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SolusOS Forks Gnome 3 Fallback Mode
An anonymous reader writes "Linux distribution SolusOS has forked the GNOME 3 'fallback mode' that the GNOME Project decided to scrap with the upcoming 3.8 GNOME release. According to SolusOS, the fork, named Consort, can 'maintain an experience virtually identical to GNOME 2, but vastly improve it with no need for hardware acceleration such as with GNOME Shell or Cinnamon.' It 'will bring back all the old features, such as right click-interaction on the panel, GNOME 2 applet support, creating desktop launchers, etc' and 'allow Python GNOME 2 applets to run natively on consort-panel.'"
How can they not see the destruction of their ecosystem right in front of them? They worked so damned hard to make GNOME 2 the best damned environment, and it grew like a weed with Ubuntu. And then sometime around 2009 everyone just lost their damned minds and destroyed it all for no good reason at all.
All they've done is make all of the users unhappy, removed and broke functionality. They're too busy cutting off their own limbs to fix actual problems anymore. How do the leaders in GNOME not see this happening? It's a damned shame.
Maybe it's the cynicism growing on me but I don't get the constant bitching and moaning over desktop decorations. Back in the day I used KDE3.x and it was fine. Then I used Gnome 2.x and it was fine. Now I use Unity and it is just fine too. On my low-end tinker-boxes, I use Openbox and Fbpanel. And it's all fine. Alt-f2, Alt-tab, Alt-f4, and Alt-Space work everywhere. Focus on your applications, fellas; that's what's important.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Instead of helping GNOME to modernize fallback mode
GNOME didn't want to modernize it. They abandoned it.
Sounds like the same concept of MATE and Cinnamon, with the main differences being:
--GNOME Shell is the atrocity most people think of when they think GNOME 3. For the most part, it *is* the official GNOME 3.
--MATE really is just GNOME 2--GTK+2 and all. Creaky and old, not exactly modern, but with a few programs renamed to avoid conflicts with the official GNOME versions and to allow it to exist on a machine with GNOME 3.
--Cinnamon is a GNOME 2 clone written in GTK+3 on top of GNOME 3, requiring all the extra crap GNOME 3-proper does; for example, 3D hardware acceleration.
--Consort sounds like yet another environment based on GNOME 3/GTK+3, but being based on the deprecated "fallback mode" it will bring a GNOME 2-like experience without the need for 3D hardware acceleration.
Beyond that, I honestly have no clue which one is better, they're all relatively new and probably under heavy development. I'm not sure if MATE or Cinnamon have made it to the point where they are free of annoying bugs (in other words, usable), but last time I tried them they definitely had some problems. But they're all probably much better than the crap that the GNOME Project officially provides.
Once they've all stabilized and have become good to use, I would assume that your hardware (3D acceleration or not) and your desire for nice integration of the latest GTK+3 programs will become some of the most obvious differences. I'm not sure if MATE will eventually port the desktop to GTK+3 or not... if they do, assuming all of them survive, that will likely make the choice even more difficult.
Before Gnome 3 and Unity we had KDE, Gnome 2 and XFCE along with a host of other lightweight desktop environments.
The big three all had the same or similar overall UI elements. A "start" menu, icons on the desktop, windowed applications and a task bar.
Now, we have Unity, KDE, Gnome 3, Gnome 2 forks, XFCE, the same collection of various lightweight window managers and desktop environments. Also, apparently, this.
Personally, I'm glad major players diverged significantly from the GUI elements we've all seemed to carry along from Windows 95. It is, in fact, a brave new world with touch screens and tablets. Sure it's arduous, and not cool for desktop productivity but it's only been 2 or 3 years. Maybe it will get better, or maybe some other options will become more popular. The point is, I'm glad I have something new to play around with.
And besides, it's not like you don't have choices if you liked the old way. I was a die-hard Gnome 2 fan, but now I use XFCE and I can hardly tell the difference.