Egg Freckles

Thu 11/1 Gnome 3

I have not felt this good about a graphical user interface since the introduction of WebOS. The last time I experienced a productivity gain of this magnitude was after the introduction of Spring Loaded Folders in Mac OS 8, or the unveiling of Exposé in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Something about Gnome 3 just clicks with me. Deeper than the Desktop Metaphor, more fluid than Aqua, Gnome 3 is making it hard for me to go back to Mac OS X.

It starts with nothing…

When you first dive into Gnome 3 you are greeted by a sparse desktop, a clean wallpaper, a black menu bar, and a couple of easily recognizable system icons standing in a row. The time, like the Apple Menu in the Mac OS X Public Beta, sits in the middle of the menubar. The whole interface, except for the wallpaper is void of color. There are never any desktop icons to distract you, Never any resumed applications from a previous session to get in your way. This is how I want to be greeted by my computer every time I log in.

And then there was everything…

What I like about Gnome 3 is that everything is within reach. Bringing the cursor up to the top left corner of the screen disturbs the surface with tiny ripples, and reveals much of the potential hiding underneath. Like a Zen Garden everything has its place. There is a dock for your favorite applications on the left. Open windows are previewed evenly across the center of the screen. Notifications are reduced to icons lined up along the bottom. While workspaces and a universal search field are stacked neatly to the right. At any time the Exposé of windows and stacked workspaces can be replaced with a scrolling view of the installed application, a.k.a. Launchpad. And you don’t have to click the search field to find what you are looking for. Just like Spotlight the results appear as you type, organized into categories that are easy to choose from. There is even the option to perform a Wikipedia, or Google search if you can’t find what you are looking for. The Dock, meets Mission Control, meets Spaces, meets Notification Center, meets Launchpad, meets Spotlight, all in one screen that can be summoned or expelled with a simple gesture.¹

Just a dock…

Sometimes a dock doesn’t need a genie in the bottle minimalization effect, or a faux 3D vanishing point. Sometimes a dock is just a dock, A place to put your favorite applications, and that’s it. Gnome 3’s dock has no preferences, no sliders, no adjustments. Running applications show up in it. It gets smaller the more apps you put into it. There are no reflections, no magnification, and no bouncing. It is just a simple semi-transparent rectangle for you to put your favorite applications in. Documents? They belong in the filesystem.

Everything has its place…

Gnome 3 doesn’t try to hide your documents from you. It certainly doesn’t try to keep you out of the confusion that is the Linux filesystem. You are free to dive as deep as you want to go. There is even a user accessible option to show hidden files. While Apple have been busy battening down the hatches in Mac OS X, trying to make iOS users feel welcome. Gnome 3 has been making the file system more accessible to power users by bringing the best of the Mac OS X Finder back to Linux.

Just like on Mac OS X, every Linux user has a home, and every home has the same basic floor plan, Desktop, Documents. Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos. And just like Mac OS X every Nautilus window (the Gnome Finder), has a sidebar for keeping your favorite stuff. You can bookmark you favorite places, or reveal the entire filesystem tree just like Windows XP. There are clickable breadcrumbs at the top of every window to show you where you have been, and a split pane view for seeing two different locations at the same time. I like how the Gnome file browser gives you the features you need without too many preferences. Cover Flow is no where to be seen.

Windows your way…

One of my favorite Gnome 3 features is how it lets you work with windows. I grew up with a mouse in my hand, learning to drag and drop on a Mac 512k by age two. With Gnome 3, I can leave my windows in a jumbled stack, divide my screen into a two window split, or drag each window into its own full screen workspace. Individual workspaces can be reorganized just as easily, drag and drop. And because Gnome 3 supports multiple displays with the chance to have full screen windows on each, there are fewer limitations on how you can work with your favorite apps.

I used to be a big fan of the Mac’s unified menubar, and traffic light window controls. But now that I am using multiple displays, and a two button mouse, I see the advantage of giving each window its own menus I can click, and right-click. Individual application menus mean I don’t have to return to my primary display to issue commands. My mouse travels less, and my secondary monitor become more useful on its own. For the first time I am using both my laptop’s built-in screen, and a external display. And because I can right-click on any window titlebar and bring up a contextual menu, there is no need to litter the tops of Gnome windows with traffic light buttons I will never click. Every Gnome 3 window contains only a single close button, and the convenient option to re-size from any window edge. A philosophy perfectly aligned with Gnome 3’s clean lines and minimalistic design.

Get out of my way…

Nobody likes distracting notifications, but it seems like everybody wants to know what is going on with their computer, their social network, and the web. With Gnome 3 notifications are hidden at the button of the screen. This includes those little icons that fill your Menu Bar in Mac OS X, and your System Tray in Windows. It also includes your latest instant message replies, your last web browser download, the fact “you’ve got mail.” You can choose to interact with these notifications at the bottom of the screen, or turn off all notifications with a single switch. My favorite part is how instant messaging is built into the system. You can send messages from the button of any workspace. Now if only I could post to App.net that easily.

Why Linux?

A lot of people have been asking me “why Linux?” and the answer is, it was time for a change. I appreciate the fresh feel Gnome 3 gives to my workflow, and the freedoms Linux allows over Mac OS X. I am giving up on a lot of great Mac applications by making the switch, but change is what has kept me interested in computing for more than a decade. Trying new things will make me a better computer user. Sometimes you find something that just feels right, and for me Gnome 3 just tastes better than Apple’s current direction. But then again who knows what I will be using in a year.