I installed VLC and got the video driver problem described in 11.4. So I thought to try the FGLRX driver instead and that actually broke 12.1 into an almost unusable state... That is, unless I need to do some file management of course.
Basically, what happened was that GNOME 3 didn't load completely (I don't get it either) and so I wasn't really able to do a whole lot. Nautilus ran, but that doesn't help me much.
But before I broke it, GNOME 3 doesn't seem too bad honestly. It's just hard to get used to not having a panel with windows and you actually have to use the left corner to get to the other windows.
Some of the programs (like AisleRiot, don't think I spelled that right, but I'm hoping you know what program I'm talking about) don't fully load (I'm assuming something broke between it and GNOME 3), but it seems like the main programs like Firefox, YaST and such load, so the smaller programs aren't too much of a problem.
It doesn't seem like you can open gedit with "sudo" or as "su" and so you're forced to log out and log into root to do your root stuff. I didn't try nano, but I'm not very fond of nano, so I try not to use it unless I'm in runlevel 3.
Oh... So to shut down... I didn't try just pressing the power button, but I may if I reinstall 12.1 since I can't get GNOME 3 to fully load since FGLRX broke it. Anyway, to shut down, you have to log out and then from the login screen you're able to shut down. WTF?! WHY?! Well, since there's still time for improvement, they may fix that. And again, it may also be doable by just hitting the power button.
There's some interesting new things... So in the window management/application launcher area (after you click the top left thingy or hit corner with the cursor) there's quite a few ways to do the same thing (good for people that like to do things the way they think is logical).
Oh, one of the neat things that you can do with the applications list is that you can grab the empty space and use it in a "flick" motion to page up/page down. This is something I discovered accidentally, but I think it's kinda cool since it makes use of the empty space between program icons.
To add a program to the favourites bar, you can drag the icon from the applications list, or if the application is already open, you can drag the window to the favourites bar.
To open a program, you can either click the icon in the favourites bar (if it's there) or the applications list. OR you can drag the icon (either from the favourites bar or applications list) into the workspace bar. You can also open a program by dragging its icon from the favourites bar into the window preview (the blank space between the favourites bar and the workspaces bar when the applications list is not open).
Unfortunately, the only way to remove applications from the favourites bar is to right-click them and select "remove from favourites".
The window preview area shows you all the windows that are open in the selected workspace, regardless of how big the window is. It's great when you need to find a window that's hidden below another one.
You can drag windows from workspace to workspace and you can even launch programs in a different workspace by dragging the icon into the workspace you want it to open in.
As you can see in one of the images, there's no limit on workspaces... So I'm assuming it's whenever the amount is too much for your RAM/CPU to handle.... Or maybe when GNOME 3 can't handle it and crashes. I don't know, I didn't feel like trying and it would probably take a while for me especially with 8GB of RAM.
It may have just been me using it, but it seems that kernel 3.1.x (I don't remember which exact kernel it is) and/or GNOME 3 use more of my CPU/GPU since the fan for Triela kicked up higher than the usual in 11.3. Can't say it's a good thing, can't say it's a bad thing, but it's something I noticed while using it.
Since it was running the 3.1.x kernel, I wish I still had that AzureWave combo card to see if I'd be able to use the Bluetooth portion of that card, but I don't so oh well.
So my thoughts have changed since Milestone 3. I'm just hoping for an easier way to switch between windows, since it's very annoying to hit the left-corner hotspot every time.
Oh, almost forgot about the notification bar. So the bar still spans the screen width at the bottom (well the gradient part of it anyway) and the notification is in a little part of it. When you hover over the notification window, it "feeds" up and gives you the whole notification window.
Um... The messages that are application specific, like when Install/Remove Software reviews the changes with you and asks you to apply/cancel is fed from the top of the window (kinda like some cases in Mac OS X, but from on top of the title bar instead of below it). Unfortunately, I didn't get a screen shot of that. sorry.
Oh, you can turn the notification messages off as well, after hitting your user in the top right corner, there's a switch for notifications, which will turn off all notifications, so the notification bar won't appear and you won't see any of the notifications that appear.
Well, I think that's enough for now. I may download and try RC2 when it comes out.... We'll see what happens.
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