Ubuntu desktop to GNOME meeting

[Olav Vitters <ovitters gmail com>]

Hi,

There was a public IRC meeting where Ubuntu desktop team discussed the switch to GNOME. It'll be followed by many more meetings.

IRC log: https://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2017/04/18/%23ubuntu-desktop.html#t15:30

Etherpad: http://pad.ubuntu.com/n08SOl5xiA (requires Ubuntu one account with access to https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-etherpad .. I don't have access yet)

Items discussed (rough minutes!):

- GNOME default as per 17.10 (work starts NOW/asap); likely with Wayland

- start with as little patches as possible, though do that by discussing patch by patch what to drop

- use feedback to determine if/what extensions to include (dashtodock etc). They'll check if they can commit for the maintenance of whatever they depend on before depending on it.

- need decision lightdm vs gdm (might impact their guest session support + they don't like the lingering gdm session)

- email client discussion: doubts about Evolution maintenance (amount of people)

- GTK4.x for Nautilus 3.26 they rather not have

- doubts about GTK3.x and GTK4.x in same process

- maybe some kind of guide for people switching (they'll also consult their OEMs)

- OEM workflows need checking

- themes (their Unity one + various others) likely cannot be used as-is; e.g. black borders, lack of shadows around windows, etc. Also wondering if it'll become a burden in case gtk+4.x

- Flatpak and themes issue (currently Flatpak does not reuse system theme; they're not committing to Flatpak btw I think)

Shared by aruiz to the team:

- plan for Pinos / screensharing for 3.26 though might be 3.28

- fractional scaling for 3.26 under Wayland

They're still going to have various more meetings. Also they'll reach out to various maintainers.

Regards,

Olav