Default GNOME Dektop with just one bottom bar

[amano]

1) Having a look at the upcoming openSUSE 10.2 we can see some surprises:

They switched to GNOME as the default desktop (it is the the default choice in the selection) and they removed the GNOME top bar and just left the bottom bar in place.

While many GNOME users will probably not like it, SUSE has a strong point here:

All those switchovers from KDE and from Windows are used to dealing with just one bar. It is the first sight that matters if you feel comfortable with an OS or not. This will attract novice Linux/Gnome users, while experienced Gnome users will know how to enable the second bar with just a few clicks (so they would not suffer from this move).

I think it is a wise move that Mint should consider for its distribution as well.

2) Why don't you use the stylized Mint Logo for the start button of the taskbar? The one that is featured here on the top left of the forums? It looks way better than the one presented in the current beta.

[clem]

1. It was considered and we had a vote about it. The bottom panel got more or less 49%

2. It's planned in Bianca. Barbara and Bea were blue, Bianca is going to be white and green.

Clem

[amano]

Well, that was probably my vote which was missing then.


[EDIT: It was really my vote missing. The voting ended up 9 to 8. With my vote it would me 9 to 9 and it would just make sense. And it would be one easy way to differ from Ubuntu. ]


And with just one bar, you would keep the look closer to Mint 1.0, which used the "one bar" approach as well, so switching between the window managers would be seamlesser.

Here a picture of openSUSE with the gnome desktop for later reference:

[amano]

And regarding the logo: I don't think that the colour matters, but if you want to keep everything blue, then I would suggest to use the stylized mint logo from the Mint forums header and make it blue.

I think that it is just the square with "mint" in it that doesn't work out aesthetically. It just looks too plain in my eyes (but it might be subjective).

But these are just my suggestions. Feel free to ignore them

thanks for the distribution,
--amano

[Frijolie]

Amano

Why don't you use the stylized Mint Logo for the start button of the taskbar? The one that is featured here on the top left of the forums? It looks way better than the one presented in the current beta....I think that it is just the square with "mint" in it that doesn't work out aesthetically. It just looks too plain in my eyes (but it might be subjective).

I was going to say the same thing myself. The square box with "Linux Mint" does look a little plain. I know that it's still in Beta, so maybe it's not too late to make some changes!


root

Bianca is going to be white and green.

I really, really, really like the current human-blue theme. Believe it or not, this was one of the factors why I chose Linux Mint as my distro-o-choice. I really didn't like the default human (earthy brown) theme of Ubuntu but still liked the OS. Please, if it's decided to switch color schemes in the new release, allow for the then older blue theme to be an option. I do have to agree, however, a blue-themed OS and a green-logo does seem a little 'mismatched'.

[clem]

Hi Frijolie,

The Bianca theme will be there by default, but Bianca will also feature the Bea and Barbara themes, so you'll be able to go back to the blue desktop by just clicking on it.

Clem

[Frijolie]

ok that's a relief...if I've already got network-manager installed along with a few other packages, is there any reason to upgrade to Bea?

[clem]

Of course, have a look at the release notes But at this stage I recommend waiting for the stable release.

Clem