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GNOMEbuntu Set To Arrive In October

First time accepted submitter Rzarector writes "Good News Everyone! Thanks to the Ubuntu Gnome Community and Jeremy Bicha, it seems that the popular distribution will ship a flavor with a relatively pure GNOME experience in the next release cycle, on October 18. At this point the effort is community based, but hopefully GNOMEbuntu will make it as an official Canonical spin, similar to Kubuntu, Xubuntu, et cetera, in the 13.04 release. This is the story: At the Ubuntu Developer Summit in May, some discussions took place on the need for a Gnome spin. On August 13, Jeremy Bicha posted on Gnome mailing lists about looking a name for the new Ubuntu derivative. After that, I had no news till Stinger gave us a thread in Ubuntu Forums. On there, Jeremy talks about working on an Alpha version! So I contacted him and he verified that GNOMEbuntu will be released together with Ubuntu 12.10."

13 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. 2012 by hammeraxe · · Score: 5, Funny

    This will make 2012 the year of the linux desktop for sure!

  2. I'm holding out for CinnaBuntu... by steveha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...but I would also go for MateBuntu.

    http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/

    http://mate-desktop.org/

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    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  3. Re:Which Gnome? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you base your Gnome 3 experience through your interactions with Unity, please realize that you are practically talking about two different things (even if it is the same libraries)

    I know plenty of people who like Gnome 3 but hate Unity, so there is a difference in user experience.

    If you really want Gnome 2, well there's two libraries which were targeting making that kind of desktop experience better, with less bloat and cruft. So, why do you want the big, bloated, slow, version of that desktop back? Move on to Xfce or LXDE.

  4. Whis is this not a meta-package? by Zombie+Ryushu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why is is this not a meta-package? Why is it necessary to have a completely different Ubuntu for Gnome?

    1. Re:Whis is this not a meta-package? by stevenh2 · · Score: 3, Informative

      If the people are not an expert, then they have no need to know what GNOME is. In reality, it's really easy to install the GNOME package, go to the software center and install it, then change your desktop at login.

  5. Re:Which Gnome? by McSnickered · · Score: 3, Interesting
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    They call me the working man. I guess that's what I am.
  6. Why the Slashdot anti-Unity hate? by INowRegretThesePosts · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This was after testing a couple of versions of Ubuntu with Unity in a VM and seeing the train-wreck that it was

    Why all the Slashdot anti-Unity hate? Among my friends, they generally like or at least tolerate Unity. In the Ubuntu Software Center, the most recent (later than March 2012) reviews average 4 star.
    I, personally, like it very much. It saves screen real-state and:
    1) Provides direct buttons for all the programs I commonly use
    2) For other programs, I just hit Super and type the first letters of the program name

    It is perfectly convenient.

    So why the hate?

    1. Re:Why the Slashdot anti-Unity hate? by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Because it makes my $2k powerhouse computer running a super geeky OS look like something made by Vtech.

      http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81hhVZULnhL._AA1500_.jpg

    2. Re:Why the Slashdot anti-Unity hate? by Tarlus · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's a lingering hatred from Unity's early days when it was still buggy and lacking in customization options. It's less buggy now but still doesn't offer the level of customization that some geeks like to have. As Unity matures, though, I find myself agreeing that it is in fact quite usable.

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    3. Re:Why the Slashdot anti-Unity hate? by BoogeyOfTheMan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I used to hate Unity with a passion. But after giving it a shot, I find that its not as terrible as I originally thought.

      The main reason I hated it was that you pretty much HAVE to use the keyboard to use it. Not so bad for most people, but my monitor is a 42" tv sitting across the room with my pc. I have a wireless mouse and keyboard, but I usually left the keyboard turned off and sitting on a table out of the way. Until Unity, I could access all of my applications with no more than 3 mouse clicks, and I only had to use the keyboard to enter passwords or for the occasional terminal session. Now, I leave the keyboard turned on and always accessible because I have to use it much more often to actually accomplish anything. Though I have learned that as long as I use the keyboard a lot, Unity is actually pretty decent. I still have some major gripes though.

      1- Yes I can just type a few letters and the program will show up, but if I cant remember the name of the program because I only use it once in a blue moon, I need to spend 5+ minutes searching for it. I also cant get programs installed through wine to show up with a few keypresses. (Probably a PEBKAC error, but still annoying)

      2- I have to jump through a few hoops to get all my app notifications to show up correctly.

      3- I have 5 third party apps installed to tweak various settings in Unity that should be built in

      4- I think the universal menu system is retarded. I have it turned off, but it really should be a simple checkbox in the system settings.

      5- It needs a better workspace indicator. The one that is stuck on the launch bar should at least tell me what workspace I have active since I cant remove it. (I have an extra mouse button set to open workspace switching, and I have the cube set up where if I scroll on the left or right of the screen, it changes workspaces)

      6- I would like the option to only show open application on the active workspace instead of always seeing all open apps on all workspaces. If its already pinned to the launchbar, the little arrows are cool, but I dont really need to see a transmission icon taking up space on my main workspace when I only have it open on workspace 4

      Wow, that was more than I thought there would be. After all of that, I still use it because I feel that it has promise, it just needs more polish. I believe that by 13.10 it should be fully featured enough to be a worthy successor to Gnome 2.

  7. Re:Sorry, but... by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For Kubuntu/Ubuntu, this "part of the official family" is pure cynical corporate marketing to Kubuntu's disadvantage. It is only good for Canonical and this thinking can and will hurt Kubuntu in the long run. They have been cast adrift and must admit it, and not just intellectually. In the corporate world you will really ONLY see what "officially part of the family" means when it comes to money.

    Mandriva started from Redhat 5.1, is it part of the "official" Redhat family? No? Why? The money thing. Suse adopted the Redhat file structure and RPM package management system. Does that make it part of the Redhat family? Obviously no. If not, why not, for both Mandriva and Suse? Is it because it writes it's own installer and package manager even though for the most part they both can install pretty much the same RPMs? No, that's not it. Having similar and/or compatible package managers doesn't make systems part of the family except manybe for marketing. Taking ownership or spending time and money on it does. You are really only part of the official family if you are part of the corporate family. Otherwise you are part of the "we'll milk this as long as it gives us good marketing benefit" family. And again, that still comes back to money. Marketing is to make money.

    And that's the crux. Right now the Kubuntu community is still in the, "we can still be friends stage." Later when it is understood that Canonical doesn't give a flying fuck about Kubuntu financially (and that means no free help or declining free help over time until reality sets in). And BTW, I don't blame Canonical, it is business. The now all volunteer Kubuntu needs to get that through their heads too. They should start with a name change to make it readily apparent in heads and in hearts.

    I thiink right now there is still some warmth between kunbuntu and canonical. But as time goes by and less or no support comes from Canonical the rose will come off the bloom.

    FWIW, when I use Linux (on my VM guest on Windows 7) I use Kubuntu.

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    -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
  8. Re:Which Gnome? by justforgetme · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I know plenty of people who like Gnome 3 but hate Unity

    Me! Hi! I'm here!

    No, really guys. OK, I get that things can get rough when major changes are undertaken in your infrastructure. Whether that is Country, State or Desktop. But really all this hating on the gnome desktop has to subside at some point in time. I mean, come on! Ok, the guys made a total mess out of usability testing (not that large scale usability testing is good in any way but still some controlled environment tests are helpful) but in general they pulled it through. Gnome shell, in the past year, has been doing leaps!

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    -- no sig today
  9. Re:Which Gnome? by justforgetme · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What I can't digest about the unity interface is that it can't be effectively used as a mouse oriented UI nor can it be effectively used as a keyboard only UI. And that really makes a big difference for me. In an HTPC mouse only environment it is much easier to just use Gnome3 (even the theming for the living room aka huge fonts and buttons) are better applied by gnome shell. On the workstation again Gnome 3 works better because the keyboard mappings are very very concise and thought out, to the point where you can get to the behavioral patterns of a tiling wm without having done one modification. Unity? its nice if you have one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse. Only that I am 99% less productive like that and it really doesn't make any sense.. And don't start talking about the hud thing because it plainly doesn't deliver.

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    -- no sig today