Karin Chan

Showing posts with label desktop environments. Show all posts

See What`s New In GNOME 3.10 [Video, Screenshots]

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>GNOME 3.10 has been <a href="https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.10/">released</a> today with some important changes such as initial Wayland support, header bars (client side decorations), a new system menu for GNOME Shell which combines the previous system status menus and of course, updated core GNOME apps as well as some new applications.</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgspVbin0A3-qS_vLyQF_dheRPnXRvk1uGU8UDQB2fLrY3JrQFLP2NjeTriMUgTtKqeRbgO1L_xMxZKNHtJ3Td15iLSOz57xDeWmiAvCpwrSGyZP0Ai3X09el9yM8MM8GCDcrSdpRT_0ic/s1600/gnome3.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgspVbin0A3-qS_vLyQF_dheRPnXRvk1uGU8UDQB2fLrY3JrQFLP2NjeTriMUgTtKqeRbgO1L_xMxZKNHtJ3Td15iLSOz57xDeWmiAvCpwrSGyZP0Ai3X09el9yM8MM8GCDcrSdpRT_0ic/s320/gnome3.10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Let's take a look at what's new!<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><h2>GNOME 3.10 video</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Below you can watch a video I've recorded earlier today with some of the changes in GNOME 3.10:</div><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-MfbuJU6X9U" width="480"></iframe><br />(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MfbuJU6X9U">direct video link</a>; for more videos, subscribe to our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/nilarimogard">YouTube channel</a>)</center><br /><br /><h2>GNOME Shell / Settings changes</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">GNOME Shell hasn't received many changes, but GNOME 3.10 introduces a pretty important change: <b>the old system status menus have been replaced with a new System Menu</b>:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-system-status-menu.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 system menu" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-system-status-menu_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The System Menu is more compact and includes brightness and sound sliders, quick access to wireless networks, battery status as well as settings, lock screen and shutdown buttons. The language selector continues to use a separate menu as you can see in the screenshot above.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Other changes in the latest GNOME Shell 3.10:</b></div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>improved login and lock screens: better layout, nicer transitions, prettier lock screen notifications, etc.;</li><li>various improved transitions;</li><li>pagination in the application picker. </li></ul><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-gs-pagination.jpg" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 pagination" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-gs-pagination_thumb.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">App picker pagination<u><br /></u></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-lock-screen.jpg" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 pagination" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-lock-screen_thumb.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GNOME 3.10 lock screen</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Another pretty major change in the latest GNOME 3.10 is the introduction of <b>"header bars" or "client side decorations"</b>. These decorations use the GTK+ toolkit and theme engine:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-header-bars.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 client side decorations" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-header-bars_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">As you can see, the close button is now displayed inline with the toolbar which saves spaces but unfortunately it also creates an even bigger discrepancy between GNOME core apps and the other applications, because only the core GNOME apps use these client side decorations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Client side decorations can also change state, here are two screenshots that showcase it:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-header-bars_1.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 header bars" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-header-bars_1_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-header-bars_2.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 header bars" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-header-bars_2_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>With GNOME 3.10, there are also quite a few changes to Settings (Control Center):</b></div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>the lock screen background can now be changed via the Background settings;</li><li>new date and time settings; there's also a new feature here: automatically change the computer's timezone based on the current location;</li><li>new display settings;</li><li>new universal access settings;</li><li>the background can be selected from your Flickr photos;</li><li>Telepathy integration and Google 2-factor authentication for Online Accounts.</li></ul><br />Here are a few screenshots with these Settings changes:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-lock-screen-background.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 background settings" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-lock-screen-background_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-time-date.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 time and date settings" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-time-date_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-displays.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 displays" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-displays_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-displays2.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 displays" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-displays2_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><br /><b>Other changes include:</b><br /><ul><li>new zoom mode for the scrollbars which allow for fine scrolling - to use it, hold SHIFT while clicking on the scrollbar thumb;</li><li>smartcards are now supported as an alternate way to log in or unlock the screen;</li><li>password authentication can now be disabled, forcing just fingerprint or smartcard authentication;</li><li>initial Wayland support;</li><li>high resolution (HiDPI) support.</li></ul><br /><br /><h2>GNOME 3.10 core apps</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">With GNOME 3.10, <b>three applications that were available as a preview in GNOME 3.8, are now fully integrated</b>: Bijiben, a note taking app, <b>GNOME Weather and GNOME photos</b>:</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-notes.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 bijiben notes" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-notes_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Bijiben</u></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-weather.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 weather" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-weather_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GNOME Weather</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-weather_2.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 weather" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-weather_2_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GNOME Weather</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome-photos.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 photos" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome-photos_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GNOME Photos</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Bijiben now supports collections and is integrated with OwnCloud. Also, now the notes can show up in the GNOME Shell search. An interesting feature in Bijiben which might be available in the future for other GNOME apps as well is the right click menu which looks like the one used on touch devices:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-notes-right-click.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 bijiben notes right click" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-notes-right-click_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The latest GNOME Photos features Flickr support, albums, share images to devices that support UPNP such as a TV, phone or another computer and more. Weather hasn't received any important changes except for the new client side decorations.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">There are also <b>3 new preview apps for GNOME 3.10: Music and Maps and Software</b>:</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome-music.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 music" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome-music_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GNOME Music<u><br /></u></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome-maps.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 maps" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome-maps_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GNOME Maps</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome-software.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 software" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome-software_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GNOME Software</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Another new application is Photos, which features Flickr support, albums, share images to devices that support UPNP such as a TV, phone or another computer and more.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Changes in the other core GNOME applications:</b></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Web:</b> DuckDuck go is now the default search engine; Web now has a search provider for GNOME Shell which allows accessing your web history or searching the web from the GNOME Shell Activities</li><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Contacts:</b> UI enhancements, updated setup and accounts dialogs</li><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Tweak Tool</b>: redesigned for GNOME 3.10 and includes new options, such as startup applications management, etc.</li><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Evince Document Viewer</b>: improved accessibility, new Caret Navigation mode, improved Djvu support and a new sidebar showing search results</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Clocks: Pretty new analog timer in stopwatch and timer views as well as geolocation support</li><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Boxes:</b> support for importing system images (QEMU, raw, vdi - Virtualbox 1.1 image format, vmdk - VMware 3 and 4, vpc and cloop) as well as many UI and other fixes</li></ul><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-web.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 epiphany web" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-web_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Web (Epiphany)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-tweak-tool.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 tweak tool" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-tweak-tool_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GNOME Tweak Tool</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-clocks.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="GNOME 3.10 clocks" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/gnome3.10-clocks_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GNOME Clocks</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Up next: GNOME 3.12</b>, which should <a href="https://wiki.gnome.org/ThreePointEleven/Features">introduce</a> a Sound Recorder preview release, full Wayland support, Systemd for the user session, colour tinting in GNOME Shell, videos application implementation, support for Facebook in GNOME photos, integrate Zimbra in GNOME, Git integration in the developer experience as well as ratings, screenshots and history support in GNOME Software.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>3 screenshots via <a href="https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.10/">gnome.org</a></i></div>

See What`s New In GNOME 3.10 [Video, Screenshots]

GNOME 3.10 has been released today with some important changes such as initial Wayland support, header bars (client side decorations), a ne...

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Cairo Dock 3.2 Released With Improved Multi-Screen And GNOME Shell Support, More

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://Cairo Dock">Cairo Dock</a> (Glx Dock) is a launcher / task manager that comes with a huge list of applets and configuration options. </b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZN15WFJuQXJqo9SlLjQ7tX34HQmBs7iVhdY9GvJMEODPNtDVU04e_VIKrPMT1eqI12GkJh0HWoaFcNaika-gAwf4ekxY3wJYkHR8Txm-OSTHyKirJkE3vvEQj562EGZQFfKY_v1GP8XL/s1600/cairo-dock.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="cairo dock" border="0" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZN15WFJuQXJqo9SlLjQ7tX34HQmBs7iVhdY9GvJMEODPNtDVU04e_VIKrPMT1eqI12GkJh0HWoaFcNaika-gAwf4ekxY3wJYkHR8Txm-OSTHyKirJkE3vvEQj562EGZQFfKY_v1GP8XL/s320/cairo-dock.png" title="cairo dock" width="320" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />It can be used with any desktop environment / shell, so it works with GNOME Shell, Unity, Xfce, KDE and so on. There's also a stand-alone Cairo Dock session - select "Cairo Dock" from the login menu to use it.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the applets included by default with Cairo Dock are: applications menu,  appindicators, keyboard indicator, Ubuntu Messaging Menu, session  control, mail, quick file browser, notification area, screen luminosity,  screenshot, sound control, stacks, system monitor, desktop switcher,  terminal, weather, weblets and more. </div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKlB8utDmeWhMYEEsXV6ukyhce3DvX3r5Tj4SLJQuRAKAK8kIXGOZ851io8XK8KpIQRWZW8beZIMHett4GkzwXFM1WOqyn_NvMDY3Svw1vbCMkmVywWf-VszY3GOIPelkvyxi0rTuZG9h7/s1600/cairo-dock-gnome-shell.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="cairo dock" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKlB8utDmeWhMYEEsXV6ukyhce3DvX3r5Tj4SLJQuRAKAK8kIXGOZ851io8XK8KpIQRWZW8beZIMHett4GkzwXFM1WOqyn_NvMDY3Svw1vbCMkmVywWf-VszY3GOIPelkvyxi0rTuZG9h7/s320/cairo-dock-gnome-shell.png" title="cairo dock" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Multiple Cairo Dock instances (left, bottom) in GNOME Shell</td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Cairo Dock 3.2 has been released recently and it includes many changes:</b></div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>improved multi-screen support: you can now choose the screen for each dock (or all screens), support for desktop names, more;</li><li>new applets: Screenshot and Indicator-Generic (a plugin to display all the available Ubuntu indicators into the dock; you can define a blacklist if you don't want some indicators to show up);</li><li>new Sound Effects plugin which adds sounds to some actions on the icons;</li><li>better GNOME Shell support (for instance, all windows with the same class are displayed);</li><li>GDM user switching support;</li><li>the note taking applet can now work without Tomboy or Gnote;</li><li>Systemd support (Arch Linux, Fedora, etc.) for session management;</li><li>icons and overlays should be less blurry;</li><li>improved most plugins/applets: Application Menu, Clock, Gvfs integration (you can now mount encrypted volumes that require a password, various fixes), Keyboard Indicator, etc.;</li><li>more!</li></ul><br />For the official release notes, see <a href="http://glx-dock.org/bg_topic.php?t=6792">THIS</a> page.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If you want to see Cairo Dock in action before installing it, here's a video with version 3.1 (so it's not the latest Cairo Dock 3.2, but you should still get an idea on most of its features):</div><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2isiqVEcaio" width="560"></iframe><br />(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2isiqVEcaio">direct video link</a>)</center><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Cairo Dock</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Ubuntu users can install the latest stable Cairo Dock using the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cairo-dock-team/ppa<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install cairo-dock cairo-dock-plug-ins</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Debian</b> users can install the latest Cairo Dock from the official Cairo Dock Debian repository - installation instructions <a href="http://glx-dock.org/ww_page.php?p=From%20the%20repository&lang=en#3-Debian">HERE</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Arch Linux, Cairo Dock can be installed via <a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/cairo-dock/">AUR</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For other Linux distributions you can grab the Cairo Dock source from <a href="https://launchpad.net/cairo-dock-core">Launchpad</a>.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>seen on <a href="http://www.lffl.org/2013/03/cairo-dock-32-migliora-il-supporto-per.html">lffl.org</a></i></div>

Cairo Dock 3.2 Released With Improved Multi-Screen And GNOME Shell Support, More

Cairo Dock (Glx Dock) is a launcher / task manager that comes with a huge list of applets and configuration options. It can be used with an...

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A Quick Look At The New GNOME Classic Session (Now Available In The GNOME Testing PPA)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_jueCVjigxKo6vKX9wSq_LIJbC6HmcprFsAaAjRt6gWxH1CPPW9Dop1zOtzpHlIf46DSjLWEYFDdzdujBJkpMvUNFNUqt2ka7FG3AZStC0yj4W5PtGj6av4lK2WmFLpdvi3IABUAgBDlq/s1600/gnome-classic_1.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="New GNOME Classic Shell session"><img alt="New GNOME Classic Shell session" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_jueCVjigxKo6vKX9wSq_LIJbC6HmcprFsAaAjRt6gWxH1CPPW9Dop1zOtzpHlIf46DSjLWEYFDdzdujBJkpMvUNFNUqt2ka7FG3AZStC0yj4W5PtGj6av4lK2WmFLpdvi3IABUAgBDlq/s320/gnome-classic_1.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>As you probably know, <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/fallback-mode-classic-session-to-be.html">the fallback mode will be dropped with GNOME 3.8</a> and instead, users will be able to use a set of GNOME Shell extensions that provide a GNOME2-like layout. Recently, these changes have landed in the GNOME Testing PPA for Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">After some recent updates to the GNOME Testing PPA, a new "GNOME Classic" session has showed up in the login screen:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic-gdm.png" rel="image_group" title="GNOME Classic Shell login screen"><img alt="GNOME Classic Shell login screen" src="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic-gdm_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>This isn't the old fallback session</b> (which used to be called 'Classic GNOME Session' in Ubuntu), <b>but a new session in which you're still using GNOME Shell</b>, but with some extensions enabled by default that try to provide a GNOME2-like layout.<br /><br />The first thing you'll notice when using the new GNOME Classic session is that it comes with a <b>light theme</b>, as opposed to the standard GNOME Shell session which uses a dark theme by default. <b>Using this session, you'll get:</b><br /><ul><li>a window list on a panel at the bottom of the screen, with a notification counter at the right;</li><li>an application menu and a places drop-down on the top panel;</li><li>minimize, maximize and close buttons by default (the standard GNOME Shell only uses a close button);</li><li>classic ALT + TAB;</li><li>the clock / calendar has been moved to the right.</li></ul></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The extensions used by the new GNOME Classic session</b> are: AlternateTab, Places Status Indicator, Applications Menu, Static workspaces, Window List, Default Minimize and Maximize and Launch New Instance.</div><br />Here are some screenshots:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic_2.png" rel="image_group" title="GNOME Classic session: menu"><img alt="GNOME Classic session: menu" src="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic_2_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic_3.png" rel="image_group" title="GNOME Classic session: Places"><img alt="GNOME Classic session: Places" src="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic_3_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic_4.png" rel="image_group" title="GNOME Classic session: user menu"><img alt="GNOME Classic session: user menu" src="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic_4_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic_5.png" rel="image_group" title="GNOME Classic session: Activities Overview (black background probably because I'm using it in VirtualBox)"><img alt="GNOME Classic session: Activities Overview (black background probably because I'm using it in VirtualBox)" src="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic_5_thumb.png" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">(black background probably because I'm using it in VirtualBox)</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic-alt-tab.png" rel="image_group" title="Classic ALT + Tab"><img alt="Classic ALT + Tab" src="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic-alt-tab_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Since these are just extensions on top of GNOME Shell, <b>there are some advantages over the old fallback mode: you'll be able to use GNOME Shell's features </b>such as the <b>Activities Overview</b>, get <b>GNOME Shell notifications</b>, <b>use other extensions</b> and so on. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic-notifications.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="GNOME Classic: notifications"><img alt="GNOME Classic: notifications" src="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic-notifications_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Notifications</td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic-notifications_2.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="GNOME Classic: notifications and message tray"><img alt="GNOME Classic: notifications and message tray" src="http://img.netupd8.com/gnome-classic-notifications_2_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Notifications / message tray</td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">But there are some <b>disadvantages </b>too: the extensions bundled with the new GNOME Classic session are very simple and with only some basic features so users coming from the old fallback session will probably miss some of its features. For instance, right clicking an item on the bottom panel doesn't do anything, you can't right click a panel to add new applets (and there are no applets), there are no tray icons on the top panel and so on. </div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Further more, while the notification count is displayed at the right of the bottom panel which is nice, the actual notifications are displayed at the bottom (center) just like in the standard GNOME Shell session, so they show up on top of the window list which is pretty annoying, as you can see in the screenshots above.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>GNOME Shell 3.8 is still under development, so the GNOME Classic session extensions will probably be polished further,</b> but even so, they still won't get all the features that were available in the old classic / fallback session so I wonder if this will be enough to please all those users who were using the old fallback session. What do you think?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you want to test these changes in Ubuntu 12.10* or 13.04, you'll have to add the <a href="https://launchpad.net/~gnome3-team/+archive/gnome3">GNOME 3 PPA</a> as well as the <a href="https://launchpad.net/~ricotz/+archive/testing/+packages">GNOME Testing PPA</a> (but the GNOME Testing PPA is highly unstable so I advise you to only use it in a virtual machine), then run a "dist-upgrade". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* In my test, the new GNOME Classic session didn't show up in the login screen for Ubuntu 12.10 for some reason, but it was available for Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>thanks to deusmetallum @ <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/184sgx/gnomeclassic_now_available_in_the_gnometesting/">Reddit</a></i></div>

A Quick Look At The New GNOME Classic Session (Now Available In The GNOME Testing PPA)

As you probably know, the fallback mode will be dropped with GNOME 3.8 and instead, users will be able to use a set of GNOME Shell extensio...

+ Read more »

Fallback Mode (Classic Session) To Be Dropped From GNOME 3.8

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2gylexrAZtb3F3Oy2iGV0qW_Em1CUdxmWjqC6cwkTU9Vi8ButpCn1KumT9rEs9jcroIbFXm2DvIrUHAdlIkXRABUC8hn7raXQ8sflUfxLQA0kcjF7wHDpCiKxIRq0mTk7WyFJN3SKyXY/s1600/gnome-fallback.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="gnome fallback mode" border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2gylexrAZtb3F3Oy2iGV0qW_Em1CUdxmWjqC6cwkTU9Vi8ButpCn1KumT9rEs9jcroIbFXm2DvIrUHAdlIkXRABUC8hn7raXQ8sflUfxLQA0kcjF7wHDpCiKxIRq0mTk7WyFJN3SKyXY/s320/gnome-fallback.png" title="gnome fallback mode" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The fallback mode, also known as the classic GNOME session, will no longer be included starting with GNOME 3.8, the next stable GNOME release.</b> Users running computers without graphical acceleration can use GNOME Shell through <a href="http://www.mesa3d.org/llvmpipe.html">llvmpipe</a>, which is already supported for some releases.</div><br /><a name='more'></a><blockquote>I'm <a href="https://mail.gnome.org/archives/release-team/2012-November/msg00009.html">writing</a> to inform you that the release team discussed ["<a href="https://live.gnome.org/ThreePointSeven/Features/DropOrFixFallbackMode">Drop or Fix Fallback Mode</a>"] yesterday. We've come to the conclusion that we can't maintain fallback mode in reasonable quality, and are better off dropping it.</blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The GNOME 3.8 features page <a href="https://live.gnome.org/ThreePointSeven/Features/DropOrFixFallbackMode">mentions</a> some of the <b>reasons behind the decision </b>to drop the fallback mode of which, the most important one seems that "<b>it's in maintenance mode</b>", without no new features or active development for a long time. <b>Other reasons include:</b></div><ul><li>nearly nobody actively tests it</li><li>the presence of fallback mode is having a negative impact on the quality of the primary GNOME 3 user experience</li><li>several apps such as Totem or Cheese now require Clutter and can't work without GL. Thus they won't work in fallback mode</li><li>some changes in the architecture require additional work to keep things somewhat working in fallback, even though they won't offer the full experience</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Dropping the follback mode doesn't just mean there will be no more classic GNOME session. With it, <b>some GNOME modules might go away</b>, like Metacity, GNOME Panel, GNOME Applets, notification-daemon, GNOME Screensaver, polkit-gnome and nm-applet. Furthermore, <b>this decision affects Unity, LXDE or Xfce too</b> because they make use of some fallback components like tray icons of GNOME Settings Daemon. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But not all is bad, because <b>dropping the fallback mode means that some modules </b>like GNOME Control Center, GDM or Nautilus <b>could be simplified</b>, mentions the "Drop or Fix Fallback Mode" <a href="https://live.gnome.org/ThreePointSeven/Features/DropOrFixFallbackMode">page</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The GNOME developers didn't forget about the users who prefer a <b>GNOME 2-like layout</b>, and it looks like they will <b>compile</b> and maybe help maintain <b>a list of GNOME Shell extensions</b> that provide such a layout.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ubuntu users don't have to worry about this just yet, since the next Ubuntu version - 13.04 Raring Ringtail -, will <a title="Ubuntu 13.04: Only Some GNOME Components To Be Updated, GTK Not One Of Them" href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/ubuntu-1304-only-some-gnome-components.html">continue to use GNOME 3.6 for the most part</a> and not the latest GNOME 3.8 which will ship without the fallback mode.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://worldofgnome.org/gnome-3-8-is-dropping-fallback-mode/">worldofgnome.org</a>, <a href="https://live.gnome.org/ThreePointSeven/Features/DropOrFixFallbackMode">live.gnome.org</a> and gnome <a href="https://mail.gnome.org/archives/release-team/2012-November/msg00009.html">release-team</a> mailing list</i></div>

Fallback Mode (Classic Session) To Be Dropped From GNOME 3.8

The fallback mode, also known as the classic GNOME session, will no longer be included starting with GNOME 3.8, the next stable GNOME releas...

+ Read more »