Re: Sarge troubles...
On Thu, 2004-02-12 at 01:01, Adam C Powell IV wrote:
> * GNOME 2 is less configurable with regard to window managers
> (must force the change by killing one WM and starting
> another),
IIRC, there is a protocol defined in the enhanced Window Manager
specification for switching WMs. Metacity implements this, so running
"metacity --replace" will tell the existing WM to exit and metacity will
replace it.
The explicit WM selection was removed as it is not exactly a popular
option, and if you know what a WM is you have the knowledge to kill one
and start another. Or in Debian, just change the alternative.
> and it seems, with regard to the background (no
> option leave it alone and let E manage the background as GNOME
> 1 could -- oh wait, here's something in gconf which might do
> it, if I can make gconf prefs stick when I log out...).
The option *is* the GConf key, its just not exposed in the UI.
> * GNOME 2 is inconsistently configurable with regard to
> preferred applications, where on the one hand it lets the user
> choose a text editor and web browser, but on the other hand,
> has these misleading generic names in the menu -- names which
> are identical to those in preferences but are not configured
> by them.
The Preferred Applications dialog is known to be poor.
Accessories->Text Editor is the text editor which is part of the GNOME
Desktop release, aka gedit. Internet -> Web Browser is the web browser
which is part of the GNOME Desktop release, aka Epiphany. If you
install others, they are named. This way if the user just has the core
GNOME Desktop release, they have a "text editor" and a "web browser" and
don't have to wonder what "epiphany" and "gedit" is.
> * GNOME 2 no longer has a user menu, or menu editor.
As said, use nautilus and go to applications:///
> * There's some fishy thing which in rare corner cases results in
> an inability to save any gconf preferences.
Probably a gconf bug, I blame lock files. Shut down X, run gconftool-2
--shutdown, and remove any lock files from ~/.gconf/lock/ and
/tmp/gconfd-[username]/lock.
> * Upstream GNOME 2 Palm Pilot synchronization is seriously
> broken (for those of us who need memo-file), and it's not
> clear Debian's is fixed (and I don't want to risk my Pilot's
> data finding out).
gnome-pilot is not maintained as far as I can tell.
> * A few applications are still not stable for GNOME 2, such as
> galeon and gnucash, and evolution is not yet in testing.
gnucash doesn't exist for GNOME 2, but I find Galeon perfectly stable.
> For these last three reasons, I think GNOME 2 is not yet ready for my
> group. For the first three reasons, I must say I'm disappointed in the
> upstream design decisions which reduce configurability, but am willing
> to work around them.
The GNOME team have heard this many, many, many times. Explain what
options you are missing, and why you need them so much, and they might
be added again. The majority of people end up requesting totally odd
features, or can't actually give any.
> Make an emacs(21) .desktop entry (likely from the .menu entry) and
> contribute it to the Debian packager in a wishlist bug report. (GNOME 1
> had this in gnome-panel-data, but I can see how it's more appropriate to
> put into the emacs package itself.)
I should do this for xemacs, I'm sure I've had one in the past...
Ross
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Ross Burton mail: ross@burtonini.com
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