What's New In GNOME 3.18

prisoninmate writes: In this release, GNOME improves the general user experience for users and new developers alike. GNOME 3.18 adds a feature called "Automatic Brightness," which, when enabled, it will make use of your laptop's light sensor to dim or increase the screen's brightness depending on the surrounding lighting. GNOME 3.18 also improves the touch screen experience, especially when selecting and modifying text, implements a new view in the Nautilus (Files) sidebar, which collects all the remote and internal locations in a single place.

Comments

Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[squiggleslash]

Screenshot on that page showing a screen you'd only love to use on a tablet.

8.1 was a very nice tablet UI. Unfortunately, Windows, like GNOME, is almost always used on desktops. Controlled by mice and keyboards. Perhaps it's time the GNOME team recognized the need to focus on that again and made the desktop the priority of the project.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[bondsbw]

Perhaps it's time the GNOME team recognized the need to focus on that again and made the desktop the priority of the project.

Great point. After all, it is the year of Linux on the... you know.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[flacco]

> Screenshot on that page showing a screen you'd only love to use on a tablet.

Is that the extent of your research?

The video shows a number of useful incremental improvements to GNOME 3, and a few new features that make GNOME more tablet-friendly. I checked out the beta in a VM yesterday, no feeling that tabletization was a threat.

I do understand you were spring-boarding off the new GNOME release to say something about Windows 8.1, but still...

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[Lunix Nutcase]

Screenshot on that page showing a screen you'd only love to use on a tablet.

Not true. It's actually shitty even on a tablet.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[DrXym]

GNOME works great on a desktop. There are also lots of extensions that add stuff like task bars, app launchers etc.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[squiggleslash]

Yeah, that's the point. What you're given by default (and what GNOME's developers seem to focus on) is the touch oriented interface. Getting the desktop means installing extensions.

Microsoft made the same mistake with Windows 8. You could get to the desktop with the default UI, and you could add extensions to make it more optimal (albeit not from Microsoft, at least GNOME's own developers are doing the equivalent of "giving you a start menu"), but it wasn't what desktop users wanted.

Windows 10, for all its faults (and it has a million of them) fixed that and focuses on the desktop. It's time GNOME did the same thing.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[squiggleslash]

I'll have to find a PPA (Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet) and try it again. Last few experiences required rather a lot of customization to get a UI that was remotely oriented towards desktop use, but perhaps it's improved.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[jcupitt65]

I just don't think that's true, there's nothing touchy about the design of gnome3, it's a desktop UI and always has been. They are only now starting to add touch stuff, and only because most laptops now come with touch screens.

It does aim to be a very minimalist desktop. You have your application windows and ... that's about it. All the stuff for launching applications, managing workspaces, managing windows and so on is on the overview screen. I think the idea was that the desktop should get out of the way and just present your work without distraction.

I didn't like it much when it came out, but it's grown on me. I now prefer it to KDE and Unity, the two main rivals. The extension system is especially nice: you just go to the gnome extension site and turn the things you like on and off.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[kthreadd]

Yeah, that's the point. What you're given by default (and what GNOME's developers seem to focus on) is the touch oriented interface. Getting the desktop means installing extensions.

It was designed with touch in mind but not as a requirement. It was designed to be used as is on a desktop as well as on a tablet.

And if you think that a desktop needs a task bar then maybe you should take a look at OS X. They have the Dock which GNOME 3 has a similar implementation of, but what they don't have is a task bar. The task bar is a very Windows-centric design pattern and I don't think that Windows in any way is the definition of what defines a desktop OS.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[mccalli]

1.0? 1.0? Pah - noob. 0.99alpha crew checking in. Bragging rights a go-go...

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[kthreadd]

It's a good way to get an overview of the apps you have installed. I seldom use the icons when launching apps though, I just enter the first few characters and press return.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[kthreadd]

The Ubuntu GNOME team is doing as good job as they can but if you just want to try out the new release you may want to give the Fedora 23 beta a spin. Ubuntu is unfortunately often behind with GNOME. They are planning on shipping the old 3.16 release in Ubuntu 15.10 so getting a supported 3.18 release will probably not happen until 16.04.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[Hognoxious]

There's already a way to get an overview of the apps that are installed - a properly structured custom menu.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[kthreadd]

True, the post above yours did say that. I apologize. The point is however still that you don't actually need any extensions at all in order to get a good desktop experience, as long as you're willing to accept something that isn't a Windows clone as a desktop.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[kthreadd]

That works too but at least for me it's often slower. Where did they put the Terminal app, was it under Accessories or Utilities? Now I just have to look at T since they are ordered alphabetically. The old menu system from GNOME 2 also suffered that it didn't allow you to search for apps by typing its name.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[theguyfromsaturn]

I use Gnome on a Desktop exclusively. I haven't tried 3.18, but in general, GNOME 3 made my desktop experience more enjoyable. In particular, dynamic virtual desktop allocation, mouse swipe the the corner to reveal the dash etc, are actually very productivity enhancing for me. I don't know how good the interface would be on a tablet, but to me, it is definitely a superior desktop paradigm for the desktop. Gnome shell applets and various settings can be tweaked to improve on the overall experience (like a mounted volume indicator on the task bar etc.). The only issue I have with Gnome, is that Gnome Tweaks should not be an optional additional application to install, but should be integrated in the default settings of Gnome. Personally, I wouldn't go back to the antiquated hierarchical menu, as my apps are much easier to find now (this I think is definitely more oriented towards the desktop, as typing in search terms in a touch screen sucks).

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[kthreadd]

Apps is just one of the things it can search for. Among other things you can search for contacts, files, notes. Type in a mathematical calculation and it computes it for you, or the name of a city and it tells you the local time there.

Re: Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[msobkow]

15.04 is the current official release. 15.10 is still a development release: use at your own risk.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[Xtifr]

Most of the reviews of Cinnamon I've read point out that it really doesn't do anything that gnome-shell can't easily do since "classic" mode was added (circa v. 3.8). Not that there's anything wrong with using Cinnamon if that's the only possible mode you'll ever want. Me, I've been experimenting with different modes of gnome-shell, and Ilike it. (The ability to experiment.) Haven't yet actually tried Cinnamon.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[thegarbz]

There's already a way to get an overview of the apps that are installed - a properly structured custom menu.

How 2009.

Actually there was quite a bit of research into user interaction which showed that users used icons more easily to identify a program, and that by switching to a grid layout the density of information on the screen could be increased relying less on scrolling or small hard to read text.

You may enjoy digging through a menu but most users avoid it when they can, and to be perfectly honest I'm not even sure how to customise the menu in Windows 10 to give it some "structure".

You're not alone though. You've been modded up so someone agrees with your view of the menu. I hope you find some program that will allow you to continue to use your systems the way you want. But at the same time I applaud people actually looking into progressing this. Text is getting smaller and my eyes are getting worse.

Re:Ah, no lessons learned from Windows 8

[Sri Ramkrishna]

It also tends to be behind GNOME. It is based on GNOME, but since they've added their own bits, they can't reasonably update all the GNOME libraries as easily since they forked them all. In honesty, they could probably have re-implemented Cinnamon with using all GNOME libraries and saved themselves a lot of maintenance cost. After all, the platform has now already de-coupled the user experience from everything so you could just implement the shell like Elementary has done, and Budgie. Mate could do the same thing. There are some issues of course like gnome-settings-daemon which has some hardcoded stuff. But if you have the resources to support a whole platform focusing on making something like gnome-settings-daemon generic would be a great effort.

GNOME it's getting really good

[Anonymous Coward]

Despite all the negative buzz against GNOME 3, latest releases are, in my opinion, very good (and I hated GNOME 3 with a passion when it came up).

Also, they're putting efforts on style consistency and usability which is very welcome.

The times they are a changin'

[juanfgs]

I was a former Gnome user and I ditched it, but to be honest, new users seem to like Gnome 3, for the obvious reason that touch interfaces are more familiar to them. They are more used to "slide to unlock" behaviours and such, big icons for rapid identification.

Sometimes it's worthy to make a little of self-criticism and realize that many of us aren't from this era of interfaces. I recognize that I hardly use a computer in the same way the average person uses it, I often rely on the terminal, I tend to remember programs by name rather than icon, and my workflow is probably way different than those born in the "apps" era.

It's Gnome for me? not anymore. Should it be? no, why should I force developers to do things as I like.

Gnome 3 is a good thing to have, because it enables free software to reach people that otherwise wouldn't be interested. Luckily for us, there are a plethora of options if you are fond of the old interface, and they seem to keep getting better and better (MATE, Xfce , KDE).

Re:The times they are a changin'

[Eunuchswear]

I often rely on the terminal, I tend to remember programs by name rather than icon, and my workflow is probably way different than those born in the "apps" era.

That's the normal way of working with Gnome3 -- you launch programs by hitting window key, typing the first few characters of the program name then enter.

Re:GNOME 3.x worsens the general user experience

[itamihn]

GNOME 3.x sent me to KDE, even though I eventually settled in Cinnamon.

SystemD

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it still require that awful SystemD OS to be installed in order to run?

Re:SystemD

[Anonymous Coward]

Eunuchswear or Barsteward or whatever your actual name is (Lennart?), GNOME 3's close ties to systemd are a real concern for many users.

It's not, as you incorrectly put it, "trolling" when somebody raises this concern.

Systemd has some fundamental problems with its architecture, such as its use of binary logging and how it has subsumed so much unrelated functionality. It has also caused many problems for many users, including computers that don't boot fully, which is among the worst possible software problems.

We don't need to rehash all of the problems affecting systemd. You're well aware of them, from all of your past attempts at denying that these very real problems exist.

Systemd is not a viable option for a great many Linux users, and all users of other UNIX-like systems (such as the BSDs). Many Linux users can't use it because of reliability concerns, and the others can't use it because systemd's portability is zilch.

So when GNOME 3 depends on systemd, it makes GNOME 3 unusable for a great many people. These aren't just any people, too. They're the most talented, valuable and intelligent users. They're the ones who can contribute the most to GNOME and its community.

The GNOME project only hurts itself by excluding the best possible users, especially when it does so thanks to unnecessary ties to unnecessary and unwanted software like systemd.

What User Experience? Everyone Left.

[BrendaEM]

Face it, Gnome was ruined, perhaps even sabotaged. Year after year, they turned their backs on users, removed any power the user might have had all in the name of making it "clean."

Gnome should either stand or die and a lesson: do not design by infatuation.

Everyone left.

Re:What User Experience? Everyone Left.

[Xtifr]

When looking at the big picture, no, you don't exist. The huge majority (we're talking over 90%) of Linux desktop users are now using Unity, KDE, or XFCE, or MATE, or one of the many other window managers that exist. GNOME 3 and Cinnamon users like you are irrelevant, given your small number.

And your evidence for this amazing claim is...?

The Debian popcon results certainly seem to suggest otherwise:

* gnome-shell: 30% installed, 18% recently used.
* kde-runtime: 19% installed, 11% recently used.
* xfce4-panel: 14% installed, 7.6% recently used.
* lxde-common:5.6% installed, 2.5% recently used.
* mate-panel: 4.6% installed, 2.3% recently used.
* cinnamon: 3.5% installed, 1.6% recently used.
* Unity: not available for Debian.

(When looking at those numbers, you have to take into account the fact that a lot of Debian systems are servers, and don't have X11 installed at all.)

Of course Debian isn't representative of the whole world, but it is generally among the most popular systems, and one that has a disproportionate number of experienced users compared to systems like Ubuntu or Mint. Users who like choice. And they seem to be mostly choosing Gnome 3.

Factoring in Ubuntu and Mint, well, Ubuntu users will heavily use Unity, but there's still a lot using Gnome or KDE or Xfce. Plus, Unity is basically Gnome with a replacement for gnome-shell. And Mint users will most likely be using Cinnamon (which probably makes it a lot more popular than you suggest) or KDE. So those will likely balance out the strong Gnome lead we see on Debian. But as a rough estimate, I think it's safe to say that Gnome 3 is easily in the same ballpark as KDE and Unity. And the Debian results certainly suggest that Gnome 3 is more popular among experienced users than a lot of people like to claim. Which matches what I've been hearing:that many people have been going back to Gnome since 3.8 finally gave us "classic" mode.

(I tried to go through the Ubuntu popcon results, but they don't seem to be as well organized or easy to search, and I gave up in frustration. Feel free to check the numbers yourself. I think you may be surprised at how high in the rankings gnome-shell is, though. Mint doesn't support popcon at this point in time.)

I'd try to factor in Fedora, but Ihave no idea how to estimate what's going on in that part of the world. But I'd say your "over 90%" claim is on pretty shaky ground. (To describe it with more politeness than it probably deserves.)

Re:GNOME 3.x worsens the general user experience

[AntEater]

Thanks to Gnome3 I moved back to XFCE. This is a good way to prepare for next step, as systemd is enforcing a move back to FreeBSD.

Check out Slackware before you run all the way back to FreeBSD (not that there's anything wrong with FreeBSD). Slack ships with a good XFCE desktop. It's a great Linux distribution without the systemd infection.

Re:Haters gonna hate

[0123456]

It seems that the only acceptable change to Gnome for slashdotters is going back to the version 2 interface.

I think you'll find that most of us never left. MATE runs fine on my Linux machines.

Re:GNOME 3.x worsens the general user experience

[Anonymous Coward]

All I want is to use a modern Linux distro without systemd.

Gentoo is one option for that.

Re:GNOME 3.x worsens the general user experience

[armanox]

Slackware recieves regular security updates, so claiming it hasn't been updated in that time is false. Version.next has been in Alpha for a little long now - usually Slackware releases once per year.