There is a lot of talk at the moment about Gnome 3.0. Released on 6 April 2011, it will be included in Fedora 15 and probably a few other distributions. Some people love it, some hate it.
I personally don’t mind change. I started using Gnome shell a few months back. The way I see it Gnome is changing, and my options are get used to Gnome 3, try Unity (another story) or look for something else – Xfce or KDE most likely. Having used Gnome 3 for a short period, I have found that the interface helps focus me on what I am doing. It’s unobtrusive, and hides lots of potential distractions away.
Much of the noise I am hearing about Gnome 3 is its lack of customisability – It offers a fairly standard interface. I think this is generally a good idea – too much customisation leads often to a mess. However there are a few things I would like to change, but couldn’t find a way.
Until now.
I am using Fedora 15 as my main OS, and read the release notes just to see if there was anything I might be interested in coming soon. I came across a brief note in the release notes:
2.1.1.1.2. How do I change settings?
Click on the user menu at the top right and select System Settings. For more advanced preferences, install the gnome-tweak-tool package.
Ahh. A quick ‘yum install gnome-tweak-tool’ later and I have a far more customisable Gnome 3.0. Here are some highlights:
Under Shell you can change which buttons are displayed in the titlebar, and alter what happens when you close the laptop lid. This is particularly valuable to me, as I often close my laptop when moving and don’t always want it to suspend.
The Fonts options allow you to effectively change the dpi of the screen, and alter the fonts – something I have seen a lot of people desiring.
The File Manager options allow you to enable the file manager to control the desktop – restoring traditional desktop functionality. This is useful for unmounting removable drives. You can also remove the wallpaper. I’m sure someone has a use for this. I don’t.
You can change the behaviour of titlebar actions in the Windows menu. I found out that the middle button does something (I just bought a wireless mouse for my laptop – now I actually have a middle button 
).
The Interface section gives you options for changing gtk theme among other things. I’m generally happy with the standard so haven’t played much with these settings.
So there you have it. Gnome 3 is here. I like it, and think the developers have done a wonderful job. Many of the gripes people are having can be solved with the installation of a small configuration tool. So give it a try!
Note: some people don’t see how they can use programs that normally put an icon on the taskbar (Skype and Dropbox being two popular ones). Hover in the bottom right corner, and you’ll find a shaded bar appears, and there they are!
