GNOME's preferences to get overhaul

Word on the street is that GNOME's preferences/administration "capplets" are going to get an overhaul, although it won't be ready for the 2.16 release.

While the specifics are still up in the air, it looks like there's going to be a fair amount of the capplets grouped together. Rodrigo Moya's initial proposal looked like this:
* about-me
* at-properties
* a11y keyboard, keyboard and keybindings: merge them in one single
Keyboard capplet
* background, display, font, mouse?, theme switcher, ui-properties,
windows: merge them into a single 'Display' capplet
* default apps
* file types, mime-type
* localization
* network, url-properties
* sound: add video device setup and call it Multimedia??


If you had to ask me, I'd say that judging by a few similar discussions I've read, the new "preferences/administration" would maybe end up looking like the following: Display, Input Devices, Sound and Multimedia, About Me, File Associations, Accessibility, and Localization. (Note: This is almost complete speculation.)

Now, by the time development starts rolling on this, the whole "preferences/administration" interface may have been blown away in favour of the "GNOME Control Center" or have at least a different interface style (compared to the menu method used now.) Since it looks like the preferences and administration menus might be merged, I'd bet that a bigger redesign and reorganization like this is the most likely thing to happen.
If you'd like to get a more in-depth glimpse of the ideas that people are throwing around, check out "Preferences Revisted" on GNOME Live.

(I should also mention Ubuntu Control Center, which is an answer to Novell's control center in their SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. It'll be interesting to see what the GNOME guys do if Ubuntu ever decides to switch over officially to the Ubuntu Control Center...)

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August GNOME Journal

The August edition of The GNOME Journal has been out for a few days, and it's worth checking out if you want a behind-the-scenes look at GNOME development. I've mentioned Tinymail before, and if you're a developer, the article on it is a good read. (Tinymail is being developed as a sort of object-oriented framework instead of just a library.)

Lastly, the interview with Davyd Madeley is pretty interesting:

In your opinion, what should be the next GNOME big steps?

Integration and collaboration. If I have a Bluetooth device, its useful functionality should be integrated with my GNOME applications. My Nokia 770 (or the one I wish I had) should be able to seamlessly integrate with my GNOME Desktop. Not just by syncing data with Evolution, but also at an application level integration. The Jokosher remote is an interesting example of this.

Collaboration is somewhere where we can really get ahead of the game. Collaborative Abiword, collaborative Inkscape, these applications are really pushing the limits with how people expect conventional applications to function. The way we work is undergoing a paradigm shift, in that we no longer all work together in the same office and sometimes, there is no office at all. The ability to collaborate in the same basic way but over a network is seriously a cool thing.


Read on!
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USBSink 0.1

Today we saw the first release of USBSink:

USBSink is a GNOME program for file synchronization over USB.
It is designed for users of removable drives, such as flash drives
or external hard disks. The goal is to have a complete automation of
data trasfers, after a task has been defined. With file monitoring and
hardware detection features, USBSink is able to respond and act
according to relevant events across the desktop.

I'm surprised nobody's created this utility before, and thankful someone finally has. (How long have USB flash drives been around for?)
There's two screenshots available as well as some basic development plans.
If looking for a useful utility to synchronize files to a USB drive, this is the answer to your prayers - Give it a download!
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Edgy Eft and GNOME 2.16 Features

A Stranger's Universe has a nifty article on Edgy Eft (Ubuntu 6.10) & GNOME 2.16 Features. Most of the items in the preview are mild improvements to individual GNOME applications, but there's still plenty of time for the next Ubuntu to become a bit more "edgy".
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Ubuntu 6.06 Artwork - Doh!

I remember reading somewhere that the artwork in Ubuntu 6.06 didn't quit turn out as good as it should have (due to a lack of time).

Well, after getting my iMac at work to boot off the Ubuntu 6.06 Live/Desktop CD (without Bootcamp, I might add), I was playing around with the Gnome Partition Editor, and I noticed this slight oversight:



Funny :)

(Btw, if anyone's interested: To get my (early 2006 model) iMac to boot off the Ubuntu Desktop CD, I just had to install the latest firmware update for the boot loader. (This page explains it.) After that, I held down the "option" key when I rebooted, and selected to boot off the CD (ironically detected as "Windows"). Linux on a Mac was as easy as that!
(Now, is there any easy way to get a Mac to boot off a USB key with Ubuntu installed?)
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Quick Update...

Here's some interesting stuff I've stumbled across in the last week and a half :

  • Linux.com has a new article outlining the new Dates and Contacts apps that are in development. They both use the Evolution Data Server as a backend, meaning they'll use your Evolution contact/calender data. (People have been complaining about Evolution being slow forever, so maybe we'll finally see a lighter frontend coalesce in the next year or two.

  • Ubuntu developers Canonical have hired Jono Bacon as their new Ubuntu Community Manager. Jono is well known throughout the GNOME community, and will serve Canonical very well in this position. (Jono's also heading up the Jokosher project, which has turned into a fantastic multi-track studio.)

  • Christian Schaller has covers some recent developments with Rhythmbox and Totem. (It sounds like the Totem Mozilla plugin might turn into the end-all-be-all media plugin that it should be.) :)
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