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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.
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).
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
The application font is Bitstream Vera Sans 9.
The window title font is Bitstream Vera Sans Bold 10.
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
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
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.