What's New In GNOME 2.2
- 2.1. Desktop
- 2.2. Panel
- 2.3. Multimedia
- 2.4. Themes
- 2.5. Fonts
- 2.6. Multihead support
- 2.7. Metacity Window Manager
2.1. Desktop
- 2.1.1. The File Manager
- 2.1.2. Startup Notification
2.1.1. The File Manager
The user interface of Nautilus, the GNOME file manager, has undergone a significant overhaul since the release of GNOME 2.0, making it easier to use and more powerfully integrated with the rest of the desktop and applications.
- 2.1.1.1. Context menu plug-ins
- 2.1.1.2. Property tab plug-ins.
- 2.1.1.3. Improved Preferences dialog
2.1.1.1. Context menu plug-ins

Context-sensitive menus can now link the file manager to functions performed by other applications. In this illustration, Fileroller, our new archive-handling application, has added menu items when you right-click on an archive.
2.1.1.2. Property tab plug-ins.


The file manager's properties dialog now shows custom tabs for special file formats, such as images or media files. For instance, you can see the dimensions of a graphic file, or information about ogg or MP3 audio files.
2.1.1.3. Improved Preferences dialog

The new file manager preferences dialog illustrates the GNOME design philosophy: clean, simple and usable.
User interface improvements such as this are thanks partly to increasing use of the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines. The HIG had its 1.0 release during the GNOME 2.2 release process, and as a result, the GNOME Desktop is now easier to use and easier to learn than ever.
2.1.2. Startup Notification
GNOME can now show that an application is starting, so you don't feel the need to click a second time. For instance, if the application supports it, the cursor may change to a clock while the application starts if the application supports startup notification. Unlike some past attempts at UNIX startup notification, the new standard is reliable and robust, in keeping with the GNOME philosophy of things that "just work."
2.2. Panel
The panel can now be themed along with the rest of the desktop, using GNOME's new icon theming, which allows all applications (including the panel, file manager, and others) to share icons for commonly used concepts like folders, file types, and directional arrows.
Here are a few of the more significant GNOME panel improvements:
- 2.2.1. Show Desktop
- 2.2.2. Search For Files
- 2.2.3. Open Recent
- 2.2.4. Notification Area
- 2.2.5. Wireless Link Monitor
2.2.1. Show Desktop
When the icons on your desktop are hidden by too many open windows, you can now quickly hide them and then bring them all back again by clicking the "Show Desktop" button in the panel, or using the ctl+alt+d keyboard shortcut.

2.2.2. Search For Files
As before, you can quickly find files via the Actions menu. Now it has an improved user interface and better integration with the file manager, so you can drag and drop files from the results window. And, like the file manager, it can open files with the appropriate applications.

2.2.3. Open Recent
The Actions menu now lists the last few files that you have opened. Just select the file to open it with the appropriate application. Other applications, like gedit, also share this functionality with the panel, and more applications will pick this up in future releases.

2.2.4. Notification Area
The panel now has a notification-area which applications such as instant messengers can use to inform you of significant events.

2.2.5. Wireless Link Monitor
A new Wireless Link Monitor applet has been added. This shows the strength of your wireless network connection.

2.3. Multimedia
GNOME 2.2 includes the GStreamer multimedia framework for this first time. This has made the following functionality possible:
- 2.3.1. Special views in the file manager
- 2.3.2. Multimedia Utilities
- 2.3.3. Thumbnailing
2.3.1. Special views in the file manager
Via the "View as" feature in Nautilus, the GNOME file manager, you can now see special views of directories containing audio, image, and video files. For image and video files, the file manager will show a preview of the file instead of the normal icon. You can also play some file formats directly from the file manager.

2.3.2. Multimedia Utilities
With the help of GStreamer, GNOME's multimedia utilities, such as the Sound Recorder, can now work with a greater variety of file formats.

2.3.3. Thumbnailing
In coordination with the File Manager's new thumbnailing abilities, multimedia applications can create thumbnails for many media types, including video.
2.4. Themes
The new Theme preferences dialog is simpler and more powerful. Previously there were several independent theme systems for various parts of the user environment. You can now control all of this in one place without needing to be aware of these details. Themes can now change the appearance of window borders, controls, and the icons used on your desktop and panel.
For the technically orientated, this means that the theme manager dialog brings together window manager themes, GTK+ themes, and icon themes.
GNOME 2.2 offers several built-in themes. See art.gnome.org for more. Or you can edit a theme and save the new theme, all from within the theme manager.

2.5. Fonts
One of the great new features in GNOME 2.2 is desktop-wide support for fontconfig and Xft2, giving us enhanced font configuration and rendering on screen (and, in the future, on paper). The new Fonts control panel has simple and detailed configuration pages for hinting and subpixel anti-aliasing. Font installation is now incredibly simple- you can simply drop new fonts into ~/.fonts, and they will work throughout GNOME. Thanks to Keith Packard for his work on fontconfig!
Complementing this technology, Jim Gettys and the GNOME Foundation Board worked with Bitstream, Inc. to arrange the donation of the Vera font family to the Free Software community. While not available for the GNOME 2.2.0 release, they will be released shortly, allowing all GNOME users to take advantage of the technology present in 2.2.0 with beautiful, high-quality fonts. In the mean time, you can see Vera font family in the screenshots throughout the release notes.

2.6. Multihead support
GTK+ 2.2 supports simultaneous connections to multiple X servers, and X servers with multiple screens. It also supports migration of toplevel windows between screens and displays.
GNOME 2.2 takes advantage of GTK+ 2.2 by nicely handling Xinerama and multiple screens in major desktop components such as the file manager, window manager, and panel.
For instance, if you launch an application from a particular screen, it will now appear on that screen. Applications that can span multiple screens (like file manager and the panel) have also been adapted so that their behaviors take into better account things like the break between screens.
2.7. Metacity Window Manager
GNOME 2.2 officially incorporates the Metacity window manager, a fully integrated window manager that uses GTK+ for UI elements, communicates tightly with the panel and other desktop elements, and is configured straight from the GNOME preferences dialogs.
At the same time, all interaction between the window manager and the desktop is done via documented standards (see Section 6 ― Standards Compliance), so you can substitute the window manager of your choice from a long list of available options: Sawfish, fvwm2, icewm, Waimea, Openbox, are just some of them.
Early versions of Metacity were in wide use a month or two after GNOME 2.0, so many people will already be familiar with its basic features:
- Does not expose the concept of "window manager" to the user. For example, keybindings are configured in the GNOME "Keybindings" dialog, theme is configured in the GNOME "Theme" dialog.
- Simple XML theme format is designed to allow a single theme to work with large and small font sizes, button reordering, and other user preferences. No more editing the theme to change your preferences.
- Like all of GNOME, full keyboard navigation, including navigation to the panel and the desktop background.
- Inherits the standard GTK+ internationalization support.
- Uses GTK+ to draw window frames, tracking colors, fonts, and so forth from the GTK+ theme. (Colors may not be tracked by all Metacity themes, but any Metacity theme can choose to do so.)
Some new features that may not be in the version of Metacity you've tried before:
- Themeable icons in the window menu.
- Handles dynamic resolution changes via Xrandr extension.
- Supports keybindings with <Super>, <Hyper> and <Meta> keys. (Including Windows logo key.)
- Supports stay-on-top and stay-below hints.
- Allows window buttons to be rearranged (close button on left, etc.), as a user preference, not part of the theme.
- Better multihead support.
- Startup notification support.
- Numerous performance optimizations, especially for high-latency connections.
- Numerous bug fixes and behavior tweaks.