Weekly edition	Kernel	Security	Distributions	Contact Us	Search
Archives	Calendar	Subscribe	Write for LWN	LWN.net FAQ	Sponsors

Changing backgrounds

Posted Apr 23, 2008 18:25 UTC (Wed) by mightyduck (guest, #23760)
In reply to: Changing backgrounds by tialaramex
Parent article: The Grumpy Editor encounters the Hardy Heron

This is a pretty rude response. You GNOME people really hate your users!

Disclaimer: I'm using KDE.

(Log in to post comments)

Posted Apr 23, 2008 19:36 UTC (Wed) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link]

I think we are LWN subscribers here in the first place, not "GNOME people" or anyone writing in any official capacity. It's not an interview with a GNOME developer or something like that.

Changing backgrounds

Posted Apr 24, 2008 0:57 UTC (Thu) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

I don't see this has a huge problem.

Just use gconf-editor

I find using that a lot easier then navigating KDE's option menus. 


Seriously. It's not that bad.

For example for blinking cursors you go:

ctrl-f
checkmark "search also key names"
type 'blink'
hit 'enter'

First two finds are:
/desktop/gnome/interface/cursor_blink_time
/desktop/gnome/interface/cursor_blink

The first one tells me:
"Length of the cursor blink cycle, in milliseconds"
Soo.. no that's not it.

The second one tells me:
"Whether the cursor should blink"

I uncheck it. 

The change is immediate.


That's not that bad. It's a obscure setting that few people want. Why clutter up everything
with a billion options?

I can understand getting irritated that previously options that are set get unset, of course. 

But we don't need a 1001 GUIs or windows with a billion icons on them representing every
single obscure option imaginable. It's just not worth it.


Seriously. People who are a serious Gnome users need to use gconf-editor.

There are descriptions for most options that are not blindingly obvious.

For example; clicking through metacity's options I found how to enable it's compositing mode
and to enable low-resource mode.  For nautilus I found how to change the 'my computer' name.
All sorts of other stuff.

Changing backgrounds

Posted Apr 24, 2008 8:17 UTC (Thu) by lab (subscriber, #51153) [Link]

Sorry, but I cannot begin to describe how wrong I think you are, and thank you for putting it
very concisely. You exactly hit one of the nerves that made me go "fed up" with Gnome a while
back, and switch to KDE. I've been a happier person for it.

Changing backgrounds

Posted Apr 25, 2008 4:53 UTC (Fri) by vapier (subscriber, #15768) [Link]

as much as i hate the karma system, i have to +1 this comment.  so spot on, it's like you copy
& pasted my brain.

Changing backgrounds

Posted Apr 26, 2008 0:22 UTC (Sat) by cortana (subscriber, #24596) [Link]

Or you can go to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Cursor Blinking ...