Joe Barr is happy to have a Ximian desktop again, and hopes he doesn’t have to go a long time without it in the future. Read his review of Ximian Desktop 2 at LinuxWorld. Expect an interview with Ximian officials this week, here at OSNews. Update: Two more reviews of Ximian Desktop 2, one from LinuxAndMain and one from eWeek. And an additional article about it by eWeek again.
A First Look at Ximian Desktop 2
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
He didn’t go into any detail about what Ximian have done differently to GNOME.
Anyway I like the theme in the first screenshot.
That’s the same thought I had when I finished reading the article. Will Eugenia do a review herself? Any feedback from Ximian users?
>Will Eugenia do a review herself?
I asked Ximian with a review copy 2-3 weeks ago and instead, they decided to offer me an interview instead of a review-copy.
t-shirt + software, that sounds more creative than M$
the look and feel of buttons is NT4 style
$99 for a couple of png themes
I’d rather buy a copy of redhat, at least the bluecurve
looks better
What’s the diff between Ximian Desktop and Gnome? They look pretty similar to me.
>What’s the diff between Ximian Desktop and Gnome?
Heh. This was my first question for the Ximian interview we will be soon publishing.
They mention a GUI to configure lots of stuff.
The author mentions that it includes OpenOffice.org…isn’t that a bit unwise? It should be an option, since it probably adds A LOT to the size. Besides, many people (me included) prefer AbiWord.
I believe I read some months ago that Ximian is putting a lot of effort into ther OpenOffice.org version. I am very curious about how it will be!
http://www.nat.org/dashboard/dashboard.png
http://www.nat.org/2003/march/graph.png
http://www.nat.org/2003/march/people.png
nothing special though.
Hope you enjoy it.
So, whats that dashboard and is it a part of the xd2 or can i get it somewhere?
Is Mono installed? Yes I know it isn’t at 1.0 yet. It would be nice if it was just to play. : )
Very cool indeed!
First thing he did was rearrange everything to make it look like stock GNOME, and he missed out the new OpenOffice.
That’s the worst review I’ve ever read.
I want to read (and see) about the _new_ stuff, not the old G2 stuff.
It’d be nice if the review included more screenshots of the default XD2 installation. In the first screenshot, it looks like Ximian created a brand new theme, but there’s no applications besides the GIMP toolbar panel for me to really see what it looks like. A screenshot of a Nautilus window under the default installation would be great. I’m not too interested in seeing the author’s personal customisations (re: subsequent screenshots).
I don’t see why I would use Ximian over the original GNOME
Are available on ximian.com, once it’s recovered from being Slashdotted.
A non slashdotted thread on gnomedesktop with screens:
http://gnomesupport.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3092
Direct link to Ximian Desktop 2 features overview:
http://ximian.com/products/desktop/features.html
You just have to be patient while it loads.
About the dashboard, Luis wrote on gnomedesktop.org that it won’t be in.
Atm it seems to be just some cool stuff done by Nat for himself but might get released later if it’s good enough. I’m very excited.
The review by Joe Barr was indeed not very informational, in fact it told _nothing_ about what XD2 is about.
Too bad.
No indeed he did not. I’ve just read over the feature set and have to say I’m mighty impressed. The new OpenOffice version looks well slick. Everything looks really polished. And they have what I’ve been wanting for ages now!
Full GUI Samba config!!!
Now finally I can easily move over to using Linux full time
now that looks awesome, I’m looking forward to playing with that – hopefully Gentoo will be able to grab the sources so I can play with it.
If anyone from Ximian is reading this please let Eugenia review Ximian. She does a great job and is the real authority when it comes to OS based reviews. We love her reviews.
Thanks!
And this was the worst part:
Another small detail that I have noticed and appreciated in the new Ximian desktop is that when I click on a mailto: link in Galeon, I now get a compose message window addressed to the object of the mailto:. /me dumb-struck.
…is all I can say. I’m looking forward to trying it out.
like cups and stuff?
if so Ximian would be a nice way to install the the end user apps needed, so you could just do a super minimalist install(CLI system only) and then do the ximian download/install and poof!!! you have a fully functioning end user system with no more and no less than what the user needs.
the one thing I hate though is that Gnome insists on doing mac style/Windows style together!!! talk about dumb!!! go with one and stick with it or offer a “one or the other” option…not both!!!
Hmm .. looks like Ximian will be way behind other desktops when it finally makes it. That’s kinda funny, because ximian was actually ahead of the stock gnome and kde when it debutted. I guess that’s what happens when you take to long to roll out a product.
Yes it does. It even tradtionally installs things like Gtk and such. At least when it’s missing.
the one thing I hate though is that Gnome insists on doing mac style/Windows style together!!! talk about dumb!!! go with one and stick with it or offer a “one or the other” option…not both!!!
Huh? It is neither Windows nor Mac style, it’s Ximian style since the first Ximian Desktop. It also became the default for GNOME 2.x by recommendation of the usability guys.
This layout works really well, the only thing I don’t like about it is, that launchers placed on the panel are so small. The good side is that it doesn’t take away much screen estate while beeing less cramped than the Windows taskbar or the oldstyle GNOME/KDE panels. It also makes perfect use of all four screen corners (which are special because you can slam your mouse into their general direction and you will hit).
And while I’m not a fan of tasklists, it’s what we have right now and what most users expect.
Besides, I’m pretty sure that there will be some kind of first-start wizard again which will allow you to choose layouts more similar to Windows, CDE or maybe Mac OS.
Ximian’s job is to add polish and additional value to the desktop, not ship first with the most bleeding edge features. Don’t forget that their primary market is the enterprise, where reliability comes first.
IIRC, RedHat Advanced Workstation (targeted at the same market) is still based on GNOME 1.4.
I actually think it looks great – its got that ‘corporate’ feel to it that Windows should have with XP Professional (and no, not the Classic look).
The styling and colour scheme is subtle and out-of-the-way, unlike the nasty interfaces like G/Keramik etc that haunt today’s distros. Bluecurve was a nice attempt by RedHat to make the desktop ‘nice’…but unfortunately after a while the top edges of each open window start to get to you. I like simplicity, hence I like the looks of XD2.
So, as far as being dated, granted it isnt bleeding edge, but as far as looks go, I think its spot on in terms of productivity.
screenshot mirror of ximian.com
http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~lindkvis/xd2/screenshots/
I like task lists actualy….takes up less room.
what I was talking about before is that Ximian has a task bar at the bottom and a task list at the top…..it is redundant and takes away from the interface…..personaly I think they should try to emulate the classic mac interface but take it beyond where apple left it. unpersonaly, Ximian and gnome needs to decide on one way of getting things done and do it. having 10 ways to get one thing done is bad design.
They are only somewhat redundant. The tasklist consists of all running apps and the taskbar consists of the current workspace apps.
so basicly the task;ist is usless becasue you can not use it to move between workspaces….oh what a great feature!!!!
they still need to get rid of one….either get rid of the tasklist or get rid of the taskbar and make the task list able to move between workspaces.
the tasklist can switch between workspaces, the taskbar doesn’t. I actually find it beneficial. When I’m in a workspace I am able to quickly determine which programs are there and running. If I want to quickly switch to a specific program in another workspace I use the tasklist. If I want to check the status/progress of a program or a group of programs I use the workspace switcher. I find that they work together really well and are very useful.
You both get the terms wrong.
Hard to follow you.
I use neither usually and that’s why I said I don’t like the tasklist (it’s actually called “window list” in GNOME 2.x, sorry for that). It’s simply overkill for me because I never run windows maximized so using Metacity to manage my windows is enough, I don’t need a list of open windows to access them.
In the rare case I “lose” a window, I can use the thing in the upper right corner (which is called “window menu” IIRC in GNOME 2.4 but certainly not taskbar or tasklist
).
The only reason I don’t just get rid of my window list is, that it’s the only way to get minimized windows back but for this task it’s clearly too primitive. I would much prefer my minimized windows to become actually minimized and placed somewhere else on the screen so I can easily see which windows I have minimized and can quickly restore them.
Or I’ll just wait for Metacity to support a roll-up button and then replace my minimize button with a roll-up button, then kill my window list.
Roll-up is not as fancy as minimizing windows with a preview, but it works quite well.
in a workspace and the window list shows the workspaces running?
hmm…ok perhaps that could be a good thing if what I think your saying it that you select a running workspace from the window list then all the open pannels in that workspace appear in the task bar…yes?
So if you use XD2 on RH9 do lose all of RH’s sweet new config tools, like their samba config and their Apache config? I really like RH’s new tools.
No, the thing that switches workspaces is the “workspace switcher” which is a separate applet.
To summarize:
Window List: This applet shows all open windows of the current workspace (can be configured to show windows of all workspaces) in a large row of buttons. This helps you to keep an overview of running windows and quickly switch between them, especially if you are running windows maximized so moving them around doesn’t work.
Window Menu: The thing in the upper right on the menu panel. If you click it, you get a list with all windows from all workspaces (sorted). This is very convenient to find and select a window and it doesn’t take away much space. It is not a real replacement for the window list though, because you have to click it before you can see an overview of your windows.
Workspace Switcher: This applet shows a preview of each workspace and lets you switch between them (or move windows around them).
Your comlpaint seems to be that the Window List and Window Menu largely duplicate functionality. This is true in a way but OTOH, it really takes almost no space away and makes good use of the top right corner which is easy to click (what else could be important to click there? The clock?).
Getting completely rid of the Window List and just using the Window Menu _is_ an option, but you can’t make this the default because people coming from Windows would be completely lost and people on lower resolutions (especially notebooks) just can’t work without a visible list of open windows because they have to run their windows maximized or almost maximized.
I don’t see anything wrong with it because it does not take more screen space away than the KDE layout (which was also the old GNOME layout) but clearly separates between the different elements instead of packing them all together and the corners are used nicely.
The only disadvantage is, that you can’t use large icons or applets.
I hope this cleared some misconceptions.
The screenshots of OpenOffice – is that what it’s going to look like from now on, or only in XD2 ??
Well hopefully changes will be folded back into OpenOffice. I think thats the plan. Much the same as Ximian Desktop got folded into Gnome 2.
since United Linux is based on Suse, will XD2 be able to run on it?
IS XD 2 usign GNOME 2, if so tahn ARGGGGGHHHHH!!! If its using GNOME 2.2.1 or above than YAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!.
Anyway, which one is it?
yes, Ximian is using GNOME 2.2 not 2.0, thank god, too bar they won’t ship with Evolution 2.
“too bar they won’t ship with Evolution 2”
There is no such thing as Evolution 2. Evolution 1.4, which is the Gnome2 version of Evolution, will be released at the same time as XD2. The RC1 of Evo 1.4 was just released the other day, and let me tell you, it is sweet. It look gorgeous and it is MUCH faster than Evo 1.2.
is you can remove the windows list and pretty much organise the desktop the way you want it. I wonder why people complain. Ximian have to ship it looking in a certain way and there are always going to be people who do not like it like that.
Metacity does roll up windows too. You can right click on the title bar and roll up. Double clicking the tatle bar also rolls it up too by default.
Its a shame evolution 2 won’t ship with XD 2, E2 will probably ship in about 2 years though
.
…version its apps like GNOME. Evolution 1.4 is what you are probably expecting to be Evolution 2. E1.4 is very good. Its is based on GTK2 and is very much in place on GNOME 2 Desktop.
Evolution 1.4 is out very soon and is part of XD2.
Anyone else notice this:
http://support.ximian.com/cgi-bin/ximian.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.ph…
Looks like Mandrake has been left out in the cold, for now at least.
I just read the Joe Barr article. Ximian sounds awesome! It has a menu from which you can launch a terminal emulator, and you can control the size and position of an edge-panel. Cool! And with that classy “My Computer” icon, it’s a winner.
Seriously, much of the article reads like a begginer’s guide to Gnome2. And the “My Computer” icon is a sin.
“Seriously, much of the article reads like a begginer’s guide to Gnome2. And the “My Computer” icon is a sin.”
Naturally, got to let the masses have their security blanket.
If they can’t even support the 3 top distributions, screw them!
I thought supporting redhat,SUse and mandrake were the bare minimum of support.
Ximian Desktop is targetted at corporates. Mandrake is *not* targetted at the corporate market, but RedHat and Suse very much are. Hence Ximian will only support those OS’s initially…who knows how that will change in the future after early adopters provide feedback to Ximian.
Ximian was not making a desktop for everyone. Ximian provides services which they tie in to the desktop they make. Home users DO benefit by having a professional quality desktop to use.
Porting to Mandrake is probably very trivial. Mandrake will also probably slashdot their poor servers as will Debian if they support them, and they will not be paying. If Ximian gets enugh demand, it might be worth their while to support them. Redhat is the top distro it terms of the corporate world. SuSE the top in Europe. That was a business decision, nothing against Mandrake. Also, although it may seem to be unfair, it helps them to only support a few distros. Too many distros == too many issues. Plus Mandrake is KDE centric anyway.
Besides, the source is with us. You want it, just compile it. Ximian is nt just providing rpm’s here. It is a proper installer and much work is being done here. If someone wants to fork it, they can do so.
Actuually Mandrake claim there product is targeted at the corporate market. They have said so in numerous interviews. They just never seem to behave that way.
Home users DO benefit by having a professional quality desktop to use
Amen. By the looks of the screenshots, it is certainly everything an interface should be i.e. bloat free, simplistic, sensible colour scheme etc.
Ximian are taking the linux user experience to another level with XD2.
Actuually Mandrake claim there product is targeted at the corporate market [..] They just never seem to behave that way
I agree, although with their latest version they took a step in the right direction IMHO. It is unfortunate that a distro so often handed to ‘n00bs’ will not have the immediate availability of XD2 as I feel it would turn an ugly KDE default into a true contendor to WinXP for a windows migrant.
I would like to see the modificiations to Gnome and OOo folded back into the main products ASAP, and hence allowing further improvements. One of my main annpoyances is OOo is great in terms of an office suite, but in the looks department it is truly horrible and bland. The truth is it sticks out like a sore thumb on any of the OS’s it runs on. I see the scrollbars are still handled by OO0 rather than the OS.