One thing I genuinely hated about GNOME has finally been solved with the GNOME 44 release. It includes some big improvements and new features.
As dumb as it sounds, one of the most important new features is the added grid view for the file picker. Honestly, I still can't believe it took this long but it's finally in. You can now actually see proper previews of images. As they said in the release announcement that for years GNOME users have been requesting it. Apps will need to use GTK4 though, so hopefully plenty will.
There's also various security improvements, accessibility upgrades like redesigned settings for accessibility with these new features:
- An over-amplification setting has been added, to increase the volume above the usual maximum threshold.
- Under Typing, an option has been added to enable accessibility features using the keyboard.
- There is now a test area for the cursor blinking setting.
- A new setting to make scrollbars be always visible has been added to the Seeing section.
Sound settings also got upgraded:
- Volume level control has been moved into a separate window, making the more commonly used output and input controls easier to access.
- It’s now possible to disable the alert sound, and a new alert sound window makes it easy to browse the available sounds that are available.
- The sound test window has been redesigned, eliminating previous scaling issues when there are many outputs, and providing a more attractive interface.
Mouse and touchpad settings were overhauled, updates to the quick settings menu like being able to see a list of running apps without a window (Flatpak only for now), the GNOME Software app should be faster now and it has better Flatpak support, the terminal app Console now has a tab overview option, you can share from the Contacts app with a QR code, the GNOME Web browser was upgraded to GTK4 and the list goes on.
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Looks at important shiny new improvement for Gnome.
. . . You mean, Gnome couldn't do that before?!
. . . You mean, Gnome couldn't do that before?!
11 Likes, Who?
"As dumb as it sounds..."
This comment made me pretty disappointed.
This comment made me pretty disappointed.
0 Likes
"As dumb as it sounds..."Care to expand on why instead of making a drive-by comment like that?
This comment made me pretty disappointed.
I'll expand why it's dumb: it's such an incredibly basic feature for both usability and accessibility, that they said it themselves - was requested for years. It's dumb because it took so long.
11 Likes, Who?
This really wasn't there before? Did it get bugged or? It sounds pretty nuts if it is only just being added to Gnome 3+ versions? I figured it would have been put in years ago.
0 Likes
skyking_eam Mar 22, 2023
legluondunet Mar 22, 2023
Alleluia!!! It's a miracle, I did not believe it anymore.
How many years users been asking for this feature?
Last edited by legluondunet on 22 March 2023 at 5:05 pm UTC
How many years users been asking for this feature?
Last edited by legluondunet on 22 March 2023 at 5:05 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
"As dumb as it sounds..."Care to expand on why instead of making a drive-by comment like that?
This comment made me pretty disappointed.
I'll expand why it's dumb: it's such an incredibly basic feature for both usability and accessibility, that they said it themselves - was requested for years. It's dumb because it took so long.
It made me disappointed because I've gotten a better impression of you from your writing. Like, you're getting GNOME for free. I don't know how to explain myself better than that.
The reason for this feature taking so long was mostly technical to the best of my knowledge but I'd bet that a lack of developer time played a part as well btw.
0 Likes
They've had time to do lots of avant garde stuff. And, I use MATE, which was forked from Gnome and still uses GTK, and it has had that feature for as long as I've been using it. MATE is a smaller project, should have similar technical constraints, and they managed, so seems to me any excuses Gnome might make were probably . . . excuses."As dumb as it sounds..."Care to expand on why instead of making a drive-by comment like that?
This comment made me pretty disappointed.
I'll expand why it's dumb: it's such an incredibly basic feature for both usability and accessibility, that they said it themselves - was requested for years. It's dumb because it took so long.
It made me disappointed because I've gotten a better impression of you from your writing. Like, you're getting GNOME for free. I don't know how to explain myself better than that.
The reason for this feature taking so long was mostly technical to the best of my knowledge but I'd bet that a lack of developer time played a part as well btw.
It's done now, so water under the bridge I guess, but come on.
5 Likes, Who?
The point is: most (every?) other environments had it, because it's a basic feature for usability and accessibility. Yes it's free, but doesn't mean I have to like it or use it...I use KDE, because it has it and other things I prefer. Nothing wrong with pointing out how silly I find it when a major project misses such a thing.
8 Likes, Who?
... so seems to me any excuses Gnome might make were probably . . . excuses.
It could just have been that they prioritized their time and choose to work on other things? Why would they have to make excuses for that?
The way you're framing this is so entitled. Free software is a privilege not a right.
0 Likes
slaapliedje Mar 22, 2023
Speaking of thumbnails, a very useful plugin is stl-thumb! If you have a 3D printer, it's very nice to have the models show up in Nautilus. Especially when you've bought large collections of stuff that you have to build in pieces.
3 Likes, Who?
Of course it was that they prioritized their time and chose to work on other things. That's kind of by definition; they decided not to do it basically == they decided to do other things instead. Doesn't make them right.... so seems to me any excuses Gnome might make were probably . . . excuses.
It could just have been that they prioritized their time and choose to work on other things? Why would they have to make excuses for that?
The way you're framing this is so entitled. Free software is a privilege not a right.
Given the fairly basic nature of this feature, the fact that many desired it, and that most other desktop environments both on Linux and other OSes had it, ignoring it was a stupid decision. Their priorities were misplaced.
Making Free Software projects above criticism does them no favours.
13 Likes, Who?
mr-victory Mar 22, 2023
Apps will need to use GTK4 though, so hopefully plenty will.Ouch, IIRC Firefox still uses gtk3.
0 Likes
Finally! That small change (at least o the surface) will make a huge difference in usability. IIRC, some artists have stopped using Gnome because of that.
It's very annoying when I want to pick an image in my picture gallery that contains hundreds of files, named after date and time or just an increasing number (worse for iphone pictures since apparently those are UUIDs), to have to open another program and look up the file name, before selecting the right file(s).
Most things are too dumbed down for my taste in Gnome, and this dialog is a prime example. You can't open or rename a file from it, IIRC, nor perform simple file operations (move, create folder).
It's very annoying when I want to pick an image in my picture gallery that contains hundreds of files, named after date and time or just an increasing number (worse for iphone pictures since apparently those are UUIDs), to have to open another program and look up the file name, before selecting the right file(s).
Most things are too dumbed down for my taste in Gnome, and this dialog is a prime example. You can't open or rename a file from it, IIRC, nor perform simple file operations (move, create folder).
2 Likes, Who?
What i like about Gnome is the speed of development is directly linked to the speed of the work i can get done on this environment. Meaning that if i was someone who really wanted to work quickly and efficiently then i could just add a lengthy list of extensions to make it work even faster than it already doesn't.
4 Likes, Who?
About damn time! I prefer Gnome overall, but there are so many little things like the file chooser that make me want to bang my head against the wall. At least now it seems each release makes that list a bit shorter.
1 Likes, Who?
Of course it was that they prioritized their time and chose to work on other things. That's kind of by definition; they decided not to do it basically == they decided to do other things instead. Doesn't make them right.
You don't get to have a say in how other people spend their time. Just like I don't have a say in what you're doing with your time.
Given the fairly basic nature of this feature, the fact that many desired it, and that most other desktop environments both on Linux and other OSes had it, ignoring it was a stupid decision. Their priorities were misplaced.
Making Free Software projects above criticism does them no favours.
If I thought I had a say in how you spend your time I could've pointed out that *you* didn't prioritize adding an icon grid to the file chooser either. And since Free Software projects is just people I must conclude that no one is above criticism. Based on that I could have criticized *you* for not prioritizing the icon grid. Would that make sense to you?
0 Likes
Of course it was that they prioritized their time and chose to work on other things. That's kind of by definition; they decided not to do it basically == they decided to do other things instead. Doesn't make them right.
You don't get to have a say in how other people spend their time. Just like I don't have a say in what you're doing with your time.
Given the fairly basic nature of this feature, the fact that many desired it, and that most other desktop environments both on Linux and other OSes had it, ignoring it was a stupid decision. Their priorities were misplaced.
Making Free Software projects above criticism does them no favours.
If I thought I had a say in how you spend your time I could've pointed out that *you* didn't prioritize adding an icon grid to the file chooser either. And since Free Software projects is just people I must conclude that no one is above criticism. Based on that I could have criticized *you* for not prioritizing the icon grid. Would that make sense to you?
Nobody is 'forcing' anybody to do anything with their time. Im not sure if this escaped you but this is a discussion forum, where people in particular tend to voice their opinions.
Whether you like them or not.
3 Likes, Who?
Based on your apparently radical relativist stance, your criticism would be as empty as everything else either of us have said, which would be as empty as anything anyone could say.Of course it was that they prioritized their time and chose to work on other things. That's kind of by definition; they decided not to do it basically == they decided to do other things instead. Doesn't make them right.
You don't get to have a say in how other people spend their time. Just like I don't have a say in what you're doing with your time.
Given the fairly basic nature of this feature, the fact that many desired it, and that most other desktop environments both on Linux and other OSes had it, ignoring it was a stupid decision. Their priorities were misplaced.
Making Free Software projects above criticism does them no favours.
If I thought I had a say in how you spend your time I could've pointed out that *you* didn't prioritize adding an icon grid to the file chooser either. And since Free Software projects is just people I must conclude that no one is above criticism. Based on that I could have criticized *you* for not prioritizing the icon grid. Would that make sense to you?
But there is little point in discussing the emptiness of all commentary with a radical relativist, so I will stop now.
2 Likes, Who?
ElectricPrism Mar 23, 2023
GNOME 44 is out now finally adding thumbnails to the file picker
Well, that's it. Hell has frozen over.
0 Likes
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