GNOME 2.30 Released; Farewell To GNOME 2.xx

[srg_13]

Nah, Gnome 2.30 looks like Windows NT 4 with splashes from Mac OS 9. It's an improvement over the previous Windows 98 look, that's for sure.

I'll just ignore the idiocy of judging a project on how its default theme looks, but seriously, when was the last time you looked at a screenshot of any of the three operating systems you mentioned? They are nothing like Gnome... Or are you just a mindless troll?

Anyway, Clearlooks on the whole looks far more elegant that KDE 4's default theme, even if KDE's desktop is pretty...

[V!NCENT]

@sg_13:
You must be new here

Everybody knows BlackStar is a veteran troll fir hireb xD

Even his title post was Just trollin'...

It was sarcasm though... He is a Gnome user.

[Ragas]

[/B]Isn't this an April fools joke?

No.

thats the bloody truth.

[BlackStar]

Gnome is part of the empire of Borg. Consider yourself warned.

I'll just ignore the idiocy of judging a project on how its default theme looks, but seriously, when was the last time you looked at a screenshot of any of the three operating systems you mentioned? They are nothing like Gnome... Or are you just a mindless troll?

Read and be enlightened.

The truth is out there.

[Remco]

BlackStar is no troll. He makes fun of trolls. The difference is nonexistent of course, because sarcasm doesn't exist on the Internet.

[drag]

Not really. It took them until 2010 to realise that whatever about theoretical user-friendliness and the desktop/folder paradigm, User expectation trumps the theory. In theory spatial mode is easier for a new user, in practice it's not because they aren't "blank slates", they already have a conception of how it works. This is a case of sometimes what is wrong, is actually right.

The reason they changed the default back to browser mode and added split mode is because the use case for Nautilus changes when your using 'Gnome Shell'.

The idea of spatial was based around the concept that Nautilus was integrated into your desktop background. You had multiple folders there and you can click on the folder and each would open a new window. So as you have multiple winodws being used you could always keep the arranged the same way. That was the 'spatial' part of it.

Thinking behind that is that users used the desktop as application launchers and will want to have commonly used things arranged the same way all the same time.

That will speed up usage and efficiency because they can click things open, find things, and launch them into applications without thinking about it. It becomes second nature.

However.....

Finding files and management with Gnome 3.x/Gnome-shell is suppose to be automated with search heavily integrated as well as time-based ways to manage files and taks-oriented management tools. The idea being that people don't want to screw around with keeping things orginized; That is what computers are for.

Have you ever had the problem were you downloaded a funny image or copied a PDF from somewhere and you can't get to it right away? Then isntead of trying to click around hunting for it you just did a Google search and re-downloaded it?

Yeah.. that is the problems they would like to fix.

Since nautilus's job has changed having the specific purpose browser mode, especially with a split view, is much more efficient for pure file management.

http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/index.shtml

==================

It's worth noting that Gnome never got rid of the browser mode. It was always there and always optional. Plus in every Gnome desktop I've ever used there was always a browser-mode window you could launch from the 'Application' meu.

[BlackStar]

BlackStar is no troll. He makes fun of trolls. The difference is nonexistent of course, because sarcasm doesn't exist on the Internet.

Why, thank you, this was touching!

The reason they changed the default back to browser mode and added split mode is because the use case for Nautilus changes when your using 'Gnome Shell'.

And this was pretty enlightening. I never considered Gnome shell as such a fundamental game changer but this makes sense. I'm also not convinced the change is in the right direction (judging from the current gnome-shell daily builds) but things might work out in the end. Too early to tell.

Still, it's nice to see there's a unified design vision behind those changes, unlike the "change for change's sake" shitstorm on the 10.04 Ubuntu UI.

[V!NCENT]

One thing that sucks about _any_ GUI is that it's a clicking frenzy and has not the feeling of being a desk at all...

Gnome shell might change that in a sense that Apple 'invents' 'new' stuff: making it effectively usable instead of just functional.

However, instead of the clicking frenzy, it turns into a drag the mouse frenzy because everything is so far away from each other!

This is epic and all with touch screens, but then again typing while googling for you files would suck...

Hell... computer interfaces themselves are supposed to change! How is the question.

For now, Gnomw Shell will has to prove itself. Will defo test this.

[drag]

However, instead of the clicking frenzy, it turns into a drag the mouse frenzy because everything is so far away from each other!

This is epic and all with touch screens, but then again typing while googling for you files would suck...

It's not too bad.

The 'Activities' button is very easy to hit. You can do it with your eyes closed; very literally.

Just close your eyes, move your mouse in a upper-left direction fast and you'll hit it 100% of the time. For pointer-driven interfaces the 4 corners are magical items. You could make a icon 1 pixel square in each corner and it'll still be about the easiest and largest button you can click anywere on the screen.

For touchscreens it works out pretty well also. It's still a easy button to hit and the grid layout for favorite applications is easy use.

the things that suck so far is that the 'places and devices', and the 'recently used' items is too small for touch screens.

The application menu is, unfortunately, shit. Arranging applications in alphabetical order is just a really really bad idea. I think that people look for applications by function, not by name.

The integrated can somewhat make up for it. It's actually pretty useful and most of the time I can find what I am looking for, but it's not perfect. They really need to get back to having a sane menu layout, even if it's just for secondary usage.

I like the 'favorites' though. On my gnome panel I always add on favorites manually, so this matches how I do things.

For people that use full screen windows all the time, though, it sucks because they are probably used to using the task bar for locating applications so it's going to be a tough thing for them to let go.

If you get used to hitting the 'Windows' key on your keboard then this can help you locate things much qucker; although they need to work on keyboard-only navigation a bit more. This avoids having to move the mouse over to the corner of your screen.

This is the first time I've actually seen a useful use for the Windows button.

What to open up your web browser quickly without using the mouse?

<windows key>
type: browser
down-arrow to select
return key to launch

If they integrate things like chat logs, emails, and recently visited websites into the search results then that would be _FANTASTIC_.

If your the type that wants the icons on your desktop though... don't forget about the side panel. It's ugly and it's turned off by default, but I can see lots of interesting uses for it.

[Joe Sixpack]

BlackStar is no troll. He makes fun of trolls. The difference is nonexistent of course, because sarcasm doesn't exist on the Internet.

I thought that was blatantly obvious at this point. Sometimes we still entertain him though - just out of respect.

The funny part is that as much as he trolls he's actually one of the smartest people on Phoronix. Sometimes he slips and forgets to troll - letting his guard down and saying something only an experienced Linux veteran would know. It's kind of a dead giveaway.