Opinions on GNOME 3 from those who've tried it

[Duncan J Murray]

Just had a go with GNOME 3 on a fedora 15 alpha live usb.

It seems to work quite nicely on my x60 thinkpad with integrated graphics.

What I like about it:

1. 'special' button starts up a gnome-do-like usability to start applications

2. The window-snapping to the top and side.

Glaring problems and annoyances:

1. No easy access to 'places'

2. No date shown on date widget at top, and it isn't 'always on top' after clicked

3. Needs a simpler and more obvious way to get to their software centre

4. Application names frequently cut-off in the applications list, requiring you to fire them up to check what they are (e.g. software updates!).



Has anyone else had a go with it, and what to they think?

Duncan

[wolfen69]

Glaring problems and annoyances:

1. No easy access to 'places'

Just make your "files" a favorite in the launcher panel. I can slam my cursor into the upper left corner and hit it within 1 sec.

2. No date shown on date widget at top, and it isn't 'always on top' after clicked

Get the gnome-tweak-tool. Solved.

3. Needs a simpler and more obvious way to get to their software centre

Create a launcher on the left. Solved.

4. Application names frequently cut-off in the applications list, requiring you to fire them up to check what they are (e.g. software updates!).

Hmmm. You really need to fire them up to see what they are? The first 14 letters plus the icon aren't enough to tell what it is? <scratches head and shrugs>

Has anyone else had a go with it, and what to they think?

I love it, and am making it my go-to desktop environment. It will only get better with time, and kick some serious butt.

[false truths]

You should have a file browser launcher pinned in the activities dock. Nautilus always has all of your bookmarked places one-click accessible.

I tend to keep track of the date in my head, but the clock on top shows a calendar if you click it.

Yeah, I agree, software centre should be pinned to the dock by default.

Agreed about the names. I appreciate having the full name show, a lot.


I compiled GNOME 3 from the git repository in Ubuntu 10.10 shortly before the final release (I'm going to recompile for the latest updates after posting this). I REALLY hope that Natty has a more easily accessible way to get GNOME 3 then compiling it, because compiling takes forever on my laptop.

When I first started using it, I kept Avant Window Navigator on the left side because getting used to GNOME Shell was a learning curve, and I wanted to let myself learn it piece by piece instead of having to do everything the Shell way from the start.


Overall, I'm very impressed with how it's turned out. It's very accessible and user-friendly. Honestly, the only thing it lacks is a decent main menu for when the applications menu doesn't have what you need (System Administration and Preferences don't show up there). I take care of that by putting an Avant Window Navigator dock on the left side just below the activities button with just a main menu applet on it. It feels surprisingly natural there, almost like it's part of the Shell itself. I have it set to floaty with some tweaks to its shape to make it match the rounded corners so that it looks like a separate part of the Shell. Overall, I REALLY like GNOME Shell and I plan to use it as my main DE in Natty and onward.

[benerivo]

It looks very nice, and has a nice touch and feel to the buttons and menus.

I don't like the way it half-hides your other desktops on the right hand side, when you move the cursor to the top left. A cursor move to one side then the other is a bit much (i don't do keyboard shortcuts).

I don't like the way i can't move the panel to the side of the screen.

I don't like the way i can't glance at the panel to see what apps i have open (it only show the active one).

I really like the alt-tab switcher and the way it groups apps (ie. if you have a few gnome-terminals open it'll group them).

I like the notification area / tray that fades in at the bottom.

[Duncan J Murray]

I don't think it is intuitive for any users, but especially new ones, to look for their folders in 'Applications' and then have to pin it themselves to the dock.

One of the best things in Gnome is rapid access to various folders/networkdrives/mounted devices, and it seems a shame to throw this all away, given an extra tab to the right of 'applications' would do the trick.

I'll look at gnome-tweak.

At the moment, looking at my 'applications' list I have these words on my 12.1" screen - "Software L..." then "Software U..." theres also "Install to H..." "Operating..." "Automatic..."

That just isn't good enough! Mousing over doesn't tell me what it is either - I have to open it. Maybe you have a higher resolution screen and it isn't a problem therefore.

Anyway, overall, it does look promising - I won't be an early adopter, but will keep an eye on it and see if my quabbles are addressed at some point.

D

[NightwishFan]

I have been using it for two days now and I love it. I decided to reinstall gnome and compile gnome 3 over KDE. The reason was that Kwin has some serious performance issues with my hardware. With Mutter/Gnome-Shell the animations are always smooth. It makes the experience seem a lot better.

To be honest the visual orientation and the easy organisation of windows makes my life easier as well. I can't wait to see what goes into it in the future.

[JDShu]

Currently my favourite desktop UI. I switched to Fedora just to use it despite my overall preference for Ubuntu. I might write a comparison between Shell and Unity when I have the time as its a fascinating issue.

[3Miro]

Tried Fedora Alpha. Gnome-shell requires you to keep at leas tone hand on the keyboard. If you try to command the DE with the mouse only, everything can be done, but it take A LOT of mouse moves/clicks. This is a very sharp contrast to all other WM (OpenBox, Xfwm4, Kwin, Compiz, Metacity and even compiz+Unity).

If this is not an issue for you, Gnome-shell is great. As far as I am concerned, it is the most dysfunctional DE out there (from among the Linux ones).

[godhika]

Tried it and was very positively surprised. I think one can see where they are going with it. The absent of a taskbar and of the minimize button was not that much of a problem as I have thought it would be, cause the applications I mostly minimize/unminimize (chat, musicplayer..) go to the notification area in the lower right and are reachable without distracting. Also the animations in mutter make a very smooth, polished impression making everything appear very professional. Nothing like builds of gnome-shell I tried before. The workspace management is great as is their implementation of the alt + tab workspace switcher.
Now for the bad: Their default theme (I think it is called Adwia or something like that) is really using way to much space - especially horizontally space. Opening a document in Evince covers more than one third of my screen with chrome. After using Unity for quite some time now I realized how much I appreciate the measures taken in Ubuntu to save vertical and horizontal space. I can't believe I became a fan of a global menu - and the overlay scrollbars were great from the beginning.
Another point where I think it could do better are all the little shortcuts and keyboard navigation for power users like in Unity. On the other side navigating only with the mouse in gnome-shell is a pain.

[wolfen69]

Currently my favourite desktop UI. I switched to Fedora just to use it despite my overall preference for Ubuntu. I might write a comparison between Shell and Unity when I have the time as its a fascinating issue.

Why not use G3 in ubuntu? I'm using it in 11.04. I installed it on top of xubuntu no problems using the ppa.