After reviewing all the virtues and vicissitudes of Canonical in a new machine (although quite modest) and because of which even made an article, was time to try the full range of GNOME Shell . The truth so far failed to prove as it should be the new GNOME shell, but with the arrival of version 3.2 and a new machine with Intel graphics gave me time to stop using GNOME Shell in the same installation of Ubuntu 11.10.
reference data your computer has an Intel Core i3 Sandy Bridge of 3.1 Ghz, 4GB RAM, HDD SATA 3Gbps 1-Tbyte and WIN Intel Graphics video card , I think this This last figure is especially important, I must warn you inevitably compare some details between Unity and GNOME Shell to be as specific as possible. Bearing this in mind, let us begin.
The first thing to note is that absolute cleanliness is the interface, no desktop icons, no taskbar, just an elegant top bar with a high contrast to its elements. Minimalism fledged . But to start the action in GNOME Shell is easy and fast, there are at least three ways, by clicking on “Activities”, bringing the mouse to the upper left corner or by pressing the “Super” (on most keyboards, the key Windows).
As many know by now, since this “space” called Activities can manage applications, both active and those that want to open , the lateral spring is for the latter, but you can also type the name that comes to mind us to find both applications recently opened files and finally we have in the top left the “Applications” for a more detailed search.
the same pitcher we have access to the default desktops are always “one more” of those we are dealing with, and at the bottom shows the notifications of applications, a section will be hidden while we use the programs, but that approach appears when the pointer there. In this regard it is noteworthy that made GNOME panel to maintain a visibly clean at the top and maintain the functionality that provide notifications of applications hidden in the bottom, nothing is lost in that area .
Other interface details that differ significantly both Unity and GNOME 2 are the buttons on the windows, now there is only one button, closing, and virtual desktops, no longer freely handled automatically but are added as required, and also only generates a vertical grid of them, clear the shortcut Alt + Tab still works.
Turning to the purely
visual, I must say that the issue seems much more Adwaita clear that issues of Ubuntu Light, things of contrast or color of fonts, but you can see at a glance. The other thing that is remarkable is elegant notifications and pop-up dialog boxes , requests for “root” for example are fantastic, like the smooth sliding effect and positioning of the popup , until they seem nice.
performance, opening applications feels faster than Unity and scaling movements and displacement of the launcher windows are quite fluid, feeling that one can reach be very decisive in the choice of a desktop over another and in fact Canonical working on it. Of course as I said earlier, all with an Intel, I know how it will be the behavior with NVIDIA or ATI cards.
Of course, “missing things” or that’s the impression given after GNOME Shell for years squeezed environments like GNOME 2 or KDE, but for now I my vote of confidence to the team of GNOME solve these “gaps” because in fact being done through the. It is true that it does not seem the most optimal or as clean, but I understand the concept of “practical + functional + customizable” GNOME wants to implement in this version, ie a minimal environment for practice and extensions that add functionality for finally reach the flexibility and adaptability so characteristic of the usual GNOME, although it is still lacking.
Yet
work done so far it seems to me the best, I think because I skip “bad stage” which brought the new implementation at first, but I must say that today GNOME 3.2 and GNOME Shell is nice elegant and sufficient in many cases to manage our daily activities on a computer and if you add the extensions, although these are still a little raw and in fact are not possible to install Ubuntu unless WebUpd8 seize resources as I mentioned a couple of weeks.
Regarding the latter
only highlight some of the “goodies” GNOME that are now quite unique to the platform, integrated with GNOME Tracker Documents that looks very interesting web applications built to Epiphany desktop with the latest and advanced configuration tool GNOME (gnome-tweak-tool) which incidentally also serves well in Ubuntu Unity.
None of this will seem new to those who have already opted for GNOME Shell, but felt it necessary to mention the many who perhaps have not yet experienced this new desktop interface. On the other hand do not mean to say “if Unity and GNOME Shell” , beyond the comments I’ve made in this article, the idea is to know , if someone was missing. So you know, GNOME Shell or Unity or KDE or LXDE, or whatever, are free to try, is the beauty of free desktops.