Having a quick read through the platform and desktop changes, there are a lot of “performance” related changes – stopping using more than one gconf client, only loading a set of SVGs once etc. This is all good work for the speed and memory consumption of the Gnome Desktop. Keep it up devs
Yes, it’s quite amazing how quickly some of these small distros, like Arch and Frugalware, can package the latest software. Don’t these guys ever sleep? 😀
I don’t consider a wm useful until it has #2 . And it can’t be said to conflict with HIG, it’s something you only notice if you know about it.
Are the buttons reorderable yet? I haven’t checked that for quite a while.
I’m sure others could list complaints. I’ve never met anyone who loves metacity and doesn’t mean they love metacity themes.
Seriously though, that’s my last stumbling block on using Gnome. I’ve always had glitches when trying to pop-in xfwm4, so I think I’ll wait until metacity works well. And I imagine if I use gnome with xfwm4 on a dual head I’ll lose some of the things I like about Gnome (taskbar that works correctly with multiple monitors).
3. You can change button order in gconf, it’s not very elegant but if you want it so much it’s few clicks away. It’s been there for as long as I can remember (1-2 years?).
Button reordering and vertical / horiz maximise can both be setup in gconf-edit.
Sadly, I’ve only found a key binding setting for maximise vert/horiz though, not how to set the maximise button ‘clicking’ action. (it’s under the window_keybindings section)
1). I don’t understand this one. But you can use the scroll wheel to change/focus windows when the mouse pointer is over the taskbar, or to change/focus virtual desktops when the pointer is over the workspace widget on the taskbar. And I think it has been this way since 2.10?
2). Hasn’t this been in metacity since its inception? Go to Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcut Keys to setup the Vertical/Horizontal maximizations.
3). Again, hasn’t this always been in metacity. You can use the GConf editor to configure this.
Yes, Metacity can do max vert. and horiz, but only with the keyboard and not by using the middle and right mouse-buttons like almost every other WM does.
But whats much worse then all the good features it lacks and the annoyances it adds like the stupid minimize-animation is the horrible horrible speed.
Most people probably dont even notice it and conclude that gnome or X are slow but its just sucky Metacity.
Try xfwm4 (from xfce4) or any other WM and you will see that switching between Windows goes noticable faster.
>Yes, Metacity can do max vert. and horiz, but only
>with the keyboard and not by using the middle and
>right mouse-buttons like almost every other WM does.
But the middle and right mouse-buttons are already mapped to standard X/GTK+ functions. Middle to paste and right for activating context menus. Middle clicking on the window decoration will also switch windows, but middle clicking is widely used for paste operations on Unix.
>But whats much worse then all the good features it
>lacks and the annoyances it adds like the stupid
>minimize-animation is the horrible horrible speed.
>Most people probably dont even notice it and
>conclude that gnome or X are slow but its just
>sucky Metacity.
If the animation bothers you, why don’t you turn it off?
You should try GNU/Linux with GNUstep and then you’ll see how to do these things right.
Much much faster redrawing than anything I’ve ever experienced with any system yet (it even beats OS/2 (eComStation) and Syllable and SkyOS). It does however proof that X.org and GTK+2 isn’t the reason for slowness in Gnome.
To turn off animation:
In gconf-editor:
Go to /apps/metacity/general/ and enable “reduced_resources”. It takes effect immediately. It turns off animations, gives you a wireframe when moving and/or resizing windows.
It shouldn’t be necessary for good performance, but it is. You could also switch to another WM and gain extra performance without trading off functionality.
If the system needs to use my GeForce 6200 just to draw ordinary windows then there is something terribly wrong with the system. Try it with GNUstep or OS’es like OS/2 (eComStation), Syllable, or Haiku, and you’ll realize that utilizing 3D-cards to draw 2D-windows is a sure sign of poor software.
The funny thing is that Gnome apps run much snappier with GNUstep than with Gnome. Try opening a couple of windows, and drag them around… the feeling is wonderful in GNUstep, but in Gnome you’ll see the windows beneath aren’t updated until you stop moving the window above them.
You can run GNOME just fine on a system with much less than a GeForce 6200.
If you want compositing though you need EXA, Xgl or Xair support, and that limits the number of video cards at the moment.
Your comparison with GNUstep is pretty much useless, because GNOME 2.x has a lot more features than GNUstep, like much better i18n and a11y support. If you want to compare GNOME with GNUstep try the old 1.4 release, or install an application still using GTK+ 1.2. Don’t get me wrong, GNUstep is very nice; it’s just not comparable with the GNOME 2.14 platform.
Pull up gconf and look for the metacity section. Select general, then reduced_resources and deselect the option. Now windows will not get a minimize animation. Windows will also only drag with an outline. Nicely increases GUI performance.
Well, you can run all KDE apps under GNOME and vice versa, so I guess your point is kinda moot. What I believe the OP was trying to say was that Eclipse and GIMP make use of GTK and thus look more native and integrate better with GNOME than they do with KDE.
You’re right on eclipse, but gimp actually is the gnu image manipulation program, and gnome is GNU Object Model Environment. So you could consider them both being part of the same project.
That is absolutely NOT true. GNOME is still the official GNU desktop and it’s part of the GNU project; it’s also more commited than ever to produce a FREE desktop.
Eclipse is a Java program that makes use of SWT (which is a wrapper around GTK+ on Linux). It has been compiled natively using GCJ and runs just like any other GTK app.
We dont care. why dont you go post to a relevant article regarding your preferences and leave topics that you have no interest in (besides trolling) alone.
Really, your account will not be suspended if you fail to post on every article that comes up.
Gotta say, I keep my Ubuntu Dapper install updated daily. The other day I had to switch the machine off (don’t do that very often!), and when it came back on and I logged in, Gnome was running in <3s. I was shocked! I’ve been used to waiting 15-20s for Gnome and it’s panels to be loaded. They’ve destroyed login time. Epiphany started in <2s, compared to 5s+ before. It’s all so much faster and snappier.
Add to that everything is generally so consistent. Most things work really nicely and most of my needs are covered except for proper DVD support in GStreamer. Once that works, I’m installing Ubuntu for my parents.
GNOME 2.14.1 has been released, as the first maintenance release in the 2.12 series
Its actually the first maintenance release of the 2.14 series.
Heh thanks, for GNOME .x releases I have this standard template, but often I forget to edit it completely
.
Having a quick read through the platform and desktop changes, there are a lot of “performance” related changes – stopping using more than one gconf client, only loading a set of SVGs once etc. This is all good work for the speed and memory consumption of the Gnome Desktop. Keep it up devs
Since yesterday I’m getting all the 2.14.1 updates with a simple “pacman -Syu” all gnome 2.14.1 was available this morning in the current repository.
Yes, it’s quite amazing how quickly some of these small distros, like Arch and Frugalware, can package the latest software. Don’t these guys ever sleep? 😀
>Don’t these guys ever sleep?
Sleep is vastly overrated.
Same here, accept Fedora.
Thx god I have dumped most gnome libs last week
… 2.14.2 Its sure to put Linux on grandma’s desktop
I’m not sure about .1, but 2.14.0 was a bit snappier than I remember. Nice goin’ guys, don’t stop now!
Oh yea, and make metacity a _real_ wm, please
.
I wasn’t aware metacity was a fake window manager.
It’s fake alright, cant you tell, one has glass windows and the other has perspex. The authors were not available for comment.
I thought it was transparent aluminium…
Missing:
1.) Scroll wheel action.
2.) Vertical/Horiz Maximization
3.) Button reordering (is this done?)
I don’t consider a wm useful until it has #2
. And it can’t be said to conflict with HIG, it’s something you only notice if you know about it.
Are the buttons reorderable yet? I haven’t checked that for quite a while.
I’m sure others could list complaints. I’ve never met anyone who loves metacity and doesn’t mean they love metacity themes.
Seriously though, that’s my last stumbling block on using Gnome. I’ve always had glitches when trying to pop-in xfwm4, so I think I’ll wait until metacity works well. And I imagine if I use gnome with xfwm4 on a dual head I’ll lose some of the things I like about Gnome (taskbar that works correctly with multiple monitors).
3. You can change button order in gconf, it’s not very elegant but if you want it so much it’s few clicks away. It’s been there for as long as I can remember (1-2 years?).
Yes, Metacity sucks.
Button reordering and vertical / horiz maximise can both be setup in gconf-edit.
Sadly, I’ve only found a key binding setting for maximise vert/horiz though, not how to set the maximise button ‘clicking’ action. (it’s under the window_keybindings section)
1). I don’t understand this one. But you can use the scroll wheel to change/focus windows when the mouse pointer is over the taskbar, or to change/focus virtual desktops when the pointer is over the workspace widget on the taskbar. And I think it has been this way since 2.10?
2). Hasn’t this been in metacity since its inception? Go to Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcut Keys to setup the Vertical/Horizontal maximizations.
3). Again, hasn’t this always been in metacity. You can use the GConf editor to configure this.
Yes, Metacity can do max vert. and horiz, but only with the keyboard and not by using the middle and right mouse-buttons like almost every other WM does.
But whats much worse then all the good features it lacks and the annoyances it adds like the stupid minimize-animation is the horrible horrible speed.
Most people probably dont even notice it and conclude that gnome or X are slow but its just sucky Metacity.
Try xfwm4 (from xfce4) or any other WM and you will see that switching between Windows goes noticable faster.
>Yes, Metacity can do max vert. and horiz, but only
>with the keyboard and not by using the middle and
>right mouse-buttons like almost every other WM does.
But the middle and right mouse-buttons are already mapped to standard X/GTK+ functions. Middle to paste and right for activating context menus. Middle clicking on the window decoration will also switch windows, but middle clicking is widely used for paste operations on Unix.
>But whats much worse then all the good features it
>lacks and the annoyances it adds like the stupid
>minimize-animation is the horrible horrible speed.
>Most people probably dont even notice it and
>conclude that gnome or X are slow but its just
>sucky Metacity.
If the animation bothers you, why don’t you turn it off?
>Try xfwm4 (from xfce4) or any other WM and you
>will see that switching between Windows goes
>noticable faster.
How much faster? 0.0002 nano seconds?
You should try GNU/Linux with GNUstep and then you’ll see how to do these things right.
Much much faster redrawing than anything I’ve ever experienced with any system yet (it even beats OS/2 (eComStation) and Syllable and SkyOS). It does however proof that X.org and GTK+2 isn’t the reason for slowness in Gnome.
To turn off animation:
In gconf-editor:
Go to /apps/metacity/general/ and enable “reduced_resources”. It takes effect immediately. It turns off animations, gives you a wireframe when moving and/or resizing windows.
It shouldn’t be necessary for good performance, but it is. You could also switch to another WM and gain extra performance without trading off functionality.
Just run XGL, and anything will feel snappy.
Gnome is great, I still hate nautulus as a filemanager though. Konqueror does far better job!
If the system needs to use my GeForce 6200 just to draw ordinary windows then there is something terribly wrong with the system. Try it with GNUstep or OS’es like OS/2 (eComStation), Syllable, or Haiku, and you’ll realize that utilizing 3D-cards to draw 2D-windows is a sure sign of poor software.
The funny thing is that Gnome apps run much snappier with GNUstep than with Gnome. Try opening a couple of windows, and drag them around… the feeling is wonderful in GNUstep, but in Gnome you’ll see the windows beneath aren’t updated until you stop moving the window above them.
You can run GNOME just fine on a system with much less than a GeForce 6200.
If you want compositing though you need EXA, Xgl or Xair support, and that limits the number of video cards at the moment.
Your comparison with GNUstep is pretty much useless, because GNOME 2.x has a lot more features than GNUstep, like much better i18n and a11y support. If you want to compare GNOME with GNUstep try the old 1.4 release, or install an application still using GTK+ 1.2. Don’t get me wrong, GNUstep is very nice; it’s just not comparable with the GNOME 2.14 platform.
System > Preferences > Window
change to
Titlebar Action
Double-click titlebar to perform this action: [Roll up]
Pull up gconf and look for the metacity section. Select general, then reduced_resources and deselect the option. Now windows will not get a minimize animation. Windows will also only drag with an outline. Nicely increases GUI performance.
Are there any hacks for it?
========================================
NEWS: nautilus-2.14.1
========================================
Major changes in 2.14.1 are:
* Make files copied from read-only source writeable
Finally!!!
Yeah… that one is nice. It’s annoying having to change file properties everytime you copy from read-only devices.
good to see a new gnome release..
but i prefer kde…. more great program
more consistent gui…
it might have better programs, but it’s NOT more consistant by any stretch of the imagination
I run KDE at work and Gnome at home so I can check out the latest features of each.
No way is KDE more consistent!
Sure, more programmes (Kile, etc) but sometimes Gnome has software that KDE doesnt (Eclipse, Gimp, etc). It all depends on what you want to do.
They are both good desktops from my experience
YAY for the FOSS desktop!
>Sure, more programmes (Kile, etc) but sometimes Gnome has software that KDE doesnt (Eclipse, Gimp, etc). It all depends on what you want to do.
Eclipse and Gimp aren’t Gnome specific programs. They both only use gtk (iirc) and you can run them under Kde if you want.
Well, you can run all KDE apps under GNOME and vice versa, so I guess your point is kinda moot. What I believe the OP was trying to say was that Eclipse and GIMP make use of GTK and thus look more native and integrate better with GNOME than they do with KDE.
that a big joke….. eclipse it’s a java program…. and gimp it’s a gtk program but there is not in the gnome project…
You’re right on eclipse, but gimp actually is the gnu image manipulation program, and gnome is GNU Object Model Environment. So you could consider them both being part of the same project.
Gnome isn’t a part of GNU anymore. The Gnome devs got fed up with Gnu’s fundamentalists.
That is absolutely NOT true. GNOME is still the official GNU desktop and it’s part of the GNU project; it’s also more commited than ever to produce a FREE desktop.
Eclipse is a Java program that makes use of SWT (which is a wrapper around GTK+ on Linux). It has been compiled natively using GCJ and runs just like any other GTK app.
We dont care. why dont you go post to a relevant article regarding your preferences and leave topics that you have no interest in (besides trolling) alone.
Really, your account will not be suspended if you fail to post on every article that comes up.
good to see a new KDE release.
But, I prefer Gnome….more great program [sic]
more consistent gui…..
Use what you like, and let others use what they like. Leave your KDE comments for a KDE thread.
gnome gui it’s so consistent that you can find as much dimension of tools bar than of program…
continue your good work, champion
[quote]
gnome gui it’s so consistent that you can find as much dimension of tools bar than of program…
[quote]
I can’t even begin to fathom what is wrong with that sentence……if you have a point, please for the love of god, state it.
For those interested to follow gnome2.14 status on debian/unstable:
http://www.0d.be/debian/debian-gnome-2.14-status.html
!!!
Gone out to the internet wild jungle. Found some footprints and followed them… Could catch the ‘beast’. A Bloody good exemplar of it’s class.
I’m taking the bastard home… Got all the stock that I need for the rest of the month…
The GNOME 2.14.1 footprints showed that the steps are going in the right direction. It was easy!!!!
Ol’ bits hunter!
!!!
heh, very entertaining. i like.
!!!
“heh, very entertaining. i like.”
—-
Thanks, guy. I appreciate that you liked it, and you appreciate my style. Although, there were a grammar mistake…
I am a writer and a poet, among other things…
HMMM… shouldn’t you have given me a positive point for my opinion about the GNOME new release in a literary style, then?… OK, anyhow.
!!!
oops – i just gave you a mod up, sorry bout that
!!!
Don’t worry. it doesn’t hurt!
!!!
Is the drives in nautilus sidebar, very useful. I just love nautilus beagle intergration, it’s so damn fast and with deskbar is just so powerful.
Gotta say, I keep my Ubuntu Dapper install updated daily. The other day I had to switch the machine off (don’t do that very often!), and when it came back on and I logged in, Gnome was running in <3s. I was shocked! I’ve been used to waiting 15-20s for Gnome and it’s panels to be loaded. They’ve destroyed login time. Epiphany started in <2s, compared to 5s+ before. It’s all so much faster and snappier.
Add to that everything is generally so consistent. Most things work really nicely and most of my needs are covered except for proper DVD support in GStreamer. Once that works, I’m installing Ubuntu for my parents.
Gnome finally feels grown up. It’s beautiful.