[GNOME 3] First Impressions?

stILLlearning · 2011-04-12 01:40:19

killajoe wrote:

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7976/gnome3.th.png
http://img219.imageshack.us/i/gnome3.png/
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/7356/gnoe3desk.th.png
http://img696.imageshack.us/i/gnoe3desk.png/
If you install gnome-shell-extensions you goet a dock in both shell modes.
I DO REALY LIKE GNOME3!
Changing colour and Themes must be easier.... gnome-tweak-tool must be extended!

error: target not found: gnome-shell-extensions

Beelzebud · 2011-04-12 02:07:30

I haven't used Pulse Audio since I was using Ubuntu, and it breaking my audio stack was one of the reasons I got fed up and started trying other distros out. I loved Arch because having Pulse on it was a choice, and I chose to only go with ALSA. Has Pulse gotten better over time, or will it still cause lots of weirdness with sound? I'm more concerned with putting Pulse on my system than the actual Gnome 3 upgrade.

Sloshy · 2011-04-12 02:30:57

Beelzebud wrote:

I haven't used Pulse Audio since I was using Ubuntu, and it breaking my audio stack was one of the reasons I got fed up and started trying other distros out. I loved Arch because having Pulse on it was a choice, and I chose to only go with ALSA. Has Pulse gotten better over time, or will it still cause lots of weirdness with sound? I'm more concerned with putting Pulse on my system than the actual Gnome 3 upgrade.

I used to hate Pulse as well, but that was only because Ubuntu did a crappy job setting it up. The default Pulse configuration on Arch is great and I've had absolutely no problems with it. Check the install guide for Pulse on the Wiki and you should be fine !

dinkydarko wrote:

3. The i dont understand the thinking of telling you the app name in focus beside Activities. Seems pointless and ugly.

Accessibility purposes. Some windows don't make it clear what application they belong to, and it also shows the app icon as the window itself doesn't show it. It's going to become an "application menu" type button, but for application-as-a-whole functions, like Preferences (though the idea might be dropped, it's hanging in the air right now).

kyla · 2011-04-12 04:54:39

I've been using it since ~one week I think? Anyway...

Pros:
-I actually really like the whole 'mouse up to the upper left corner and bring up the dashboard' thing. I have a ten-inch netbook, and while it's nice here I imagine it would be great on anything smaller. In addition, I give the Gnome crew props for being willing to try anything stylistically innovative.
-I feel that they achieved what they wanted theme-wise, Adwaita looks nice, acceptably proffessional, and is not cornflower blue
-I like the integrated chat with empathy
-it's been running quite lightly, maybe not as light as say, lxde, but on par with xfce4

Cons:
-feels really unfinished, for example, evolution is too big to fit on my screen. there is no way to resize it.
-this was additionally annoying because I liked being able to see my events in the top calendar thingy, but it refuses to accept thunderbird/lightning as a calendar app (although it will accept gedit?)
-lack of customization. I've tweaked some of the css, mainly to make the titlebar on windows smaller. While I'm a fan of being able to tweak everything, that was the only thing that was really bothering me about the default theme; on a small computer those frames were large enough to use up noticable screen real estate
-i miss customizable panels
-documentation for some things doesn't seem to be up to date for 3 yet
-if you're neurotic like I am, having some gtk3 apps and some gtk2 will bother you

dinkydarko · 2011-04-12 08:59:21

dinkydarko wrote:
3. The i dont understand the thinking of telling you the app name in focus beside Activities. Seems pointless and ugly.
Accessibility purposes. Some windows don't make it clear what application they belong to, and it also shows the app icon as the window itself doesn't show it. It's going to become an "application menu" type button, but for application-as-a-whole functions, like Preferences (though the idea might be dropped, it's hanging in the air right now).

Ah, well thanks for clearing that up. I look forward to seeing how its developed.

Another thing I forgot to ask, where has the Up folder/Parent button gone in nautilus? also are we going to see more of the style of nautilus elementary come through?

Grenshad · 2011-04-12 11:24:40

Trying the Gnome3 LiveCD (too lazy to install it on my Arch for now). Seems mouse wheel not working any more to scroll between tabs in epiphany and nautilus. Maybe it's only GTK3 related (work in progress I wish).

Tell me if you've got this power, I heavily use the mouse wheel to navigate between folders, applications, workspaces, webpages and all tasks where tabs are used in many GTK applications.

IT'S a Gnome Killer Feature for me, all the power under the mighty wheel finger , please tell me it will come back /o/ pleaase

I miss also the zoom in Nautilus toolbar. But customization will surely come later.

About Gnome 3 itself, it smell nice and smooth to use. I'm very curious about future features and congratulate Gnome team for the smart interface they make. Also some smalls but well minded little things, like you can now grab a window not only throught titlebar. I guess I have lot more to discover but I like it

Kirurgs · 2011-04-12 19:58:25

And for the rather objective opinion http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gnome-3.html

I almost agree with him, except that Sudan / survival thing be better left out

peak_performance · 2011-04-12 20:30:47

I've been using it for a few days now and I really like Gnome 3 so far. Adjusting to Gnome Shell was pretty easy and at this point I navigate between workspaces and applications in a breeze. I've been working heavily in Matlab and Mathematica, reading pdf's and editing stuff in VIM and just dynamically creating workspaces when needed feels great. No clicking on icons in task bars for me, just ctrl-alt-up/downing a few steps to where my stuff is located.

Granted, working like this has been possible before Gnome Shell but I never got used to it for some reason and kinda got forced to learn it now. Even so, workspace management is totally awesome.

But while GS is great and feels like a great step forward in computer use for me, lots of features are missing in this version which is kind of a disappointment. I guess a lot of it will be implemented in upcoming versions, but mayor releases really shouldn't lose this much IMO. In that sense, 3.0 feels more like a beta, a test or an experiment than the next full version of a DE. As mentioned there's barely any customization right now, even with Tweak Tool which shouldn't even be necessary. No session management is also a huge deal, I have a basic setup of three workspaces right now for my browser, spotify and email client and have to recreate on every login which is a hassle.

If the developers add more options for users in how to set up the Shell as well as all other bits of customization you'd expect, I think this will be great. I'm really looking forward to 3.2 right now.

Edit: I guess I'll add that I'm worried about how intuitive the interface is. I don't see my sister or even my half-techy brother sit in front of my computer and start moving windows between workspaces to work efficiently. I think that's a real issue of presentation.

Last edited by peak_performance (2011-04-12 20:34:51)

AurosGamma · 2011-04-13 00:11:07

Better than i thought, really... anyway there are some cons:

1- Gnome tweak tool isn't too good, it needs to be extended
2- More customizability, like mouse cursor(i don't know how to change the dafault X11 mouse cursor), simple panel themes or something like that,etc

Pros:

1- I love the compositing, i really love the shadows, best "shadow" effect below the the window that i've seen
2- I like the style of gnome-panel,menu & windows
3- Really good nouveau support, makes me feel that i don't need nvidia binary drivers anymore
4- Lightweight, it practically consumes the same amount of RAM that my installed standalone openbox, and i have really good compositing and nice effects

I'll continue using Gnome 3, is nearly stable and i liked it

fini_fly · 2011-04-13 13:10:47

I am also coming from a KDE 4.6 perspective. In fact, I have was a KDE 3.5er before that and I am actually blown away by the new Gnome 3. So much so that it is now my DE by default and will probably be that way for the foreseeable future. Here are my thoughts:

PROS:
- Clean, consistent interface helps reduce clutter and distractions
- New messaging system is much better than KDE 4's notifications

CONS:
- Switching windows is a pain, especially if you are moving between several windows/programs at once. Perhaps some type of window menu could be added
- Nvidia support is terrible, but I'm sure this will get fixed over time, so not a deal breaker

INDIFFERENCE:
- Lack of customization. KDE 4.0 was missing lots of customization options and they came back. For me, this isn't a big deal as it will eventually trickle down.

But overall, I am very, very impressed at what they have accomplished. While KDE 4 simply polished the current desktop experience, I really feel that GNOME 3 has moved beyond the norm and created something truly unique, with a fantastic base to build upon. And for me, this is a big deal due to my previous allegiance to KDE.

Congrats and kudos to all those who worked hard on bringing this to fruition.

Fingel · 2011-04-14 21:23:06

I switched to Gnome 3 last week. At first I was like wtf... but I have to say its grown on my considerably!
PROS:
- The ability to do pretty much everything using just the keyboard. This is why I think many of what I consider "stereotypical arch users" will enjoy Gnome 3. I love the winkey + typing to narrow down available applications, then hitting enter to launch it. This is way faster than any way you could do it with gnome2, alt +f2 or any other DE that I have found. Fantastic.
- Development: Themes are created using CSS. Extensions can coded in Javascript... I nearly wet myself when I heard this, as these are two technologies I am already familiar with. I will definitely be making some themes and extensions in the near future!
- Screen real estate has gotten a huge boost, and will get even more once more themes start to roll out.
- Notifications: perfect.

CONS:
- You have to like alt+tab because its the only efficient way I have found to switch windows. There is an extension that allows you to use the arrow keys to navigate between windows in the activities view (why wasnt this enabled by default?) so theres that too.
- Lots of config lost. It'll probably come back though.

All in all I have to say I am very happy with Gnome 3, it is a step in the right direction. Also, gtk3 seems awesome and beautiful so far.

ozar · 2011-04-15 00:29:38

Surprisingly enough, I'm kind of liking Gnome Shell, even though I had initially thought that I'd totally hate it.

gabriel9 · 2011-04-15 11:16:56

I don't know what to say about it.
First of all it is working very well. I have just one crash.
The new minimalistic look and feel is nice.
It is fast, and really responsive.
There is really long road to convert all apps to gtk4 and to be complete. But if they make good api, and easy transition it will live. I did not check API and new stuff, if someone else tried it post something about it.
The configuration is really painful. I still did not change mouse theme, if someone know how to do it please respond.

But i like it, it is really brave move from GNOME guys and congratulations to them.

joe of loath · 2011-04-15 12:25:35

Anyone found out how to reduce the size of the window title bars yet? In FF4 the title bar takes up the same amount of space as FF4's tab bar and navigation bar put together. IMHO it should be less than the height of one of those.

EDIT: found a way to do it!

It's slick though, really slick. I'm surprised how quickly I'm getting used to it.

Last edited by joe of loath (2011-04-15 12:34:22)

alphazo · 2011-04-15 13:11:38

EDIT: found a way to do it!

So how did you do it?

dinkydarko · 2011-04-15 13:13:02

something that i agree with that i see a lot of people saying here, is that they are coming round to it.
I have to agree, once i got the config a bit more like i wanted it, i'm really enjoying it. I think the gnome team have taken time to think how users interact with the UI and taken some bold decisions, and its paying off. Some might not like it for the first day or so, but from what i'm reading it just takes getting past the initial 'OMG CHANGE!' faze and your good.
Well done gnome!

(Now improve the config/customization options!)

disastrophe · 2011-04-17 12:46:00

funny thing, i installed it as soon as it hit testing and the install was painless enough. The video performance seemed pretty decent, even on my intel g33 express.
bear in mind this is just me, but once the novelty of the new interface wore off, the interface and all the extra mouse reaches and clicks became increasingly annoying - on a desktop it didn't seem particularly ergonomic to me either - i think it makes a bit more sense on a netbook or something, not so much with a big wide screen. anyway, after a week i was done with it. i don't think i want to use my computer the way the gnome devs envision but then i'm a kde man anyway so the point is moot, but i definitely won't be switching lol.

madek · 2011-04-17 13:47:07

impressions after a week of use
good, but poorly configurable
the intgration of notifications and empathy is good

Russss · 2011-04-17 17:49:51

AurosGamma wrote:

2- More customizability, like mouse cursor(i don't know how to change the dafault X11 mouse cursor), simple panel themes or something like that,etc

You can change the icons by extracting the icon theme to:

 /usr/share/icons

Then you can open the configuration editor and navigate to:

 desktop>gnome>peripherals>mouse

you can then edit "cursor_theme" to a string value the name of the cursor theme.

so if you extracted the cursors to /usr/share/icons/Tronnix then you would change the string value to: Tronnix

AurosGamma · 2011-04-17 18:11:43

@Russss Thanks! I tried to use the configuration editor, but im not familiarized with it.
Greetings

Last edited by AurosGamma (2011-04-17 18:12:45)

dakt · 2011-04-17 21:00:31

I adore Gnome3...I really do, but...I can't use it since every damn time I press "c" key, window manager throws a dialog via zenity and after I press OK, zenity process goes zombie! Damn, damn, damn....
Also, NetbeansIDE drop-menus don't work...they show up, but after I release the button they dissapear.

Pros:
-it's fast
-different
-responsive
-elegant
-simple but very smart designed

Cons:
none really...I have never enjoyed the desktop expirience like I did with Gnome3. That mouse-upper left corner thing is awsome. One can start the application faster then ever before. And it's all very fluid and simple. I infact love that you cannot put icons on the desktop since I usually fill it with crap and that makes me nervous .

bones · 2011-04-18 06:01:15

dakt wrote:

Also, NetbeansIDE drop-menus don't work...they show up, but after I release the button they dissapear.

I have that problem also but with other apps. My guess is it has something to do with java. I found that if I keep the app at the size it opens at, everything works ok but if it's maximized then I have problems

dakt · 2011-04-18 06:39:34

bones wrote:

dakt wrote:
Also, NetbeansIDE drop-menus don't work...they show up, but after I release the button they dissapear.
I have that problem also but with other apps. My guess is it has something to do with java. I found that if I keep the app at the size it opens at, everything works ok but if it's maximized then I have problems

Yes, it's not part of the window manager so java can do what it wants. Thanks for the tip it works for me too. Hope it'll be fixed soon.

cenobyte · 2011-04-18 23:33:22

I think Gnome3 is very stylish and innovative.

I have been trying it now for about a day but i am not sure if it is for me.

I am sure in time Gnome 3 will become a lot more customizable but at the moment it is not plus there is no easy way to install themes at the moment i wanna make the switch but i have always been a fan of Openbox it will take a lot more Polish and features before i drop Openbox anytime soon.

caseyjp1 · 2011-04-19 10:41:14

I've been playing with Unity and Gnome-shell for a bit now, and at this point out of the two I'm really preferring the Unity shell. Gnome still feels like a clickfest for a lot of stuff, and strictly from a compiz dude's perspective, the mutter stuff feels like yesterday's outdated cruft, whereas Unity fully utilizes compiz. Both have nifty advantages, but both also cramp this user who wishes to customize more/easier.

(playing with ubuntu's unity and gnome-shell via test partitions.)

The biggest indicator of not too thrilled about either of them is that I keep coming back to my main arch partition with gnome/compiz after short testing /upgrading sessions.

At this point I'm seriously considering a move to xfce rather than either of the new kids, and that's saying something as I've been a gnome guy for a long time. KDE, while glossy, has never appealed to me, so that's still off the boards.

That all said, I really REALLY like Unity on my Samsung n150Plus netbook. If Arch had an non orphaned or up to date AUR package for unity I'd...hmmm.

Last edited by caseyjp1 (2011-04-19 10:45:31)

Arch Linux

#76 2011-04-12 01:40:19

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#77 2011-04-12 02:07:30

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#78 2011-04-12 02:30:57

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#79 2011-04-12 04:54:39

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#80 2011-04-12 08:59:21

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#81 2011-04-12 11:24:40

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#82 2011-04-12 19:58:25

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#83 2011-04-12 20:30:47

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#84 2011-04-13 00:11:07

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#85 2011-04-13 13:10:47

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#86 2011-04-14 21:23:06

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#87 2011-04-15 00:29:38

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#88 2011-04-15 11:16:56

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#89 2011-04-15 12:25:35

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#90 2011-04-15 13:11:38

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#91 2011-04-15 13:13:02

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#92 2011-04-17 12:46:00

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#93 2011-04-17 13:47:07

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#94 2011-04-17 17:49:51

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#95 2011-04-17 18:11:43

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#96 2011-04-17 21:00:31

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#97 2011-04-18 06:01:15

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#98 2011-04-18 06:39:34

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#99 2011-04-18 23:33:22

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

#100 2011-04-19 10:41:14

Re: [GNOME 3] First Impressions?

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