Glowing Gnome 2.11

[weekend warrior]

So who's tried Gnome 2.11?

Not much difference but one obvious thing is the active app panel glowing. I find it next to useless and extremely distracting. Does this annoy anyone else? It starts glowing while the app is loading (and OOo 2.0 seems just as slow as ever) then it just keeps glowing until you click on the app in question instead of timing out. There doesn't seem to be a menu item to permanently switch it off either.

Personally one of the reasons I enjoy using Gnome is because it's sedate and discreet, stays out of the way - in fact the very lack of all the bouncing cursors, fly-over balloon tips, glowing, blinking, magnifying this and that cowbells. It's a shame Gnome now feels the need to start competing in this area.

I think this glowing panel business is a step in the wrong direction. I'm concerned Gnome will go down the same path as other DEs, becoming less distinctive (and more annoying!) in the process.

Opinions?

[amoser]

No, I think that it is a step in the right direction. First of all, the default gnome Action when a program wants your attention, it steals the focus on you screen. (Ex. GAIM, when you get an instant message, and it pops to the top of the screen). See, the default gnome action is very unproductive, and can be quite annoying if you are doing multiple things that require typing. Second of all, if GNOME got ride of the steal focus feature, and left the glowing app out, there would be no way to tell if a program needed you attention or not. So yes, this is a very good step forward towards usability, and productivity.

~Alan

[TravisNewman]

oh I love the glowing taskbars. It's one thing it's been needing for ages.

[darrenadams]

I don't think this new feature in the panel will lead Gnome down the path of bouncy cursors, or tooltips that contain tiny thumbnails, or anything like that. To me, it's a useful addition as it lets you see whether another application requires your attention. I suppose an 'alternative' might be to have the application blink (or flash) rather than glow. This might be an alternative for people that have limited resources.

And on the subject of OO.o 2, I would like to see a more recent version without having to use scripts and unsupported debs.

[TravisNewman]

my fiancee has the patch to enable glowing on her 600 mhz celeron emachines, the computer that takes about 8 minutes to start OOo (sometimes that's not an exaggeration). The glowing doesn't suck out any of her resources.

[darrenadams]

Eight minutes to start OO.o? Is that for the 1.1.x or the 1.9.x versions? I would say that she should try Abiword but, good as that program is, OO.o does the Word document thing (assuming that's why she uses it) a lot better than Abi does at the moment

[tread]

I really like the glowing taskbar bit, its one of the missing things in gnome. And it is so much better than blinking.

[weekend warrior]

Agreed the focus stealing isn't good, that's more than annoying. This is just plain distracting - well progress anyway, heh But at the very least if it timed out that would help. There are also other less distracting ways to notify a user. In the Gaim instance mentioned, when a message comes in it can trigger a small sound event.

For me, I just don't need or want this 'proggy needs my attention and won't stop til I see to it' deal. In any case shouldn't it be a choice, rather than obligation? I'd like a simple option to shut it off if I don't like it! I don't think that's asking much.

[Wolki]

Agreed the focus stealing isn't good, that's more than annoying. This is just plain distracting - well progress anyway, heh But at the very least if it timed out that would help. There are also other less distracting ways to notify a user. In the Gaim instance mentioned, when a message comes in it can trigger a small sound event.

Yes, unless you're in another room, or the sound is off, or the sound blends well with the music... I can't count how often i saw messages *hours* later because i just didn't notice it earlier.
And the focus stealing prevention in gnome 2.10, while a good thing as i hate typing in the wrong window just because something opens, can be quite distracting if you don't see the window. I installed the glowing stuff (thanks to the one who did the howto!) and am really happy with it.

And timing out would IMHO greatly reduce the usefulness, because if i'm not at the computer at that point and return later it still wouldn't tell me in which window something interesting happened.

For me, I just don't need or want this 'proggy needs my attention and won't stop til I see to it' deal. In any case shouldn't it be a choice, rather than obligation? I'd like a simple option to shut it off if I don't like it! I don't think that's asking much.

Well, i found the glowing to be noticable, but not distracting because the effect looks nice and quite calm, not like hectic blinking or the like. Especially for programs that take a long time to load, like the OOo2 you've mentioned, it's nice if the program tells me when it finishes loading. ymmv, of course.

But keep in mind that offering simple options to enable/disable any feature is usually not how gnome works

[weekend warrior]

But keep in mind that offering simple options to enable/disable any feature is usually not how gnome works

Isn't that the truth.... I seem to be in a minority of one here. I wonder how many of you use light or very light themes and if this has a bearing on it. You can see how dark my preferred themes are (click on "got the blues?"). With this type of theme in a lower light environment, incessant glowing really does stand out to the point of distraction.

Well if this is the way Gnome is going, I'll have to pack my bags and move to a diffrent DE - more minimalist or something that will allow me to easily switch this type of stuff off - ironically enough, KDE might fit the bill.