Pondering the future of the Gnome classic session beyond Ubuntu Precise

[Peter Maunder]

kansasnoob,

Thank you first of all for your Precise Classic Tweaks and Tricks, it is invaluable.

I have also pondered what to do to look after myself and my friends systems. They are all retired, a mixture of English and French and use their systems for the classical functions browser, email, office (writer + calc), photos (library + slideshow), skype. They do not play computer games.

A system without a screensaver / slideshow is a non starter. Linux Mint Maya Mate comes with a basic screensaver / slideshow. It may be trivial to install but it does mean that out of the box Ubuntu nolonger has this basic function. The Software Centre does not even have an entry for SCREENSAVER, you need to enter XSCREENSAVER to find one.

I guess we will be staying with 12.04 so all my users will have the same software. I do tell them that they are using LINUX - UBUNTU so if I need to change to Mint say in the future it will still be a consistent choice.

[vasa1]

... I find it odd that you'd use Ubuntu's water cooler to discuss or promote another distro

There's no gain in preaching to the converted
That's how I interpret the numerous, totally altruistic posts here extolling other distros and proprietary software.

[kansasnoob]

There's no gain in preaching to the converted
That's how I interpret the numerous, totally altruistic posts here extolling other distros and proprietary software.

I just get frustrated with the constant recommending of other distros

Anyone that took the time to read my OP would know that I have a plan:

Option #1: stick with 12.04

Option #2: switch to Lubuntu or Xubuntu

Option #3: be patient and see what works best over the course of the next few dev cycles.

BTW it's fairly obvious that I still love Ubuntu (regardless of flavor), but I don't go posting at the Mint forums (or others) recommending they switch to my preferred concoction

To me that would be like hanging around a Chevy showroom and telling everyone how much you love Ford

[kansasnoob]

kansasnoob,

Thank you first of all for your Precise Classic Tweaks and Tricks, it is invaluable.

I have also pondered what to do to look after myself and my friends systems. They are all retired, a mixture of English and French and use their systems for the classical functions browser, email, office (writer + calc), photos (library + slideshow), skype. They do not play computer games.

A system without a screensaver / slideshow is a non starter. Linux Mint Maya Mate comes with a basic screensaver / slideshow. It may be trivial to install but it does mean that out of the box Ubuntu nolonger has this basic function. The Software Centre does not even have an entry for SCREENSAVER, you need to enter XSCREENSAVER to find one.

I guess we will be staying with 12.04 so all my users will have the same software. I do tell them that they are using LINUX - UBUNTU so if I need to change to Mint say in the future it will still be a consistent choice.

Thanks. I actually posted this in part because I'm either going to request some edits to that thread or possibly post an entirely new, updated version after which I can request a simple edit to the original pointing to the new one.

And I probably will post a brief version for Quantal, but I didn't want to take up a great deal of space explaining what's being planned, what other options there are, etc.

This way I can just link to this thread for a more in depth explanation of why I recommend staying with 12.04 LTS. But right now I'm working on a decent version of this:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...6&postcount=43

In that case it was an "upgrade via live CD/DVD/USB" but the procedure does also provide a "replace" option under the proper circumstances. My time has just been limited lately.

Basically I get things done when I get them done

[vasa1]

I just get frustrated with the constant recommending of other distros
... but I don't go posting at the Mint forums (or others) recommending they switch to my preferred concoction

To me that would be like hanging around a Chevy showroom and telling everyone how much you love Ford

Well, IMO, it's even worse than that. We've seen the forum slowing down. Whether the recent fix has improved things or not isn't clear. But a simple mind like mine thinks that the more threads, the more load; the longer the thread, the more the load.

[KiwiNZ]

Well, IMO, it's even worse than that. We've seen the forum slowing down. Whether the recent fix has improved things or not isn't clear. But a simple mind like mine thinks that the more threads, the more load; the longer the thread, the more the load.

Not a loading issue, the Forum can handle far greater load than we have experienced of late, back in 2009-2010 we could get up to 40,000 on line at a time.

[kansasnoob]

Just out of curiosity I tried installing Mate in Ubuntu-GNOME-Remix this evening and it's honestly not that bad, but it does install a lot of packages:

lance@lance-VIA-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install mate-core
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
libreadline5
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove it.
The following extra packages will be installed:
atril atril-common caja caja-common cpufrequtils engrampa engrampa-common
eom eom-common ffmpegthumbnailer ffmpegthumbnailer-caja fuse-utils
gtk2-engines-murrine libatril libcaja-extension libcpufreq0 libfam0
libffmpegthumbnailer4 libglade2-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
libgtksourceview2.0-common libidl-common libidl0 libjpeg62 libmarco libmate
libmate-common libmatecanvas libmatecomponent libmatecomponentui libmateconf
libmatecorba libmatedesktop libmatekbd libmatekeyring libmatemenu
libmatenotify libmatepanelapplet libmatepolkit libmateui libmatevfs
libmateweather libmateweather-common libmatewnck libmatewnck-common librpm3
librpmio3 libtasn1-3-bin libtiff4 libunique-1.0-0 libvte-common libvte9
marco marco-common mate-applets mate-applets-common mate-backgrounds
mate-conf mate-conf-common mate-control-center mate-corba mate-desktop
mate-desktop-common mate-dialogs mate-icon-theme mate-keyring mate-media
mate-media-common mate-media-gstreamer mate-menus mate-mime-data mate-panel
mate-panel-common mate-polkit mate-power-manager mate-power-manager-common
mate-screensaver mate-session-manager mate-settings-daemon
mate-settings-daemon-common mate-settings-daemon-gstreamer
mate-system-monitor mate-terminal mate-terminal-common mate-text-editor
mate-themes mate-vfs mate-vfs-common mate-window-manager menu menu-xdg
p7zip-full python-corba python-glade2 python-gtksourceview2 python-mate
python-mate-desktop rpm-common rpm2cpio
Suggested packages:
unrar mate-file-manager meld lha sharutils ncompress unace lzip lzop rzip
unalz zoo arj murrine-themes fam xscreensaver-data rss-glx menu-l10n
p7zip-rar python-gtk2-doc libgtksourceview2.0-dev rpm-i18n
The following NEW packages will be installed:
atril atril-common caja caja-common cpufrequtils engrampa engrampa-common
eom eom-common ffmpegthumbnailer ffmpegthumbnailer-caja fuse-utils
gtk2-engines-murrine libatril libcaja-extension libcpufreq0 libfam0
libffmpegthumbnailer4 libglade2-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
libgtksourceview2.0-common libidl-common libidl0 libjpeg62 libmarco libmate
libmate-common libmatecanvas libmatecomponent libmatecomponentui libmateconf
libmatecorba libmatedesktop libmatekbd libmatekeyring libmatemenu
libmatenotify libmatepanelapplet libmatepolkit libmateui libmatevfs
libmateweather libmateweather-common libmatewnck libmatewnck-common librpm3
librpmio3 libtasn1-3-bin libtiff4 libunique-1.0-0 libvte-common libvte9
marco marco-common mate-applets mate-applets-common mate-backgrounds
mate-conf mate-conf-common mate-control-center mate-corba mate-core
mate-desktop mate-desktop-common mate-dialogs mate-icon-theme mate-keyring
mate-media mate-media-common mate-media-gstreamer mate-menus mate-mime-data
mate-panel mate-panel-common mate-polkit mate-power-manager
mate-power-manager-common mate-screensaver mate-session-manager
mate-settings-daemon mate-settings-daemon-common
mate-settings-daemon-gstreamer mate-system-monitor mate-terminal
mate-terminal-common mate-text-editor mate-themes mate-vfs mate-vfs-common
mate-window-manager menu menu-xdg p7zip-full python-corba python-glade2
python-gtksourceview2 python-mate python-mate-desktop rpm-common rpm2cpio
0 upgraded, 100 newly installed, 0 to remove and 136 not upgraded.
Need to get 108 MB of archives.
After this operation, 271 MB of additional disk space will be used.

################################################## ##################

lance@lance-VIA-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
libreadline5
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove it.
The following extra packages will be installed:
apache2.2-bin hddtemp libapache2-mod-dnssd libapr1 libaprutil1
libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap libmatebluetooth
libmatesensorsappletplugin libnet-dbus-perl liboobs-1-5 libtie-ixhash-perl
libxml-parser-perl libxml-twig-perl libxml-xpath-perl mate-bluetooth
mate-calc mate-netspeed mate-sensors-applet mate-system-tools
mate-user-share mate-utils mozo python-mate-menu python-support
system-tools-backends
Suggested packages:
ksensors libunicode-map8-perl libunicode-string-perl xml-twig-tools
caja-sendto mate-sensors-applet-ati mate-sensors-applet-nvidia ntp
The following NEW packages will be installed:
apache2.2-bin hddtemp libapache2-mod-dnssd libapr1 libaprutil1
libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap libmatebluetooth
libmatesensorsappletplugin libnet-dbus-perl liboobs-1-5 libtie-ixhash-perl
libxml-parser-perl libxml-twig-perl libxml-xpath-perl mate-bluetooth
mate-calc mate-desktop-environment mate-netspeed mate-sensors-applet
mate-system-tools mate-user-share mate-utils mozo python-mate-menu
python-support system-tools-backends
0 upgraded, 27 newly installed, 0 to remove and 136 not upgraded.
Need to get 19.5 MB of archives.
After this operation, 48.4 MB of additional disk space will be used.

It's certainly usable so it's worth watching what the Mate devs do going forward

[kansasnoob]

Muffin is super slow with the aforementioned P4M800 graphics ............. I mean "get up and walk around waiting" slow

It's the equivalent of rolling back to dial-up from DSL.

I really have no further comment regarding Mint, I prefer Ubuntu. I find it odd that you'd use Ubuntu's water cooler to discuss or promote another distro

It appears that Mint recognizes the need I've addressed regarding Metacity:

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/12/what-...t-15.html#more

The Linux Mint roadmap was updated recently, pointing out what to expect in Linux Mint 15 for Cinnamon, Nemo, MDM or Mint Tools.

Linux Mint 15 is expected to ship with Cinnamon 1.8 which will include new features like:

Desktlets (desktop widgets). Three such desklets should be available by available by default: System Monitor, Picture video & slideshow frame and Terminal
Cinnamon Settings: ability to browse, install, remove and update Cinnamon themes, applets, extensions and desklets remotely
Bumpmaps support (defines transparent textures which look like sculpted glass - see screenshot above)
A Control Center that integrates both Cinnamon and GOME settings into one tool
Rethink Cinnamon 2D: fallback to a non-shadow CPU-less intensive session in software rendering mode. Muffin or OpenBox will be used.
Configurable color schemes for themes
Calendar events similar to KDE's implementation
New/improved applets: upgrade Menu applet with mintMenu features, new email notifier and pulse-like RSS reader applets

This is why I say, just keep testing, watch for proposed changes by other dev teams, and otherwise enjoy the stability of 12.04

Edit: Clem actually provides a clearer explanation:

Rethink Cinnamon 2D, fallback to a non-shadow CPU-less intensive session in software rendering mode and/or Muffin/OpenBox (whatever happens, the user should know he's not running the "real" Cinnamon, he should be told why, and he should find himself with a working WM (even a minimalistic one like OpenBox)).

[kansasnoob]

And yet another option, Consort Desktop:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTI3NzM

And the lead dev approves of an Ubuntu PPA:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...3&postcount=17

So I can chill out with Precise Classic (no effects) until a true winner emerges

[Marzata]

After 6 years with Ubuntu (Gnome DE) we migrated all our machines to Xubuntu 12.04.1 LTS (Xfce Desktop Environment). There is no single reason to look back at Gnome. Thank you, Xubuntu and Xfce teams!