Debunking Gnome 3 myths
Some people are slightly confused about what Gnome 3 actually is. The biggest myth is
Gnome Shell == Gnome 3
Actually its very far from the truth, in fact there is a lot of work that has nothing to do with user interface.
The second biggest myth is
Gnome will drop all support for Gnome-Panel
Actually it will be fairly easy to go back to Panel if you dont like Gnome-Shell its just “gnome-panel –replace” in command line.
Here is a list of some of whats going on (If I forget some please feel free to comment and add them).
You can see the release announcement here. For one its a redefining of the user experience with Gnome-Shell. Its also Gnome activity journal which will bring a new level of convenience to the desktop. There will be a lot of integrating of web technologies like webkit and javascript(which is what gnome shell is written in). A lot of outdated technologies will be deprecated and new technologies introduced. A new Gnome website too.
Gnome-Shell
There is some cool mockups and info about shell here.
This is the one huge change, removing the old gnome panel written back eight years ago and replacing it with a new fresh user interface. It is written in Javascript and uses CSS for theming. Gnome Shell uses Clutter for the display and it is very exciting looking at the beauty of Moblin which uses Clutter already. It features a simple desktop and an activities area that gives and overview of workspaces and allows the user to do all of what it does currently. It also has a built in notifications system and will soon get its own applcation indicators. Its not a huge change but it adds some new eye candy to the Gnome experience.
Gnome Activity Journal and Zeitgeist
This is very cool and has a load of awesome applications throughout the desktop. Zeitgeist is an engine which simply gets your activity from the programs you use, files you open, pages you open, code you view or edit and so on. Gnome Activity Journal uses Zeitgeist, tracker and telepathy to offer a complete timeline of your activities and the history of your files. Telepathy integration is also coming for to the journal for added collaboration.
What Zeitgeist offers is that it replaces GTK recently used and it can show you what activities you do most for each program. Zeitgeist and tracker will have all the information about you and your files and will add a never before seen level of information and relevance. Here is a nice video of Gnome Activity Journal in action.
Use of web technologies
The use of web technologies is very important, it enables developers from the single largest area of development to contribute. It also leverages all the goodness being done in this area. So we can use webkit to make a really cool program made using HTML, CSS, XHTML, Javascript, Ajax… Also as I mentioned above Gnome Shell is being written in Javascript to lower the barrier for new developers coming from other platforms.
Deprecation of old technologies and increasing use of new ones
Cleaning up is awesome, the Gnome platform hasnt had a big clean up in a long time and its starting to get crowded. The main changes are moving fully over to the dbus and moving to dconf. This will streamline the platform substantially.
The new Gnome Website
This looks really awesome.
So whats coming is a clean up, a new user experience, new technology and a new website. I hope this post clarifies Gnome 3 for people and I hope you are as excited as I am 
A screenshot I found on the GNOME Shell mailing list with a different color theme:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/258262/Screenshot-47.jpg
I like it more than your black on black screenshots.
The GNOME Zeitgeist Activity Journal video is really awesome.
Nice ill add it to my post thanks
Damn I cant align it with the others ill just make the picture you made a link so people can look at it.
Yes, that is nice and also useful. Looking forward to Gnome 3.
I recently published an article about GNOME Shell. It isn’t about dispelling any myths, but it gives an overview of the new layout / usage. Includes plenty of screenshots:
http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2009/11/02/install-gnome-shell-on-ubuntu-9-10-karmic-koala/
Nice tutorial on how to get shell up and running.
So GnomeJS uses SpiderMonkey right now, but are there plans to switch to SquirrelFish Extreme since Epiphany went webkit, and there are performance advantages?
And Gnome-Shell uses the new xdg dbus system tray idea, right?
I actually asked if they thought of moving to javascriptcore or V8 and they said it doesnt matter too much which engine they use.
At the moment it uses the same way the notification area does it but you would have to ask on #gnome-shell or on the mailing list what they want people to do.
We have Gnome bindings working using both Spidermonkey (GJS) and Squirrelfish (Seed), but the Shell developers have their hearts set on using language features only available (at the moment) in Spidermonkey. We’ll see what the future holds, in this sense, and we’re working to keep Gnome’s options open…
GJS was created for gnome shell to use though?
AFAIK the css theme engine is dead.
Nope http://dl.dropbox.com/u/258262/Screenshot-47.jpg is a css theme.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Planet Ubuntu, toorghezi, Shane Fagan, Zuissi, Heiner León and others. Heiner León said: ♻ @x_fausto: Los mitos de Gnome 3 http://2tu.us/1ezn [...]
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by shanefagan: I just wrote up a blog post about gnome 3 http://tr.im/Kwxm has a video of zeitgeist and pictures of gnome shell….
I read a while ago that the move to clutter will ruin some of the existing accessibility features, do you know whether that is true or just speculation?
Well the accessibility features will have to be rewritten but it gives us a chance to have better integrated features so its good and bad.
[...] Fagan tries to debunk some Gnome 3 myths. However, I don’t see the whole issue as bright and easy as he does. I’m a bit skeptic [...]
Thanks for the update. I am liking this.
I really do hope they take this opportunity to really clean it up.
Hi,
is it true that the window manager of GNOME 3 will refuse to work on computers that do not have the hardware for composition? Or is this a myth as well?
Olaf
Well it wont work on computers 4+~ years old. It needs accelerated graphics but it works on even slow gpus like on netbooks. If the user doesnt have composition they can go back to panel fairly easily.
GNOME shell is a huge change, I tried it with the preview included in Fedora 12 and found it totally disruptive, it change completely your interaction with the desktop. I hated it instantly, if that’s the future for GNOME, I am looking for alternatives (do not update for a couple of releases, move to Xfce etc.)
And the Panel is pretty much dead: it may be available to install, but will not receive new features, probably neither bug fixes beyond security stuff, and even those will cease in a couple of releases.
gnome-shell appears to have been an idea that two or three GNOME ‘rockstars’ had that everyone is blindly following, even though there has been no validation of the concept to speak of, and no usability studies published, let alone the iterative usability testing you need to do with something this radical. It scares me a lot.
I’ve blogged about Gnome shell a few days ago.
I got to admit that, as far as I knew, Gnome-shell
is the small steps before Gnome 3.
Thanks for this article Shane.
http://iovarsamis.blogspot.com/2010/01/gnome-shell-gnome-3.html
I’ve also hacked out an article on the new GNOME Activity Journal and Zeitgeist for those interested..
http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2010/01/19/preview-gnome-activity-journal-zeitgeist-on-ubuntu-9-10/
[...] meeting an interesting idea came up. That was to have a ubuntu loco style release party for Gnome 3 this fall. The proposal is here, im sure sponsors are welcome. I have to stress its a cross [...]
[...] meeting an interesting idea came up. That was to have a ubuntu loco style release party for Gnome 3 this fall. The proposal is here, im sure sponsors are welcome. I have to stress its a cross [...]
[...] گنوم سه در راه است اما ظاهرا اکثر ما درک دقیقی از اینکه قرار است با چه چیزی روبرو شویم نداریم. زیاد میبینم که بچه ها گنوم شل را برابر با گنوم سه میگیرند و به تغییرات اصلی گنوم توجه نمیکنند. بگذارید به چند نکته درباره گنوم سه دقت کنیم… این نکات از این مقاله استخراج شدهاند. [...]
[...] گنوم سه در راه است اما ظاهرا اکثر ما درک دقیقی از اینکه قرار است با چه چیزی روبرو شویم نداریم. زیاد میبینم که بچه ها گنوم شل را برابر با گنوم سه میگیرند و به تغییرات اصلی گنوم توجه نمیکنند. بگذارید به چند نکته درباره گنوم سه دقت کنیم… این نکات از این مقاله استخراج شدهاند. [...]
[...] precisamente lo que nos explica un fantástico artículo de Snane Fagan en el que se muestran algunos de los componentes claves de GNOME 3 y explican de qué se encargará [...]
[...] گنوم سه در راه است اما ظاهرا اکثر ما درک دقیقی از اینکه قرار است با چه چیزی روبرو شویم نداریم. زیاد میبینم که بچه ها گنوم شل را برابر با گنوم سه میگیرند و به تغییرات اصلی گنوم توجه نمیکنند. بگذارید به چند نکته درباره گنوم سه دقت کنیم… این نکات از این مقاله استخراج شدهاند. [...]
[...] Zeitgeist, ive blogged a lot about zeitgeist so ill just post a few links to what I said previously. They also had a new release (along with gnome activity journal) so id like to congratulate them on that. http://shanefagan.com/2010/01/15/debunking-the-gnome-3-myths/ [...]
[...] also had a new release (along with gnome activity journal) so id like to congratulate them on that. http://shanefagan.com/2010/01/15/debunking-the-gnome-3-myths/ [...]
[...] something about GNOME 3 that seems almost too good to be true. Or even just a bit far-fetched. Shane Fagan also has an informative post about GNOME 3 and the shell and panel support, two subjects that are [...]
Just curious – will you finally be dumping Evolution? It’s one of my personal pet peeves with Gnome, it serves no use for me, but I can’t get rid of it, because then updates won’t work properly.
Wayne
Nope there is no replacement for evolution. It has a lot more to it than thunderbird.