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
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"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

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"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

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"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

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"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

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"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

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"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

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"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

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"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/

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“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/

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"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

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"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

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"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/

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"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

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"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