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Boxes for your Tuxes – Worth it?

A name was mentioned. An application was tested. In my Gnome apps review from several weeks back, one of the comments pointed out Boxes, a virtualization product that is native to this desktop environment, and which I completely missed. Indeed, as far as software goes, there are no other desktop-specific virtualization products. To amend my…

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Fedora 29 first

Best Gnome distro of 2018

We talked about Xfce. We talked about Plasma. ‘Twas a turbulent year, and yet, it didn’t really have any defining Linux moments. More sort of steady state, stuck in the middle of a prolonged identity crisis where both the desktop and Linux are struggling to find innovation. Now we ought to talk about Gnome, the…

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Gnome, featured

What about Gnome apps then?

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about KDE apps. I went through the default stack of programs available in the desktop environment, and examined their suitability, maturity and fun for everyday use. The next logical step is to examine the Gnome desktop environment and its bundle from the same angle. If I think about…

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Best Gnome distro of 2017

Following in the best of traditions, it is that time of the year, when we wrap up the previous twelve months of hard work, software scrutiny, pain, tears, joy, and hope, all mixed and blended inside one big, scalding cauldron that we call Linux. We shall commence with the Gnome desktop environment. If you look…

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KDE vs. GNOME Design Philosophies

The days are gone when the Linux desktop was dominated almost entirely by KDE and GNOME. However, the influence of their design philosophy remains, with KDE favored by a third of users, and many modern desktop alternatives, from GNOME itself to Linux Mint’s Cinnamon and MATE using applications originally designed for GNOME. Broadly speaking, KDE’s…

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Chapeau 24 Cancellara

Best Gnome distro of 2016

What? Dedoimedo, have you been drinking Peckham Spring lately? No, I have not. The reason why we have the Gnome desktop environment included in the annual summary, unlike ever before, is not because I have suddenly grown old and mellow. It is because Gnome, after many many years, is finally showing real promise in being…

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A Survey of KDE Accessibility

Thanks mainly to Orca, Linux accessibility has always centered on GNOME. During the fourth release series, KDE has started to close the gap, but its efforts have gone largely unnoticed, perhaps because its accessibility tools are scattered across the desktop, and remain works in progress rather than a mature general solution.

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Using Trademarks to Stifle Free Software

The news today is that GNOME, the organisation behind one of the two most popular free and open Linux desktops, may lose the exclusive use of its name over a trademark spat. It turns out the Groupon, the deal-of-the-day website, has brought out a point-of-sale tablet called GNOME, the same as the GNU/Linux desktop environment.…

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The quest for a dock

I’ll confess something: I like docks. Am I weird? I don’t know, although if the three most popular operating systems in the world are any indicative the answer is no. In the last two years Canonical created Unity, which includes a dock-taskbar hybrid, and Microsoft followed suite, and then Gnome 3, and almost all other…

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KDE vs. Gnome system management

A few weeks back, we talked about KDE and Gnome in daily life, and how they fared from the applications perspective, when you pit programs developed for one environment against those created for the other. We learned a valuable lesson that technology and practicality do not necessarily go hand in hand, nor that you can…

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KDE vs. Gnome in daily life

This is not a competition. The thing is, you can install any which program on any which distribution, pretty much, regardless of what desktop environment you choose to choose. Instead, this is a friendly reality check for people who prefer this or that operating system. Let’s say you wish to use only the native applications developed…

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