The stable version of GTK+ 2.2 was released today, along with GLib2 2.2.0 and Pango 1.2.0. This version of the GTK+ libraries will be used in the upcoming Gnome 2.2 release, which is the first version truly geared towards end-users.
GTK+ 2.2 Released
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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All I want for christmas is gnome2.2
. Hell, its nice just seeing all the wonderful work on Gnome and KDE in the last year. Perhaps someone could do a retrospective beginning a year ago to now? It could Highlight the major triumphs in linux on the desktop such as advances in xfree86, improvements in gtk and qt, adoption by some large companies etc…
Wierd. The GTK site only talks about 2.1.5. Any release notes? I know a few things that are new, but would like a list.
Please tell me that the file dialogs don’t still suck. I love GTK and most of the best Linux applications use it, but what is it with those ******* file dialogs!!
(All I really want is a set of replacement file dialogs that will integrate everything GUI based with ROX-Filer)
this is only the beta version. you really should change the article.
2.1.5 was the last beta. This 2.2.0 is the final version, it has been released, and it’s right on schedule.
Not sounding offensive here but is it just me or is GTK2.2 a lot slower than 2.0 ? I compiled both versions on my system with the same optimiing flags using gcc 3.2 and binutils 2.13. Could someone else confirm this please ?
Topic in #gtk+ on irc.gimp.org:
“no, 2.2 has not been *officially* released (yet)”
I agree! I think that the file dialogs should be the number one priority for the GTK+/GNOME team. It would be cool if they used the Nautilus file views in the dialogs so you could get a tree, list, or large icons. Of course you would also have the same icons for the files as in the filemanager.
I wonder if that’s possible.
http://pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=411…
oh I can only pray 🙂
Can I compile my GTK+2 apps with these libraries, or are there enough API changes that it won’t work?
No, no new file dialogs. Making them decent is kind of hard because you have to keep it separate from gnome, but also integrate it with gnome. Something is taking shape in libegg I think.
New feature seems to basically be multi-display support, very cool.
Speed: dunno. GTK2 isn’t heavily optimised, it seems snappy enough here. Don’t take window resizing or window drag-over as a good metric for speed: these things are badly hit by a bug in the X scheduler with no known resolution
so subjective “it feels like” statements aren’t really worth much without some decent testing as it might not be GTK.
Gtk2 is very smooth (windows 2k/xp quality) when used with (X)DirectFB..
About the API changes: it should be source and binary compatible with 2.0, furtherly there should only be API additions.
Afaik they’re working on it to get a new file dialog into Gtk 2.4
(I don’t believe that anymore, though :/ )
What’s wrong with the file dialogs? I *LOVE* the tab-completion there! Kinda makes me wish that OpenTracker on BeOS had that feature *hint*hint*
But yeah, more drag and drop support like ROX-Filer and other ROX apps have. ( http://rox.sf.net ) I installed ROX some time ago and I have yet to find a nicer concept of drag and drop. For example unpacking files is as easy as dragging the file to the archiver icon, then dragging the popup folder icon to whereever you want! True drag and drop!
they have the best DE I have seen, AND it is origional, atleast in the way it takes features from other systems (like riscOS) and puts them with other features from other OSs (like MacOS) and then puts it all together around a basic idea of building the DE around the FS.
Too many people in the OSS world blindly replicate the mistakes and bloat that comes from Micro$oft and Apple.
ROX does ROCK!
ROX is the only DE I have _EVER_ seen that lives up to the UNIX philosophy of small programs that just do their job and do it well, and that ‘everything is a file’.
ROX is the only DE I have _EVER_ seen that lives up to the UNIX philosophy of small programs that just do their job and do it well, and that ‘everything is a file’.
What about GNUstep ?
🙂
“OSNews.com – Exploring the Future of Computing”
The future. Heh. The irony
What about XFCE then?
😉
GTK widgets still look FUGLY!!
I know
but the philosophy of GNUstep apps is the same as unix : small apps which does one thing, and everyone works together (with drag’n drop and services). And as the API provides not only GUI parts but also Desktop parts, that’s why I cited it (the API is more the equivalent of KDE libs rather than Qt if you want). For DE, you could look on GWorkspace : http://www.gnustep.it/enrico/gworkspace/
Ever heard of *themes*?
I would agree about the file dialog. QT/KDE is lightyears ahead.
GTK2 is one of the greatest GUI toolkits I have ever seen, and when coupled with ruby-bindings (ruby-gnome2.sf.net) it gets even better. I should say that it tastes like Java/Swing but in my point of view it can go beyond that.
I just hope that they support more platforms with stable versions 🙂
File dialog is being re-done for GNOME 2.4 – yes, everybody knows that GNOME/GTK+ file dialog sucks big time, but as someone here said it’s something hard to change – every GNOME weekly news people are discussing about it.
GTK+2 looks fast and snappier that 1.x for me, hopes that 2.2 will be better than 2.0 for that matter.
After trying the Gnome 2 desktop, I’d say it is still pretty immature. Currently, it (Gnome 2.0.x) is a development platform that can be used as a desktop with some tweaking. There are still enough bits missing that it isn’t really ready for general users (non-technical). However, I don’t think it is that far away. So far, the developers have been concentrating on giving Gnome 2 a solid foundation. What impresses me most is the eagerness to simplify. I know a lot of people hate that Gnome 2 is less configurable, but I think it is necessary. Pulling out cruft is less fun and glamorous than adding new wiz-bang features, but it will make for a much better environment in the end. I look forward to Gnome 2.2 and 2.4 (and 2.6 …) to see those missing bits materialize and a usable desktop emerge.
The desktop has really come along lately.
Some little things that should have always been there like startup notification is getting put back and it conforms to the desktop standards.
Icon themes as opposed to Nautilus themes are coming along.
I do not know if the color selector thing will be in by 2.2 but should be there for 2.4.
Neato stuff that had never been there are:
multimedia view with gstreamer back-end integrated into Nautilus.
Fontillus on XFT system allows super easy drag-n-drop install of fonts.
Better theme consolidation into one applet kind of like Redhat 8.
What I am looking forward to are things that might not make it into this one which is a proper network neighborhood, a better file selector, and apotheke (cvs viewer) which is like Cervisia to come standard with Nautilus.
> Some little things that should have always been
> there like startup notification is getting put back and
> it conforms to the desktop standards.
Excuse me!
Which standards ?
There are absolutely NO standards for desktops. If you want to refer to http://www.freedesktops.org then please note that these so called standards are all put up by GNOME developers. These are NO standards that fits in either ANSI or DIN or are signed by any INDUSTRY to support it. If you want to inform people then please don’t missinform them.
Some things that I am looking forward to:
1) useful list view in Nautilus
2) the tree view could be much more useful in Nautilus
3) split panes in Nautilus (like Konqueror)
4) hover select in Nautilus
Come to think of it, I think that only a #3 Gnome file
manager may do it: #1 (gmc) didn’t do it, and it seems
#2 (Nautilus) is struggling to do it.
Excuse me, but who in this ‘INDUSTRY’ has any interest in unifying _ANY_ form of cross platform, flexible ‘desktop’ computing environment. Its VERY courageous of the GNOME developers to sponsor this effort rather then the big Not Invented Here attitude of KDE or any of the commercial interests. When GNOME or RedHat try to make things work together rather then these little islands of functionality the trolls try to bite their heads off!
And as regard freedesktop.org not having any influence, check out the work being done on ROX or XFCE4.
In case you didn’t know, Free Desktop is also supported by KDE in many ways, and the project isn’t GNOME-only. The reason why you see more GNOME developers active with Free Desktop is that Red Hat invested into it. And most of its desktop-related developers are GNOME developers.
Besides, the reason why KDE doesn’t follow some of the specifications on the website is that most of these came after KDE 3 reach a feature freeze. They can’t add these later because it would cause a lot of headaches and incompatiblity. The best bet is to use these in the next major release (KDE 4).
> In case you didn’t know, Free Desktop is also supported by
> KDE in many ways, and the project isn’t GNOME-only.
No, I didn’t know. Removing foot from mouth . . .
And here is the problem. All these so called standards ARE NO standards. Only some selfdeclared things without any norms done by either ANSI or DIN. If the industry don’t care for crossplattform compliance then it’s their problem but look the C language got normed by ANSI, other things got normed by ANSI, the unix system got normed by various places such as POSIX compliance etc. the freedesktop standards are usually done by the GNOME people and are in no way legitimate standards that someone should ever follow. no certifications nothing. you said that freedesktop supports GNOME and KDE but this is partially true. what’s written on the mainpage of freedesktop.org is not necessarily reflecting the reality. there are a lot of problems between the both desktops e.g. the tray support in the kicker vs. gnome-panel etc. this list could easily be enchanced in various places. the so called standards of freedesktop.org are only some guides how you may do things to get at least one direction of doing things but nothing as serious as ANSI or DIN.
Whooo, I can’t wait to try out the optimized Nautilus icon view!
/me just tried the latest version of gThumb, which already uses this optimized icon view (and the alpha blended selections are even faster than they are on Windows XP (Explorer))
A standard, be it official or de facto needs to start somewhere. The goals on the front page of freedesktop.org are to help the process of laying out a de facto standard. BTW, where are ANSI Coca or EMCA Win32? Desktop developers are already used to de facto standards. Such a standard can be had by open discussion and review – not just the whims of huge corporations.
All the major players, as far as Linux as a workstation OS, are involved in ether KDE or GNOME. What is needed is not The One True GUI Toolkit or One True Component Architecture but an agreement on the common protocols that make software cooperate. This includes things like Drag ‘n Drop, Clipboard operations and registering with the programs menu. It may take a bit of time to sort all out but it needs to be done. It can be done with out sacrificing the freedom that above all else makes Linux what it is.
What I want from the Linux desktop is to be able to run all the cool Qt/KDE, GTK/GNOME, OpenOffice.org tools and have them interact using agreed upon standards. I should be able to start any of my programs from the menus in KDE, GNOME, ROX, XFCE, IceWM, AfterStep or whatever I fancy and not have any application malfunction because it expects something from the window manager or panel that is not widely agreed upon.
I just downloaded gThumb too, very impressive and much faster then Nautilus. If they can speed up Nautilus this much I may even consider using it.
Uhh Nautilus in gnome 2.x is very fast, at least the RedHat bundled version is. It’s at least as fast as Explorer on my system, MUCH faster then konqueror.
Not everyone is running a P5 4.2 Ghz..
Neither am I. 😉
model name : Pentium III (Coppermine)
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 598.691
and
model name : Mobile Pentium II
stepping : 13
cpu MHz : 397.056
😛
rajan r noted that…
> In case you didn’t know, Free Desktop is also supported by
> KDE in many ways, and the project isn’t GNOME-only.
One example is the system tray. The über-cool RedHat 8’s RHN and root-notification tray icons works on both GNOME 2, KDE 3 (although I’m not a KDE user so I don’t know if the system tray patch is on KDE 3 main codebase, hope it is) and even in Docker for those *box lovers
Actually, the most notable feature KDE implemented is the unified desktop shortcut format (*.desktop). Others include Xdnd, ICCCM standard, etc.
Others that KDE has yet to support (and hopefully would be implemented in KDE 🙂 is VFolder, shared MIME database, XDS, System tray protocol (yeah, KDE haven’t officially support it yet), the way icons are saved (common names), recent documents spec, XSETTINGS, etc.
One standard I still disgaree is the thumbnail one (what was it called)?
I would like know what problems you see in the proposed thumbnail standard.