2.18 - Edgy shoulda looked like screeny

[Stealth]

Check it out, Gnome 2.18:
http://www.gnome.org/start/2.18/notes/en/

That first screeny is what I thought Edgy shoulda looked like, starting a new color theme. So far we have only slightly transitioned from brown to orange...but either way, can't wait for Feisty to be released! :D

[Somenoob]

Gnome 2.18. Nothing big, but I like the newly added games(Chess and Sudoku) and the improvments.

[BarfBag]

I like the green theme! Very relaxing. Other then that, just minor improvements. Looks like it's worth the update, though.

[Josh1]

Yeah just saw this on Digg. Very flashy. I like the Ubuntu colours more though. :)

[raublekick]

My favorite releases are generally the ones that don't offer much new stuff. I can't wait to try it out :)

[spockrock]

I imagine this wont be in feisty will it?

[deadlydeathcone]

I imagine this wont be in feisty will it?

It's in right now!

Like everone is saying there's not a lot that's obviously new, but there's a lot of added polish and a fairly major speed improvement. Gtk feels about 20% more responsive for one, and I seem to go from the login screen to desktop in about half the time it took in Edgy.

[prizrak]

That theme is available in Feisty but is not the default.

[mostwanted]

Isn't that just a screen shot of Foresight Linux?

[Stealth]

That theme is available in Feisty but is not the default.

That's good to know. I should probably update my Feisty install to get some of this later stuff...^_^

[karellen]

:confused: I don't get it....we can customize almost everything, it's linux, it's gnome or kde or no matter what. who cares how's the default look, click three-four times and that's time, change the theme, background, icons, windows borders, transparency, panels position and a hundred other things. it's simple...the default look of a distro is very irrelevant imho

[MetalMusicAddict]

Isn't that just a screen shot of Foresight Linux?

Yes and no. The wallpaper is their wallpaper and they did do the new Gnome live disk so they will look very alike but not exact.

[Paulus]

hate to say it, but my feisty looks nowhere near as good as that, namely because of the fonts.

fonts are almost everything in an OS imo.. i'd love to know how those fonts can be achieved because I can't with default stuff.

[MetalMusicAddict]

hate to say it, but my feisty looks nowhere near as good as that, namely because of the fonts.

fonts are almost everything in an OS imo.. i'd love to know how those fonts can be achieved because I can't with default stuff.

Unfortunately the font is "Trebuchet". I'm talking to the Foresight guys about it now. I'm pretty sure its not redistributable.

[Paulus]

slighly unusual for that font to be used showcasing the standard(?) 2.18 interface...

thanks for the info though- who knows it may be possible!

[karellen]

hate to say it, but my feisty looks nowhere near as good as that, namely because of the fonts.

fonts are almost everything in an OS imo.. i'd love to know how those fonts can be achieved because I can't with default stuff.

agree. fonts are very important for me too. one of the main reasons I still use ms office 2007 and outlook

[v8YKxgHe]

:confused: I don't get it....we can customize almost everything, it's linux, it's gnome or kde or no matter what. who cares how's the default look, click three-four times and that's time, change the theme, background, icons, windows borders, transparency, panels position and a hundred other things. it's simple...the default look of a distro is very irrelevant imho

You couldn't be more wrong. Yes it is very simple to change the theme, to us. To a new user who has never used Linux before they want something that looks good and friendly to work in, take these screenshots for example:

http://xwinman.org/screenshots/gnome.jpg
http://www.gnome.org/start/2.18/notes/en/figures/figure-desktop-big.png

Feisty could look like any of those, yet which one is more appealing to use and more inviting to new users? The latter.

First impressions and default look are infact very relevant.

[banjobacon]

I imagine this wont be in feisty will it?

I think one of the reasons Ubuntu releases a new version every 6 months is so it can ship with the newest version of Gnome, which is released every 6 months.

[prizrak]

You couldn't be more wrong. Yes it is very simple to change the theme, to us. To a new user who has never used Linux before they want something that looks good and friendly to work in, take these screenshots for example:

http://xwinman.org/screenshots/gnome.jpg
http://www.gnome.org/start/2.18/notes/en/figures/figure-desktop-big.png

Feisty could look like any of those, yet which one is more appealing to use and more inviting to new users? The latter.

First impressions and default look are infact very relevant.

I'm gonna go with the "can't please everyone" approach on this one. The default Ubuntu look is no worse than default Windows or OS X look. It's clean, the colors are in harmony, it's not hard to figure out where the close/minimize/etc.. buttons are and what they look like. That theme might very well be preferred by some, I for one don't really like it. Others want OS X look, others still Vista look, and some want the first screenshot you sent. In my experience most users don't really care much.

[v8YKxgHe]

I'm gonna go with the "can't please everyone" approach on this one. The default Ubuntu look is no worse than default Windows or OS X look. It's clean, the colors are in harmony, it's not hard to figure out where the close/minimize/etc.. buttons are and what they look like. That theme might very well be preferred by some, I for one don't really like it. Others want OS X look, others still Vista look, and some want the first screenshot you sent. In my experience most users don't really care much.

nono, I wasn't saying Feisty _should_ look like those, they were just examples to show how a default look is relevant and very important.

[K.Mandla]

I'm afraid I'd side with the people who don't see the point of one particular theme over another.

I understand the importance of making a first impression, but invariably the first thing a newcomer does with a fresh installation of any operating system is ... change the wallpaper and the theme. What's the point in knocking down one color scheme or another if it'll get changed within minutes?

Yes, I agree it's important to have a smooth default desktop, but where it starts is a matter of opinion -- a very short-lived opinion at that. (And for what it's worth, if I can get the wallpaper, fonts and GTK themes, I can make Openbox look like that. So again, what's the point in one theme or another if it isn't even inherent to the desktop? )

Just so long as the Gnome crew doesn't take away permission to change that theme, anything is fine with me. Choice and change is what this Linux thing is all about. :KS

[v8YKxgHe]

ut invariably the first thing a newcomer does with a fresh installation of any operating system is ... change the wallpaper and the theme. What's the point in knocking down one color scheme or another if it'll get changed within minutes?

I've personally never seen any one change their the default theme it an OS comes with (yeah it wasn't linux, but it was Mac and Windows). Recently 2 of my friends both got Macs .... they are still running the default theme and backgrounds. All of my other friends run XP, they are still running the blue XP theme, yeah they have changed the background, but what I am getting at is that, no - it's not the first thing a user does.

[Choad]

http://www.gnome.org/start/2.18/notes/en/figures/figure-glade-big.png

omgponies

glade has a *much* needed overhaul.

[prizrak]

I've personally never seen any one change their the default theme it an OS comes with (yeah it wasn't linux, but it was Mac and Windows). Recently 2 of my friends both got Macs .... they are still running the default theme and backgrounds. All of my other friends run XP, they are still running the blue XP theme, yeah they have changed the background, but what I am getting at is that, no - it's not the first thing a user does.

Basically proving that it makes no difference whatsoever. Unless it's some crazy neon purple on acid green people just plain don't care.

[Choad]

the whole "default colour" thing is completely irrelevant. anyone getting gnome packaged with a binary distro like ubuntu will be getting an ubuntu-twaeked gnome desktop, or a fedora tweaked one, or whatever. anyone who actually gets it from gnome.org will be compiling it and therefor will be just about capable of changing their theme.

[Stealth]

I don't mind Ubuntu being orange guys, I'm just mentioning it becuase Mark himself wrote somewhere that they were gonna change the color scheme starting with Edgy. Of course, that apparently didn't work out, and Ubuntu kept the orange (which looks great by the way). It's just when I saw that screenshot I thought, "Wow, that looks nice!" and remembered that. I also like green, so...^_^

Either way the main article is about Gnome 2.18, which looks so clean...and those little features really seem cool. I especially like that "Glade" thing. I've never programmed with it, but that makes it looks like it would be relatively simple to start making a UI!

[finferflu]

I'm not trolling, but honestly to my eyes Gnome doesn't look very good... It's kinda unpolished, it's very tidy, yes, but not stylish. KDE can look much more stylish but looks like a mess most of the times (always to my eyes), it would be nice to have something in between (and that's why actually I can never choose between Gnome and KDE, I have to keep switching). At the moment the thing that looks amazing to my eyes is OSX, I've never used it, only watched it in some shop, but I must say it's very elegant, polished and stylish. I hope to get something that looks like that in the future... (KDE4? who knows..)

[graabein]

I agree that first impression is indeed important. Not to experienced GNU/Linux users but for first timers. We have to draw their attention to Linux and Ubuntu and keep them interested until they're hooked.
:KS :KS :KS

For Feisty and the new GNOME 2.18 I'm excited about speed improvement, and some eye candy like new GNOME icons, and maybe the alternate start menu and the control centre. I might stick to the old/current GNOME default Applications/Places/System menu though - who knows. And all the updated applications of course.

Just a few more weeks to go!

[prizrak]

I'm not trolling, but honestly to my eyes Gnome doesn't look very good... It's kinda unpolished, it's very tidy, yes, but not stylish. KDE can look much more stylish but looks like a mess most of the times (always to my eyes), it would be nice to have something in between (and that's why actually I can never choose between Gnome and KDE, I have to keep switching). At the moment the thing that looks amazing to my eyes is OSX, I've never used it, only watched it in some shop, but I must say it's very elegant, polished and stylish. I hope to get something that looks like that in the future... (KDE4? who knows..)

I actually thought that this is a very nice Gnome theme. Doesn't work correctly for me for some reason. Not even when Compiz is off :(
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/preview.php?preview=1&id=54573&file1=54573-1.png&file2=54573-2.png&file3=54573-3.png&name=Murrina+Aero

[banjobacon]

I've personally never seen any one change their the default theme it an OS comes with (yeah it wasn't linux, but it was Mac and Windows). Recently 2 of my friends both got Macs .... they are still running the default theme and backgrounds. All of my other friends run XP, they are still running the blue XP theme, yeah they have changed the background, but what I am getting at is that, no - it's not the first thing a user does.

I agree with this. Is it even possible to change the theme on XP without third party tweaks? From what I've seen, hardly anyone most people stick to the default theme. As for OS X, I've seen different themes available, but never seen anyone use any but the default. Hanging out in tech-related online forums may suggest otherwise, but most people don't seek out new themes. Maybe they don't know they can, or maybe they don't care.

Wallpaper images are different, though.

[Quillz]

Check it out, Gnome 2.18:
http://www.gnome.org/start/2.18/notes/en/

That first screeny is what I thought Edgy shoulda looked like, starting a new color theme. So far we have only slightly transitioned from brown to orange...but either way, can't wait for Feisty to be released! :D
So you'd prefer that Edgy looks like the stock GNOME, instead of being unique?

[Paulus]

i'd prefer it to look good.

[justaguynpc]

I thought the desktop looked pretty sharp, and I am not (usually) crazy about green. (?)

[Paulus]

if anyones interested in fiesty I set my hinting from "Full" to "slight" and it looked a hell of a lot better :)

i'm happier now.

http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/2397/screenshot2ba8.th.png (http://img358.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot2ba8.png)

[tomcat1965]

Yep that's a screenshot of Foresight Linux and you should be downloading it now for a dual boot with Ubuntu,run's fast got loads of great app's.:)

[macogw]

That's good to know. I should probably update my Feisty install to get some of this later stuff...^_^

It doesn't show up in my "set background" options

But yes, Feisty's speed improvements are great! It's like a 20 second bootup. I've never had that

[Gargamella]

very nice! i like this release... so I will wait for feisty

i will sure upgrade no doubts ;D