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GNOME 2.12 Released
Moderator writes "At long last, Gnome 2.12 has been released! Among the many new features are clipboard management, a menu editor, an improved search tool, and a spatial-tree view in Nautilus. Check out the start page for more info."
For those who want the latest 2.12 goodness nicely prepackaged, Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy) will be released with 2.12 on October 13:th, about a month from now.
h light=(release)
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BreezyReleaseSchedule?hig
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Link to torrent:n -5.iso.torrent
http://torrent.gnome.org/gnome-livecd-2.12-i386-e
Ubuntu testing (Breezy) has had 2.12 for the past couple days. I assume you mean stable though.
Gnome is getting better and better but KDE is still eye-candier
Only for the uninformed.
While it won't be in FreeBSD until FreeBSD 6, it already runs great on DragonFlyBSD, so I'm switching all my desktops over from FreeBSD to DragonFlyBSD.
>>I am new to Ubuntu, and even to Synaptic. If all I want is Stable (5.04), plus GNOMEv2.12 and Evolutionv2.3.7, but not to upgrade the whole dist to Breezy, can I do that?
:)
Breezy should be stable in another month or so. As a newbie, the easiest thing you can do is just wait that month. I know, that's not as fun, but that's what I'm doing.
"What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
I'd consider using KDE, but the button order always drives me up the wall,
Why don't you change it then? Add the following text to your ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals to change the button order:
[KDE]
ButtonLayout=1
This is fixed in GNOME 2.12 with the exception of starting apps from the terminal (where the problem becomes real complex).
I just reinstalled with Breezy Colony 4 this afternoon (let's hear it for 1/2 days) and I've got to tell ya, it's very nice. Gnome is 2.11.94 or something, and I'm updating a ton of apps just now, so after a reboot I may be up to 2.12. The little things like the focus of the 'root password prompt' and the pulsing tab in the taskbar is so much nicer than the FLASH in windows. The add/remove programs, while the name bothers me, is really nice and something n00bs and g33ks should dig.
;)
Oh, and the pac-man screensaver now has diff colors for the ghosts, a big/flashing pill so pac-man can eat the blue ghosts and finally pac-man dies properly when he touches a ghost! Now that's progress!
bad_outlook
--
Is this vague enough for you?
As one of the more active Ubuntuers, I can tell you that major stable changes (new kernel, new Gnome, etc) only come with new releases. Gnome 2.12 just hit Breezy today. The month between now and its release is the time it will take to work it into Ubuntu. It is possible for you to do it yourself, but I would suggest waiting.
Open Source Sushi
Okay, I know a lot of people dislike Nautilus, and I think it keeps a lot of people away from GNOME. Here's how to kill it for good:
/desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename /path/to/your/background.jpg
1) Find a better filer! It's not that hard. Try "gentoo" (the filer, not the distro), and "rox-filer" for starters.
2) Run gnome-session-properties from an xterm.
3) Find Nautilus' entry in the "Current Session" tab.
4) Click "Remove", then "Apply". Bam! No more Nautilus.
5) To make the change stick, close all the apps you don't want to run when you log-in and then log out. Be sure to check the "Save current setup" box.
6) Profit!
GNOME will now start more quickly. However, you will not have a desktop background or icons, unless you're already using a non-GNOME utility to set them. The background is easy enough:
1) Open up gnome-session-properties again. Go to the "Startup Programs" tab.
2) Click "Add" and input the following: gconftool-2 --type string --set
3) Leave the "Order" field set to 50 (trust me on this one!), hit "Okay", and close the session tool.
Your background should be displayed next time you log in. Note that, if you somehow screw this up (say, by setting a order value that's too low), you can fix it from text mode by editing the ~/.gnome2/session-manual file. Just wipe out everything under [Default].
The icons are a bit trickier, and maybe not worth it. You need a program like desklaunch to create desktop icons. I suggest just creating a new hideable panel and putting launchers on it instead, since desklaunch requires you to explicitly set x and y pixel positions for icons. If anyone knows of a better prog than desklaunch, please chime in.
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
$ gnome-session-remove nautilus; gnome-session-save
And for a much easier way to change your bg you can always use gnome-background-properties
% mkdir
% ls -dF
The application font is Bitstream Vera Sans 9.
The window title font is Bitstream Vera Sans Bold 10.
What's New For Users
Have GnomeVFS built into the underlying OS and not as a IO library wrapper/hack
Why would you want to tie any desktop code into the kernel? Should the kernel then include code for *all* desktop environments? KDE? XFCE? Blackbox? Enlightenment? WindowMaker? ... Talk aout bloat!
are possible for users to use, including installing and removing commercial applications, without learning such concepts as "compilers" or "administrative users"
1) You don't need to compile anything if you're using a distro that supports apt, yum, up2date, YaST, etc...
2) Not only is install-as-admin a security feature, but also
3) It's rather trivial in most distros to install "from" a non-admin account -- ie. in SuSE just click the RPM, enter the admin password, and it installs. If all fails, there's sudo.
Tired of free ipod spam sigs? Opt ou
You asked the right person- I care way too much about xcompmgr.
As it is xcompmgr does not have really active development. Pretty much the "final version" was released and is in Ubuntu....but that does not mean nothing has happened. You have two options:
1. (the one I recommend) I am using Breezy right now and I can say that it works much better with xcompmgr than before. The biggest bug for me- artifacts when playing full screen video- is gone in Totem-xine. GONE! The only xine to do that. Its what I really wanted for Christmas. The other bug- the log out screen one- still exists but I have found an elegant work around. Using these directions you can create a panel button to turn it off and on (no crashing). So just turn it off before you log out. Because Breezy likes xcompgr more (the developers were nice and compiled Gnome 2.12's Metacity without its featureless compmgr like they did in Hoary because they heard my begging-it helps to be the second biggest poster in the forum) I found a way to make it stable for you. If I remember correctly you did not like the fading trick, right? Thats awesome for you. Run xcompmgr with this command:
xcompmgr -n
and it will just use the GPU. No tricks, no crashing (me and another Ubuntu fan hammered on this and with just that option it was very stable compared to the fading and drop shadow options)....it just flys! I personally don't do that command (I love the fading) and so I have to deal with some random crashes-much less than Hoary though. You are lucky you do not. Then you must make it start when Gnome starts (go to "System," the "Preferences," then "Sessions." Click the last tab and hit "Add" and the "xcompmgr -n" command and run it in "order 48" -thats what I do, some say use "0" but that only worked for me in Hoary, not Breezy). I must admit that when it boots the desktop might be a little out of focus (or really out of focus with a little garbage) but as soon as you maximize a window everything works like a charm.
2. Use KDE. KDE forked xcompmgr and integrated it into its Window Manager. If you have your xorg file set up, then it gives you a "transparency" tab in the "window decoration" settings box. Its cool, and I hear a lot of the effects (like the fading and such) will be more stable by 3.5. The Gnome guys seem to refuse to do anymore than make Gnome work with xcompmgr because it requires non-OSS drivers to work (Gnome was started because of such strong principles). But since you don't ask much (in the way of effects)...either way will work for you. As you can tell, I care a lot...and the Gnome approach is enough for me for now...
Open Source Sushi
Just so you know...I'm using Breezy right now with Gnome 2.12 and its very stable. The hardest part is over! Sorry you rode then and not now!
Open Source Sushi
It was dropped because there were too much work to maintain _both_ KDE and GNOME. And since KDE is default, and I guess Pats favourite, the choice was obvious.
Not keeping up with the Joneses or the latest discussion about the latest version of Gnome, I was left in the dark when it came to know what was meant when the poster mentioned, "spacial tree browsing." I found the following two articles useful:
However, I don't have the foggiest as to what spacial tree mode really means. Can anybody enlighten me or point me at some screen shots?
-AP
Hi Mandriva users,
I've prepared packages of GNOME 2.12 ready to be installed with urpmi on your Cooker system:
http://gpwgnome.osknowledge.org/
There are a few missing features, especially support for the new HAL and D-Bus, this is owed to Mandriva's decision of shipping with the old versions of both in the 2006 version. Otherwise, these packages are working fine, please give them a try.
On the LiveCD I can't comment as I haven't tried it. Firefox uses it's own MIME system (sadly),
"Sure enough, Gnome still insists on ignoring the X Windowing system's DPI information and overriding it (and all other applications started after gnome-settings-daemon) with it's favorite 96 DPI."
I agree that it should default to the X DPI information, the GNOME DPI-settings are per user, rather than per machine. A much more sensible way, especially since people's eyesight vary wildly.
"The file open/save dialog boxes STILL don't have a URL field. One can only access this field by hitting an undocumented CTRL+L (that's usability!?)."
The Save dialog obviously has one. The Open dialog NEVER will, because it is ridiculous exposing this to most users who have no clue what it does and get scared by exposure to the UNIX file system.
If it is not documented, that is not good, although it is also available in the right-click menu, a feature which IS documented. Using a word like "STILL" is inflammatory, however, as it assumes that showing it as default would be a good thing. Documenting it is important, but hitting ctrl-L while your fingers are already at the keyboard is not going to slow you down much.
It is also the exact same keysetting to show the address bar in Nautilus and to focus the address bar in Epiphany and Firefox.
"gnome-settings-daemon will start Nautilus and XScreensaver from your session profile gnome-session-restore even if you're using another WM resulting in your root window being clobbered and two screensaver daemons running."
Just remove them from your session profile. While I do agree that this is unfortunate, I doubt this is the GNOME people's first priority.
There is not and never has been any way to "drag and drop" update the menus in Gnome 2.x. In Gnome 2.8 and 2.10 there was no menu editor of _ANY_ kind what so ever. In Gnome 2.6 and earlier the applications:/// interface could be used to edit menus but that was removed due to incompatibility with Freedesktop.org's standards.
Please check your facts before writing huge flames.
I think one of the reasons I avoid Gnome like the plague is the nasty attitudes of developers and fans. As well, I run an old box and Gnome just drives it to its knees. Whenever I try to configure anything in Gnome, I end up stymied and frustrated. I don't want to be frustrated and pissed off, I just want to get some work done. This is not intended as a flame or troll, just telling it the way it feels to me.
The developers might feel that simplification to the point there is only one choice or no choice is the way to go, but I don't. I don't know who these mysterious users are who prefer over-simplification, but I wish someone would ask me.
For what it's worth, I find KDE annoying at times too, but it's much prettier.
In times of trouble, the smell of frying onions usually gives confidence and comfort.
In Debian parlance, 'unstable' means 'changes often', and not 'crashes often'. It also means tracking newest version, instead of backporting fixes to older versions.
With Evince on Gnome 2.10 I haven't been able to get print to work at all. I need to use xpdf for that. Rotating documents is another problem. Both of these just _have_ to get fixed, and given that they already work reasonably well in xpdf, I don't understand why they're a problem in Evince/Popplar.
I call bullshit. It is obvious you haven't tried any of the newer versions of Nautilus.
/usr/bin with 2112 files without having opened it before. After it has been cached it takes 2 seconds. This is with 2.10, not 2.12.
My AMD Athlon takes 6 seconds to show
Showing huge directories is also an incredible borderline case that hardly defines the operation of the file manager (and now PLEASE don't ignore the previous paragraph just because I wrote this).