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Gnome 2.30 Released

Hypoon writes "The GNOME project is proud to release this new version of the GNOME desktop environment and developer platform. Among the hundreds of bug fixes and user-requested improvements, GNOME 2.30 has several highly visible changes: new features for advanced file management, better remote desktop experience, easier notes synchronization and a generally smoother user experience. Learn more about GNOME 2.30 through the detailed release notes and the press release."

35 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. April Fools! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    April Fools!

    1. Re:April Fools! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, great joke - Gnome, ADDING features? Give me a break!

    2. Re:April Fools! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm guessing that no jokes today IS the joke.

    3. Re:April Fools! by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Heeeeeey Fucktard! Notice the title of the site? News for NERDS ring any bells? If you are gonna spam at least TARGET YOU AUDIENCE dipshit! You should be offering us dodgy RAM, fake CPUs, cheap PMPs, refurbed HDDs, off brand SSD, tec. How many fucking nerds you think are actually gonna buy Chanel handbag knockoffs moron?

      Sorry folks, but if there is one thing I can't stand it is bad marketing. I mean really how hard is it to target the spam correctly? He should be over on Digg if he wants to push fricking handbags!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  2. Headscratch. by Tackhead · · Score: 4, Funny
    I don't get it. Not even a peep about it being renamed to KNOME, or about KDE being renamed to GNU/DE.

    I mean, what the hell, Slashdot! Serious news? On this, the holiest day of the Geek Calendar?

    Seeing "support for Facebook chat, and new productivity features" in the same sentence was a pretty good start, but things just trailed off from there. I demand a punchline from this press release, or at least some enlightened puns about how to reduce the window manager's footprint!

    1. Re:Headscratch. by nmb3000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I mean, what the hell, Slashdot! Serious news? On this, the holiest day of the Geek Calendar?

      Gah. I think the best thing Slashdot could do this April 1st is to just do nothing at all. In addition to being a joke in itself, they would also be recognizing that they simply can never surpass OMG PONIES. Never.

      Using the Internet in general is just painful on the 1st. Everybody thinks they need to do a joke, whether they have a good idea or not, and most of the time it's just an old obvious "joke" that isn't funny anymore. People of the Internet: If you have a good idea, go for it. If not, don't bother.

      That said, XKCD has a pretty good one this year. Hint: Try "make me a sandwich" :)

      --
      "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
      /)
    2. Re:Headscratch. by PhilHibbs · · Score: 2, Informative

      Damn, rm -rf * doesn't do anything.

    3. Re:Headscratch. by IrquiM · · Score: 2, Informative

      Doh! You forgot sudo!

      --
      This is blinging
  3. Don't fall for it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just say "GNO".

  4. need some better visuals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I love Gnome, but is looks so outdated these days...

    1. Re:need some better visuals by Culture20 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I love Gnome, but is looks so outdated these days...

      All the cool UIs have buttons on the left. Someone should do that for Gnome.

    2. Re:need some better visuals by IBBoard · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If modern = hideous shine effects (ala Windows....and Mac...and KDE) then give me Gnome any day. I want something I can manage to look at all day if I have to, not something that burns my eyes after half an hour. As for themes, I like Sonar these days - nice, well executed and not too bland.

  5. You know what they say... by arielCo · · Score: 3, Funny

    " If you can't fix it - give it more features! "

    --
    This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
    1. Re:You know what they say... by Korbeau · · Score: 5, Funny

      " If you can't fix it - give it more features! "

      Did God say that after giving women boobs?

    2. Re:You know what they say... by AresTheImpaler · · Score: 3, Funny

      Did God say that after giving women boobs?
      No, before

  6. The Benefits of Moving Backward by William+Ager · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's interesting to note that, in Nautilus, Browser-mode is now the default over Spatial-mode. Years ago, in the 2.0 days with whatever-that-company-was-that-made-Nautilus and the wonderful new HIG and whatnot, the switch to Spatial was heralded as a major improvement and modernization. Now, like many of those huge and bitterly disputed changes, the grand step forward is being reversed with only a slight mention.

    And yet, despite the reversal of so many of those improvements, I do think it's making Gnome better; it's just taking a very long time for the idealists of days past to realize that their ideals didn't really work in the real world.

    1. Re:The Benefits of Moving Backward by clang_jangle · · Score: 3, Interesting

      All those apparently counter-productive "improvements" implemented by Gnome and KDE these past few years worked out really well for me. They taught me not to rely on a one-size-fits-all-full-bloat DE and instead work with more minimalist tiling WMs and custom scripting the rest for myself. So much nicer, faster, cleaner, and more satisfying, plus I learned a lot. My desktop never looked better, and my productivity has never been higher. :)

      --
      Caveat Utilitor
    2. Re:The Benefits of Moving Backward by arose · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I strongly preferred the spatial back in the day, because the browser mode was next to useless. The breadcrumbs convinced me to switch back, but it took a while for browser mode to actually become better, instead of just being familiar to Windows Explorer users.

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    3. Re:The Benefits of Moving Backward by the_womble · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Gnome also dropped support for XSMP, breaking compatibility with almost any non Gnome app, to do it more like Windows (and a fatuous MS derived use case about closing laptop lids).

      Then there is a centralised config database.

      And people use Gnome because KDE is too much like Windows (i.e. the default theme has the panel at the bottom).

    4. Re:The Benefits of Moving Backward by atheistmonk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Personally I think KDE is the one that is actually making the real advances. I think I really noticed this when they reinvented the desktop where everything is a plasmoid, instead of the desktop simply being a dumping ground.

    5. Re:The Benefits of Moving Backward by Pecisk · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Gnome also dropped support for XSMP, breaking compatibility with almost any non Gnome app, to do it more like Windows (and a fatuous MS derived use case about closing laptop lids)."

      No one dropped it, XSMP code was in terrible state and did more harm than good. There are new gnome session in works for GNOME 3.0 to fix this.

      "Then there is a centralised config database."

      And it is bad why? :) Not mentioning that it is NOT a binary nightmare which are loaded at startup and leaks memory like hell. It is pure text xml files, with very good descriptions what each feature means. Heck, you can grep them and support user with changing settings from command line! Still, even then apps aren't forced to use gconf/dconf, it is only when you want to be a part of official release.

      "And people use Gnome because KDE is too much like Windows (i.e. the default theme has the panel at the bottom)."

      How this remotely connects with what you said above? People use GNOME for very different reasons, and I think default position of panels are least thing which makes people to choose one or another.

      --
      user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
  7. Typing in paths by Dwedit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How can we make Gnome better? I know! Let's take away that useful button that lets you type in paths. And then yell at you for being stupid when you don't know that button had a Hotkey (Ctrl+L) that still works, even with the button missing.

    Stay classy, Gnome devs.

    1. Re:Typing in paths by dargaud · · Score: 3, Funny

      Thanks, that single 'feature' was the reason I switched all my machines to KDE ! Ctrl-L you say ? Too Ctrl-Late.

      --
      Non-Linux Penguins ?
  8. It's more like maitanance release...and I like it by Pecisk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm GNOME regular since 2003 and all I can say is these 2.x series has been great ride. Yes, there where stuff which were broken, there where people who said that features are taken away, but still, I'm very productive in this desktop and trust me, I have worked with and supported every mainstream and not-so-mainstream desktop under the sun - it is one of the best. Apple gets it first, but GNOME guys cleverfully tries to integrate that stuff what matters. So kudos for all GNOME developers for these series and while I'm still a little bit cautinous about shell, I think it will turn out good in the end (it was quite usable when I tried it during Jaunty).

    Beyond usual "small stuff" which is nice to have (like fully working Evince on Windows, giving you good alternative for Adobe Reader or FoxIt), I really like Vinagre improvements. In quite short time, it has become de facto VNC viewer for GNOME platform, and finally there are color bit settings for those with dialups or other slow links.

    --
    user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
  9. The features I'm still waiting for... by 2Bits · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1) A sync framework built-in, for syncing different mobile devices. Everyone has one or more mobile devices now, nothing works really well. My Windows Mobile phone, PDA, my iTouch, etc, are not working well. SynCE and Multi-sync are not up to task (yet). This might be a Linux issue, but it would great too if Gnome could provide a nice syncing framework, if no one at a lower level would want to pick it up. Anyway, I really don't care where that issue should be lied in, I just wish my mobile devices work nicely with my linux laptop. It's annoying having to manage my contact, calendar, task list etc in Windows inside a VirtualBox, in order to be able to sync.

    2) Evince should take a look at PDF Xchange PDF viewer. I want to be able to add notes, highlight, etc, in my PDF ebooks. Installing PDF Xchange Viewer on Wine is an ugly solution (font and UI are way ugly), and it's too slow.

    3) F-Spot is slow...

    4) Anjuta, can we do emacs key binding yet? Haven't used it for a while though.

    5) Network Connections should apply network settings after changes, not having to ask users to restart networking service or reboot. Ok, probably just an Ubuntu issue.

    6) Gnome should wake up probably after a suspend. I have no such issue with other desktop or WM, just Gnome. I tolerated it so far, coz I don't do suspend that much, and prefer to hibernate. But it's still annoying when you need to do it.

    7) iBus seems to have a bad habit of hanging from time to time, especially when you are typing too fast, and you have to switch between input methods very often. And start up is slow too.

    I'll try the new version soon, hope to see some of my problems solved. Regardless, thanks a lot for the hard work, really appreciat it.

    1. Re:The features I'm still waiting for... by zlogic · · Score: 2, Informative

      Conduit is a very promising sync framework. I've used it a year ago, sync over ssh failed, but the project is really nice, allowing to create complex sync rules with an easy to use GUI.

  10. I used to be a spacial junkie... by pizzach · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...but I still do not use browser mode, either. Instead, I am now just using the terminal 99% of the time. The spacial implementation in Gnome failed for me because it was way too clunky. For something that is supposed reflect placement of real objects in real life, you really need to be able to interact with them with both hands in order for it to be enjoyable. In other words, there needs to be many more keyboard/mouse/mouse-keyboard commands for mass window management. Sometimes, it just doesn't work piddling with every single window individually every single time.

    • Where is my option-click to close all the windows of an appliciation?
    • Where is my option click outside of the window to hide it?
    • Where is my ctrl-shift-w to close all windows of an application?
    • Where is my option-click for my taskbar window button to bring all windows of that application to the font?
    • Why can't I click this same window button to hide all the windows that just came to the front?
    • Where is my system level ctrl-~ to switch between windows of a single application?

    Because of this, spacial in Gnome always felt lame in a lot of ways like how spacial in Windows 95 was lame. Spacial just doesn't work if you try to use it with an arm tied behind your back. Now granted, since moving to Gnome from Mac OS, I have fallen in love with modifier-drag combination for moving windows around. Shift drag is also pretty fancy. We just need more of those kinds of things.

    --
    Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
  11. Re:OMG PONIES! by PhilHibbs · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Og Maciel"? No way is that a real name. Definitely an AF.

  12. Re:Can we please just shoot this turkey by IBBoard · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seriously, I set it to show hidden/backup files and tar up a directory (after checking the files) and SENT MY BOSS BACKUP AND HIDDEN FILES THAT I DID NOT WANT TO. That could have been the end of my little world!

    That's your fault for thinking that a visual setting has anything to do with a filesystem operation, and for not checking what you send. A couple of years ago I got caught out the other way - File Roller was ignoring . folders, which was a PITA because I kinda needed them.

  13. Sawmill/Sawfish? by dltaylor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anyone got sawmill/sawfish running on a recent library set?

    If so, got a link?

    It had Gnome compatibility, but didn't clutter up the desktop with real estate-stealing nonsense or kick off a bunch of annoying memory- and disk-hogging "features", such as indexing, that I don't want, as do both Gnome and KDE.

    1. Re:Sawmill/Sawfish? by knarf · · Score: 3, Informative

      Saw{mill|fish} is just a window manager. It is not a desktop environment. In gnome terms it compares to metacity, not the whole gnome desktop. If you want to run just a window manager you can do that with any of the available window managers. If you like programming your window manager in Lisp then saw{mill|fish} is a good choice but there are many other extensible window managers out there.

      I run a gnome desktop without all those memory-hogging misfeatures like indexing. It has a 17 pixel high gnome panel on the top so the rest of the screen is completely free for useful stuff. Use a theme with small window borders (eg. Mist or Metabox) instead of those huge gaudy monstrosities which many distributions seem to favour. Well-configured gnome is actually one of the least cluttered desktop environments I have found.

      --
      --frank[at]unternet.org
  14. Why is F-Spot still there? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    To justify the presence of the Mono libraries. Why else include this dreadfully slow application when there are much faster, more fully featured, rival applications ready to take its place.

    Miguel must have all his fingers and each of his twelve toes crossed right now, because Mono is the only justification for his salary and share options at Novell. Even the men in suits would get a bit suspicious if none of the software the Miguelistas were producing was used by anyone. At least forcing users to use it creates the illusion that it is needed. Without the inclusion of Mono, Miguel and his band of happy followers would be out on their sorry asses (well, maybe not asses, donkeys perhaps, and even then probably just the one between the lot of them).

    But really... why is F-Spot still there?

    1. Re:Why is F-Spot still there? by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Care to recommend an alternative? I'd look myself, but repo descriptions are hardly... Well, descriptive. You sound like you've used a few, and know enough about them to make an informed recommendation.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  15. Re:Nautilus bookmarks... by somersault · · Score: 3, Informative

    It depends, it's a dynamic area so additional devices are added and removed a lot, you'd have to have some way of defining where they went too, I don't think a simple drag and drop would work for that. I've never even thought about the ordering before, it seems sensible enough though (however it is slighlty different on the system Places menu and Nautilus sidebar). Home folder, desktop, filesystem, external drives, trash.

    --
    which is totally what she said
  16. SPOILER ALERT by QuaveringGrape · · Score: 2, Informative

    Some command spoilers. I didn't look in the source, this was just some messing around:

    apt-get
    This APT has Super Cow Powers.

    apt-get moo
    (picture of cow)
    ...."Have you mooed today?"...

    emacs
    You should really use Vim.

    vi
    You should really use Emacs.

    hello
    Why hello there!

    exit
    Bye(CLI terminates)


    I was disappointed at the lack of a python shell and "import antigravity". I just really felt like flying today.