Thursday, May 26, 2011

Gnome 3 New Features and Does It Look Like Windows 7 ?


As most of you all know Gnome 3 is released (http://gnome3.org/) so as always I wanted to try it out, so I installed it on my fedora 14, and then wanted to check it out with fedora 15. After messing around with it for some time, It was okay but not that great, For the most part of it I could notice the similarities to Windows 7s normal theme. So went around searching to see what were others opinion about it, but tomy surprise there were NO or just a bit of talk about it, This gave me no other option but to write something for myself.

I'm not going to compare in detail and break down the things, maybe that's for another post. This will be a comparison between the major functionalities shown on the home page of Gnome 3 (you can checkout the videos)

Feature 1:  Instance Messenger Notification

Who are you kidding?? I have not come across a messenger which actually distracts me while I'm working all the messengers I have worked with just gives a small notification on the right side corner with the beginning of the message. What is the use of putting this as a feature on Gnome 3 ?? I seriously don't get that. If any of you disagree with me on this think about a messenger which does not actually do this. I do get, Integrating the messenger to Gnome might be a good thing, but the problem is if all my messengers notification look alike its just going to be dull in the end. Sometimes it is nice to have your mind distracted with Messenger specific notification than having a black themed notification.

Feature 2:  Easier Window Management

The next video goes on to say if you drag the window to the top it gets maximized and if you drag it to the left it goes to left, ext.. First thing that pop into my head was 'This is just the same feature Windows 7 gives' So whats the big deal?

Feature 3:  App-based Window Management

There is nothing to be said on this. This is no other than 'Quick Launch' feature introduced in Windows Vista. I dint not see anything new here. Its just the same old thing.

Feature 4:  Deeper Hardware Integration

'We only show Suspend option if it's supported by you hardware' That was there even on Windows XP which is more than ten years old. Showing options that are supported by your hardware was already available in Gnome 2. Firmware is not done by Gnome it just front ends it, so even how much support you have on this first the Firmware has to be updated if you want to use this at all.

Feature 5: Create Workspaces

Well this is actually good, but I still feel the static workspace is better. The problem with this is, I actually need to do another mouse move or a keyboard shortcut to see the workspaces that I have used. Anything that makes me do one more step is something thats not worth it.Workspace is something that we use a lot so I want to be able to see the free workspaces like on Gnome 2 without another command involved.

Where the Hell is the Task-bar ?

At first  you will see is that the task-bar is missing. Whats the point? I don't want to move my mouse or do a keyboard shortcut to see the programmes that are running I want to just see it in one glance when I want to, Its not worth to remove something just to save like 10 px of space. Again anything that makes me to something more is not worth it.


I'm not trying to persuade that all features are bad, there are some good features as well, but Gnome 3 was a disappointment for me. I was expecting more than what I received. Alas, none of the features were good enough for me to switch from Gnome 2 to Gnome 3.

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