The GNOME 2.0.1 Desktop Release Candidate 1, “Not Considered Harmful”, is now available. The GNOME 2.0.x Desktop releases are devoted to bugfixes, translations, user interface consistency, and general polish of our major 2.0 Desktop release. In this release candidate, you’ll see the results of the project’s user interface review, and continued performance and stability fixes: 706 total GNOME2 bugs marked fixed in past six weeks, 317 high or greater priority bugs marked fixed in past six weeks. Update: You can also download GNOME 2-Beta1 for Sun Solaris 8/9.
GNOME 2.0.1 Desktop RC1 Available
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
And of course, you can easily install Gnome with either the latest CVSGnome:
http://www2.fh-wilhelmshaven.de/~akcaagaa/
or Garnome:
http://www.gnome.org/~jdub/garnome/
Let these GCC CPU optimizations flags roll.
I hope the new distros (Mandrake 9, etc) hold out for this new version before release.
I hope the new distros (Mandrake 9, etc) hold out for this new version before release.
Mandrake would hold out unless this release doesn’t follow its schedule.
Besides, notice for the past few GNOME 2 betas and RCs, they give long wierd codenames for it… I always thought codenames are suppose to be short and simple, like Limbo (RedHat 8.0), Whistler (WinXP), Chicago (Win95), Jaguar (Mac OS X) etc.
> Let these GCC CPU
> optimizations flags roll.
Hmm … what’s up? Eugenia sounds enthusiastic about this one
This is the part I dont get what is the point of having beta releases if on the final release of a distro it introduces a new gnome, kde or gcc version?
This is probably why we have 500 megs of security and bug fixes to attend to when the final versian comes out.
“This is probably why we have 500 megs of security and bug fixes to attend to when the final versian comes out.”
This is why I continue to run Be and QNX 6.2. Fast and light!
I guess we will not have to wait much before Limbo3 comes out with this GNOME 2.0.1, I’m waiting for it.
Mandrake would hold out unless this release doesn’t follow its schedule.
Mandrake 9.0 is due around 10-15 September. Since this is a minor GNOME release, I think they would include it. If 2.0.1 Final comes out a sufficient amount of time (maybe a few weeks) before release, I think they’ll include that too.
Besides, notice for the past few GNOME 2 betas and RCs, they give long wierd codenames for it… I always thought codenames are suppose to be short and simple, like Limbo (RedHat 8.0), Whistler (WinXP), Chicago (Win95), Jaguar (Mac OS X) etc.
Codenames like “Limbo” and “Whistler” are made for marketing more than anything else. GNOME don’t market their codenames, they are made just for fun.
The biggest highlight of this release is that DnD from the list view is again working. Horah!
Mandrake 9.0 is due around 10-15 September. Since this is a minor GNOME release, I think they would include it. If 2.0.1 Final comes out a sufficient amount of time (maybe a few weeks) before release, I think they’ll include that too.
Mandrake normally tries to include the latest bugfixes and security fixes as it could before a release. If GNOME could get it out as fast as possible, Mandrake for sure would include it if it haven’t started making the ISOs and freezing the whole thing.
Codenames like “Limbo” and “Whistler” are made for marketing more than anything else. GNOME don’t market their codenames, they are made just for fun.
Microsoft nor Red Hat ever paid a single cent to market their products via codenames. Apple is the only company I could think of that did, but it was because they wanted to make v10.2 different from 10.0 and 10.1 (I’m talking about Jaguar here). But still, I think they made a big mistake even telling their consumers what the codename is.
Oh anyway, I have been neglecting to tell this. I just got Mandrake 9.0 Beta 2, installed it, and I’m pretty impress with GNOME 2.0. It was much better than that GARNOME beta (can’t remember what beta, or was it RC1). I have been toying with the idea of moving from Window Maker to GNOME (the loading time difference is the only big thing, everything else is quite fast). I’m writing a review on 9.0 beta 2, maybe I would send it to Eugenia next week and maybe it would be posted up. But it is pretty critical…
Nice title of this RC: Not Considered Harmful, referring to the recent dead of Edsger Dijkstra: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/26585.html
A pretty insulting way to honour the dead. 😛
Edsger Dijkstra, father of OS, PV, “dining philosophers” etc
Ole-Johan Dahl, father of Simula
John Cocke, father of RISC
Quite saddened to hear of these losses, never met them, but their work is the basis of everything we do. No doubt many more names I know have gone too but didn’t come to my attention.
I have to admit that as a kde user, that Gnome2 in Mandrake 9.0 beta2 is pretty impressive (as is in limbo2). But I have a slight complaint: Gnome1 used to start much faster than kde, but at least on my laptop running cooker (reiserfs), kde starts in about 5 secs and gnome chugs along. I hope the gnome/mandrake folks can find a way to speed up load time. Speed is important
Also, I am impressed with font rendering in Gnome2. The aa seems to look better than in kde (except the latest cvs version of kde, which is quite nice). And, I hope Mandrake will include a utility like redhat did in limbo2 which will automatically switch between different font aa methods, even subpixel for lcds.
Kudos to the developers. Gnome is starting to catch up with kde and provide some good competition, which can only be a good thing.
Thanks,
Chris
Strange, on my slow P2 computer i find that gnome 2 starts up way quicker than kde3 (kde3 is far slower than kde2 for me)
There’s always room for improvement though, and i agree it is very nice.
Microsoft nor Red Hat ever paid a single cent to market their products via codenames.
That’s true, but they have no need to spend money to advertise. Look at all the press Red Hat is getting over Limbo, including here at OSNews. Microsoft codenames get bandied about all the time in the press. Chicago and Whistler (to name two) were mentioned all over the computing press for well over a year before their actual releases. People remember codenames much better than some arcane version number like “8.0b1”. They’re much catchier, so people are more likely to talk and write about them. When the products are actually released, people are more willing to buy them since they’ve been hearing so much about them.
Edsger Dijkstra, father of OS, PV, “dining philosophers” etc
Ole-Johan Dahl, father of Simula
John Cocke, father of RISC
Quite saddened to hear of these losses, never met them, but their work is the basis of everything we do. No doubt many more names I know have gone too but didn’t come to my attention.
Old computer programmers never die, they just get garbage collected.
Ian
I keep a text file that lists most of the changes I make to KDE3 to make is faster. The changes to the system + DE actually add up to a significant difference. There are some decent tweaking tips here http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/xwin/xtweak.html
as well as some other cool bits of info on the tips and tricks board
http://www.club-nihil.net/mub/viewforum.php?f=17
The KDE theme I use is “Light style 3rd revision” (boxy is good), but I still would like to see a DE based on KDE/gnome/win (start, task bar, icons etc.) only built on the fluxbox codebase.
Strange, on my slow P2 computer i find that gnome 2 starts up way quicker than kde3 (kde3 is far slower than kde2 for me)
GNOME 2.0 loads up faster than KDE, the KDE team is trying to find a way to stop this. I was comparing GNOME 2.0 with Window Maker, which I use mostly now.
Besides, unless you have so little RAM, KDE 3.0 is a huge speed improvement over KDE 2.2.2. At least for me that is. I think there is a problem with your installation.
That’s true, but they have no need to spend money to advertise. […]
Most of the target market wouldn’t have heard about it before the actual release. The codenames are great among geeks, but ask an average Windows XP user what is Whistler, he would stare blankly at you.
I just realised that this article is using the old Gnome logo. It would be nice if the new one could be used for Gnome articles as that’s a lot nicer IMO. =)
You can find it all about the place at http://gnome.org.
I thought about it a few weeks ago, and I really _hate_ the new icon. It is so flat… Not as good IMO. This is why I will continue using this one. In fact, I updated the current one *just* yesterday, making sure it had better quality than the previous one.
Wow… That clearly shows how much taste can differ… I really _hate_ the old icon. It is so… old.
But don’t you think you should use the new icon as new people won’t even know the old icon?
Or a new one. But the new shape should be used (like the guys at http://gnomedesktop.org did).
I don’t know… I might use the new one after I get used to it a bit more. Until now, I still don’t like it. Flat…
It doesn’t look flat when on top of this shiny button.
The transparent version (like it’s used for the Applications menu) looks indeed quite flat when rendered in small.