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GNOME 2.12 released

Submitted by stro on Wed, 2005-09-07 13:45. Gnome 2.x
Gnome 2.x

Today, the GNOME Project celebrates the release of GNOME 2.12, the latest
version of the popular, multi-platform Free desktop environment.

Released on schedule, to the day, it is the culmination of six months effort
by GNOME contributors around the world: hackers, documentors, usability and
accessibility specialists, translators, maintainers, sysadmins, companies,
artists, users and testers. Due to their hard work, we have another great
release to be proud of - thanks very much to every contributor!

You'll find plenty of information about GNOME 2.12 in our extensive release
notes, linked from the 2.12 start page.

All about GNOME 2.12: http://www.gnome.org/start/2.12/

Meanwhile, GNOME developers around the world are looking forward to working
on fresh new features for the next version of GNOME, due in March, 2006.

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it's time to lay those tired old default icons to rest! by Anonymous George

Don't entirely agree.

Submitted by mage.merlyn on Mon, 2005-09-12 18:15.

Firstly and to use an old cliche, "you can't please all the people all the time"

I like the Gnome default. It is very unobtrusive, and distinctly Gnome.

I agree however that it needs sharpening up. Converting the current default iconset to SVG would do this nicely.

Many people including Jakub Steiner have made a start on this and it would be nice to see it completed.

As for the 'home' icon, well someone must have forgot to mention to the folks at Ubuntu that the 1.x version is outdated, (appears in Nautilus).

This is not a big problem as Ubuntu is an excellent distro, just inconsistent with the overall quality. ;-)

With regard to theming as a whole my thoughts are as follows;

1. keep the current default, and sharpen it up, (SVG).
2. change the selection of themes included in the default install to reflect current trends,
(ie use art.gnome / gnome-look as a benchmark, conduct a poll even).
3. develop a set of cursor icons that are sympathetic to the current default, for a more intergrated look,
(ie Redhat & bluecurve).

Other than that I am quite happy.

Cheers

Counterpoint by Anonymous George

Popularity

Submitted by knipknap on Mon, 2005-09-12 05:54.

> Conversely, the top three rated icon themes on Art.gnome.org
> are takes on the Windows XP theme. Next is the BeOS iconset
> and then finally Suede, which basically follows the current
> style.

Well, even the top-rated icon theme has only 29 votes, so that's a bit of a vague statement. Also, a fairer comparison would likely be gnome-look.org, because since being a sister site of kde-look you certainly have a broader userbase there.
Either way, I think there is a clear trend to more shiny themes with most users.

I also liked the GNOME default theme very much once, however, the evolution should not stop there. They are IMO a bit outdated now, especially in comparison with other desktop environments. We haven't had any major changes in years.

I don't see a lot different by Anonymous George
menu editor? by Anonymous George

Lame Menu editor

Submitted by unoengborg on Sat, 2005-09-10 04:15.

The new menu editor for the Gnome menu is too little too late. It should be possible to add new menu items, e.g. to support legacy applications that doesn't install themselves in the menu automagically. It should be possible to change the order of the menu intems e.g to reduce the distance needed to move the mouse for very frequently used applications.

The functionality and design of SMEG comes to mind. Of course you could install SMEG but that would probably lead to users having two menu editors that looks almost the same, and users will not know why it is broken when they by mistake open the standard Gnome menu editor.

This really needs to be fixed for 2.14

CDROM icon won't appear by Anonymous George
Slowly but surely... it's getting there by Anonymous George
Nego by Anonymous George
Uh... by Anonymous George
why? by Anonymous George
Thanks by Anonymous George
C++ can be better than C, by Anonymous George
Performance improvements by Anonymous George
No by Anonymous George

Minor correction

Submitted by robsta on Sat, 2005-09-10 03:21.

"[...] and even Gnumeric (has a win32 port) all have other toolkits [...]"

Gnumeric on win32 uses the win32 port of gtk.

A prize then? by Anonymous George

Just another fanboi...

Submitted by Anonymous George on Wed, 2005-09-07 19:42.

Well done Gnomers! Keep up the awesome work. Rememeber that there's a huge group of users who use your software daily for real work and believe that you're on the right track wrt where you're taking Gnome. Gnome is a fantastic desktop: a clean and unobtrusive interface with a lot of power under the hood.

Thank you. Hopefully one day I can contribute more than just good wishes.

Cheers
Stor

GNOME 3?

Submitted by Johannes on Wed, 2005-09-07 16:54.

The release notes mention an upcoming GNOME 2.14 release. How long is the 2.x series going to be continued?

For a considerable number of releases the focus has been on adding minor improvement, polish, fixing bugs, introducing others, and so on. Nothing revolutionary for quite some time.

The GNOME desktop is quite usable by now (even though it still lacks some of the consistency and usability that certain proprietary products offer). I do prefer it over KDE, mostly because of its cleaner and more elegant interface. But it is not exactly exciting. And I am still waiting to see full GNOME-VFS support in all apps. At present, file-roller is still unable to open files from an smb share or an ftp server. Same with Evince. gedit opens non-local files readonly. There are many similar cases with other apps. These flaws need to be fixed ASAP.

I wonder if any substantial ideas for a GNOME 3 series do exist and if so, when we might see initial code...

RE:Gnome 3?

Submitted by unoengborg on Fri, 2005-09-09 09:03.

As you point out many gnome applications doesn't until all applications support gnomevfs, there is no reason to make new stuff that breaks the current API (that is the reason for bumping the version number).

In KDE kioslaves work for *every* application. Why is it so hard use the corresponding gnome vfs in gnome? Is it bad documentation, bad design, bad choise of technology e.g. KDE is object oriented Gnome is not. Whatever the reason, sitting in front of KDE feels like sitting in front of the Internet. If you are using Gnome you sit in front of a computer.

In almost every other aspect Gnome is far supperior to KDE so this really needs to get fixed. You shouldn't be allowed to call your application Gnome compatible unless its file management is gnome vfs enabled.

I think it's mostly a social by Anonymous George

Should push GNOME-VFS

Submitted by Anonymous George on Thu, 2005-09-08 19:57.

Yep, the gnome-vfs thing is annoying, all of the apps in the gnome desktop should be using it at the least... this really should be a priority for 2.14 its getting quite late in the day!
The first stage might be to setup a page/wiki with a list of the apps that don't have this, linking to the RFE bugs for each listing them.
If there is a visible list like that, I reckon people would probably add support to the apps in short order... also there is 6 months till 2.14 so there is plenty of time...
+ it would be a good feature to have in 2.14

polish vs substantial change by Anonymous George

Yes get on with it.

Submitted by horga_83 on Wed, 2005-09-07 18:58.

Great job on Gnome-2.12 everyone. Now lets get on with it. GNOME is Gnu NETWORK Object Model System. Not very networky if it doesn't handle the network well. I mean Gedit at least should be able to edit files over ssh and smb shares, sheeesh.

Evolutionary is the way to go by Anonymous George

Best gnome release ever

Submitted by foo on Wed, 2005-09-07 15:29.

Seriously, every release is better than the last in an absolute sense but relatively speaking, this release actually has mostly all sane and useful additions. I really like the nautilus browse in place list view and the address bar.

One question though, why is the nautilus address bar inconsistent with the file open dialog address bar? Like the file-open dialog, if you want to type, a popup should appear and that popup should have the cool completion drop down. Oh well, progress anyway.

Also, regarding both address bars, will we every have the ability to filter in place like the old file open dialog? For example to type ctrl-l, *.png, enter, and then see only png files? Especially in nautilus this would be very cool.

hiding extensions by Anonymous George

also

Submitted by foo on Wed, 2005-09-07 20:46.

The file open dialog is always navigational, never spatial. It always has the address bar and always opens locations in place. Really, the spatial metaphor in gnome is really broken and violated about 20 different ways. (the new browse in place list view that works even in spatial being a prime example)

If it bothers you, just dont by Anonymous George

wtf are you talking about?

Submitted by foo on Thu, 2005-09-08 16:14.

I never said it bothered me to use the file open dialog. I just said nautilus was inconsistent with the file open dialog. I *like* the UI for nautilus and I *like* the UI for the file open dialog. I just think they could be kept more in sync and that they could be improved with globbing features.

Do people read stuff and just make up whatever their defensive minds imagine they have read? The world is fully of crazy people.

Not talking about spatial

Submitted by foo on Wed, 2005-09-07 20:43.

The features I was refering to only exist in the browser mode of nautilus which is still fully supported and under development (obviously since these new features are browser related).

good work!! Day in day,

Submitted by Anonymous George on Wed, 2005-09-07 14:57.

good work!!
Day in day, following schedule!!!
You are the best!!!

i'm sicked by Anonymous George
If you are not joking then by Anonymous George

So nice work, and Cairo uhm

Submitted by lobais on Wed, 2005-09-07 14:49.

So nice work, and Cairo uhm :D

Congratulations!

Submitted by Anonymous George on Wed, 2005-09-07 14:35.

Congratulations on the new release. To me, it just gets better and better and better. And when I have the time, I'll help out, too... ;)

Cheers!

Thanks

Submitted by Anonymous George on Wed, 2005-09-07 14:01.

Thanks to every contributor! Very good work!

Mike

GREAT JOB!

Submitted by Anonymous George on Wed, 2005-09-07 13:50.

Thanks for the hardwork guys, I love gnome!