The GNOME Journal, March Edition

jimmy_dean writes "The latest issue of The GNOME Journal has just been published. This regularly published online magazine features original content and commentary for and by the GNOME Community. This issue covers some technical articles, including Audio CD Ripping/Burning by Ken Vandine and Simplified Package Management in Ubuntu Hoary by John Meuser. Celebrating the release of GNOME 2.10, we include a tour of 2.10 by Sayamindu Dasgupta and also the evolution of Evolution 2.2 by Jorge O. Castro. Also, art.gnome.org gets a face lift as told by Link Dupont."

Comments

Interesting..

[Anonymous Coward]

It's so so interesting!

BSD?

[dave_f1m]

Why is this in the BSD section?

Re:BSD?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maby the authos likes the red color?

Re:BSD?

[jimmy_dean]

Nope, this is just where the slashdot people chose to put us. That's ok, better here than nothing. I did submit it to the Linux section though. Thanks for reading the GNOME Journal too by the way!

Re:BSD?

[Homology]

Why is this in the BSD section?

This might come as a big surprise to you, but GNOME runs just fine on any *BSD.

Re:BSD?

[Anonymous Coward]

It should also be in the GNU section. Gnome is officially a chunk of the GNU system, isn't it?

Re:BSD?

[Anonymous Coward]

But it also runs just fine on Linux, and Solaris... so why is it in the BSD section? You didn't answer the question.

Re:BSD?

[Anonymous Coward]

Duh. Maybe because GNOME runs on BSD as well as Linux.

Re:BSD?

[Anonymous Coward]

See the little penguin on the right hand side of the summary? That means it's in the Linux section too.

Also, if you click on the little "Linux" link in the left-hand menu, you can see that (currently) it's the second story from the top in the Linux section.

Re:BSD?

[R.Caley]

Why is this in the BSD section?

Everyone's got to be somewhere boss.

Besides, there isn't an `elephantine pretty but pointless software' section.

Re:BSD?

[Rick the Red]

Besides, there isn't an `elephantine pretty but pointless software' section.

Yes there is.

Needs more content though

[WebHostingGuy]

I have to admit it looks very nice. That being said it also appears not to have much in the way of content. Most of the stuff seems (except for the good how-to) appears to just release notes (http://www.gnome.org/start/2.10/notes/rnwhatsnew. html) repackaged. If that is what they were going for then okay, but I think they could do a whole lot more with this. (caveat: this is my first time reading the Gnome Journal).

The GNOME Journal, on Evolution:

[Evil_Way]

Unlike the radical change from 1.4 to 2.0, this release can mostly be characterized as one concentrating on polish and finish.
It's good to know they have a special upgrade just for users in poland and finland!

GNOME Baker

[Fortun L'Escrot]

where exactly does one get GNOME Baker. Since peeking at the GNOME Journal doesn't seem to give any links or source...

Re:GNOME Baker Link

[Fortun L'Escrot]

speak too soon and feel the wrath: http://gnomebaker.sourceforge.net/. just tried it...not bad and this is great considering the Nero Linux thing :)

Re:bloat

[Sodki]

Does that mean anything to those of us using free software graphics drivers?

It depends on what graphics card you have. My ATI Radeon 9200 has great 3D support with Free drivers, for example. If you don't have good Free drivers and you can't/don't want to use proprietary drivers, you don't have to use all the bells & whistles that GTK+ 2.8 allows you to have.

Gnome Journal is great!

[julie-h]

I really like GJ for its good formulated and still short articles. He seams to get right to the point and not so much small talk.

Not to mention the website. Superb design and layout!!

I hope to read more articles from GJ!

CD label making recommendations for GNOME?

[jbn-o]

Are there any good CD label making programs for GNOME? Preferably something that will look up audio CDs in FreeDB (which appears to be integrated into GNOME) so I don't have to type so much in?

Thanks.

Re:CD label making recommendations for GNOME?

[Anonymous Coward]

gimp 2.2 has a cd label template.

Re:CD label making recommendations for GNOME?

[jbn-o]

That's better than nothing -- thanks. But I was hoping for some GUI program that would scan the disc for CD-TEXT, or (failing that) find the appropriate FreeDB entry, then prepare a CD label which is ready to print on CD labels I have.

I'm ready to buy whatever labels it works with or tell it the dimensions and layout of my extant labels.

But this would appear to be a hole in the services one can find for free software desktops. If anyone is interested in writing such a program for me, I'd be happy to discuss payment for commissioning a work for hire.

the one thing I noticed in the journal...

[zogger]

..was that they are finally really really taking memory management seriously. I am coincidently just today downloading xfce stuff because I just want something better that can run on my older machines. I've been using gnome DE and apps almost exclusively since I first started using linux, but after the last release that I have I realised that this wasn't going to be addressed,the amount of memory required along with usability and stability, then they dropped that spatial nonsense on us as well. Sigh. I'll try it again, not this one but the next release, but that's about it, either they remember millions of us are still on dialup (zero option where I live) and not running brand new machines, or they don't care.

GNOME 2.10 for FreeBSD

[MavEtJu]

This email was sent last saturday:

Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 06:53:57 -0500
From: Joe Marcus Clarke <marcus@FreeBSD.org>
To: FreeBSD GNOME Users <gnome@FreeBSD.org>
Cc: ports@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Presenting GNOME 2.10 for FreeBSD
X-Mailer: Evolution 2.0.4 FreeBSD GNOME Team Port

[-- The following data is signed --]

The release notes can be found at
http://www.gnome.org/start/2.10/notes/rnwhatsn ew.html, and will give you a
good idea of what has gone into this release overall. However, a lot of
FreeBSD specific additions and fixes have been made. For example, this
release offers fixed ACPI support as well as new CPU freqeuncy monitoring
support. See the FreeBSD GNOME 2.10 upgrade page at
http://www.FreeBSD.org/gnome/docs/faq210.html for the entire list as well
as a list of known issues and upgrade instructions.

GNOME 2.10, as well as all of our releases, would not be possible without
the great team that goes into porting and testign each and every component.
Thanks definitely goes out to ahze, adamw, bland, kwm, mezz, and pav for all
their work. We would also like to thank our adventurous users that chose to
ride the walrus. We'd especially like to thank the following users that
provided patches for GNOME 2.10:

ade
Yasuda Keisuke
Franz Klammer
Khairil Yusof
Radek Kozlowsk

And anyone else I may have accidentally omitted.

As with GNOME 2.8, 2.10 comes with a brand-spankin' new splashscreen
courtesy of Franz Klammer. However, unlike GNOME 2.8, we've included all
of the FreeBSD GNOME splashscreen entries with gnomesession. You can
use the deskutils/splashsetter port to choose the one you like best.

As always, GNOME users should _not_ use portupgrade alone to upgrade to
2.10. Instead, get the gnome_upgrade.sh script from
http://www.FreeBSD.org/gnome/gnome_upgrade.s h (note: you may have to
wait for the website to sync before the script is updated for 2.10. You
can get the latest version at
http://www.marcuscom.com/downloads/gnome_upgra de29.sh if you don't want
to wait).

Enjoy!

Marcus on behalf of the FreeBSD GNOME Team

--
Joe Marcus Clarke
FreeBSD GNOME Team :: gnome@FreeBSD.org

Ubuntu package management

[QuantumG]

I sure hope they changed the menu option for package management. Have a look at this screenshot. Everything on the System Configuration menu has a "nice" name that most anyone could understand. Except, that is, the package manager. The average user is going to be asking. Why is "Synaptic" in the menu option? Wtf is a "package manager" anyways? I'm not going to click on that. A better name for that menu option would have been: Install and Update Software.

Re:Ubuntu package management

[QuantumG]

Hmm.. looking at this screenshot Hoary hasn't "fixed" this. Now, dare I go email someone at Ubuntu and get my head ripped off? Or should I go file a bug that will probably be ignored. Hmm.. which of these two options requires me to lower my cinicism levels the least.. filing a bug I guess.

Re:Ubuntu package management

[QuantumG]

Of course, then you go and actually look at the bug tracker and there it is.

Re:Ubuntu package management

[Brandybuck]

A better name for that menu option would have been: Install and Update Software.

Yet another example of "usability means we must use the wrong terminology." A package manager is NOT the same thing as a software installer and updater. "Package manager" is the correct term, is the common term in all Unix and Unix like systems, and should thus remain the term to use. We should not dumb (ei. stupidify) the UI down to the level of how moronic you believe people to be. Yes, this might confuse some newbies freshly come over from Microsoft, but as the saying goes, your first day on the job only lasts one day.

Re:Ubuntu package management

[QuantumG]

Ummm no. Package management is about installing, removing and updating software. We're not talking about Mac app wrappers here. Synaptic is just a front end to apt-cache and apt-get. The apt-get man page makes it pretty damn clear that the operations you perform with it are install, upgrade and remove. That's what you're doing and that's what the menu option should offer the user.

Re:Ubuntu package management

[Brandybuck]

But it's still package management. Calling it a software installer is like calling vi a word processor, or AbiWord a text editor. That we're even arguing over the proper term for a package manager is a clear sign that the Usability Inquisition has gone too far.

Re:Ubuntu package management

[QuantumG]

The whole point of that menu is to supply a place where all the "tasks" that a user might need to perform on his system can be found. It's a task based menu, and Syntapic Package Manager sticks out like a sore thumb because it isn't a task.

Re:Ubuntu package management

[Brandybuck]

Then call it "Manage Packages" instead.

Re:Ubuntu package management

[QuantumG]

wtf does that mean? You might as well call it "Do Stuff". To compromise, how about Manage Software Packages. It least the user has a chance in hell of figure out what that means.

Evolution 2.2 OSX release coming!

[bach37]

Looking at this article there is indeed a native OS X port coming. Woo-hoo!