[orca-list] A Brief Visit with GNOME 3.10

["D. A. H." <dhunt freedommail co>]

Hi,

The OpenSUSE 13.1 release candidate is out; for the live builds, go to
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.1/iso/

You'll find iso files and check-sums.

This release offers GNOME 3.10, among its improvements.

I booted the thing up and waited until I had sound.  Once it was ready, 
I adjusted volume with the media keys.  That done, I tried the 
'super+alt+s' key, to start orca.  Besides a bit of drie action, nothing 
seemed to happen.  I started orca from the 'run' dialogue.  This worked. 
 I set my preferences.  That done, I hit 'alt+super+s', just to see 
what happens.  The screen reader toggled off, almost immediately; this 
is great!  I toggled it back on, which seemed to take about 10 seconds. 
 Three additional such cycles were identical.  Next, I did some 
exploration of the top bar; Wow, that's now very compact!  Wifi 
connections wa the first applet I tried to use; it's a branch on a tree 
called 'settings'.  I could find my networks, each represented by a 
push-button.  I couldn't find signal strength, frequency, or any status 
indicator for whether the network is open or secured.  There doesn't 
seem to be any indication of which network is selected, or pressed, when 
I press the buttons.  Once a network is selected, the 'connect' button 
becomes available, and can be focused with the 'tab' key; is that how 
it's supposed to work?  I got my password prompt, once I selected my 
network.  After I entered the key, there was no spoken notification that 
the network was connected; I just launche a web browser (firefox 24, in 
this case).  It worked;  Yay!

Tweak tool has a different feel, and some users might take a bit getting 
acustomed to it.  The 'usual suspects' seem to be there and tweakable. 
I turned on the esktop icons, for this exercise.  Home and Trash showed 
up, but there was no apparent way to add Computer and Network Servers 
icons.  Is this to be expected?

I don't know how the Music and Calendar applets are supposed to work. 
Opening Music didn't seem to be a feature-rich experience.  I suppose 
the calendar is that top-bar item that orca thinks is a menu, with 
today's date as its title?  I hit something like a "View Calendar" 
option, and the Evolution setup wizard started.  Does this program now 
work?

I haven't decided whether to try an installation of this new OpenSUSE, 
but did try using YaST.  When I try to launch a YaST module from the 
panel, orca goes quiet.  I can launch a module from the command line; 
This ersion is still using YaST2; does this mean YaST3 is still not ready?



Thanks for listening,



Dave  H.