Poll: The future look of Gnome Shell in Linux Mint

[bimsebasse]

This poll is merely for fun and out of interest, gauging the average Mint user's preferences as far as you can with a poll like this. So what should the immediate future of Linux Mint with Gnome Shell look like if you could choose?

1. LM12RC two panel desktop



Official screenshot here: http://www.linuxmint.com/pictures/scree ... a/lisa.png

2. Old school single panel desktop



Other similar screenshots here: http://www.imagup.com/data/1136153996.html - and here: http://i.imgur.com/ftFyS.png

3. Something else

Please elaborate! (and "MATE" doesn't count, this is a gnome shell poll )

[Monsta]

Voted for the second one. Of course, it would be nice to have the single panel setup with Mint Menu instead of applications menu. I understand that right now, as you've written in another post, it will bring the activities back:

that makes the activities overview button appear to the right of the user name, the app menu extension kills it

On the other hand, I look at esteban1uy's setup (the second screenshot) and can't figure out where that activities button is. Did I miss something?

[The-Wizard]

i just dont like top and bottom bars, prefer just one task bar with everything i need there, i am use to it being on the bottom but, where it is wont take a lot of getting use to as long as its just one



an old fuddu duddy stick in the mud

[bimsebasse]

On the other hand, I look at esteban1uy's setup (the second screenshot) and can't figure out where that activities button is. Did I miss something?

the little "-" to the far right in esteban's panel, that's the activities button, and as hidden as it gets with Mint Menu currently. Shouldn't be a problem for an experienced programmer to make it disappear, though, we're just amateurs fooling around

[Monsta]

Ahh... so that's where it is. Well, I guess sooner or later someone will find a way to get rid of it completely.

[bimsebasse]

Come on, guys, more votes needed to see this if this classic preference thing is mainly down to isolated loud weirdos or an actual general trend

[Monsta]

It seems to me that the topic should be moved to Gnome 3 subforum for more votes...

[monkeyboy]

My take is "out of the box" make it appear and function as close to G2 as possible. However to satisfy an even larger number of users the appearance and function options should be made available in a easy to use and learn format......and when the code elves are done with that they can address world peace, next week. Enjoy

[GeneC]

I am sure I am in the minority here, but I prefer the standard Gnome Shell desktop. Top panel only, clock/calender in center.
My 'go to' OS is LMDE-SID Gnome 3.2 Shell. With MGSE-menu, the only Mint 'tweak'.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Adding AWN dock with Cairo menu with 'places' and 'recent documents' is a 'must' for me.

[ibm450]

@GeneC
where did you get the wallpaper from?

in my opionion, the two panels look good at first, mainly because it breaks up the grey default wallpaper.

[bimsebasse]

I am sure I am in the minority here, but I prefer the standard Gnome Shell desktop. Top panel only, clock/calender in center.
My 'go to' OS is LMDE-SID Gnome 3.2 Shell. With MGSE-menu, the only Mint 'tweak'.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Except for the Mint menu this is my setup as well, standard gnome shell plus dock. No intention of going classic myself.

[GeneC]

@GeneC
where did you get the wallpaper from?

.......

Its from Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric.
Its called "High Sierra"

Click the thumbnail to get it full sized.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[esteban1uy]

On the other hand, I look at esteban1uy's setup (the second screenshot) and can't figure out where that activities button is. Did I miss something?

the little "-" to the far right in esteban's panel, that's the activities button, and as hidden as it gets with Mint Menu currently. Shouldn't be a problem for an experienced programmer to make it disappear, though, we're just amateurs fooling around

There is a quick fix for that. Take a look at THIS.

On the other hand, I finally found that little "-" useful (it works as a notifications indicator) so I didn't use the quick fix.

[KBD47]

My guess is that there would be fewer disappointed Mint Gnome 2 fans if Mint 12 had just one panel and was configured much like it was in Gnome 2. I think Gnome Fallback tweaked with a Mint Menu added would please many people, that's what I'm using right now (except no Mint menu available for it yet). I removed the bottom bar, dropped the top bar to the bottom, and tweaked it just a little, but it really needs Mint menu to finish it off to be a better option.
I just read an interesting article that mentions Gnome Classic/Fallback: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/zdnet-uk-f ... -10024840/
Many people were perfectly happy with Gnome 2, and don't want Gnome Shell or Unity. I would like to see Mint 12 out of the box offering the closest Gnome 2 experience, and that means one panel IMO.
KBD47

[pluraldave]

My vote is for something else - the default gnome-shell setup (possibly with minor optional Mint tweaks). My "second place" vote would be for something like the second option that effectively "replaces" gnome-shell's dash and drops the top panel. It's either/or. Having both GS and a gnome-2-like bottom panel is not a good desktop design IMO.

The thing about GS is that it takes time for people to transition to it. You'll need to use it exclusively for anywhere up to a month in order to break the habits that you've built up over the years and start using it as it is designed to be used before you really start appreciating how good it really is. With the bottom panel in place people can just stick with what they know, will take longer to transition to using GS effectively (if at all) and the top panel effectively becomes wasted space.

The design of the "old" Mint desktop was to take the "best DE" (Gnome 2) and then add the components that were missing from that desktop.

Gnome 2 only had basic menus so the MintMenu needed to be created. However, the GS dash already has most of the functions that the MintMenu has. There is no need to port the MintMenu to GS or create an all new menu. Instead, stick with the Mint philosophy to add what is missing. I.e. make an extension so that you can search apt and install/uninstall from the dash. If people don't like the "app menu" grid the dash has create a "MintMenu-like" drop in replacement that replicates the way the MintMenu works (although launching via search is the most efficient way).

Also, GS needs an extension that changes the default middle-click behaviour of "open new instance on new workspace" to "open new instance on current workspace".

As for the task and workspace switchers in the bottom panel, I don't think they're needed. The dash provides a far superior interface for program management IMO. However, if Mint does stick with the bottom panel extension it needs to integrate the notification area. Either the notification area needs to have a persistent position on the panel, or the default GS "popup" notification bar needs to come out of the top of the bottom panel so that the panel isn't hidden each time a notification arrives.

[bimsebasse]

pluraldave, you have to respect that Linux Mint has a somewhat conservative userbase and that dropping a vanilla shell on them is likely to cause the same uproar and exodus Unity caused in Ubuntu. The devs have to meet the users half way, at least the first time, and let people slowly get used to Gnome Shell. So I agree with the need the devs have felt to try and recreate a classic experience in Gnome Shell, my worry is just that they could have done that with more success going a bit further than the current MGSE and instead try to create a single panel shell as close (visually, at least) to LM 11 as possible. That seems to be what people mostly want.

[esteban1uy]

(...) Either the notification area needs to have a persistent position on the panel, or the default GS "popup" notification bar needs to come out of the top of the bottom panel so that the panel isn't hidden each time a notification arrives.

There is already a tweak for reflections extension that makes the notification bar popup from the bottom having a single panel at bottom too.
On the other hand, a very similar tweak can be applied to have everything at top.
In its original state, reflections extension moves top elements to bottom and bottom elements to top, so I'm thinking about "splitting" that extension and making one for moving only the "main panel" and another for moving just the message-notifications panel. That way we can have whichever configuration we want (both panels at top or at bottom, main at top and the other at bottom, main at bottom and the other at top...) just enabling or disabling a couple of extensions.

[MALsPa]

I am sure I am in the minority here, but I prefer the standard Gnome Shell desktop. Top panel only, clock/calender in center.

That's what I'd prefer, too. But I really don't care what type of set-up Mint has by default. Since there's no "I don't care" option, I didn't bother to vote.

[bimsebasse]

It'll please the majority to know that a single bottom panel setup is in the works for Mint 13 - the two panel thing was probably a necessary evil given the short time in which the Mint team had to create a traditional desktop friendly shell.

[esteban1uy]

It'll please the majority to know that a single bottom panel setup is in the works for Mint 13 - the two panel thing was probably a necessary evil given the short time in which the Mint team had to create a traditional desktop friendly shell.

Details... please, please, please!