education. - Paul Feyerabend
  23. Re:yes! by Drooling+Iguana · · Score: 4, Informative

    Probably because next to nothing in KDE works unless the whole bloody thing is installed (at least in my experience) while Gnome is far more modular. The difference between a Gnome app and a KDE app is that, while the Gnome app will typically require GTK and maybe a few other Gnome packages to be installed, but will still run fine without Gnome, I've yet to see a KDE app that doesn't require all of QT, kde-base and kde-libs to run. Considering how long it takes to compile those packages (Gnome is far better than KDE in that respect) it really annoys me that I have to either include them in my regular updates even though I never touch KDE, or forfeit every QT app out there. Unfortunately, I've had to make the choice, and I've chosen the latter. Damn KDE.

    --
    ... I'm addicted to placebos
  24. Re:Still dissapointed with GNOME by cortana · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Christ, what is it with you people? Did you all manage to remove libgnomevfs by accident or something?

    I just ran "gnome-gv http://www.marcusevans.com.au/pdf/413.pdf" in Gnome 2.8 and it worked fine, just as it's done for ages.

  25. Re:yes! by Burz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Apparently it is so modular that many Gnome apps still use custom, ugly and dysfunctional file dialogs. Can't count on the file dialog 'module' being there, can we?

    And Gnome is so great that programmers have gotten into the habbit of bypassing it and using only GTK. If I install kde-base and kde-libs, at least I can be certain that they'll see plenty of use.