Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) icons have finally made their debut on the panel, after becoming
completely usable in the file manager, Nautilus. This means vendors and users can utilize SVG icons
on the entire desktop. SVG is a vector graphics format based on XML, comparable to Macromedia Flash
(only not a proprietary format). An open standard backed by the World
Wide Web Consortium, SVG and other XML technologies are used throughout the GNOME platform.
Since it is a vector graphics format, it describes the element shapes the graphic is made of (e.g.
arcs, polygons, text, etc.) instead of the pixels that a bitmap graphic defines. The result is that
SVG icons can be resized without any quality loss, and can also be antialiased effectively.
Bitmapped icons, on the other hand, become pixelated and blurry when enlarged.
A non-SVG icon at 32x32 (native size) and stretched to the maximum
A SVG icon at 32x32 and stretched to the maximum
As you can see, SVG graphics do not become pixelated or ugly when stretched, so they are ideal
for icons, since only one file is needed for each icon instead of having a file for each size the
icon is required in. Surprisingly enough, the use of SVG icons instead of bitmaps does not appear to
have any noticeable effect on performance.
The Epiphany Web Browser
Epiphany makes its debut as the GNOME default web
browser. Built upon the Gecko rendering engine and
tracing its roots back to the Galeon browser,
Epiphany's strict HIG compliance makes it the model example of what a properly-built GNOME
application should feel like. Loading and rendering speed is roughly the same as Mozilla Firebird,
since both use the Gecko engine to render web pages. Epiphany shows its strength by consistently
following the feel of the rest of the desktop and integrating into Nautilus. Bookmark importers for
Mozilla, Konqueror, and Galeon are present, making it easy for users to migrate their settings.
As you can see in the screenshot, Epiphany supports tabbed browsing. The bookmarks are filed in
the GNOME menu as �Web Bookmarks� as well as made available via the expected �Bookmarks�
menu item in Epiphany itself. Epiphany, and GNOME in general, will benefit from mozilla.org's Gecko
Runtime Environment; this will enable Epiphany to fully shed unnecessary Mozilla dependencies.
Epiphany is a simple, elegant browser. Unlike some other browsers, in Epiphany you will not find
half a dozen ways to use tabs and manage cookies and bookmarks, as Epiphany is targeted towards the
average user. Power users, however, may find Epiphany's lack of features a shortcoming. Taking a
page from Mozilla Firebird, the Epiphany browser includes a
plug-in architecture that allows more advanced users to extend the functionality of the browser
without cluttering the interface for less experienced users. The number of extensions is rather slim
at the moment, but we expect them to become more popular.
The Nautilus File Manager
Nautilus, the GNOME file manager, has the dubious reputation of being the most improved
application between releases, while simultaneously also being the application that needs the most
improvement. Unfortunately, this version continues to improve slower than the rest of the desktop.
To be fair, Nautilus has had a rather rocky
history, going from monolithic bootstrap installer and software catalogue to a lean task-based
file manager built out of components. The future looks brighter, though: the Nautilus team has
finally solidified,
so improvements should start happening at a much faster rate.
Nautilus makes heavy use of views�components which sit within the main Nautilus frame.
Components range from the simple icon view, all the way up to embeddable
word processors.
This
release adds a much-requested �snap-to-grid� function to the desktop, and the right-click
context menu has been cleaned up and made shorter. The tree view on the left of the window is now
multi-rooted, and expands as the user navigates around the filesystem. In the past, Nautilus
showed the entire filesystem in one tree in the sidebar. Due to the multi-rooting, the
user's home directory and the rest of the filesystem are now separated. This allows the user to
concentrate on his files in the home directory, while also allowing a seasoned user or system
administrator access to the system directories.
Performance has been improved, and thumbnailing is now plug-in�based. When teamed up with the
media player Totem, Nautilus is able to display media thumbnails in the file manager and on the
desktop. A nice added touch is the �film sprocket� framing for videos, which allows you to
differentiate a movie thumbnail from a picture thumbnail at a quick glance. Unfortunately, it was
decided that Totem will not be included in this release. (We have more on this later.)
A new icon view debuts in this release, with the ability to display the filename to the right
of the thumbnail/icon. Unfortunately, long filenames are not truncated elegantly, resulting in a
misaligned view if you have a directory containing many files with irregular name lengths. Another
long sought-after feature included in this release of Nautilus is the ability to hide files and
directories within the filesystem. This is achieved through the use of a configuration file called
�.hidden�. Files named in this file will not appear in any Nautilus views.
Nautilus also supports scripting. Routine or repetitive tasks can be automated using
scripts written in languages like Perl, Python and the Bourne shell. While GNOME 2.4 does not ship
with any scripts, they are fairly easy to write, and a large collection can be found at G-scripts.
Advanced features like new views can be implemented as Nautilus components. One such notable
example is the CD burner add-on, which allows files and music tracks to be written to CD-R with a
few mouse clicks. Another is a media add-on which displays video and audio files, complete with
metadata and a simple media player. As expected with any modern desktop, PDF documents are handled
out of the box. Gpdf makes its debut as the PDF viewer for GNOME. While an excellent on-screen
viewer, we were surprised and dismayed to find that gpdf has no print functionality at the moment.
Fortunately, printing will be included in the GNOME 2.4.1 point release, so the feature should be
available soon.
Nautilus uses gnome-vfs to provide access to files outside of the local filesystem. GNOME 2.4
ships with support for WebDAV (so you can use your .Mac iDrive in Nautilus), FTP, SMB (Microsoft
Windows networking) and NFS. Unfortunately, performance with the last two protocols is abysmal.
SMB and NFS file operations take orders of magnitude longer in Nautilus than in Windows Explorer (SMB
only), Konqueror, and the Samba command-line clients. Directories containing more than 100 files
are virtually unusable over the network. Performance for local directories with a large number of
files has improved dramatically, however.
This
release adds a much-requested �snap-to-grid� function to the desktop, and the right-click
context menu has been cleaned up and made shorter. The tree view on the left of the window is now
multi-rooted, and expands as the user navigates around the filesystem. In the past, Nautilus
showed the entire filesystem in one tree in the sidebar. Due to the multi-rooting, the
user's home directory and the rest of the filesystem are now separated. This allows the user to
concentrate on his files in the home directory, while also allowing a seasoned user or system
administrator access to the system directories.
