Not the way most people would start out a review of the latest desktop environment (unless Vista was mentioned in close proximity). Not only that, most people wouldn’t know that Gnome I’m referring to is not one of those boring (no offence) little characters in gardens around the world. The Gnome I am referring to is a desktop environment found predominately (and to be honest, only) in Linux and BSD distros. If you have ever used Ubuntu, it’s the default desktop interface. You know, that taskbar with a list of windows at the bottom of your screen…ok, maybe you don’t know. Regardless, I’ll continue.
The latest version of Gnome is 2.24. Most distros out in existence are still using 2.22, which is nothing to sniff at. 2.22 was stable, unlike previous versions where the file system browser (nautilus, think of explorer for windows and you’ve got the picture) would crash when doing nothing in particular. The latest version of Gnome, and the time of writing, is only included in two distros: Ubuntu 8.10 (beta) and Fedora 10 (beta). Notice that they are both betas, which means that they are likely to be unstable, thus not of ‘production quality’ you would expect from final releases. And thus, the reason why I am unmasking and installing Gnome 2.24 on my Gentoo Linux laptop (against previous advice).
I can’t say that 2.24 is a major leap in any particular direction. Think of it more as a few security updates, patches, bug fixes, and some features here and there. However, one bright feature that was included was the ability for the file browser to have multiple tabs! Think of using firefox for file operations, and you’re right on the money. Not only does that feature save screen space, it also makes the screen space more efficient.
About the only other two features I can think of include an ability to setup monitors with a lot less effort (including rotating your desktop), and the date & time applet having the function of being a calendar as well as a note-taking/planning application. Not that most people would use them, but I might .
Well, I’ll leave you to decide what you think of the new file browser (as shown above), and scan the web looking for the release notes while I go and emerge -av =gnome-2.24 (Gentoo Linux package install command for Gnome 2.24 for those who have never used Gentoo).
{weed}