Okay, day one, I have a feeling of trepidation – using a beta product for doing real work is risky. I realize I do this at my own risk, and SAVE OFTEN.

This entry will be updated as the day goes on, here are my immediate impressions of using Gnome-Shell in the real world, doing real work.How Do I Run It?

Via a terminal, for now. I prefer to be able to log into Gnome2, and then launch gnome-shell via a terminal. It lets me view the output in the terminal from the program at any moment, and I can also kill the terminal and launch Metacity in case of emergency.

Such an emergency has not arisen, yet.

So. You can install gnome-shell via Synaptic or by typing: sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

I installed the newest version via a ppa though, but for now I will leave you guys with the ones in the repo.

To run it, do two things.

1. TURN OF COMPOSITING (disable desktop effects)
2. In a terminal, type: gnome-shell –replace

Imressions So Far

WHERE ARE MY OPEN WINDOWS!? Seriously, if there is one thing that I immediately take away from this experience is that while having only a top-panel is great screen real estate wise, there is a LOT of wasted space on said panel. WHY does it not show me all the open windows? While the “Firefox Web Browser” indicator is certainly pretty what with its large Firefox logo and all, it is useless.

It enables me to find a window that is OPEN RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!

If you look at the screenshot above you would never say I have six programs open on this desktop at the moment.

Stability

It certainly is rather stable. I have not have one crash yet today, and hope for none. Last night it locked up on me and I needed to kill gnome-shell (hence me running the terminal.) Reason for lockup still unknown.

Speed

It is definitely slower than Metacity, the gnome2 window manager. It is slower than Compiz. Hopefully the speed issues will be sorted soon, or at least by the final release.

That’s It For Now

So far so, uhm, good, I guess. I miss Gnome2! So far Gnome-Shell does everything you ask of it, but different. I really hope that there is some missing functionality that still needs to be implemented in the build I have, because right now Gnome-Shell feels like a huge backwards step – seriously, where are all my other windows? And don’t tell me to ALT+TAB, I know I can do that, but hows about pointing me to where I can simply see which windows are open on this desktop, without pressing any buttons or moving the mouse?

End of Day 1

I am physically tired. Gnome-shell is not conducive to work fluidity. Every time you minimize a window it disappears completely from view. There is no indication of where it went. If you have a terminal that is not fullscreen and a fullscreen window behind it, and you click on the rear one, the front one disappears completely from view.

This is crucial, when there are placeholders for open programs and windows on a taskbar somewhere a visual link between the user and the program is kept. I found it very distressing that a program would disappear from view by being covered by another, and then feeling as if I lost it permanently.

I find the user interface tiring, for this reason. I need to mentally keep track of all the programs I have open at any given time on a particular desktop. I have six of them open. Now, when I want to find a particular window, instead of simply scrolling through the desktops and glancing at the bottom bar until I find it, I now have to scroll to a desktop – pause – alt+tab, look to see if the program is there, and if it isn’t, move along.

That was a horrid paragraphy, I know, and that is how I found using Gnome-Shell.

I am a bit wary of what my experience tomorrow will offer. I cannot go another day with a splitting headache from concentrating so hard. I am actually seriously considering ending my 7day challenge here and throwing in the towell.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings then…

READ ON FOR DAY 2, CLICK HERE

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