Words about GNOME in 2011

[Juanjo Marín <juanjomarin96 yahoo es>]

Hi, 

As a mentioned in my email about the content of the annual report, I think it could be cool to have a "Words 
about GNOME in 2011" section. These are the quotations I think we could include:

Words about GNOME in 2011
=========================

"The developers behind the GNOME project have announced the official release of GNOME 3.0, a significant 
redesign of the open source desktop environment. The update introduces a new desktop shell that offers a 
streamlined window management workflow and a more modern look and feel. The new version also represents a 
major architectural overhaul, with many important enhancements to the GNOME platform's technical 
underpinnings.[...] The solid technical work that has been done under the hood really complements the new 
user experience features in GNOME 3.0. Despite some of the gaps in the feature set, I think that the 
environment and the new shell is a good starting point for building something even better. The GNOME 
contributors will be able to iterate on the design and move it forward in future updates."

Ryan Paul, Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/reviews/2011/04/ars-reviews-gnome-30-a-shiny-new-ornament-for-your-linux-lawn.ars

---

"Five years in the making, the newly released version 3 of the GNOME Linux desktop interface has been 
radically redesigned. [...] For this release, the boxy look and feel has been replaced with a more 
aerodynamic, clutter-free visage. All the icons were redesigned, and new default font Cantarell was adopted. 
Applications can be called up by simply typing the first few letters of a program name. Frequently used 
applications can be pinned to a desktop dashboard. Previous versions of GNOME allowed for multiple 
workspaces, or windows. The new version allows users to create workspaces on the fly, and to drag and drop 
applications into a workspace. It also includes a unified messaging feature, in which e-mail and instant 
messages can be responded to directly from a messaging tray. Also new is a search function that can be 
accessed by hitting the Windows key on the keyboard."

Joab Jackson, IDG News, PC World
http://www.pcworld.com/article/224573/new_gnome_cuts_the_clutter.html

---

"Gnome 3 (code-named ToPaZ for “Three Point Zero”) marks the beginning of a completely new desktop 
experience. The developers took a long time 
to develop and test the new release. In fact, almost all components were ready a year ago, but the Foundation 
delayed the release to double-check and improve the new desktop [...] Gnome is quite stable; I didn’t 
encounter any crashes or bugs whatsoever. The missing features aside, Gnome 3 still provides a good user 
experience [...] Gnome 3 is indeed a step ahead. I am glad developers finally came up with a bold and radical 
release"

Shashwat Pant, Linux Magazine
http://www.linux-magazine.com/w3/issue/128/044-047_Gnome.pdf

---

"The most important remark for Gnome 3 came from a non-techie. A user who doesn't much care about kernels and 
mutters; someone who uses computer to do her job. My wife was sitting right behind me when the machine 
booted. "Wow...what's that!" I heard someone from behind. I turned and found her looking at my machine. "Is 
it a new OS? It looks cool! [...] The moral of the story is – we, the so called tech-savvy users, may fight, 
argue, and create mountain out of mole, ordinary users don't care. They just need something that works. And 
when you hear "wow, that's cool" from an ordinary user, it means a lot."

Swapnil Bhartiya, Muktware.com
http://www.muktware.com/b/14/2011/832/my-wife-loves-gnome-3

---

"Back when I first reported on GNOME 3 I was proclaiming it to be the future of the desktop. I still feel 
that way…very much so. Although it may take some time to get used to the cleaner look and feel of the 
desktop, GNOME 3 should make many user levels very happy. It is a drastic departure from the standard, but 
one that is long overdue and will make using the desktop (especially in the touch-screen happy world) much 
easier."

Jack Wallen, Tech Republic
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/opensource/linux-shakedown-testing-both-gnome-3-and-fedora-15/2222

---
"Mit GNOME 3.0 verpasst sich der Desktop beinahe schon so etwas wie einen Neustart, die User Experience 
unterscheidet sich in zentralen Bereichen recht deutlich vom bisherigen GNOME. Das heißt auch: Wer auf die 
neue Version wechselt, braucht zunächst einmal etwas, um die neuen Konzepte zu erkunden. Es lohnt sich aber 
durchaus, diese Zeit zu investieren, hat man sich einmal eingearbeitet - und den eigenen Widerwillen gegen 
Veränderungen an sich überwunden - zeigen sich die Stärken des GNOME3-Konzepts immer deutlicher und man 
entdeckt regelmäßig neue Nettigkeiten, die man schon bald nicht mehr missen möchte. Ein echtes Plus ist 
dabei, dass der Desktop in der Entwicklung unübersehbar als Ganzes gedacht wurde, alles wirkt wie aus einem 
Guss, sowohl was den Look als auch die User Experience selbst betrifft."

Translation by google --- that needs to be improved or clarified by a German translator--- :
With the GNOME 3.0 desktop is missed almost become something of a reboot, the user experience differs in key 
areas quite significantly from the current GNOME. This also means: Those who switch to the new version, first 
of all need something to explore new concepts. But it is worth quite to invest this time, you have once 
worked - and overcome their own resistance to change itself - the strengths of GNOME3 concept show more 
clearly and be regularly discovered new goodies that we will soon no longer want to miss. A real plus is that 
the desktop has been overlooked in the development of thought as a whole, everything looks like a whole, both 
the look and the user experience itself is concerned.


Andreas Proschofsky, derStandard.at
http://derstandard.at/1297821908997/WebStandard-Test-GNOME-30-Alles-Neu-am-Linux-Desktop

---

"GNOME 3 is in its first release, and should see many improvements in the next few releases as developers 
learn to take advantage of its new opportunities. But, for now, it seems a combination of innovation and 
sometimes overly rigid application of design principles. Under these conditions, I suspect that, for most 
people, the decision whether to use GNOME 3 or to look for alternatives will not be an easy one. Except in 
rare cases, the decision will probably not be made out of a burst of unqualified enthusiasm or 
disappointment. To the contrary, many people's decision is likely to be a qualified one, a weighing of 
features they like against features they dislike. That is a sensible way to make such a decision at any time. 
But, in GNOME 3's case, its mixed nature makes such an approach almost unavoidable, at least for now."

Bruce Byfield, Datamation
http://www.datamation.com/osrc/article.php/3931801/GNOME-3-Seven-Pros-and-Cons.htm

---

"There's no question that GNOME 3 will be something of a shock for those accustomed to working with the GNOME 
2.x line, but once you spend some time with it, GNOME 3 really does feel like a vast improvement over GNOME 
2. After all, GNOME 2 borrowed much of its UI design and basic interface concepts from Windows 95 – and it's 
been a long time since Windows 95 was cutting-edge."

Scott Gilbertson, The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/24/fedora_15_review/

---

“In the face of constant change, both in software technology itself and in people’s attitudes toward it, 
long-term software projects need to reinvent themselves in order to stay relevant. I’m encouraged to see the 
GNOME community taking up this challenge, responding to the evolving needs of users and questioning the 
status quo.”

Matt Zimmerman, Ubuntu CTO at Canonical
http://www.gnome.org/press/2011/04/gnome-3-0-released-better-for-users-developers-3/

---

"I suffer from a common malady, Easily Distracted Syndrome (EDS).  Flashy lights, running gauges, televisions 
tuned to static — anything blinking or back-lit steals my attention away from what’s in front of me.  GNOME 3 
Shell’s minimal and colorless chrome keeps me focused on the work at hand.  This is a good thing."

Jim Nelson, Yorba Foundation
http://blog.yorba.org/jim/2011/08/why-i-like-gnome-3-shell.html

---

"I want my sane interfaces back. I have yet to meet anybody who likes the unholy mess that is GNOME 3"

Linus Torvalds, Linux kernel creator and lead developer
https://plus.google.com/106327083461132854143/posts/SbnL3KaVRtM

---

"Guadalinex has been relying on GNOME since its very inception. We currently have 600.000 desktops deployed 
in publicly-funded schools, and are now working in a new corporate GNOME 3 based desktop called GECOS 
(Guadalinex Standard Corporate Edition) that is designed for the everyday tasks of civil servants. GNOME 3 
has been a big change for Guadalinex and I am glad to see that GNOME 3.2 improves the CSS and extension 
support to allow for easy user interface changes. For a government, accessibility is a must and GNOME 
provides it like no other. Thanks GNOME."

Juan Conde, Chief Free Software Officer at the Junta de Andalucía
http://www.gnome.org/news/2011/09/gnome-3-improved-and-refined-with-the-release-of-gnome-3-2/

---

"I think what the KDE4 and Gnome3 folks are doing is that they have picked Apple (and to a lesser degree, 
Google) UI products as their role model. That in itself is not a problem (at all) - the problem as I see it 
is that they tried to achieve this by mimicking Apple products, instead of implementing a high quality UI 
development process."

Ingo Molnar, Linux kernel developer
https://plus.google.com/109922199462633401279/posts/Js6GdznHgvx

---

"From a technological point of view, Gnome 3 is a fantastic desktop, and it’s getting better with every new 
release. It will take time for Linux Mint to develop a Gnome 3 desktop that is on-par with what we had with 
Gnome 2, but eventually we’ll be able to do much more with it than was possible with the traditional desktop.

[...] we developed “MGSE” (Mint Gnome Shell Extensions), which is a desktop layer on top of Gnome 3 that 
makes it possible for you to use Gnome 3 in a traditional way. You can disable all components within MGSE to 
get a pure Gnome 3 experience, or you can enable all of them to get a Gnome 3 desktop that is similar to what 
you’ve been using before. Of course you can also pick and only enable the components you like to design your 
own desktop."

Clement Lefebvre, Linux Mint Founder and lead developer
http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1851