GNOME 2.16 Released

Kethinov writes "The GNOME Project has just released version 2.16 of their popular *nix desktop environment. Among many snazzy new features, is lots of new eye candy, including an experimental compositer in Metacity, feature enhancements, usability improvements, and much, much more. Ars Technica has a review."

Re:Probably that you're running Ubuntu, like me.

[Hikaru79]

It's not a coincidence that Ubuntu's release cycle is the same as Gnome's -- six months. That's the defining feature of a new Ubuntu release: a new Gnome release. It was especially designed to be this way.

So to answer your question, 2.16 will be in Edgy. And 2.18 will be in whatever comes after Edgy. And so on.

The important part: Mono

[kestasjk]

This release is very important because Mono is now a dependency! This single move pretty much moves Mono from an interesting project into mainstream OSS.

As a C# fan, and knowing how much of a pain GTK was in C, I think this is a very good move. KDE has always had a better API, official Mono support with GTK reverses that! This could really clear up GNOME, and the Linux desktop generally.

reasons to use gnome

[j1m+5n0w]

I may be incorrect about either of these points, so someone please say so if I am wrong, but I can think of two reasons to prefer gnome over kde:

1) gtk is written in C, whereas QT is C++, making it less easy to use from C programs.

2) gtk is licensed as lgpl, whereas qt is gpl. This means that a non-gpled program (such as a commercial application) can be linked with gtk with no problems, but with qt the developers must pay licensing fees.

Re:Almost sounds like KDE 3...

[cloricus]

You're not a troll. You are stating the clear to see and the only problem with your post that I can find is that you don't think it is a good thing. Note Gnome had perms and the ability to add to the menus beforehand, just no where near as easily/well. Out side of the childish flame wars between kde and gnome the devs and community are getting on with life and taking features off each other while implementing new ones independently. Also moving into line with freedesktops specs. I think this is great for Linux desktop interoperability and really does allow people to use what they want with little hassle and not missing the features and functionality they really need.
 
For the record I use Gnome, Enligthenment (DR17), and Blackbox and I refuse to even touch the peice of bloated crap that is KDE. :)

Re:So what?

[hdparm]

You may want to read release notes for 2.16. BTW, since last night this version is included with Fedora rawhide (just updated FC6, test2).

Re:reasons to use gnome

[Almahtar]

You're correct about licensing, first off. Honestly I think that's a good thing - if someone wants to make money off their app they should kick back money to those whose work on which they are capitalizing.

As far as C vs. C++: Qt is C++, yes. GTK is C, yes. But there's also GTKMM, the C++ bindings for GTK. So this makes Gnome more flexible because it has both C and C++ bindings. I'm not sure if this is a win for Gnome or not, because I don't think any GUI C app could be more maintainable, flexible, and stable than a GUI C++ app, so I find it best to discourage the use of C in a GUI app. I have no grounds to back that except experience, and I admit it.

Re:God help Nautilus

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there a single 'power' user that likes Nautilus?

Yes, quite a few I'd guess with scripts and actions there is quite a lot of hidden power inside of Nautilus for those who can use it.

It is not customizeable -can't change single thing on the toolbar.

Are we talking about power users or power mousers here?

Default view is useful for home directory only.

Don't confuse opinion with fact.

Location bar (can be changed) is annoying with buttons instead of link.

Ctrl+L is a power users best friend, you save space by not having a location bar open (it's my hard drive, not the net, I know where I am).

Re:So? It still sucks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude... you can turn off the icons! You can configure most of the defaults away and end up with quite an uncluttered look and feel. Try it out, run KDE and play a couple of hours with the settings. I'm sure something interesting to you will emerge.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:5 Year Old 3D features...

[Nadir]

No, we just have to wait for the AIGLX and DRI project to complete adding the required bits to the drivers. It's not GNOME's fault.

Re:Probably that you're running Ubuntu, like me.

[cakoose]

I've used Debian for around 5 years and while the GNOME/X11 upgrades do have problems, they work well enough that I'm content with the way it works.

I've used Ubuntu for around 9 months and had no problems at all with the Hoary-to-Dapper upgrade.

When I use Debian, I just select "testing" or "unstable" and continously update to the latest packages, which gets rid of the annoying version-lag that Ubuntu has. On the other hand, Ubuntu's big all-at-once upgrades makes quality assurance easier and so I expect Ubuntu upgrades to be smoother than Debian upgrades.

Re:But does it have a useable file-save dialogue?

[say]

If you are referring to the standard GTK File-open-dialog, try to press CTRL+H, as that will show hidden files. You could also right-click and choose "Show hidden files" from the pop-up menu.

Re:But does it have a useable file-save dialogue?

[ville]

Patch your GTK+ to open the save-dialog expanded. Patch that works with 2.8.6 and 2.8.19 at least:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Beautify_GNOME#Save_d ialogs_expanded_by_default [gentoo-wiki.com]

// ville

credit where credit's due

[cliveholloway]

Emo Phillips.

"My parents told me never to go through the cellar door because horrible things lay on the other side. But one day, curiosity got the better of me, and I went through the cellar door. On the other side, I saw strange and wonderful things, things I'd never seen before, like trees... and clouds..."

Re:God help Nautilus

[Oestergaard]

Not for everything.
Konq. actually does a decent job of showing directories with loads of images (8+ Mpixel jpegs/tiffs) as thumbnails. Something bash doesn't (yet) do well.

The much cooler feature is, that the *same* file browser component is used in every KDE app - so when you want to burn a CD or whatever, K3B shows you the *same* thumbnail-view of your image catalogue as you used in Konq before when sorting the images. This may sound simple but it is such a basic necessity that it is beyond me why neither windows nor gnome seems to have even thought of it.

It's the little things in everyday usage...

Re:Sourceforge?

[ajs318]

Last time I looked, the GNOME foot was bare. Bare feet do not smell. Feet kept in shoes smell, because perspiration cannot evaporate, and bacteria thrive in the warm, moist environment.

Re:5 Year Old 3D features...

[Stalyn]

That's not really true, considering the nvidia open source drivers do not even support 3d acceleration. The ati open source drivers are alot further along but only support older cards.

If you have a newer card or a nvidia card, the only option is XGL/compiz which has the same effects (and more) than the new Metacity. If you still want to use Metacity you will have to wait until Nvidia/ATI releases their drivers with texture from pixmap [freedesktop.org] support which could be 6 months to a year from now. XGL has tfp already built into its server which allows one to use accelerated 3d effects even if their driver does not support it.

Also I should note that one could use compiz with AIGLX (not sure if you can right out of the box or requires a patch).

Re:The important part: Mono

[killjoe]

Not all of it. Actually not most of the useful parts.

Re:Almost sounds like KDE 3...

[a_karbon_devel_005]

Default KDE 3 takes up less memory and uses less resources to run than GNOME currently. Run them side by side and see for yourself. KDE is not bloated in comparison to GNOME.

Re:Here's another problem with Gnome branding

[Medieval_Gnome]

It's not quite that bad. When accessing these programs from the menu they *do* have the simple names you were hoping for.

Totem is 'Movie Player'
Baobab is 'Disk Usage Analyzer'
Alacarte seems to be 'Menu Layout', although Ubuntu might have changed something here.
Tomboy is unfortunately 'Tomboy notes'

So overall they've managed to use fairly clear and simple names for these programs, much as you were hoping for.

Re:Technically great

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is he doing it? Because it is helpful. Btw I would forward the comments more directly to the developers, but otherwise...good stuff.

Why are you complaining about him making valid and constructive criticism?

Re:Almost sounds like KDE 3...

[Goalie_Ca]

On a modern machine none run bloated... but kde's interface sure takes a bit of work. I'm glad in KDE 4 they are cleaning up the "bloated" ui. KDE apps rarely feel streamlined rather they feel large and overwhelming. KDE feels very busy...