{"id":14946,"date":"2011-05-25T11:31:04","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T09:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=14946"},"modified":"2011-05-25T11:50:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-25T09:50:00","slug":"fedora-15-gnome3-here-we-go-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2011\/05\/25\/fedora-15-gnome3-here-we-go-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Fedora 15 : Gnome3, here we go again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As you probably know, Fedora 15 was released yesterday<\/a>. \u00a0I’ve been waiting for this release with a big worry in my heart. \u00a0While I did, of course, want to have a look at the new service manager systemd<\/em> and enjoy the power management improvements, I had my doubts about Gnome3. \u00a0 My doubts were based on two reasons.<\/p>\n

Firstly, for the last decade or so, every major release of Gnome or KDE disrupts my workflow so much that I have no other option but to switch to an alternative desktop manager. \u00a0When the new KDE comes out, I switch to Gnome<\/a> and when the new Gnome comes out I’m going back to KDE. \u00a0Not because I want to, but because there is a limit to how much I can take.<\/p>\n

Secondly, because I’ve heard so much praise about Gnome3 and the new Gnome Shell, that I actually tried it out when it was in early beta. \u00a0I was puzzled then and I hoped that something would be done about the migration process.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong, I like new software, new ideas, and new designs. \u00a0But I also need to work. \u00a0My daily routine doesn’t require much desktop usage – I spend most of my time in the browser and in the text editor – but I do rely on things to work. \u00a0In particular, I need my shortcuts to work, I need my desktop icons to be where I left them, I need application shortcuts and system monitoring widgets.<\/p>\n

Back when KDE4 was released, they decided to get rid of desktop icons<\/a>. \u00a0There was a way to add a folder view to the desktop and sort of have the same functionality, but it was too different for my tastes. \u00a0Now, Gnome3 goes south too. \u00a0After the upgrade to Fedora 15, Gnome3 kicks in, and all the icons from the desktop are gone. \u00a0They are still in your Desktop folder, but they are not displayed on the desktop anymore. \u00a0And I can’t seem to find a way to add them back. \u00a0Also, all widgets and application shortcuts are gone from the panels. \u00a0Yes, you can now switch and search and find applications, but it’s way longer than just clicking on an application shortcut in the top or bottom panel. \u00a0As to the CPU, network, and other system monitoring gadgets, I can’t see away to add them back. \u00a0And that brings me to the next point…<\/p>\n

Migration path. \u00a0It is a common practice in software design to guide the user through the interface when the user sees the interface for the first time. \u00a0Especially when the user is used to seeing a totally different interface previously. \u00a0A couple of arrows showing where things are would help a lot. \u00a0A quick tour guide would be ideal. \u00a0But none of that appeared in my fresh Gnome3 desktop. \u00a0I somewhat figured out how to move around. \u00a0But I am far away from being productive with this new interface. \u00a0And even to get to where I am – I had to spend a couple of hours, given that I am also a technical person with some understanding of how desktops work and what they do. \u00a0A though of upgrading my wife’s and my son’s computers sends shivers down my spine. \u00a0It will be a disaster. \u00a0I’m not comfortable with not upgrading them also, but I guess they’ll have to stay on Fedora 14 for now.<\/p>\n

There is something else that bugs me quite a bit about these new changes. \u00a0They seem to be fixing stuff which is not broken. \u00a0I mean pretty much every desktop user out there is familiar with the desktop workspace, icons, shortcuts and main menu. \u00a0Why change that? \u00a0It does work! \u00a0Are there things that don’t work? \u00a0Well, since the beginning of times, people were complaining that you can’t change Gnome calendar display to show Monday as the start of the week<\/a> (yeah, there is a way, which involves locale compilation and system-wide changes), and flag icons on the keyboard layout switch (there was a workaround for the older version of Gnome<\/a> which I applied, but now the icons are gone again).<\/p>\n

I do appreciate all the hard work all those brilliant people put into this new Fedora 15 and Gnome3 releases. \u00a0Thank you all. \u00a0I know, you worked hard. \u00a0 But the result is a devastating user experience, as it is now. \u00a0And it doesn’t have to be. \u00a0It’s like 99% of the work was done and only a tiny bit is missing. \u00a0But without that one bit, the other 99% don’t make any sense. \u00a0This is a great pity.<\/p>\n

With that, I’ll spend another couple of hours trying to figure this Gnome3 thing out and if it won’t start working for me by some magic coincidence, I’ll have to switch to KDE. \u00a0Again.<\/p>\n

P.S.: As for the rest of the Fedora 15 release, it looks alright. \u00a0I did lost my wireless connectivity on my home laptop, but that is probably because kmod-wl-something is not available for the new kernel or yum didn’t pick it up. \u00a0I’ll stick a cable in it later today and will try to update. \u00a0Hopefully it will work out.<\/p>\n

P.P.S. : My brother<\/a> pointed out to me that some of my problems can be fixed by installing gnome-tweak-tool<\/em> and tweaking the configuration. At least I got my Desktop icons on the desktop now.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

As you probably know, Fedora 15 was released yesterday. \u00a0I’ve been waiting for this release with a big worry in my heart. \u00a0While I did, of course, want to have a look at the new service manager systemd and enjoy the power management improvements, I had my doubts about Gnome3. \u00a0 My doubts were based … Continue reading Fedora 15 : Gnome3, here we go again<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,6,62],"tags":[65,2351,292,66,1158],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-14946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-linux","category-technology","tag-desktop","tag-fedora-linux","tag-gnome","tag-kde","tag-user-interfaces"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14974,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2011\/05\/27\/gnome3-tutorial\/","url_meta":{"origin":14946,"position":0},"title":"Gnome3 Tutorial","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"May 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is one solid piece of advice I can give you after spending way too much time tweaking Gnome 3 in the last few days: read this Gnome 3 tutorial.\u00a0 Don't just scroll through it.\u00a0 Read every single word of it.\u00a0 It will save you a lot of time and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/gnome3_tutorial-500x455.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14952,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2011\/05\/25\/xfce4-saves-the-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":14946,"position":1},"title":"Xfce4 saves the day","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"May 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"After almost a full day of tweaking configurations and swearing at both Gnome3 and KDE4, I decided to follow my brother's advice - try Xfce4. \u00a0This is yet another desktop environment available in Fedora 15. \u00a0I've heard a few good words about it, but never actually tried it out. \u00a0Today\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/xfce4_screenshot-500x281.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11199,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/19\/fedora-9-before-and-after\/","url_meta":{"origin":14946,"position":2},"title":"Fedora 9 : before and after","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"May 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I have recently upgraded my laptop to Fedora 9.\u00a0 Those of you who come often to this blog or follow me on Twitter, know that I've been waiting for this release like for nothing else.\u00a0 Two technologies in particular - KDE 4 and Firefox 3 - were the center of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18039,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2013\/04\/19\/fedora-19-alpha-is-a-go\/","url_meta":{"origin":14946,"position":3},"title":"Fedora 19 alpha is a Go","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"April 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Fedora 19 alpha version will be released next Tuesday. \u00a0I've been busy with other things recently, so that was a surprising announcement for me. Is it that time of the year again? \u00a0Apparently. \u00a0We are still a good three month away from the final release, but it's still good to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13544,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2010\/11\/08\/adding-flags-to-gnome-keyboard-layout-switch\/","url_meta":{"origin":14946,"position":4},"title":"Adding flags to Gnome keyboard layout switch","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"November 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the little things that has been bugging me for a few years now is the Gnome keyboard layout switch. \u00a0I am using two layouts - English and Russian - and instead of having two nice flags, like in KDE, I had to live with 'USA' and 'RUS' letters\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/taskbar.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15870,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2011\/11\/09\/fedora-16-going-back-to-kde-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":14946,"position":5},"title":"Fedora 16 : going back to KDE 4","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"November 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"If you follow my Twitter stream, by now you'd know that I've upgraded my laptop to the brand new and shining Fedora 16. \u00a0In case you were wondering how it went, I'm happy to report that everything went smoothly. \u00a0Even more smoothly than I've expected. \u00a0Given my laptop's weird wireless\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/KDE-Desktop-500x281.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14946"},{"taxonomy":"keyring_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyring_services?post=14946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}