Ubuntu Gnome edition

[sgage]

For the half day I had that Gnome edition installed. I noticed it was like no Ubuntu I have ever seen before. Everything about it was different.

I tried to customize the grub menu and lost grub altogether. It booted straight into WIndows 7. Had to mount a live cd and recovery that way.

That's odd, because it's exactly the same grub, handled exactly the same way. There is nothing about U-G that has anything to do with grub.

I've never experienced anything like what some of you are reporting, and I install a new build of U-G once a week. The only material difference (besides no Unity) is that it uses GDM instead of lightdm. It's never caused me any problem.

[markbl]

As far as current Debian, I am running GS in it right now, and it works beautifully. Debian stable is like that. No surprises, no bugs, no conflicts, no problems. Just slightly older software if that sort of thing is critical to you.

Slightly older? I just checked now and the current version of GNOME Shell in debian stable, testing, and unstable is 3.4. That's the problem trying to use GNOME on Debian, the packages are ancient.

I see a strong opportunity for a debian based distro based on current GNOME 3 packages. I think Ubuntu GNOME is good work, but ultimately it will become too hard to develop and maintain against the Ubuntu base, particularly with the friction and deviation occurring between GNOME/Ubuntu (i.e. between Red Hat and Canonical realistically). Trying to merge GNOME stuff against changes due to Mir/Wayland, compiz/mutter, upstart/systemd, etc. It's just TFH.

[Stinger]

I see a strong opportunity for a debian based distro based on with current GNOME 3 packages. I think Ubuntu GNOME is good work, but ultimately it will become to hard to develop and maintain against the Ubuntu base, particularly with the friction and deviation occurring between GNOME/Ubuntu (i.e. between Red Hat and Canonical). Try to merge GNOME stuff against changes due to Mir/Wayland, compiz/mutter, upstart/systemd, etc. It's just TFH.

You have some quite valid points there, Ubuntu-GNOME must be allowed to have it's own upstream Gnome version, must be allowed to use different low level components like upstart and Wayland etc.
But I'm afraid that's not gonna happen in near future, there is just to many trade off's being tied to the Ubuntu base and the Gnome components in it.
A Debian based distro with the Upstream Gnome version could be a better approach, I agree

Have any of you tried Fedora 19 ?
It's IMHO the best implementation of the Gnome 3.8 DE, and I'm really really sorry that Ubuntu can't deliver anything that even comes close to this.

Of course Ubuntu has it's large software base ( thanks to Debian ) and other 'nice to have' thingies but that doesn't make up for all the other trade off's.

[jbicha]

Have any of you tried Fedora 19 ?
It's IMHO the best implementation of the Gnome 3.8 DE, and I'm really really sorry that Ubuntu can't deliver anything that even comes close to this.

Could you give some specifics about how Fedora 19 is a better implementation of GNOME 3.8 than Ubuntu GNOME 13.10? I think Fedora and Ubuntu GNOME are very similar. Ubuntu GNOME even includes a few things that Fedora 19 doesn't (Tweak Tool, dconf Editor, and the new GNOME Classic).

[Stinger]

@jbicha
Well so far it's just an opinion but one thing that springs to mind is GNOME PackageKit.
I've tried Gnome 3.8 from Ubuntu-GNOME, OpenSuse with Gnome 3.8 and Fedora 19.
On my list Fedora tops, Ubuntu-GNOME comes second and OpenSuse third.
I could dig a little deeper if you think Ubuntu-GNOME could benefit from it, else I see no point in doing so.

[mc4man]

Have any of you tried Fedora 19 ?
It's IMHO the best implementation of the Gnome 3.8 DE, and I'm really really sorry that Ubuntu can't deliver anything that even comes close to this.
.

Fairly strong, definitive statement

@jbicha
Well so far it's just an opinion but one thing that springs to mind is GNOME PackageKit.
I could dig a little deeper if you think Ubuntu-GNOME could benefit from it, else I see no point in doing so.

Pretty weak response, would of thought you could do better without any 'digging deep'

[Chanath]

@Jbicha & others

You might notice the screenshot I've posted in #9. The Gnome-classic in Ubuntu Gnome Edition is somewhat strange, with the top panel acting like the GS top panel, and the bottom panel cannot be right-clicked at all. I have stock Ubuntu saucy and I've installed GS and G-classic (called flashback). There is ano problem in using GS & the G-flashback, they work as they should be in their own sessions. But, in Ubuntu Gnome Edition, the gnome-classic session in muddled up. I know it is Ubuntu+1 here ans we have to accept hitches of all kinds, but both the stock Ubuntu and the Ubuntu Gnome have the same repos. If th eGS works just as well in stock Ubuntu, I have no idea, why I need a Gnome edition at all. I thought about this for the past Ubuntu Gnome editions, and installed them all to test. I just don't know why I should download the Ubuntu Gnome edition in the future. Maybe it'd have a value, if GS won't work with Mir in the future and has to use X to exist.

Anyway, the G-classic session in Ubuntu Gnome is very strange. Updating & dist-upgrading doesn't change that problem yet. I am keeping it in a separate partition to test further.

[jbicha]

You might notice the screenshot I've posted in #9. The Gnome-classic in Ubuntu Gnome Edition is somewhat strange, with the top panel acting like the GS top panel, and the bottom panel cannot be right-clicked at all. I have stock Ubuntu saucy and I've installed GS and G-classic (called flashback).

It sounds to me like you are confusing two different things. The gnome-panel session is now called GNOME Flashback (in 13.04 it was called GNOME Fallback and between 11.04 and 12.10 Ubuntu called it GNOME Classic).

The GNOME developers now have a new mode for GNOME Shell called GNOME Classic because it uses a similar style (although not all of the features) to the gnome-panel experience. Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 includes the new GNOME Classic by default but not GNOME Flashback. In 13.10 GNOME Classic and GNOME Flashback are not the same thing.

[Chanath]

It sounds to me like you are confusing two different things. The gnome-panel session is now called GNOME Flashback (in 13.04 it was called GNOME Fallback and between 11.04 and 12.10 Ubuntu called it GNOME Classic).

The GNOME developers now have a new mode for GNOME Shell called GNOME Classic because it uses a similar style (although not all of the features) to the gnome-panel experience. Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 includes the new GNOME Classic by default but not GNOME Flashback. In 13.10 GNOME Classic and GNOME Flashback are not the same thing.

No, I am not confusing these things at all. We are talking about Saucy here.
In my stock Ubuntu, once I installed the Gnome panel, I get a session called Gnome Flashback, which looks like older Gnome2, with the right-clicking ability of the panels using Super+Alt, whereas in the Ubuntu Gnome Edition, its called Gnome Classic session. The screenshot I posted is from the Gnome Classic session, and as you notice, the top panel is messed up. There is no right-click ability for the bottom panel, autohide or get rid of it. Usually, I get rid of one panel. Okay, we are still in Alpha+ level in both Ubuntu and Ubuntu Gnome, but the repos are the same for both. How come, the stock Ubuntu with installed Gnome panel works normal, while the Ubuntu Gnome Edition's classic session doesn't?

Anyway, let's wait and see how it develops. I am keeping the Ubuntu Gnome edition, upgrading it every few days.

[jbicha]

No, I am not confusing these things at all. We are talking about Saucy here.
In my stock Ubuntu, once I installed the Gnome panel, I get a session called Gnome Flashback, which looks like older Gnome2, with the right-clicking ability of the panels using Super+Alt, whereas in the Ubuntu Gnome Edition, its called Gnome Classic session. The screenshot I posted is from the Gnome Classic session, and as you notice, the top panel is messed up. There is no right-click ability for the bottom panel, autohide or get rid of it. Usually, I get rid of one panel. Okay, we are still in Alpha+ level in both Ubuntu and Ubuntu Gnome, but the repos are the same for both. How come, the stock Ubuntu with installed Gnome panel works normal, while the Ubuntu Gnome Edition's classic session doesn't?

Anyway, let's wait and see how it develops. I am keeping the Ubuntu Gnome edition, upgrading it every few days.

Sorry but you are confused. In Ubuntu GNOME, please install gnome-panel (or gnome-session-flashback). Log out and you'll see that there are two different and separate sessions: GNOME Classic and GNOME Flashback.