Dear Richard: Thank for this detailed explanations. First, I have to say I am a SUSE zealous but not a SUSE madness. I am quit clear why I use SUSE. The reason for this is that SUSE is more stable than any other open source distribution such as Ubuntu or Fedora.

From the openSUSE 11.0, SLED 10.0 till recent 11.4, I have seen SUSE improved a lot in stability. As a computational scientist, I have to admit, I am quit happy with previous version of SUSE, especially considering my professional software cannot run well in other distribution and they work fine under SUSE.

Hi Albert,

As your email focuses very much on gnome, I'm CC'ing this reply to

Moreover, the CG of SUSE also improved a lot especially after openSUSE 11.0, although I prefer Novell classic blue theme which I missed for a long time because it is quit simple and clear, and completely different from nowadays so called gorgeous. However, for the most recent 12.1, I really cannot agree with you. As a user, each time before I switch to a new OS, I have to ask some questions such as: why should I switch to it? is there anything attractive enough for me? is it worth to do so especially considering I have to spend lots of time to configure the compiler and software that I daily use? is it more easier to use? is it stable enough? I can't give "YES" to those questions for 12.1. My deepest impression for this GNOME SHELL(GS) is: gaudy and this maybe the same for all GS distribution. To my way of thinking, it is much more suitable for tablet but not for office or daily computational work. To be honest, the CG of Gnome shell is not my type. To me, it is even ugly. I now the OS for IPAD is quit popular and hot for many people, probably the GS spirits comes from IPAD OS. If we believe that it can also lead to an OS to be successful, I am have to say it's pity, such kind of thoughts are so NOT stupid and naive. It even lacks our own thoughts and creativity. I can hardly believe such kind of OS can last for a long time. For the interface itself, why not provide an option during installtion for user to choose GNOME2.X or GNOME3.X? At present, I don't find anything that 3.X is superior than 2.X. And I don't think the GNOME SHELL is better than GNOME 2.X just because it labeled with "3". For the "upstream project" stuff you mentioned, if I were you, I can appropriate that the 3.x is just released and there are lots of things to be improved. But if something is not so good in essence, no matter how to "improve", it cannot change too much for its demerits. Although I am not Steven Jobs, I can still have my own mind to do something big different from others. I don't like stuff that the same with others. For example: if we put all Linux distribution together with default 2.X theme, I can tell which one is SUSE at first galence. But now, when I first saw the SUSE 3.X, I cannot differentiate SUSE with any other distribution. When I switch to fallback mode, I even believe that I was using stupid Ubuntu. What a sad it is. I believe that there are lots of SUSE zealous and some of them are SUSE madness who is even not clear why the use SUSE or a OS and they switch to a new distribution as soon as it come out. I am sorry I am not such kind of person. However, as a SUSE zealous, I do hope the new version can be my option in the near future since all software are updating sooner or later and I will definitely need my OS to be updated later. Of course, I do hope SUSE would be always my primary choice. Best wishes to SUSE On 12/21/2011 11:28 AM, Richard Brown wrote: the opensuse-gnome mailinglist so my fellow gnomers can read your feedback.

1. Differences: In my opinion, the responsibility of a project like ours, producing

Linux distributions, is to provide a solid, stable, integrated collection of current/cutting edge FOSS software, tweaked and tuned for our users. We shouldn't be changing things just for the sake of changing things.

I believe, our implementation of GNOME 3 improves on the current

We install the gnome-tweak-tool by default, and YaST is smoothly integrated into the System Settings

Yes, we could do more, we on the openSUSE gnome team are always looking for new ideas and new people to help out implementing them. It's easy, and if you're interested in helping out, please join the opensuse-gnome mailing list and/or #opensuse-gnome IRC channel and say hello

2. gnome2-like environment This is actually called 'fallback mode' It's intended to provide a basic, working environment for when 3D acceleration is not available. As you've noticed, it currently looks like 'vanilla' gnome2, but it is not really intended as an alternative to the gnome-shell mode for

status of the upstream project. It's good to start with, but we made a number of improvements that you don't find in other GNOME3's - For example the Shutdown menu was changed to make Power Off/Restarting and Hibernation easier to access. those who don't like it - there are efforts to get gnome-shell working without 3D acceleration, and I would not be surprised if fallback mode disappears if these efforts bear fruit.

Again, offering my opinion - I personally believe it would be stupid

That said, I do know there was someone working on porting the SLAB

for SUSE/openSUSE to throw good development time behind an effort to enhance fallback mode when it is clearly not the direction of upstream GNOME menu to gtk3 so it could work in fallback mode

And you might be interested in http://extensions.gnome.org - a

recently launched service from upstream GNOME that provides a large collection of gnome shell extensions that let you customise the gnome3 environment (not fallback mode).

Several of the extensions provide features and functionality which used to be in gnome2.

3. Progress

GNOME 3 is progress. gnome-shell is a very different desktop environment, and your certainly not the first to express their dislike for it - but if you want a traditional taskbar/start menu orientated environment, there are great alternatives out there (KDE, xfce, lxde) all supported by openSUSE - we're a distro of choice for precisely this kind of scenario.

But please keep in mind that there are also many keen users and keen developers spending a lot of time on GNOME 3. I don't think calling our chosen desktop environment and efforts to improve it 'stupid' is a very productive way forward. Helping out in our gnome team with constructive ideas (you don't need to be a developer for that) or packaging and code would be a much bigger help.

So if you truly are a SUSE lover and want our gnome installation to better suit your tastes, I look forward to seeing your contributions soon :)

Regards

A fellow SUSE lover

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Albert 12/21/11 10:00 AM >>> I've used SUSE for more than six years and each new version coming out always give me surprising more or less. However, I found the most recent 12.1 is really disappointed, especially the gnome desktop:

1. I don't find any difference and surprise with this gnome3 while comparing with other linux distribution.

2. When I switch to gnome2-like environment, I am getting very angry. How can SUSE become as stupid as Ubuntu? The gnome2-like environment is almost the same as Ubuntu..... The menu, the task bar color and so on. Why can't SUSE keep its own uniques? The SUSE menu in 10.0 till 11.4 is quit nice and creative. Why did this 12.1 switch to stupid Ubuntu like style?

3. What's worse. The workspace switcher in gnome2-like environment is the same as 10.0 version: when we use "only show current workspace", it can only show ONE workspace, and others are all gone......

12.1, Progress or backwards?

To be honest as a Linux user, the stupid gnome3 don't have even a little tinny tiny attraction to me. I do hope the SUSE developer can design SUSE from the aspects of users. If I were a SUSE developer, I will pay more attention to the stability and general interface of SUSE.

May SUSE a bright future.

A SUSE Lover

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