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A Different Way to Manager Your Linux Desktop: GNOME Shell Looks Promising

Posted by Chris7mas on · 13 comments
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GNOME Shell is a window manager designed specifically for the upcoming GNOME 3 desktop, with the intention of offering a rather different way of interacting with the desktop, providing a workspace which hardly resembles the classic desktops.

GNOME Shell is a window manager designed specifically for the upcoming GNOME 3 desktop, with the intention of offering a rather different way of interacting with the desktop, providing a workspace which hardly resembles the classic desktops.

Currently under heavy development, GNOME Shell is included in Ubuntu 10.10 Beta and it currently looks like this:

GNOME Shell in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Beta



The main feature that jumps into attention is the way of organizing and listing opened windows, just like the fast web access from Opera, for example. GNOME Shell also offers virtual desktops.

As you can see, GNOME Shell offers the user easy access to applications, places and devices, a way of searching applications or documents and recently accessed items.

You can switch between the Activities mode (where you can visualize all your opened applications and access more) and the normal way of working by clicking on the top-left Activities button, or just pointing your mouse cursor in the top-left corner.

Accessing your applications



If you want to quit GNOME Shell and return back to your usual GNOME desktop, open a terminal and type the following two commands:

compiz --replace &
gnome-panel restart &

If you don't have desktop effects enabled, use metacity --replace& instead of compiz --replace&.

To install GNOME Shell in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Beta, type in a terminal sudo apt-get install gnome-shell, and then to start it type gnome-shell --replace in order to replace your current window manager.



GNOME Shell definitely looks good and from a usability point of view, it really has a lot of potential, especially if we keep in mind that it's not finished yet, so more features will come.

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Comments (13)

azerthoth ·
This is your phone, this is your phone in Gnome, any questions?
TxtEdMacs ·
So all resident aliens are hereby ordered to phone Gnome, promptly.
gus3 ·
There's no place like Gnome.
TxtEdMacs ·
Kod Damn Elsworth, I resent the implication of your remarks. Moreover, I am 4 square behind the option*.

* Even ignoring the digits following the period(s).
Alcibiades ·
What some of us want is not to manage our gnome desktop, and especially not to manage it in a different way, but to get rid of the thing totally, it just attracts clutter.
TxtEdMacs ·
Has some serious commentary invaded this thread, or is the humor too subtle for me to grasp?
caitlyn ·
Quoting:There's no place like Gnome.


Absolutely! http://www.alaska-in-pictures.com/nome-photos.htm

Oh, wait... You did misspell Nome, didn't you?

No? Nevermind....
azerthoth ·
Nice, I was there earlier this year ... Theres no place like Nome, and thats a really really good thing.
caitlyn ·
I'm just curious. What didn't you like about Nome? I thought it was a neat little town.
azerthoth ·
Not used to watching the cops sweep up that many drunks from parks in march in Alaska day after day. 3 weeks I was there, and it didn't matter when I drove by or how recently the cops did a sweep.
caitlyn ·
Alcohol abuse is a major problem throughout Alaska, but is especially bad in the rural areas. You do have a point there.
TxtEdMacs ·
Hans,

I have always been in favor of interdisciplinary research, but `"cracked pots "` nearly knocked me off my chair. It's link, however, did not seem fully on target. Nonetheless, I enjoyed a partial tour of these topics.

[should I have added serious tags? Maybe, but I will reflect on it and perhaps edit later when I discern my intentions. Remember this was NOT supposed to be a really serious* thread.]

YBT

* Now I am torn trying to understand the implications of my post, both upon the surface and beneath.

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