Slashdot Mirror
GNOME 3.16 Released
kthreadd writes Version 3.16 of GNOME, the primary desktop environment for GNU/Linux operating systems has been released. Some major new features in this release include a overhauled notification system, an updated design of the calendar drop down and support for overlay scrollbars. Also, the grid view in Files has been improved with bigger thumbnail icons, making the appearance more attractive and the rows easier to read. A video is available which demonstrates the new version.
To be fair, Gnome 3.x sucked before the systemd abomination.
Dispite desparate attempts of the linux user base to move to alternatives and avoid wholesale changes to the linux userspace, distribution leadership and paid developers continue their push toward 'unification and control'.
When gnomish developers develop on macs to produce a desktop centric operating system in the hope of capturing the windows/mac market, where mac users are happy with macs, windows users are happy using windows and all the linux users go anywhere else the question becomes 'who is going to use it?'
Too bad everyone hated GNOME 2 back in the day.
There was no end to the anger over these three arguments:
- It is bloated
- The "Application / Places / System" menu structure feels uncomfortable, I want my "Start Menu" back
- All configurability has been trimmed to minimum
"the primary desktop environment for GNU/Linux operating systems"
Well, well, aren't we full of ourselves...
Version 3.16 of GNOME, the primary desktop environment for GNU/Linux operating systems has been released.
The "primary desktop environment for GNU/Linux"? Really? Does the poster just speak Marketing as your primary tongue, or is this a simply characteristic of the arrogance of a project that has loudly shouted down every rational discussion about the merits of its interface design, the merits of requiring systemd to the exclusion of all else (not really true despite what the gnome developers say: Funtoo Linux, a Gentoo derivative manged by drobbins, has gnome3 ebuilds and straightforward patches that allow gnome3 to work flawlessly with openrc instead), and the merits of embedding splashscreen code into an init system?
I suspect the latter, given the broader context, but really. Gnome isn't any more the primary desktop environment for GNU/Linux than KDE is, or any number of other desktops. Just because Red Hat's marketing department says so doesn't make it so. In my work at numerous Linux shops (including large banks like Deutsche, and smaller Red Hat shops that will remain nameless to protect the innocent), nearly everywhere a Linux desktop is run the choice has defaulted to KDE, with a small minority of users choosing to run Gnome instead, or other less common desktops (Mate, etc.).
The sheer hubris of a project claiming to be "the primary desktop environment for GNU/Linux operating systems" in their press release, regurgitated mindlessly by slashdot, boggles the mind.
Why bother. Gnome developers have been on the path of removing, not adding functionality since they started version 2. Why would you expect them to accept a patch that adds a good feature?
The release notes mention several new features. They are clearly adding stuff.
Yeah, but Gnome 2 was usable. Gnome 3 switched me to Cinnamon.
All you need to know about the mirage of "Linux on the Desktop" can be seen in recent GNOME releases. The developers spend far too much time either not adding things people desperately need and want (like a really first-rate file manager, instead of the toy versions various distros leave on users' doorsteps in a flaming paper bag), or screwing up things that do work at least reasonably well.
"Linux on the Desktop" is almost entirely a "solution" that only works for hardcore hobbyists/ideologues and those with very significant in-house technical support.
What an utter waste. I've been experimenting with Linux since the days of buying a book with an attached Slackware floppy disk, and I really believed at one point that Linux would become a serious challenger to Windows and other desktop OSs with at least a 25% market share. I was a naive fool, as is anyone who still thinks Linux has a chance of coming close to that level of success.
The scrollbars on Gnome are so obnoxious now. You have to mouse over a tiny 2 pixel strip to get them to appear, then super precisely move your mouse to get to the part where you can interact with it, and one pixel off causes it to disappear and make you hunt for the invisible 2 pixel strip again. I'm sure they're great if you're on a tablet and just mashing your thumb in the general vicinity of the scrollbar, but for mouse users they're just outright terrible and enabled by default. If you have a distro like Ubuntu it's fairly hard to enable sane scrollbars again too, you have to know what esoteric package to install to fix the behavior, it's not installed by default.
I read the internet for the articles.
I don't tap my screen; I remember what application I want, and go directly to it. Rather than Applications:Graphics:Krita, I just type "Kri" and click the Krita icon. I can also drag the Krita icon to a space between desktops, spawning the window there. I can also type "image" and have all the image viewing and editing software appear in front of me.
Great, so you mean I can put both hands on my keyboard to type "Kri", and then switch one of my hands to the mouse to click and icon on my screen... rather than, say, typing "krita" and hitting enter, all on the keyboard, at the 80wpm I type on a keyboard. That's amazing, I can actually make myself slow down with your new and improved methods!! Even better, you can type "image" and have all your image viewing/editing software in front of you, rather than perhaps having those icons in a folder marked "image software" that you could just open with one double click and no keyboard interaction!
Damn, this new stuff sounds like a huge improvement!
So, if you replace basically the whole interface, you can make it relatively usable? As opposed to earlier Gnome 3 releases where you couldn't fix the suck?
Unix philosophy sucked, so we decided long ago not to be limited by it anymore.