Linux Mint 12 use Gnome 3 but not Unity

[linusasus6]

Unity have been create to compete with android or ipad os, so for touch screen, Motorola Xoom, tablet pc or iPad.

But on a laptop, netbook, or desktop I really dont like it! I prefer the mac os x menu every program you open the menu bar change respectivily for it, each program have is own menu and you quit the programs the main menu is back for : Mint logo menu Applications, nautilus, Place, System, help

3d cube and multiple desktop is a must also. Been able to do multitask in different desktops instead of one that can slow down and freeze is brilliant.
On one you use gimp with blender, on the other you use firefox and vlc, on the other you use libreoffice and scribus....

Well tell me what you think and add some Suggestions & new Ideas also.

[burjans]

I prefer Linux Mint 12 based Ubuntu with Unity 2D because is very fast, stable and works in old computers, Unity 3D and Gnome 3 need new hardware.

https://launchpad.net/~unity-2d-team/+archive/unity-2d-daily

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/01/unity-2d-qt-now-available-in-ppa-for.html

I am waiting LMDE Gnome with Gnome 3 Fallback and LMDE KDE also.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gnome-3-fallback.html

http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/Blogs/Off-the-Beat-Bruce-Byfield-s-Blog/GNOME-3-and-Its-Fallback-Desktop

Best regards

[linuxviolin]

GNOME 3 Fallback mode sucks, absolutely... Unity and the Shell are just [bad]. But I have already explain that, so I'll not repeat myself..

So long.

[burjans]

Gnome 3 and Unity 3D does not work in old machines, so, Linux Mint will lost many users

I have an Acer ASPIRES 5315z Graphic INTEL with 2 GB RAM and Gnome 3 and Unity 3D does not work properly

Best regards

[mtbmikex9]

Gnome 3 and Unity 3D does not work in old machines, so, Linux Mint will lost many users

Its called XFCE and LXDE. Mint has both of them.

[Drake2k]

Gnome 3 and Unity 3D does not work in old machines, so, Linux Mint will lost many users

I have an Acer ASPIRES 5315z Graphic INTEL with 2 GB RAM and Gnome 3 and Unity 3D does not work properly

Best regards

I can't say I agree. The Linux Mint LTS editions (long term support) have been and will be around for a long time and older pc users always have that option to download an older version. Being a linux mint user isn't based solely on being able to text the latest and greatest on the oldest of pc's.

However.... What would be nice is as newer versions are released, there is some form of detection committed by the installer that will give users with older PC's the option of installing an older version of GNOME KDE LXDE XFCE.... That would be nifty.

[bigfootfreak]

I have installed gnome 3 shell on Katya and have been trying it out. It was weird at first, but I have really come to like it. It isn't perfect, but I feel that some of the kinks will be worked out over the course of the next couple of distribution cycles. It runs fine on my HP NC6220 with 2gb of RAM and a Centrino processor 1.7ghz. The one thing I didn't like about Unity was the fact that the Internet back button was in the same corner as the applications menu hot button and I had to be careful not to touch the corner of the screen with the cursor or I would get an unwanted menu. I wouldn't go as far as to call Unity or Gnome 3 absolute crap, just different with room for adjustments.
Sean

[rfbennett1]

2 days ago had a go at Gnome 3 and Unity and both are completely useless. Gnome 3 looks like it was made for tablets and Unity is just simply an annoying dock glued to the side of your screen which in turn bloats your OS makes you scream and end up searching for a distro that has common sense. Whats wrong with Gnome 2? Nothing!!! if it's not broke don't fix it!!!

[DavidSTL]

Linux Mint 12 with Gnome 3 sounds good to me. I was not a fan of gnome 3 at all when it first came out but I just looked at it again with the ubuntu 11.10 install and then installed gnome 3 on top of it works great it does take some getting use to like any thing new and there or some short cuts I fine to be very helpful like to turn the pc off click on your name then the (ALT) key and it turns the (Suspend) to a (Power off) button and the windows key does the same as the mouse in the top left corner. Like I said it does take some getting use to but it working for me. As for as it not working on older pc well thats just the way things go some time with change I hate to be blunt but to stay on top we have to look to the newer pc not the older ones man I really hate to say that and I like my old pc to and there is lxde. Just my thoughts

[craig10x]

latest from Clem (in his answer to someone on the "blog announcements" page is:
We’re actively working on extensions for Gnome 3 (including a menu, window list, bottom panel..etc)

This should mean gnome 3.2 underneath with mint desktop on top...he is using new flexible extensions made available in gnome 3.2 that allow a developer to customize the desktop experience... Sounds like the perfect solution...and will hopefully appear that way in Mint 12...

[drcasper]

I have a problem with panels on top, its just a deal breaker for me, it reminds me of Mac, I have at work Mac's and i just cant understand it, its ugly, useless, and all of that costs a lot of money!
dont get me wrong all desktop environment on Linux are ugly by default, but with some effort of adjusting it, it can be really nice, Gnome 2.3 is like that u can make it just right!

I feel like Gnome 3 and Unity did not leave any options for those who do not use PC only for writing *Office files and browse the Net.

Why there is no branch of Gnome 2.3x?

[craig10x]

Clem was talking about the "mate" gnome 2 fork and possibly also working with that...but "forks" in the long run (such as mate project) may not work out well and may not survive long...based on what i have read from Clem, the "impression" i and many here are getting is that it will be gnome 3.2 but you will have the classic mint desktop on top of it (Clem is working with gnome 3.2 extensions to accomplish that i believe) and i'd imagine one would also have the option of setting it to conventional gnome shell (if you are a shell fan...lol) or doing your own gnome shell customizations (like many here have done playing around with "gnome 3 shell" on ubuntu)...

So don't "fret" things are looking promising...this is really the better way to go now as gnome 2 is no longer supported and gnome 3 is the wave of gnome's future now....
and the underneath part of gnome 3 is a major improvement over gnome 2..

Oh and when i say "classic mint desktop" obviously i mean 1 panel on bottom and mint menu as it's always been here...

[tdockery97]

Oh and when i say "classic mint desktop" obviously i mean 1 panel on bottom and mint menu as it's always been here...

I'm keeping my eye on the Mint 12 repo, anxiously waiting for the GTK3 Mint Menu to show up there so I can give it a try.

[zerozero]

Oh and when i say "classic mint desktop" obviously i mean 1 panel on bottom and mint menu as it's always been here...

I'm keeping my eye on the Mint 12 repo, anxiously waiting for the GTK3 Mint Menu to show up there so I can give it a try.

just take a closer look mgse-menu

[craig10x]

Someone posted this video on you tube....he had installed a new mint meta package that is for mint 12 and is supposed to show how the "minty gnome 3 mint 12" looks like...It's got the two panels like the old ubuntu set up...mint menu looks different and i still see the docky on the side...Not sure if this is how the release edition is going to be, but it is from the official mint meta package he says...

If that's it...while i appreciate Clem's efforts...looks like i may as well just go with ubuntu 11.10 with unity...it won't be that close to the old mint i've known and loved...unfortunately...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b9g86MXAf0

[gogogadget]

Ewww... is this really Mint 12 in the video?
Honestly, the grayish colortheme looks much uglier than the default dark (and clean!) Gnome 3 Shell. Also it looks much more cluttered... I also don't get how you have 2 times the application categories. One obviously just for the sake of maintaining the previous Mint menu, or what? Not everything needs to be tinkered with... If people haven't realized themselves the original Gnome3 App categories are already organized and displayed in a very nice way.Imo G3 Shell has organized it so clean, that a custom Mint menu is not even necessary anymore.

[craig10x]

I know what you mean....even though i have loved mint...it looks like i will be heading over to ubuntu 11.10 now...i worked with it for a few days and quickly adjusted to unity and actually found it to be pretty decent...and it looks great and at least i won't have 2 panels
That new gnome 3 mint layout looks too darn busy...i feel bad and always admired Clem's work...i'm sure he did the best he could but it doesn't look like it will be my "cup of tea"...

I prefer something "out of the box" that looks good, is well intergrated, etc...oh, i am sure you could change it to standard gnome shell and start playing with your own extensions customization, but i prefer not to have to tinker...i like something that basically i can just install and use...
Which was always the case with the old linux mint...

[karashata]

I suspect the final product will look nicer than it appears to in the video.

That said, I'm pretty content with my setup as it is currently, though if the Lisa repos are active I may have to switch my setup to use them and update a few packages (artwork and such...).

EDIT: New default theme is a mintified version of Zukitwo, including the Shell theme, called Mint-Z. Looks very much like a minty Zukitwo. Shell theme fonts and icons are rather small though (8pt fonts, 48x48 app view icons, 1.14em status button icons which based on 8pt font means small). Status button icons were since hard-coded to 16 pixels in the original Zukitwo, that change, at the very least, should be applied to Mint-Z. I would suggest increasing the font size to 10pt for easier readability as well, the 8pt fonts are a bit hard to read on smaller screens, in particular the application name on the panel with its dark outline...

Testing out the MGSE (I'm guessing an acronym for Mint GNOME Shell Edition) extensions, descriptions and opinions follow:

- Menu: Adds an application menu to the Shell panel if the Bottom Panel extension is not enabled, or to the bottom panel if it is. The menu includes the favourite applications present in the Activities overview dock in its top section and the various menu categories in the lower left section with the applications in each category displaying in the lower right section when hovering over a category. It's pretty nice, but it's not the same as the GNOME 2.x Mint Menu. I personally don't need it, I've gotten used to just hitting the Super key and typing the first few letters or so of the application I want to run, but for people who love menus it might prove useful.

- Media Player: Puts a media player button in the status tray on the Shell Panel with which to control a running media player, includes album art display and track information. Looks very nice, and I might even use it except I already have an AWN applet for that and I don't really need two (three if you count the media player itself) different interfaces with which to control my media player.

- Smart Overview: Attempts to display the window previews in a layout similar to how they're actually laid out on the workspace. I tend to run most of my application in maximized windows overlapping eachother (or minimized to the notification tray) and the rest overlap the maximized window, so this just ends up looking very cluttered to me. I prefer the grid-style layout, so I don't need it.

- Monitor Status: Adds a button to the status tray on the panel to change the orientation of the monitor or open the display settings Control Panel applet. I don't really need it since I can't realistically change the orientation of my display (laptop) and I keep it at its native resolution.

- Bottom Panel: Adds a bottom panel to the Shell. Unfortunately it does not appear that the bottom panel is themed to match the currently selected Shell theme, but that's probably a limitation of it being an extension and not a native part of the Shell. That said, it doesn't look too bad in its own right, and has a built-in workspace switcher and a button to bring up the notification tray since it disabled the auto-popup feature for it. Required for the Window List extension. I don't really need it since I use AWN as a panel replacement.

- No A11y: Gets rid of the A11y button from the status tray. I don't need that button, so this extension is handy.

- User Themes: Should be updated to read themes from global themes directory (/usr/share/themes/) rather than just the user-specific themes directory. The current GNOME-provided extension does, so why not the MGSE extension? (Testing seems to suggest that the MGSE extension doesn't even work at all... Disabling or removing the GNOME-provided extension and restarting Tweak Tool removes the ability to change the Shell theme even with the MGSE extension enabled, and restarting the Shell with the GNOME-provided extension disabled or removed reverts the theme to the default, if it doesn't already revert just after disabling the GNOME-provided extension.)

- Alt Tab: The last time I used the GNOME-provided extension it used distorted window previews (they were *always* square even if the window wasn't). I like that this one uses application icons rather than misshapen window previews.

- Notifications: The package description reads: "Places important notifications in the top panel". This description is somewhat misleading. The extension actually moves application icons that normally end up in the notification tray (Deluge, Banshee, Guake, Pidgin, etc.) into the Shell panel next to the status tray icons. Notifications themselves still appear at the bottom of the screen. The extension also moves the clock to the left between the status tray and the user menu. Some people might like it, I've gotten used to having the clock in the middle and those icons in the notification tray at the bottom of the screen, so I'll pass. Also one more note, enabling or disabling this extension requires a Shell restart to take effect.

- Shutdown: Could be replaced with the GNOME-provided Alternative Status Menu extension, which changes the status menu to have separate Standby, Hibernate, and Power Off... menu items, instead of the current MGSE extension which changes Standby for Shutdown and puts the Standby and Hibernate items in the Power Off dialog. I've been using the GNOME-provided extension since I upgraded my Mint 11 setup to an Ubuntu 11.10 base, so it could just be a matter of what I'm used to and prefer.

- Window List: Adds a window list to the bottom panel when the Bottom Panel extension is enabled. Also removes the Activities button from the Shell panel. Appears to be pointless to enable it without the Bottom Panel extension enabled. Disabling it requires a Shell restart to restore the Activities button.

Keep in mind that this is only a description and my opinions of how they are right now. Things may change before Mint 12 is officially released.

[linuxviolin]

craig10x, instead to go back to Ubuntu you could just stay with Mint but just using another desktop... Just an idea.

[craig10x]

craig10x, instead to go back to Ubuntu you could just stay with Mint but just using another desktop... Just an idea.

I would but i am not that wild about the lighter versions like lxde and xfce...mint kde we don't know how that's going to end up (ubuntu based or debian testing which i would rather not have)...and Kubuntu is pretty slick and polished but no matter how many times i try kde i seem to want to drift right back to gnome again (guess i am just a dyed in the wool gnome guy...lol) so it seems to me the only practical choice (for a slick, ready to go out of the box) gnome distro with the fine ubuntu font rendering is...well....Ubuntu