I have 2 friends who have nothing in common but the following conditions:
* They're tired of Windows sucking
* They really want shiny new Macs
* But they can't afford them
So I offered to -- if they were interested -- set up an account on my workstation and install all the shiny new Gnome 2.6 stuff, and whatever apps they wanted, and let them test drive it to see if it meets their needs. They both said "hell yeah", so tonight I made with the Gnome-installing.
Dude, I'm shocked. I've used ratpoison for a year, and the complete list of my window managers before that is (in reverse chronological order): blackbox, sawfish, wmx, fvwm2, afterstep, fvwm. I've tried Gnome and KDE at various times throughout the years, and I've always been almost-immediately disappointed. When KDE3 happened I gave it a shot, and after a week I thought I'd finally started to like it, but it turned out that I'd simply managed to beat KDE into behaving like blackbox.
I just don't need a desktop environment. I need a window manager that'll stay the hell out of my way.
So it is with great surprise that I announce that -- while it's clearly still not the thing for me -- Gnome 2.6 is one very nice piece of software. It's fast. It feels good. The spatial finder stuff lifted from old-line Mac OS is great. The built-in cd burning certainly seems to be a plus, though I haven't tested it yet. Did I mention that it just feels good? It's fast, even over a remote X connection. It's a lot simpler, which I think is actually a huge plus given its target audience and stated purpose.
Now if only they'd get rid of the per-window menubars and use that top panel the way Steve intended it to be used...
