GNOME 3.8 released


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Introducing GNOME 3.8

The GNOME community is proud to present GNOME 3.8. This new release features numerous new features as well as a host of smaller enhancements.

3.8 is the result of 6 months of work by the GNOME Project and contains 35936 contributions by approximately 960 people. We think that it is the best version of GNOME to date.

Here are some of the improvements that can be found in the new release.

Application Launching

GNOME 3.8 introduces a new application launching view. The Frequent tab includes your most commonly used applications, which means that you don't have to spend time looking for the things you use most often. The All tab shows all your applications and also includes application folders, which contain several groups of applications. This makes it easier for you to browse your applications.

apps-view.png

Search

Searching from the Activities Overview has been revamped with a new search results view, as well as new search settings. Together, these allow any application to present search results, making Activities Overview search a more powerful way to access the content that is provided by your applications. The new search settings provide control over which applications present search results as well as their order in the results list.

search.png

Privacy & Sharing

As a part of GNOME's ongoing commitment to protecting our user's privacy, 3.8 includes a range of new privacy and sharing settings. These allow you to control who has access to the content on your computer, how much personal information is displayed on the screen and whether features that track your activity should be enabled.

settings-privacy.png

Clocks

The latest GNOME release introduces a new core application, called Clocks. This handy utility was first previewed in 3.6, and has subsequently matured into a member of the default GNOME application set. It includes a number of useful features, including clocks for different world times, alarms, a stopwatch and a timer.

clocks.png

Improved Animation Rendering

GNOME 3.8 features a significant technological breakthrough in the way that animated graphics are rendered. By improving the coordination between the components responsible for displaying animated graphics, far greater efficiency and performance has been achieved. The result of this work is smooth and robust visual transitions and window resizing. Smoother video playback will also be found under some conditions.

graphics-motion-jitter.png

Classic Mode

Classic mode is a new feature for those people who prefer a more traditional desktop experience. Built entirely from GNOME 3 technologies, it adds a number of features such as an application menu, a places menu and a window switcher along the bottom of the screen. Each of these features can be used individually or in combination with other GNOME extensions.

classic-mode.png

Details

GNOME 3.8 includes a huge number of smaller bug fixes and enhancements. Many details have been addressed to give a more polished experience, including new animated transitions, improved visuals and usability fixes. Many of these improvements were made as a part of the Every Detail Matters initiative, which fixed nearly 60 bugs during the 3.8 development cycle.

details.png

Input Methods

Integrated input methods were introduced for the first time in the previous release, GNOME 3.6. They have been the subject of a great deal of work since then, with new features being added as well as bug fixes. These include a new on screen display for input method switching, new candidate character popups, new Region & Language settings, and the inclusion of all input method engines in the input method menu.

input-methods-switcher.png

Source: GNOME website

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GNOME 3.8 definitely looks like a nice improvement - especially the new classic mode. Hopefully classic mode is an improvement over fallback. I'll definitely try it when the packages arrive in Unstable or Experimental. Maybe GNOME 3 will finally entice me to switch from MATE!

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Well it's marginally better than the start screen but not by much. Am I the only person that thinks trays of oversized icons in a launcher app looks out of place on modern PCs with large, high resolution monitors?

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hm i dunno... problem with gnome i had so far is: it looks awesome on screenshots, but when i run it, it doesnt impress me anymore....

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Wow this looks like a very nice update, can't wait to get my hands on it. If arch gets it in its repos before f19 comes out (which is likely) I might switch back :)

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Is anyone running this yet? I installed it on Ubuntu 12.10 and am having issues with loading the appearance section to change the background. I even tried right clicking the desktop and it will pop up, then disappear.

Edit:

Gnome tweal also does the same thing. Loads then disappears.

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Well it's marginally better than the start screen but not by much. Am I the only person that thinks trays of oversized icons in a launcher app looks out of place on modern PCs with large, high resolution monitors?

Launchpad in combination with the Magic Trackpad it's pretty convenient. When purely talking about esthetics I have to agree, it does look a bit strange on a 27-inch iMac (see pic). :/

I like how GNOME integrated global searching into the launcher. I kinda expected Apple to integrate Spotlight into Launchpad as well and getting rid of the menu. Classic Mode will shut up most of the anti-GNOME 3 crowd hopefully.

post-128385-0-42503700-1364497309.jpg

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That wouldn't really work for me either. Personally I feel 32x32 hits the sweet spot for icon size with the current resolution and density of computer screens. On a 4k screen they would be too small, but I feel a setup like that just wastes screen space.

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That wouldn't really work for me either. Personally I feel 32x32 hits the sweet spot for icon size with the current resolution and density of computer screens. On a 4k screen they would be too small, but I feel a setup like that just wastes screen space.

32 x 32 pixel icons are just ridiculously small on my iMac, 64 x 64 pixels is pretty much the sweet spot. 48 x 48 pixels used to be fine on my 24-inch iMac since it had a lower DPI. The last time I used 32 x 32 pixel icons must have been back in the Mac OS 9 / Windows 98 days.

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