Linux Mint 12 use Gnome 3 but not Unity

[zerozero]

what we saw in that video "is not" the real lisa, at least the look&feel is miles away from the point where the development is atm.

[craig10x]

interesting zerozero....though i suppose that two panel set up is pretty much on the plate for the release?
i never did like that two panel set up in ubuntu...also his video is showing the side docky and mint menu...why would it have both together...what would you need that for?

would seem to me that no docky would be needed if you have mint menu...and wouldn't that eliminated the need for double panel layout?
also, why not just have one panel and on the bottom as always...seems to be extensions to do that...

trying to figure out if i should stick around for this...mint has always been my favorite...but if it's going to be fairly similar to what i saw in the video,
then i will be mighty tempted to go directly back to ubuntu again...mint's classic look is what drew me to the distro originally...then i discovered the
other neat features it added and also the neat community

if i wait i will really be "sweating this one out" for the release to see what it's like
i don't know what is going on behind the scenes on this...i wish i did...

[HardyH]

what we saw in that video "is not" the real lisa, at least the look&feel is miles away from the point where the development is atm.

Looks and feels like any other Gnome 3 System, cumbersome, slow, unuseable for productive work...
H.

[zerozero]

what we saw in that video "is not" the real lisa, at least the look&feel is miles away from the point where the development is atm.

Looks and feels like any other Gnome 3 System, cumbersome, slow, unuseable for productive work...
H.

honestly, you start to sound like a broken record there's no point trying to rationally argue with you: if you can't make gtk3 work for you move on to other DE, you have lots of options

[karashata]

I did a bit more testing and looking into the new theme and the extensions Mint 12 may be shipping with in its final state and I have some corrections and further explanation to share.

First, a correction about Mint-Z, the new theme: I was wrong about Zukitwo-Shell being hard-coded to use 16px panel icons, it does currently use 1.14em. If it ever had been hard-coded at 16px, and I wasn't just imagining it, it was since reverted, so Mint-Z's Shell theme does not need to be updated after all.

Next, some extended extension testing:

- Menu: A Shell restart is required after enabling or disabling the extension for the changes to properly take effect when using it with the bottom panel extension enabled. It does not seem that a Shell restart is required when enabling or disabling it without the bottom panel extension enabled. A Shell restart is required when disabling the bottom panel extension while the menu extension is enabled, otherwise the menu does not show up in the Shell panel.

- Media Player: Icon only appears in status tray on Shell panel when a media player is running, does not show up otherwise. Suspect it only works with Rhythmbox and Banshee, though I only have Banshee installed to test it with. Does not work with VLC, Totem, or GNOME Mplayer.

- Smart Overview: Can be configured using dconf-editor or gsettings. Layout strategy defaults to 'natural' (which I consider cluttered) but can be set to 'grid' like the Shell normally uses. The extension also moves the window captions above the windows by default, which may be desirable in 'natural' layout, but "window-captions-on-top" can be set to false to have them displayed beneath the windows like the Shell normally does. There's also a setting called "use-more-screen" which is set to 'true' by default and only applies to the 'natural' layout mode. A Shell restart is only required when turning the "window-captions-on-top" setting on or off for it to take effect. Changing the other settings and enabling or disabling the extension do not require a Shell restart.

- User Themes: It does work after all, even with global themes, but not with GNOME Tweak Tool, because it doesn't use the schema file GNOME Tweak Tool is looking for. The theme has to be set using dconf-editor (for people who prefer a GUI) or using GSettings (in a terminal, for those who prefer a command-line app).

- Alt Tab: Turns out it's configurable using dconf-editor or gsettings, and 'workspace_icons' was the default behaviour set for my user account. Other possible choices are 'native' (the default behavoir set in the schema file) and 'all_thumbnails' (I'm guessing this was the default behaviour the GNOME-shipped extension ended up using when I last tried it...)

- Window List: Removes Activities button from top panel after being enabled, and the button remains removed afterrestarting the Shell only if the bottom panel is not enabled. Extension requires the bottom panel be enabled in order to be used, and a Shell restart is required for the changes to properly take effect after enabling or disabling the extension.

All in all, things look pretty well so far, and I suspect the final product will be quite nice in the end.

[HardyH]

what we saw in that video "is not" the real lisa, at least the look&feel is miles away from the point where the development is atm.

Looks and feels like any other Gnome 3 System, cumbersome, slow, unuseable for productive work...
H.

honestly, you start to sound like a broken record there's no point trying to rationally argue with you: if you can't make gtk3 work for you move on to other DE, you have lots of options

Okay, let's wait for all the negative comments coming in when Mint 12 Gnome 3 is out.
In every forum of every distro that has switched to G3, people first point out the cool look of the new system, but after a short while there are much much more negative comments and reports about the lack of functionality, usability and configurability than about how great the cool-looking Gnome Shell or Fallback stuff works, and I would be very very astonished if it would turn out to be different for Mint 12 users.
h.

[monkeyboy]

HardyH: " Okay, let's wait for all the negative comments coming in when Mint 12 Gnome 3 is out.
In every forum of every distro that has switched to G3, people first point out the cool look of the new system, but after a short while there are much much more negative comments and reports about the lack of functionality, usability and configurability than about how great the cool-looking Gnome Shell or Fallback stuff works, and I would be very very astonished if it would turn out to be different for Mint 12 users."

You are predicting the inevitable. Almost all changes of this magnitude come with complaints and some teething problems. The original GNOME 2 release had problems and detractors and look at the uproar that occurred over the KDE changes.
The real test of the changes will be down the road when folks get over the learning curve and the inevitable startup hiccups are straighten out. Will it take a week, a month or more? I don't know but I suspect it will occur, we just need to relax and let it happen. Enjoy