GNOME 3 is out: will Ubuntu reconsider?
- 07 April, 2011 10:34
- Comments 8
The GNOME 3 Shell places more emphasis on window and activity management
The open source GNOME project has released the next generation of its desktop environment, GNOME 3, with new features and a redesigned interface, but will its flagship Linux distribution, Ubuntu, choose it above its own Unity?
GNOME’s developers say the new desktop interface “takes elegance to a new level” with less clutter making it the “most beautiful GNOME desktop ever”.
It has a new theme, font and “carefully crafted” animations.
GNOME 3 introduces “GNOME Shell”, a new window display and activities management interface that uses the Mutter compositing window manager.
The activities overview is accessible using the top-left hot corner or Windows key and provides a single place to access windows, applications and messages.
GNOME Shell has been criticised for requiring compositing and that it ends a long-standing tradition of GNOME being able to use multiple window managers, but the developers say this is made up for with better usability.
The Dash show which applications are running and the workspace switcher can be used to group windows and the familiar “minimise” button has been removed from window titles as the developers say it’s now irrelevant.
GNOME 3 integrates messaging into the desktop where messages can be directly responded to from notifications so a conversation does not require repeated window switching.
GNOME 3’s application layout looks a lot like KDE’s Plasma Netbook interface than a traditional cascading menu.
Many of the new GNOME 3 features and concepts were also introduced with KDE 4, which received criticism for being too radical a change from its previous version, but so far the GNOME 3 reception has been positive.
The Ubuntu split
Ubuntu’s adoption of GNOME as the default desktop since the distribution started was suddenly overturned late last year when Canonical decided to ship its own Unity interface (based on the Netbook edition) as the desktop of choice.
The next release of Ubuntu due this month will have Unity as the default, but will also ship GNOME via a “Classic” login option.
The separation of Unity and GNOME is part of a long-running split between Canonical and the wider GNOME community, which it criticises for not accepting its software development into the mainstream project.
However, with this level of innovation happening in the GNOME community, Ubuntu may be forced to reconsider its decision or risk another fork of the Ubuntu distribution based on the “vanilla” GNOME.
A lot will depend on the success of Unity as the default Ubuntu desktop and how much Canonical is prepared to invest in its ongoing development.
The GNOME project is online at: www.gnome.org.
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Comments
Chris
The programming group I belong to has started work on a GNOME 3 based Ubuntu remix. https://launchpad.net/ubuntugnome/
Rodney Gedda
Thanks for the link Chris, nice work.
Please send me an e-mail so I can keep in touch with you and the new project.
Rodney
r00t4rd3d
I guess the people at Gnome and Ubuntu thought the whole world would be using a touch screen tablet by now. I dont like Gnome 3 or Unity.
asmoore82
Neither are totally touch tablet(TTT) ready. But even if and when you achieve TTT, you still have to fight fiercely to be fat finger friendly(FFF). For what it's worth, Gnome 3 feels closer to that goal. Unfortunately, that's just one more case where Gnome 3's goals and my goals don't align :/. So far, Unity is shockingly *less* flexible than Gnome 2, but shockingly *more* flexible than Gnome 3.
I applaud the removal of the minimize button, though. It's still just useless cruft in Mac OS and Unity. "Show Desktop" is usually the user's goal, multiple tiny minimize buttons scattered across all of your open windows is a piss-poor tool to achieve that goal.
Janneman27
Whats wrong with having a Gubuntu with the GNOME 3 desktop to supplement Kubuntu with KDE 4 and Xubuntu with Xfce?
Then they could have their Unity desktop, obviously calling the distro just plain Ubuntu.
LinuxCanuck
You can already install GNOME 3 as an alternative to Unity. You just can't have both Unity and GNOME 3 at the same time.
It isn't a question of one over the other, IMO. Unity and GNOME 3 are both good, but I think that many users will take a pass on both. Users do not like to be told by developers that they are going to have to change the way they work and that is the problem with both Unity and GNOME Shell.
Previously, it has always been a case of operating systems trying to duplicate the way people work naturally. Now developers are now shifting the paradigm and forcing users to adapt to a new way of working. Both are doomed to fail for that reason.
I think that the big beneficiaries will be KDE and XFCE. In time GNOME 3 and Unity may find an audience, but to expect the current user base to accept it is crazy. Any new users coming from Windows are bound to reject any Linux that uses GNOME 3 or Unity out of hand which is the big shame in all of this. My prediction is: Unity and GNOME Shell will be the biggest turn-offs and road blocks to mass acceptance ever.
Michael Quinn JR
I am already able to successfully integrate gnome-shell into Ubuntu 11. I started out with the Ubuntu Server. and laid out the platform from there. From the command line I changed the root password (sudo passwd root). I then used the following commands to build my desktop; sudo apt-get install gnome-core gdm software-center network-manager-gnome. After logging into the desktop, I did the major updates and rebooted. After logging back into the machine I used terminal and added the ppa gnome 3 repository (sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3). The only program I installed was gnome-shell (sudo apt-get install gnome-shell), and afterwards eliminated the repository from the source list via software sources. Then I went online and found a script to add the gnome-shell menu into the gdm startup screen and I have been good to go from there, no crashes, and no breaks.
jayh
Switching back to WIndows until this Gnome3/Unity disaster passes by.
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