For most of my life as Linux desktop user, I ran KDE. Then along came KDE 4 and I freaked out and migrated to GNOME.
GNOME 3 — officially released today is a similar kind of ‘big break’ for the GNOME project, but it’s not in my opinion the same nightmare the KDE 4 unleashed on its users.
The big ticked item that should define GNOME 3 is the GNOME Shell interface.
“The new GNOME Shell
is an entire new user experience that was designed from the ground up to
improve the usability of the desktop and giving both designers and
developers a quick way to improve the desktop and adapt the user
interface to new needs,” Miguel de Icaza, one of GNOME’s founders said in a statement. “By tightly integrating Javascript with the GNOMEplatform, designers were able to create and quickly iterate on creating
an interface that is both pleasant and exciting to use. I could not be
happier with the results.”
Ubuntu doesn’t use GNOME Shell, though Red Hat, Novell and likely every other Linux distro that include GNOME likely will. Personally, I like GNOME Shell and am looking forward to seeing it as the default in the upcoming Fedora 15 release.
