Links 25/01/2014: GNOME Desktop/Shell/Alternatives Roundup
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-01-25 20:51:32 UTC
- Modified: 2014-01-25 20:51:32 UTC
Summary: News about GNOME desktop and desktops that are derived from it
GNOME Desktop/Shell
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Most Linux distros bundle GNOME desktop environment (DE) with even minor version numbers (3.8.x, 3.10.x). Like Fedora was released with GNOME 3.10.3. The version 3.11.2 was available in November but it was not bundled .The reason behind it is that GNOME takes a different approach to their software releases. The odd minor versions (3.9, 3.11) of GNOME are development versions of the subsequent even versions (3.10, 3.12). So the .11 version is roughly an alpha version of the .12 branch.
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For a while it looked like Ubuntu 14.04 would stick to a GNOME 3.8 world, for the GNOME packages it ships in Ubuntu Linux as newer packages are partially held back by Ubuntu dependencies for their Unity desktop. Previously blocking the GNOME 3.10 update in Ubuntu was the GNOME Control Center, which ended up being forked by Canonical until their own Ubuntu System Settings can be developed.
Alternatives
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Surely users must be ready for a change from the default Gnome Shell theme by now. I have sampled some of the available Gnome Shell themes on Fedora 20 and now you can see them for yourself. A new shell theme will not change your entire desktop, but it will provide a new look for the activities overview window, and the Gnome indicator applet panel.
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I get a lot of queries regarding the difference(s) between the MATE and Cinnamon desktop environments. And of course such queries tend to come from those new to Linux and Free Software.
For the benefit of those class of users, this very brief article summarizes the key difference between these two desktop environments. Nothing technical, just basic stuff that will help those users to better understand what their options are. And because a picture is worth more than a thousand words, there are a couple of galleries to complete the picture.
Applications
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GNOME has finally updated the look and feel of their text editor, gedit. The app has been redesigned to match the newer GNOME 3 interface guidelines.
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The GNOME Project has also announced today that a new development release of the Epiphany 3.12 web browser for the upcoming GNOME 3.12 desktop environment is now available for download and testing.
Epiphany 3.11.3 adds HTTPS (secure HTTP) support for both the DuckDuckGo and Google search engines, improves the looks of the location bar and the downloads bar, improves filename suggestion for downloads, and cleans up the style of the about: pages.
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Dconf 0.19.3 introduces various improvements in the test coverage area, adds a proper DCONF_ERROR error domain, suppress the GLib deprecation warnings during the build process, correctly handles writability changes in GSettings, displays warnings about missing files only once per source, and it will link to -ldl only if it is required.
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The GNOME Project has released the fourth development release towards the Eye of GNOME 3.12 application, which will be the default image viewer for the highly anticipated GNOME 3.12 desktop environment.
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GVFS 1.19.4 introduces pull support for gPhoto2 and implements truncate and seek support for output streams for the DAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning) protocol.
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The GNOME Project has announced a new development version towards GNOME PackageKit 3.12, a graphical user interface (GUI) for the powerful PackageKit software, which will be used in the upcoming GNOME 3.12 desktop environment.
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The GNOME development team behind the Glib project, a library used in the GNOME desktop environment, has announced the immediate availability for download of Glib 2.39.3, which introduces lots of fixes.
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Dubbed Spoilers, the third development version of the upcoming GNOME Documents 3.12 software, the main document viewer of the GNOME 3.12 desktop environment, has been made available for testing.
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The GNOME Project has announced that a second development release towards the upcoming GNOME Weather 3.12 application that will be available in the GNOME 3.12 desktop environment is available for testing.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Microsoft Whistleblowers Explain How Brutal the Latest Cull is (Layoffs in Seconds-Long Calls, Mass Elimination of Whole Studios and High-Level Officials)
- we see anonymous leakers or whistleblowers in the media today
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- Links 16/07/2026: Slop Recognised as a Waste of Energy, Hong Kong Cracking Down on Dissent/Opposition Some More
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux Approaching 5% "Market Share" in Oceania, Almost Trebling in 12 Months
- It is difficult to ignore the gains made by GNU/Linux this month
- Gemini Links 16/07/2026: esp32-gemserv, Slop-Contaminated Free Software, and Moving Systems
- Links for the day
- Last Summer Microsoft Mass Layoffs Came in Two Large Waves, Rumours Say Next Week Another Large Wave is Coming
- If many more Microsoft layoffs are formally admitted next week we will not be surprised
- Tomorrow is Another Strike Day at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, the Media is Still Deliberately Ignoring It
- Fridays are now recommended “anchor days" for EPO strikes
- Public Interest News Foundation Shows News Drought or News Deserts in the United Kingdom
- Public Interest News Foundation shows that we should be deeply concerned
- Illusions of Choice
- Choices can be differently bad or equally bad
- Windows Down to 10% in India
- Windows is a "burning platform"
- One Year Has Passed
- Our aim is to repair an injured system wherein "abuse of process" can be turned into a weapon, leveraged even by foreigners who are funded by affluent third parties
- Techrights is Annoying People Who Work for (and Serve) People Who Annoy (and Abuse) Society
- Working against us (instead of with us) has historically been a bad strategy
- No Skinnerboxes, No Slop, No False Idols or Corporate Prophets
- Torvalds does not understand the everyday struggles of tech workers and tech users because he is a millionaire
- IBM's Next Stop: $199 (Market Cap Already Under 2.5 Times IBM's Debt)
- Don't rush to call us "sensationalist" over it
- Links 16/07/2026: Solar Greenwashing by Energy-Wasting GAFAM and Growing Concerns About Harm by Social Control Media
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 16/07/2026: Photography, Agility, and "Today I have Truly Become a Linux User."
- Links for the day
- Rebellion Brewing at Microsoft
- As always, we welcome Microsoft whistleblowers
- Technology Against Human Nature
- Losing a sense of what it means to be alive
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 15, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, July 15, 2026
- IBM Down to $211.20, the Market in General is Up
- No recovery for IBM today
- UEFI 'Secure Boot' Still Not Secure in 2026, New Holes (or Bypasses) Still Being Found
- In 2026 there are still many people who call it "secure" and pretend to themselves that it is about security. It's not. It never was.
- Gemini Links 15/07/2026: Lab 6, Retrospective 2, and "Getting Back Into Gemini"
- Links for the day
- Links 15/07/2026: "Gianni Infantino Under Fire" and "Todd Blanche's Record Raises Alarming Questions About the Future of the US DOJ"
- Links for the day
- Allegedly More IBM RAs (Mass Layoffs) Same Day the Stock Crashed
- No paper trail, so it never happened, right?
- Techrights Was Right: Microsoft's Layoffs Tally Was False, Far More People Are Being Sacked
- "The Xbox Bloodbath Is Actually Way Bigger Than It Seems"
- Get Ready for Increase in PIPs and RAs at IBM, Red Hat, and Other Companies Devoured by IBM
- IBM's "market cap" has just fallen to 199 billion dollars and it has about 70 billion dollars in debt
- IBM Sinking to Lowest Levels Since 2024, But Will Any Executives Be Arrested for Securities Fraud?
- 52-week high of $332.46 and now down to $212.94
- Microsoft Whistleblowers Say "The Entire Thing is Going to Fall Apart" and There Are "No Benefits" to Being Part of Microsoft
- "Multiple sources, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal"
- IBM's Crash Continues Today
- Stocks go up and down, but they don't typically go down by over 25% in a single day
- Like Kyndryl, Multiple Securities Fraud Investigations Into IBM
- Remember what happened to Kyndryl
- How Long Before GNU/Linux is Measured at 20% in Chad?
- The main way to get people to adopt Vista 11 is to sell them a new PCs and in poor countries it happens a lot less
- Making Techrights Faster Down Under (Australia and New Zealand)
- there's more to life than speed
- Strikes at the EPO Approved for the Rest of the Year, "€1,3 Billion Taken From Staff Income"
- Intensity can be revised and increased over time
- Focusing on What We Really Ought to Focus on
- Today we'll focus mostly on EPO affairs
- Violence is Not a Joke
- "Police say Widdecombe killing was targeted but motive remains unclear"
- How to Properly Measure the Performance of a Patent Office
- A "contribution from staff [which] is published by SUEPO Munich."
- Who Next After IBM? (Bubbles Don't Last Forever)
- the demise of companies with "ai" in their name/domain
- EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part XIV - "Not One of Us" (How the Group Dubbed by EPO Insiders "Alicante Mafia" Pushes Out Talent, Replacing It With Friends)
- misuses the EPO's budget like it is a fountain of money for his friends
- LibreTech Collective Abandons Microsoft GitHub and All Other Proprietary Software
- Each time a project eliminates control by a hostile party it stands to gain
- GNU/Linux Estimated at 8% "Market Share" Today (in statCounter)
- Days ago it said 7.1%, then 7.3% or 7.4%
- Links 15/07/2026: US Regime "Cuts Two Utah National Monuments by More Than 90%", "Hormuz is Less Crucial Than It Was"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 15/07/2026: Old Computer Challenge, "Trial by Fire", LLM Slop Destroying Companies
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 14, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, July 14, 2026
- Heshan de Silva-Weeramuni Becomes Program Manager at the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
- Heshan's addition means that the FSF is growing after a solid financial year (best in years)
- Michael McMahon Explains Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks on the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
- The real solution is a curb on botnets. A mitigation strategy, however, would involve going static.
- Matters of Public Safety
- "Police say Ann Widdecombe killed in 'targeted attack' as motive investigated"
- The Register MS and Its Promotional Microsoft Content
- It's not too hard to see what the business model of The Register MS is
- IBM: From $306 to $212 in 7 Days, IBM Won't Go Up More Than 50% to Where It Was at 'Peak Vapourware'
- There's a limit to how much or how long a company can fake its performance and its potential [...] Early this morning a few insiders ("traders") cashed in on their "pump-n-dump"
- Red Hat Staff Needs to Start Looking for the Next Job
- Workers can conveniently lie or deny it to themselves, but waves of PIPs ("silent layoffs") will sweep over more and more units or teams as the company runs out of money to play with
- IBM the Next Bear Stearns
- IBM cannot recover if all it has to show is vapourware
- IBM Stock Collapses and It's Only the Beginning
- Will GAFAM soon follow and will any executives be arrested for the accounting fraud insiders have long cautioned about?
- I'll Be Extremely Difficult for Microsoft to Sell Any XBox Consoles Now
- Microsoft understands this
- How Software Freedom Would Benefit Everybody
- A society that denies control by greedy companies would do a disservice to monopolies and improve all services to citizens
- Links 14/07/2026: Harsh But Also Fair Criticism of Hey Hi (AI) Slop, 'Open' AI Shuts Down Its Own Products as Funds Run Out
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 14/07/2026: Old CD Binder and AWK
- Links for the day
- In Defence of Physical Tickets
- Tickets are not some "app" and not some "code" on some "screen"
- Microsoft Layoffs Not Limited to XBox (False Narrative in the Mainstream Media)
- Microsoft is becoming less relevant and workforce reductions won't end any time soon
- Links 14/07/2026: Plagiarism Spun as "Training", Zelensky Announces Leadership Shuffle
- Links for the day
- The Register MS Has Just Published "AI" Webspam That Mentions "AI" 54 Times. It Was Paid to Do This.
- Who pays for all this "AI" hype or "buzz"?
- Gemini Links 14/07/2026: Self-Advocacy Online; "The Internet Is Dead: How the Web Lost Its Human Soul"
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 13, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, July 13, 2026
- Modern Technology Harms Women More Than Men (Because the 'Tech Bros' Who Dominate STEM Have a Poor View of Women)
- “Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance.”
- Internet Relay Chat Trolls Are Not Expressing Opinions, They Are Saboteurs
- For the record
- Links 14/07/2026: "The Freedom of Information Act Is in Serious Trouble"; Irish Datacenters Use Up Almost 25% of Total Energy
- Links for the day
