The new GNOME 3 website goes live

By , Published January 19, 2011

The official website for GNOME 3, the next iteration of the GNOME desktop, has gone online in alpha state.

The work-in-progress is full of bite-sized information on the redesigned desktop ‘made of easy’ (their slogan, not ours), along with smatterings of pictures and a handy FAQ guide to appease the quizzical.

If you have a few spare minutes to hand visiting the site is a must – check it out @ gnome3.org

Related posts:

  1. How to install vanilla GNOME 3 in Maverick
Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
  • http://twitter.com/om26er omer akram

    nice

  • Anonymous

    April will be an awesome month for us all, With Ubuntu 11.04 and Gnome 3 going final, we’ll REALLY have some new toys to play with, I am expecting the After effects of such radical changes to make the place of savvy user only Linux to a Noobs paradise, OMG! Ubuntu will become one of the most important news sites for people who love to customize and configure their new found freedom. Keep up the good work OMG, I check in every hour (when I can) ;)

    • http://twitter.com/me4oslav Georgi Karavasilev

      That is one of the best opinions here.
      I am waiting for both Unity and Gnome 3,Will be using Unity on laptop and Gnome 3 on big PC and that means I have one left,suggestions for other DE(except KDE and XFCE,wanna try sth new)?

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FA7LYSNLUP7Q4R2JGFLSFAK76Y Daniel

        well If you like minimalist themes then openbox can be fun, it looks really great and it’s fun to play around with really low resource window managers :D

  • http://twitter.com/Countdwn2Falmer Seagulls

    I really like the look of Gnome3. Your right as Libertas_Mania said April is going to be brilliant. Gnome3 as well as Unity. That’s the great thing about Ubuntu and Open Source, its always changing, always improving. It just gets better and better.

  • http://twitter.com/BradC Brad Christensen

    This may be an obvious question but why does GNOME Shell still use a disgusting thick black bar for its panel while the rest of it is somewhat elegant and potentially usable?

    But uh, the site is nice.

    • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

      100% agree. Even though it looks soothing, but those black-black-black everywhere is not so soothing everywhere. Check the chat window, I don’t think that is a useful way of implementing chat.

      The side dock looks no better than Unity. Just adding a bit of glow-behind doesn’t cut it.

      Lastly a new fresh set of icons please. :)

      • http://half-left.deviantart.com/ Sean

        The theme is meant to be minimal and why people can just theme it as they want anyway. Remember, it’s still an alpha and slowly making it’s way to the target render.

        Built-in chat is very useful, since you don’t have to switch apps replying or talking.

        • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

          I am not saying that the in built chat is bad, but the colouring and theme. It is making the chat unreadable.

          Remember even when KDE came out with a makeover called KDE 4.0, its default out of box theme was so pretty that I never thought I need to theme it again. BTW I am a Gnome user

          • Anonymous

            Ubuntu did it right when they gave a dark and a light theme, I only enjoy dark themes and 3/4 of the rest of the world prefer light themes – They consider it more like pen on paper, but the people who know black saves power, saves eye strain and only takes a few weeks to get used to over the light ones are the better off people. KDE with all defaults would look nice to a light theme fan, but they never gave many viable dark ones.

          • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

            I am not saying that black is wrong. Just saying that the contrast and the way it looks is weird.

          • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4QG3BZ64DUX4LGC5SUF4IPD5JI DanielG

            Using black definitely does not save power. The values of the pixel may all be set to 0, but the backlight is still on causing the most power consumption. Unless you’re using a monitor that supports local dimming (such as AMOLED), it won’t make much of a difference. I do agree that black reduces eye strain.

    • http://twitter.com/brunoerre Bruno R.

      Everytime I see a GNOME 3 screenshot I can’t figure out why they keep this top bar like this and insist to make it even uglier with this giant bold white text.

      • Anonymous

        Let both hope they figure that out themselves, it’s a huge waste of screen space if it doesn’t do anything more than hold a clock and a few indicators – I just hope they make it fully customizable with a little more control over alignment (face it Gnome Panels of the past will screw up the positions you place things).

    • http://twitter.com/brunoerre Bruno R.

      Everytime I see a GNOME 3 screenshot I can’t figure out why they keep this top bar like this and insist to make it even uglier with this giant bold white text.

    • Anonymous

      It is themeable, so I would not worry about that

    • Anonymous

      it’s more for demo purposes, so people can get a good feel of where things are in this new layout.

      and like others have said is totally themeable, so am sure every distro will adapt it to their own.

    • http://twitter.com/ChronicBit J Sale

      Ever seen something called Gnome-shell elementary. This problem can be mended.

    • Anonymous

      Don’t know. Why do people like dark themes?

    • http://twitter.com/humphreybc Benjamin Humphrey

      Yeah, the deep black bar is a bit aggressive.

  • http://flavors.me/shinkaide André

    I hope it can be customized as much as you could gnome 2. I’m a fan of having a minimal desktop with next to zero clutter in it (Everything’s autohidden, just a plain desktop with no icons) and using gnome do for pretty much everything.

    Really like the concepts behind the new iteration of gnome and I’m definitely buying into it, but I also like to have the ability to customize everything down to their barest – zen-like, if you will.

    That’s just me being OCD about my computing habits, though.

    • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

      Even if it is not then give it some time. The most important things is implement the default feature-set pretty well. Make it stable. Customization option should come second.

      • http://xeptf4.myopenid.com/ xeptf4

        true that

    • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/TheMerkinman Merk

      By default GNOME Shell hides pretty much everything.

    • http://blastfromthepast.se/ Tommy Brunn

      I don’t know about customization in the form of moving/changing/hiding panels and stuff. But theming is much easier in Gnome 3 than it was/is in Gnome 2.

    • http://blastfromthepast.se/ Tommy Brunn

      I don’t know about customization in the form of moving/changing/hiding panels and stuff. But theming is much easier in Gnome 3 than it was/is in Gnome 2.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LKUXC3FXV3JH6CRF3FI4DVPEWY Kelby

    Finally, can’t wait until it releases. This is a better alternative to the unity desktop interface but, I have faith in shuttlesworth that he is making the right decision overall ubuntu is most favorable and popular distro besides fedora.

  • https://launchpad.net/~davidc3 Davidc

    The last screenshot makes me wonder. If I want to configure my network, do I have to click on Network, Network C…, Network P…, Network P…, Network T… or Network?

    • http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com/ dylan-m

      Yeah, I’ve been pointing out the many problems with this “let’s make launchers 64 pixels wide even though the workspace is gigantic” trend for about a year now. I really hope they have a plan here.

      For settings, you’ll actually be using the (really awesome) new control centre. For other stuff, I can sort of picture it working if we all move to short, smartphone style app names like Firefox is as opposed to Firefox Web Browser.
      Of course, the reason that works on smartphones (which have a reason for tiny launchers) is because people install apps individually and deliberately. If somebody wants to read ebooks, he’ll remember installing “FBReader.” The decent looking icon from the application author helps, too.

      That move also demands less geeky application names. Evolution, Gwibber and Empathy are not good because they don’t explain themselves. Evolution Calendar is too long for this design.

      Of course, Android actually has more space for app names on my little Nexus One (two whole rows), so it all feels especially grim…

  • http://xeptf4.myopenid.com/ xeptf4

    this is sex

  • http://www.BaloneyGeek.com Boudhayan Gupta

    Communications built in – MEWANTS THAT IN UNITY.

    • http://twitter.com/humphreybc Benjamin Humphrey

      I have to admit it’s pretty awesome.

  • http://ghetto.k2city.eu Matej MoÅ¡ko

    Just wow. notification integrated messaging, slick use of every corner on my display… Besides ugly font, non-purpose texts below icons and rather odd top panel, it is my favorit. It looks much more feature-filled than unity and even more useful. The time will show, I am going to give a try to both. For now, definitely gnomeshell

    • Zsolt Sándor

      If you ask me, I’d say I’m not sure if the screenshots were made with Cantarell font. They look more like good old (Deja Vu) Sans. Cantarell is much prettier. :)

  • http://twitter.com/pilehp nit

    I dont get it. Seems like the same GNOME 2 topbar there. Why making a new same old thing? Why 2 wireless icons, one at top, and other at bottom?

    • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/TheMerkinman Merk

      It only looks like the same panel. It acts differently as you can just put any little thing up there. Not sure about the two wireless icons though.

    • http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com/ dylan-m

      The bottom is the Message Tray, where notifications come in. It also does system tray items as a temporary holdover, where all the hardware controls on the top right happen internal to the shell. It’s quite a neat design (besides the obsession with making everything excessively tiny).

      The message tray is neat because you can have persistent notifications. For example, a new message notification that only clears when you have read the message instead of clearing as soon as you read the notification.
      If applications behave themselves, it will be similar to Android’s status bar.

      And no, applications won’t behave themselves because libnotify is too complicated for its own good and needs to be split into two systems.
      Persistent notifications are wonderful, though :)

      • http://twitter.com/humphreybc Benjamin Humphrey

        Android’s notification system is excellent. I really wish iOS had a similar notification system, rather than interrupting your work flow with a popup. Really, really annoying.

        But hey, that’s off topic =P

    • Anonymous

      You should give the demo a try.

  • Huseyin Kaya

    It looks nice but it’s like it is missing something, or is it just me?

  • Huseyin Kaya

    It looks nice but it’s like it is missing something, or is it just me?

  • http://twitter.com/siid Seed

    Really don’t like it.

  • http://twitter.com/siid Seed

    Really don’t like it.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GE4EYP3QOQ246PLG2Y2DOD2NIQ Dr. Fly

    About time we saw the new official look for GNOME Shell appear on their own webpage. The documentation back at the GNOME Live site still hasn’t been updated much, though.

  • http://xaviersythe.com Xavier Sythe

    GNOME_3__looks__like__it__could__be__made__in__HTML5.__
    (My__spacebar__is__broken,__sorry)

    • Anonymous

      Heh, I just thought you__were__really__excited. :P

    • http://twitter.com/me4oslav Georgi Karavasilev

      Just_an_advice:
      Buy__a__new__keyboard __:P

      • http://xaviersythe.com Xavier Sythe

        No point, it’s not my PC.

    • Anonymous

      is that a good thing or a bad thing?

      • http://xaviersythe.com Xavier Sythe

        What do you think?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_S7GZSLCX2ELU2UXUHS5OK2APL4 Davorin

    “… and each of the design decisions behind it has a carefully considered rationale.” – what a load of bullcrap, it’s not even funny.

  • Anonymous

    I dont get it .. what is there in gnome-shell that u cant do with panels and dock ?
    The activity view .. sure. It will be the first thing i disable.
    Anything else ?

  • http://twitter.com/awildthingy Andrew Wild

    Theme/chrome customization is always a cool feature, though I think it will always be the best practice to just spent the extra time and look good by default. That way your favorite distro its much more enticing to the noob to linux and when its set to the default its easier to support your converted friends and family when they run into problems.

    • Anonymous

      That is the golden solution, most of my basic PC using friends will NOT use their computer if it’s acting up so you have to visit the PC yourself (why?): Well because you cannot copy and paste a bash script over the phone, The problem with linux is it doesn’t offer a AIO tool package for system repairs and the ones that have tried in the past have put in useless options that make it even more confusing to explain over the phone. The best solution will always be a 8 step guide you can tell them to follow (like Windows and Mac’s), gconf, bash and the huge list of other settings, tools and tweak locations make life much too hard to offer phone support, I imagine that dell and other companies that have sold Linux know exactly what I am talking about. The support group quit there jobs because of the stress they are put under :P

      • Anonymous

        Of course you can try Teamviewer or any remote viewer app: http://www.teamviewer.com/download/teamviewer_linux.deb
        (for Ubuntu 32 bit) Then just run application on both computers, will install easily. Then simply call the person, ask for their ID and you will be controlling their PC, without them inputting bash scripts etc…It is reallly esasy to setup, and is cross platform.

      • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/ladoga@sci.fi ladoga

        Why don’t you just ssh to the box and run the command/bash script yourself? Much easier, faster and no need to explain any steps.

  • http://twitter.com/me4oslav Georgi Karavasilev

    The one thing I can’t get sued to when using Gnome-Shell is that activities menu.
    i got used to the lack of compiz,buth the “activities” kill me,I have to movemu mouse to the left corner to see my minimizized task,oh c’mon that is one hell of a extra movement,I would better use alt+tab,one second thought I always use alt+tab,but that would be a a major pain for the newcomers.

    • http://adamwill.id.fedoraproject.org/ AdamW

      You can also just press ‘super’ (aka the Windows key), or alt-f1.

  • Anonymous

    Agree with the general chatter – dark theme isn’t overly exciting but as mentioned it’s still in Alpha. By the time it hits full release I’m sure it’ll be customizable :) build in chat is a winner in my book as well! :)

  • Anonymous

    I wish they didn’t get rid of application categories. The categories always made it easier to find what I was looking for. It was one reason I liked the Gnome app menu better than Windows’. In Windows I always have to categorize the apps my self, which takes up my time.

    I can’t complain about everything else though. Looks good so far.

 
News