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Is it just me or GNOME 3 based distributions are getting buggy

Is it just me or GNOME 3 based distributions are getting buggy?

I have tried Ubuntu 11.10, Linux Mint 12, Fedora 15 (I should update to Fedora 16 soon), but I can't help but complain about the performance of this latest distributions virtualized using VirtualBox. Or is VirtualBox that's getting really buggy??? :(

Ubuntu 11.10 feels really slow, clicking on an application using Unity takes forever to bring up the applications main GUI (even gedit is slow). Linux Mint 12 while looks nice but also is problematic. Clicking on Mint Menu shows blank items ... and it only shows up the entries once I wiggle the mouse around. Picture speaks a thousand words, so see below.

Figure 1. Mint Menu shows blank on the left side :(

Another issue I have observed with Linux Mint 12 is that the menu gets out of sync. So like if select Internet it does not move focus to it. But the items to the right gets updated. Again, see below for a screen capture.

Figure 2. Menus are out of sync

Fedora 15 while useful but feels really slow. My host machine is a Core 2 Quad CPU clocking at 2.50 GHz. Yes, the guest is only allocated one core and 1GB of memory, but Linux should not need more than that. Or at least it should be comfortable to use it using that configuration.

Did we succumb to release schedule? Or is GNOME 3 is still in a state of influx? Or VirtualBox is getting really buggy?

Comments

Anonymous said…
I started out using MATE, but came to the conclusion that if I removed all of the stuff Mint had overlayed on Gnome 3, I could get used to it, but it is so buggy for me. I click on something and half the time it works, I have to hit in exactly the right spot. Its pretty bad. I'm sticking with MATE. That said I am perfectly happy with it. It's very stable and intuitive for me.
Anonymous said…
I went with MATE on Mint 12 as I was updating from Mint 10 and had no problems with Gnome 2.x, but after trying trying Gnome 3 and removing the layer of stuff Mint had placed on it, I decided I might get used to it. Unfortunately when I click on something it works about half the time, so its back to MATE. That said I am perfectly happy with it and it seems quite stable.
Are you guys using VirtualBox too to try Linux Mint? I just can't believe that it is released in this state given that virtualization is so popular nowadays. What's interesting is that it install VirtualBox open source guest additions by default, so they must have tested this virtualization platform.

Me hopes that update is coming real soon.
Yossarian UK said…
KDE4 has been stable for a while now.

4.7.3 is a perfectly usable, but modern desktop.

It is possibly the best desktop I have ever used.

Compared to gnome3 and unity KDE is like manna from the gods
I might jump camp soon if I can't stand GNOME anymore. I have openSUSE which looks quite attractive.

But, on the other hand, I have installed a minimal Ubuntu (which is not working out of the box by the way), then installed LXDE. Aside from the blank screen issue with minimal install, the rest was uneventful.
Anonymous said…
Wait for Debian implementation, or use testing or aptosid.. Right now KDE 4.x on Debian 6 consumes around 180 MB and is relatively stable, responsive..
Anonymous said…
Try Pinguy OS
Anonymous said…
Probably blame VirtualBox. Modern UI heavily uses compositing and GPU features, which cannot be done reliably in a VM.

I have tried Mint 12 and Ubuntu 11.10 on Lenovo T61 (quite old laptop), and they were pretty much slick and nice.

Mint is absolutely awesome, they cooked Gnome 3 just right.
@beauty-i-like.
Yeah, it is very likely that 3D video acceleration support is a likely culprit here. Hmmm maybe not likely, GNOME 3 is not designed for low end graphics cards in mind. In fact, it has to do GNOME Fallback mode. But unfortunately, Mint is not very smart at handling this. Fedora seems to work much better with fallback.

I did try Ubuntu 11.10 on Dell 610, no too bad actually.

But given the popularity of virtualization knowadays, I am expecting that support should be good.

Anyway, I am really hoping that Mint can fix this annoying behavior soon.
@Anonymous - PinguyOS
Hmmm... I haven't thought about testing Pinguy actually. Quick check shows that it is based on GNOME and it does not have Ubuntu 11.10 base yet.

Note that most of the issues are due to GNOME 3 needing newer graphics card. Pinguy being GNOME inherits those problems once it starts supporting v3.
@Anonymous
Haven't had time to play with aptosid. Anything special with it? How often does it break? How fast does it fix broken packages?

I remember when I participated in Ubuntu 11.04 testing, it breaks every now and then. I have to wait for several days before I can get back and testing again.

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