GNOME 3.7.2 Kills The GNOME Fallback Mode

[cardboard]

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Introduction/Installing_Blender/Linux#Compositing_Desktop_Environments

KDE and Xfce let you run without effects. Why doesn't GNOME?

[moilami]

I must admit that I can't stand this 'if your computer can't run Gnome 3, then maybe you shouldn't be running a DE on it' attitude some people have. I had a fluid desktop experience in the previous millenium. How is it that more than a decade later I'm having so much trouble getting a smooth multi-monitor desktop experience on a PC that's not even 5 years old, with an order of magnitude more processing power? I love eye candy, I really do, but a few fancy window animations and drop shadows aren't worth the abysmal performance I'm getting with my radeon GPU. Sometimes I feel (I know it's not really true) like little progress has been made in the last 10 years w.r.t. desktop environments.

For now I went to XFCE4, I do like GNOME3, and I may start using it again some day when the radeon driver's performance is improved. I also understand why they killed fallback mode - it wasn't getting enough attention and worked somewhat differently from the normal composited desktop. It would be better to just have a 2D mode that worked just like the 3D one without any of the demanding effects (which can't really be rendered efficiently in software)

Please don't blame GNOME of that your graphics drivers suck.

Signed by "a very happy and all the time more happy GNOME user since Gnome 1.4."

[Lemonzest]

Now they can concentrate work on making gnome-shell even more awesome (I love it, really speeded up my work flow )

[Aphax]

I must admit that I can't stand this 'if your computer can't run Gnome 3, then maybe you shouldn't be running a DE on it' attitude some people have. I had a fluid desktop experience in the previous millenium. How is it that more than a decade later I'm having so much trouble getting a smooth multi-monitor desktop experience on a PC that's not even 5 years old, with an order of magnitude more processing power? I love eye candy, I really do, but a few fancy window animations and drop shadows aren't worth the abysmal performance I'm getting with my radeon GPU. Sometimes I feel (I know it's not really true) like little progress has been made in the last 10 years w.r.t. desktop environments.

For now I went to XFCE4, I do like GNOME3, and I may start using it again some day when the radeon driver's performance is improved. I also understand why they killed fallback mode - it wasn't getting enough attention and worked somewhat differently from the normal composited desktop. It would be better to just have a 2D mode that worked just like the 3D one without any of the demanding effects (which can't really be rendered efficiently in software)

[Pallidus]

I am slowly changing my opinion about gnome3


don't get me wrong it still looks like ass, fat and bloated and stupid...


but

if you dig thru devianart and that extensions gnome site you are actually able to make gnome3 look half way decent.


I'd say this theme and setup make it look ok even compared to elementary os.


the gnome devs are ok, just a little misguided and lacking refinement

[Goingdown]

Not a big deal

I don't understand why dropping fallback mode is so big deal?

If one's computer does not have graphics card or driver capable of running opengl OR computer cpu is not fast enough to use llvmpipe, then the one should probably not run modern full-blown desktop like Gnome or Kde, the changes are that it is too slow anyway. There is plenty of more suitable lightweight DE options to choose for.

I have virtual machine which has Gnome 3. It runs llvmpipe, and the speed is ok, although it is not "fluid". I have desktop computer I use heavily via vino. And using Gnome3 via vino seems to be fast enough even when running it over ~1Mbit line. And of course on my laptop, I am using Gnome 3 with open source intel driver, and that is fluid. So, all of my use cases are covered by just normal Gnome 3, I have no use for the fallback mode. I did try it on my vino remote use case, but I did found it lacking.

[Hulings5Robert]

They make me feel better about my recent switch to other DE.

[squirrl]

Yes I know. DirectX 11 has a legacy 9/10 modes with support for older hardware. What I meant is that there's now no longer a CPU specific fallback mode in Windows 8's DE (so I've been told).. it's part of Directx 11 instead, and all DE code targets Directx 11 for rendering, the same way Gnome/Unity are only targeting OpenGL (indirectly) for rendering now. There's no more "Oops, OpenGL didn't load, gotta run a completely different rendering API.." in the DE code because OpenGL (and Directx 11) are guaranteed to load, even without GPU hardware support. At least that's the idea.

Oops, your OpenGL don't support extension X; drop down to decellerated mode.
Oops, your card is blacklisted; drop down to decellerated mode.

Or what really happens in Windows:

Oops, AMD has classified your video card as Legacy. There is no support for Aero.
Oops, there is only a reference driver for your old graphics card. Welcome basic VGA mode. Upgrade soon.

[F i L]

Nope. Any DX9 capable card with a WDDM capable driver can run Win8. Same requirements as Vista/7 (makes sense; same base kernel version (NT 6.1)).

Yes I know. DirectX 11 has a legacy 9/10 modes with support for older hardware. What I meant is that there's now no longer a CPU specific fallback mode in Windows 8's DE (so I've been told).. it's part of Directx 11 instead, and all DE code targets Directx 11 for rendering, the same way Gnome/Unity are only targeting OpenGL (indirectly) for rendering now. There's no more "Oops, OpenGL didn't load, gotta run a completely different rendering API.." in the DE code because OpenGL (and Directx 11) are guaranteed to load, even without GPU hardware support. At least that's the idea.

[gamerk2]

With Windows 8 (I believe), there's no "CPU fallback mode" like with Windows 7 and prior. All rendering relies on Directx 11 which, in turn, supports a CPU backend (and DX9/10 modes for legacy hardware)... so your statements are pretty invalid seeing as how the most popular Desktop OS on the market is doing the same thing as Gnome & Unity. It makes a whole lot of sense (from a developers perspective) to remove these "fallback" code paths... LLVM OpenGL backend mean cleaner code, less bugs, and faster DE development.

Nope. Any DX9 capable card with a WDDM capable driver can run Win8. Same requirements as Vista/7 (makes sense; same base kernel version (NT 6.1)).