Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

GNOME 3.8 Released Featuring New "Classic" Mode

Posted by Unknown on from the extend-freely dept.

Hot on the heels of the Gtk+ 3.8 release comes GNOME 3.8. There are a few general UI improvements, but the highlight for many is the new Classic mode that replaces fallback. Instead of using code based on the old GNOME panel, Classic emulates the feel of GNOME 2 through Shell extensions (just like Linux Mint's Cinnamon interface). From the release notes: "Classic mode is a new feature for those people who prefer a more traditional desktop experience. Built entirely from GNOME 3 technologies, it adds a number of features such as an application menu, a places menu and a window switcher along the bottom of the screen. Each of these features can be used individually or in combination with other GNOME extensions."

2 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Keyboard layout switching still broken by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They keep breaking keyboard switching every release. Here's the story in 3.6:

    https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=681685
    https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=684210

    (If you read the comments, you'll see the usual attitude of Gnome devs - bilingual users who actually use this functionality are telling them that it's been broken, while devs who don't really use it but own it reply by coming up with invented reasons as to why the new behavior is the right thing, and everyone else should just shut up and learn it.)

    You'd think they would pay more attention to this area in the new release, but apparently they have emasculated (the official press release calls it "simplified", in the usual Gnome bullshit-speak) it even further in 3.8, and there are bugs reported about erratic behavior of the new switcher. All that because XKB is, apparently, not good enough anymore.

    With this kind of attitude towards their users (of which the above is but a single example), how come they still have any?

  2. Re:Too late by emblemparade · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Same here. Xfce is mature, and everything just works. I don't have time to beta-test in my everyday work.

    It's still impossible to do very essential things in GNOME Classic, such as moving the panels around or fully configuring them. So, in many ways GNOME 3 hasn't reached feature parity with GNOME 2 or Xfce.

    That said, it's really nice to see GNOME listening to users. An especially important part of GNOME 3.8, in my view, is that more options were added to the settings rather than removing them. This shows that the team really is trying to stabilize the core before adding more features, which is really the right way to go about things. I think in a few years GNOME 3 will be a great desktop, suitable for various work styles.