So long Cinnamon! Hello ... Gnome Shell? Unity?

[xenopeek]

He he, you're like a kid in a candy store exploder With 3.12 you'll have another rush I think with how applications have been polished and improved. Gnome Videos for example (http://worldofgnome.org/videos-3-12-fast-forward/).

BTW http://worldofgnome.org/ is a nice blog to follow to keep an eye on what's coming next with Gnome, and general Gnome tips.

If you're using Firefox, get the GNofifier add-on for it. That makes Firefox use the native Gnome Shell notification system (peeking up from bottom of your screen for a few seconds).

[Adelante]

You guys made me do it I installed Ubuntu Gnome 14.04 yesterday and updated to Gnome 3.12. Definitely a beautiful thing.

[anandrkris]

Just saw the thread. Looks like Nemo Breadcrumbs isnt liked by many. You can all add your comments to provide feedback to devs.
https://github.com/linuxmint/nemo/issues/593

I have both Nautilus and Nemo, and Nautilus is my default file browser as i feel it is snappier (no scientific testing done). Installed Nautilus, primarily to user 'Recent' files option which was not there in Cinnamon 2.0.

[exploder]

@ xenopeek

Thanks! I bookmarked the site and I went ahead and installed the Firefox addon. I am like a kid in the candy store with this!

@ Adelante

I went for the upgrade last night with bad results.... Synaptic would just hang forever. The system kept telling me it was not responding and asked if I wanted to force quit or wait. I kept waiting and Synaptic would finally refresh but it was obvious that something with Synaptic was broken. Clearing the cache did not solve the problem either.

Also I had Gnome Weather installed before I upgraded, after the upgrade it was no where to be found... No menu entry or icon anywhere. I could launch Weather from the terminal and it was updated and still worked. At any rate, I ended up re-installing, (I always save my data) and everything is working great again.

I think I will just wait for Gnome 3.12 to make it into the stable ppa. I did like 3.12 more despite the problems, it was more refined and had more features. I figure that with 14.10 under development the newer packages should show up in the stable ppa before long.

[Adelante]

Exploder, this is what I did:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

sudo apt-get install epiphany-browser gnome-maps polari -y

You do have to go into Extensions on the Tweak Tool afterward and reactivate some.

This may blow up on me yet, but I don't mind. So far, so good.

[xenopeek]

Just saw the thread. Looks like Nemo Breadcrumbs isnt liked by many. You can all add your comments to provide feedback to devs.
https://github.com/linuxmint/nemo/issues/593

I'm on the Linux Mint team, so I could have found the devs if I would have wanted to But breadcrumbs in Nemo was just one example; not a defining one. Let's get the timelines straight:

• For various reason I didn't enjoy Cinnamon on Linux Mint 15 & 16 as much as I did on 14. Despite that, even on 14 I was grumbling because it crashed on me multiple times per week.
• As 14 was approaching end of life anyway I went to explore other desktop environments.
• Because I wanted to try the latest & greatest versions I did that exploration on Arch Linux.
• I found my new home with Gnome Shell It just ticks all the boxes for me. Since I enjoyed Arch Linux so much I've stuck to Arch Linux also--despite originally intending to go back to an Ubuntu base distro.

So to be clear; I haven't left Linux Mint because of how the breadcrumbs look in Nemo. That was a (small) factor in my deciding to go look at other desktop environments, but not a reason to leave Linux Mint. I'm staying on Arch Linux because I enjoy using it more.

[vayth]

I think you should write your experience with every DE/distro you tried on the first page

[exploder]

xenopeek, you never had to explain your reasoning. It is just great to look at other projects and what they are coming up with. Honestly, I was getting bored with the same old thing. I have wanted to try some completely fresh ideas both Unity and Gnome Shell were great choices to try!

I would love to be able to see your setup in Arch! Arch is known for being first with Gnome releases and it surprised me that they made Unity available. Your thread just came along at the right time for me and everyones experiences gave me some insight. Also, there are some extremely helpful tips about extensions in this thread that really helped me get a lot of enjoyment out of Gnome Shell.

I had no idea just how far Gnome Shell had come since I last tried it in Fedora. Gnome 3 has improved by leaps and bounds and it can be a very productive environment if you simply take it for what it is and stop thinking about the traditional desktop. Other members are benefiting from all of the information shared in this thread too!

I have been having a good time with Gnome Shell and much of it is new to me. I am genuinely amazed with the new Gnome applications that are being developed! Gnome Music was an almost instant replacement for playing and organizing my mp3 collection. Music has the best look and feel of any music app I have ever used in Linux! The Weather app is great too, it is so convenient and I have 3 cities set in it.

I am certainly not bored anymore and I discovered some really great software in the process.



@ Adelante

I followed the same instructions. Do you have Synaptic installed? If you do would you please try and run it to see if it works normally? If you have Gnome Weather installed does it have an icon in the applications menu?

Those were the bugs I found right off the bat. You seem to have had better luck than I did!

[xenopeek]

I would love to be able to see your setup in Arch!

There isn't much to see I'm afraid. As I shared earlier, I generally stick with the default theme and hardly customize the looks--so it's probably very boring to most I do make sure fonts are sharp; I installed the Ubuntu font engine for that.

I did spend some time customizing my .bashrc

[Adelante]

Synaptic has been working normally. I would try uninstalling and reinstalling from Ubuntu software center. I did that once a couple of years ago and it worked for me.

No, Weather does not appear in the applications menu at all and doesn't appear on a search. It's on the panel, but the location function doesn't seem to be working. Fortunately for me, I prefer Cairo Dock's weather thing.

The only problem I'm seeing is that the extension settings don't hold after log out or restart. I even have Pipelight working with Netflix, which, for me, is a kind of miracle.

I followed the same instructions. Do you have Synaptic installed? If you do would you please try and run it to see if it works normally? If you have Gnome Weather installed does it have an icon in the applications menu?

Those were the bugs I found right off the bat. You seem to have had better luck than I did!

[exploder]

Adelante, thanks for taking the time to check out those bugs. I tried reinstalling synaptic but it did not fix the problem. I would have posted back sooner but I had to mow the lawn. I got a used tractor mower yesterday and it sure beat push mowing! I had to tinker with it too! I made a new battery bracket for it and shined the tractor up.

[anandrkris]

@xenopeek - I kinna know you're a regular in Mint (through various interactions in the past but dint know that you're on th team) and could have easily accessed Mint team but this was meant for all to add comments to the existing issue for Mint team to consider. Now, there is a big discussion after i cross-posted the forum link in github

Glad that you're still active here in forums. Even I want to try Unity and GNOME 3.12 after reading quite a bit about them. Will download them if I dont hit max downloads this month.

[Adelante]

You're very welcome, Exploder

So the issue with the extensions settings not sticking is a known bug, I learned on Ask Ubuntu. To get around it, you log out and log into a different session, such as Gnome Classic. Reboot. Log back into Gnome Shell again, and the settings will have worked. In case anybody else runs into this.

[xenopeek]

Webupd8 article about upgrading to 3.12 on 14.04: http://www.webupd8.org/2014/05/how-to-i ... buntu.html

[exploder]

I ended up installing Sabayon Gnome to have Gnome 3.12, much nicer than 3.10! I could not get Ubuntu Gnome to upgrade without breakage. Sabayon is a rolling release like Arch so I should be all set for new versions of Gnome.

I read today that a new icon set is in the works and I thought it looked quite a bit better. Gnome Shell is really developing into a polished system.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/GNOME-3- ... 5184.shtml