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- Meet Gala: The Window Manager
Meet Gala: The Window Manager
Submitted by cassidyjames on Sat, 09/15/2012 - 17:36We’ve been undertaking a lot of work since Jupiter in order to release another excellent version, and one huge element of that work has been Pantheon. Today we’d like to introduce a newer project that’s been shaping up extraordinarily well as an integral part of Pantheon: Gala, the new window manager.
Pantheon consists of the apps, technologies, and user-facing bits of elementary that make the OS work. It includes things like the login screen, the default set of apps, and the "shell" components such as the panel and dock.
One major component of the shell is the window manager. A window manager manages the various windows a user has open. It takes care of behaviors such as moving windows around, window switching, window overview, animating windows, maximization, multiple workspaces, providing accessibility features like zoom, and more.
Geeky sidenote: These days window managers are also typically compositing managers. Instead of letting all windows paint directly to screen, a compositing manager makes every window paint to its own independent buffer with which it can do whatever it wants: desaturate, blur, scale, warp, etc. This allows us to have fancy effects and animations. For our purposes, we'll refer to the compositing manager and window manager as one and the same.
Gala is a young project currently lead by Tom Beckmann (our very own Clutter wizard) and Rico Tzschichholz (of Plank fame). For the past three months we've had designers and developers crunching pixels and code to make it truly come to life.
What Gala Brings to the Table
Every person who uses elementary OS Luna will be using Gala. Check out some of the awesome features we've been developing and see how Gala is helping to make the elementary user experience even better.
Animations
Nearly everything is animated in Gala, making for a more responsive user experience. While we have many rich animations, we are also careful to keep them modest and in most cases subtle. This allows us to benefit from the added responsiveness and polish while not slowing down the experience or distracting the user. Windows and popovers come in quickly, windows smoothly close, maximizing is slick, etc.
Visual Enhancements
Gala enables us to take advantage of some nice visual enhancements both now and in the future. First of all, we get smoother (antialiased) window corners thanks to LibMutter, on which Gala is built. Gala also gives us the ability to have beautiful big shadows beneath our windows. Lastly, resizing is now smoothly done in real-time (instead of having a preview rectangle and then resizing the window). While each of these may not seem like a big deal on its own, they add up to make a much more polished user experience.
Workspace Management
Workspaces are like separate “desktops” a person can use to organize their workflow; they can open different windows on each workspace for different tasks, then switch between them as needed.
Gala organizes workspaces in a horizontal list. You start out with one workspace and can always switch to a new workspace to the right. If all the windows on a workspace are closed, the workspace simply closes as well. You may also close an entire workspace (including all of the windows on it) from the workspace switcher.
The workspace switcher has some slick animations and eye candy: switching between workspaces is fluid, pulling up the workspace preview bumps up the rest of the desktop, open windows show up on the switcher along with larger icons, and everything is subtly animated.
Window Switching
Many people—particularly power users or ones who’ve been using computers for years—know and love the handy “alt tab” window switching behavior. For those who aren’t as familiar, hitting a keyboard combination (in this case, Alt + Tab) quickly switches between the open windows on a user’s workspace.
For Gala, we thought it was important to not introduce an entirely new and invasive UI element that would only be seen during window switching. Instead, we decided that the best way of seeing which window you’re switching to is to simply show you the window. Switching between windows shows you the window you’re switching to and hides all the others. However, we also realize that some people want a bit of a heads up as to which window will come next. For these people, we simply utilize the dock to display the apps’ icons in the order they’ll be seen while switching.
Grid-Based Tiling
More and more users are adopting large displays, and we often see people working with two windows open at a time. Being built on LibMutter, Gala automatically inherits grid-based window tiling. This allows users to drag a window to the left or right edge of their display (or use a key combination) to snap it to the left or right half of their workspace. Similarly, dragging a window to the top of their display (or using a key combination) maximizes it. As with everything else in Gala, this is all smoothly animated.
Window Overview
We’re currently developing and testing a window overview. In the window overview, a user can see all of the windows open on their workspace and easily close them if they wish.
Accessibility
We’re currently testing some enhanced accessibility options such as a built-in zoom. This would allow users with low vision, tired eyes, or an ongoing presentation to zoom into their work in order to see it better. We look forward to including more accessibility options down the road as well.
Help Improve Gala
Gala is undergoing rapid development and will not necessarily be stable until its official release. However, if you’re an adventurous tester out there, feel free to check out Gala on Launchpad. Or, if you’re using the elementary Daily PPA, it’s already available to you through the regular channels.
If you’re a developer interested in working on Gala, swing by #elementary-dev on irc.freenode.net and be sure to check out the open bugs on Launchpad.
For anyone using Gala, be sure you report any bugs you may encounter; our developers will take a look and address them as soon as possible.
Daniel Foré, Sam Tate, Tom Beckmann, and Sergey Davidoff contributed to this entry.
Ok great, so another OS based on Ubuntu that tries to be beatiful. Thats great, now, is it as functional as the old GNOME 2 distros? Can you change workspaces or collapse windows with a roll of your mouse? Does it come with a Remote Desktop software? I see the Developers are putting quite an effort on writing new applications from scratch, even a new web browser. Can you work on a Remote Desktop software as powerful as Microsoft's?
Keep up the good work with 'the beatiful', but please don't forget 'the functional' and 'the productive' things an OS must have.
Theres a way to turn off compositing? Something like the kwin "unredirect fullscreen" option?
I like the Gala Wm and everything that it can do from a performance and appearance aspect. I did try the daily build of Luna and must say that everything you guys are doing is superb! However I was wondering if anyone tried to put Gala on Slackware. Slackware is my Distro of choice and would love to have Gala on their. Gentoo has an e-build and Ubuntu has the repo already and runs pretty stable. I would try it out myself but I am busy at the moment :P
Keep up the great work!
I find this are the same features that Mac has, I was thinking something would be new, but instead of showing workspaces on the top, elementary will have them on the bottom. Also the fullscreen button and the looks are the same as Mac OS X. I am not against that just wondering why you did not do something different.
Ubuntu sucks! When finally comes Luna?
Looks refined and great!
alt+tab to switch between windows in a workspace is fine.
Two suggestion:
Super+tab to switch between windows independent of workspace.
middle button drag left, right to switch previous, next workspace
This sounds awesome. Can't wait to try Luna when it's released. Maybe I'll try to install a beta in a virtual machine. I was thinking of having Luna on my old machine at my parents' house. Anyway, when do we get wobbly windows?
Yes, we do love teh wobbly.
I used Linux a long time ago (11 years for the last time), extensively. Slackware, Mandrake, Redhat, Gentoo. I switched to Windows and eventually to the Mac. Now I can't live without the Mac. However...
Today I installed Ubuntu and it sucked, it looked like Linux didn't progressed or evolved to anything mature. Personally, Gentoo was a big milestone. Their port system was rock-solid and their philosophy met my expectation for an optimized linux OS, as a geek, I liked it.
Nowadays, I'd like to be amused and have fun with my OS, be it Mountain Lion or Linux. Like the previous person said. "Linux is fun again" and I agree with him! I'm looking forward to your releases. You might be Linux next best thing. As of the looks of it, you guys understand the importance of "ease of use" and being user friendly. Keep it up
The developers of Luna elementary have done a fantastic job! Linux is fun again! Thank you! For months, I use the daily image. Every day you can see the improvements ...
Are you also including multitouch gestures for all of this Gala capabilities?
Double post, but I checked out an unstable build, and it was beautiful and an absolute pleasure to use. Something neat that I didn't foresee was how moving windows between workspaces is very effortless because the spaces are small and close together, unlike how in old Compiz Expo (still in Unity) moving windows around required lots of travel making it many times more effort. I was very satisfied with "Hot Corners" which drastically increased my productivity as I was doing mock tasks. I'm thoroughly impressed, and absolutely cannot wait for stable!
I'm gonna go see if I can contribute in any way now. Probably will carefully read the HIG and submit mockups at the least. If there's a simple app I can program with Mono I'd be up for that too. (elementary Calculator?...)
I hate to sound so pessimistic, but elementaryOS is just about the only desktop experience going in the right direction. Can't wait for Luna!!
I couldn't agree more. I gave elementary a try and I was absolutely amassed. For a pre-beta version it was incredibly stable and fast. I think that your approach of releasing when it's ready is very good. I want a stable and fast system and that's what you are offering. And it also looks very good.
So keep up the good work, you're doing an excellent job! This is certainly going to be my next OS.
Regarding the Workspace Switcher: The only way to add a new workspace is by already having one opened. I find this to be a bit annoying. The user should be able to add as many as he/she wants. In one of the recent releases of Cinnamon, the ability to add as many workspaces was possible. Please do the same in elementary. Thanks!
there is always one extra workspace open for you to in gala. So, if you start putting windows in the empty workspace on the right; one more empty workspace will be created for you on the right. Basically, you will always have one empty workspace for you. And, I think you can create as many as you want (I tried creating five, but you can try more if you want)
Can anyne give a hand whith this problem i have a small monitor 14" CRT max res:1024x768 the login screen hmmm well the font and the windows are to big for it to fit, any way to resize this? Thankss and apologize for the english.Great work
This is about to get fixed: https://code.launchpad.net/~tombeckmann/pantheon-greeter/small-screens/+...
Well, i've been playing with the workspace switcher. I LOVE the eye candys used in the transitions.
The only thing to add in my opinion, it's a shortcut to open the workspace viewer (the bar at the bottom wich shows all the workspaces). I mean, like a double tap on the super key, or super+Ctrl, something like that. It's not very handful to must switch to another workspace and keep the super pressed a few seconds, to see the viewer.
But, maybe there is a shortcut, but i couldn't find it, lol.
Super+S at the moment, but we're going to put a launcher for it in the dock.
Will the launcher be a part of luna beta? or it will be for luna + 1
What are the shortcuts to change from one desktop to another? in Ubuntu are ctrl+alt+arrow . But this shortcut doesn't work here, so... ?
Super + left/right
super!!! :)
Thanks a lot! i'm just to used to work with multiple desktops.
Sure, just like in Cinnamon...
What if you add Window list to the Wingpanel, move clock to the right? You might not need Plank or Docky. What if you'd allow the Wingpanel to be shifted to the bottom? What if you'd allow the Wingpanel to autohide?
You would have something akin to Mate or Cinnamon :P
This is not the idea with elementary OS, you can see that the dock is designed as an important part of the user experience of the OS as a whole.
Maybe so, but these days people are using smaller portable screens, and they would not want any panels to be on all the time. I find Plank pretty frozen, not even like Docky. Even in Docky, you just can configure any applet, except the weather applet. I think dual panels are not a necessity. for example, if you install Cairo dock, instead of Docky-Plank, you don't need the Slingshot, you just try to forget the Wingpanel is still there without auto-hiding.
I installed Cinnamon too, so I have Gala and Cinnamon. I don't see much of a difference in animated effects in both, but in Cinnamon, the panel auto-hides, Open apps are on the panel, the weather applet works. Don't you think, by the time Luna is released the bus had gone? When Cinnamon was released, there was a lot of bugs/problems, but the community made bug reports, criticized, cajoled, argued, made suggestions and what do we have now? A very polished desktop environment, pushing Unity/Gnome 3 away.
At this moment, Luna is a plaything of the devs, not the users--many won't even try until it is released, at least a beta. Ubuntu starts a new release with alphas and betas, why can't the elementary devs do that is the question. While, the elementary devs hold the release, Pear Linux pushed already the 4th alpha with the old Slingshot and Docky. The bus would be gone, by the time Luna would be released!
There are daily isos for the brave and the bold. Granted, it is not meant for the end user because it is not yet as stable as a release needs to be. First impressions matter a lot and there are many small issues that amount to a big problem.
DuckDuckGo creator speaks of this concept here: http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2012/10/leaky-bucket-vs-power-law-pr...
On the other points you bring I feel it is important to state that the experience that elementary OS seeks to provide is not the same as Mint does, they have different visions, different goals. And to think that the unifying visual is the *only* thing that elementary has to it is to deny a lot of the effort behind the scenes.
Are you sure it is even the same bus? Perhaps others went into the suburbs and elementary OS is going Downtown, who knows :P
Will elementaryOS change? Definitely. Will it change to be more like mint with cinnamon? Doubtful.
I'd recommend using the tool that offers the best experience for your needs instead of shoehorning that which doesn't fit.
You could see what I mean by the bus would be gone here; http://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/themes/view/112
Cinnamon desktop and Gala desktop acts practically the same way. Is Cinnamon a fork of Gala or otherwise?
Neither. Cinnamon is a fork of gnome-shell and uses Muffin for the window management. Gala is akin to Muffin in that they both are forks of Mutter.
Gala is not a fork of Mutter. Gala just uses the same base as Mutter (libmutter).
I stand corrected. Thanks Harvey :)
But, the user experience is the same, with window switching, workplace switching etc. The main thing is Cinnamon is out with Mint, while Luna is still held back.
They're different in a whole lot of aspects. Gala runs in native code and Cinnammon is written in JavaScript; Gala itself doesn't render any panels, the whole shell is modular; etc.
I have no idea about user-visible changes, but even if there aren't any now, there definitely will be a lot of them in the future because of the vastly different goals.
Just tested the gala wm under ubuntu 12.10. It happens to develop a game which makes heavy use of GLSL shaders, the perfomance I got on a non maximized window was the best from all the compositing window managers I tested so far (compiz-unity, mutter, kwin), and was close to wmii(a non compositing wm). I am very impressed, keep up the good work :)
Just saying:
Why are you following the design lines that ubuntu has in it's actions icos?
I mean, come on guys! these are awful! the whole OS (your OS) has a beautiful design, but the actions icons just don't fit in that design.
i.e.: Faenza actions icons fits very well, keeping the design of the whole OS. You don't need to use that icons, but i think (and again, it's just my opinion) they are a greater design line for the OS.
PS: Sorry about my poor english!
I'm not 100% sure what you're saying, but if you're wondering why elementary icons look somewhat similar to the Ubuntu icons, it's because Ubuntu based their icons on an old version of the elementary icons. :P The elementary ones came first. ;)
I tried to point out that colored icons makes elementary looks kinda "ugly". They look old, and not very integrated with new elementary theme lines (specially compared with close and maximize buttons).
I think that monochrome icons for certain buttons (like arrows and refresh icons) will look way much better. Something monochrome like faenza actions icons.
That's what i'm trying to say.
Again: sorry aobut my poor english
That is true. I used Faenza icons and they match with the Luna look.
I know it doesn't help creating LUNA.
But keep going on. I'm realy looking forward to use it :)
Hello all!
Here I am writing from the remastered 12.10 with only elementary Luna apps. I used Ubuntu and then Lubuntu as the base. Un-installed everything equivalent to Luna apps and installed the daily ppa. At the beginning there was a slight hitch, as the Remastersys is not yet adapted 12.10, but there is always a workaround, and I am in the installed 12.10 and elementary Luna.
Shantsel says he won't release Luna as the devs think it is not ready for beta. That's okay by me. I am telling everyone, who wants to use Luna and not afraid to do that, please download the daily ppa and keep on updating/upgrading every few days. If you are using 12.04, there is no problem at all as that distro is released and already has 12.04.1, and also you could use 12.10--that base is quite surely done well already.
Wish you guys the very best.
Remember, the base would do well as it is Ubuntu, what might not work could be an app or two, but right now every one of the Luna apps work.
I could only ask the devs to release Luna beta or not, but if they don't what can we do? We can only use what's available in the Launchpad.
Anyway, thank you very much, Luna devs!!!
You're missing out on OS integration, but judging by how poorly integrated Sabayon Linux is, that's a non-issue for many.
Using Ubuntu 12.10 is a bad idea, because there are multiple incompatibilities with the newer GTK and Clutter releases that cause crashes.
You're also missing out on much of the performance tuning work done for elementary OS because all official Ubuntu derivatives, even Lubuntu, use the same shared base defined in here while elementary OS uses a much lighter one.
But if you're OK with all that, good luck to you!
Just a note: I uninstalled Plank as it is not that configurable and installed Docky, but it was bit buggy with Gala, freezing it, so I uninstalled Docky and installed Cairo dock as the bottom panel/dock. Now, I have Slingshot above, Cairo menu below. If one goes wrong, the other would work. Also, in Docky the weather applet didn't work, but with Cairo every applet works.
Have a good day all!
Have a look; http://pearlinux.org/index.php/item/pear-linux-6-alpha-4-changelog?categ...
Haha, looks like good ol' Pear Linux is starting to see the age of the old software we used and is adopting more of our stuff. :P Good on them.
I have been using Luna from your team's ppa in 12.04 and 12.10, after uninstalling unity and all relevant apps. I am using only Luna apps. I haven't met with any problems and I am using a 3 year old laptop. If you are releasing Luna, do it please one week before the Quantal release or wait 2 weeks after that until the mad downloading ends. But, I propose releasing Luna tomorrow! Why worry abut some bugs. Do you think, devs, that the users would drop Luna for few bugs?!
Come on!
Whether you release it or not, I am USING Luna, and updating every day. Only, I might change Plank to Docky.
Yes, people would not use Luna when you've got serious bugs like ulatencyd causing installations to not boot. The user experience is what matters to elementary, if we have a ton of small, tiny bugs they can add up to an unpleasant experience overall.
Every distro has its little tons of bugs, so just don't worry and release Luna! At this moment Luna is a plaything of the devs (and me), but not the users. Right now, there is a distro named Pear Linus 6 Alpha 3 in Linuxtracker, which is a clone of Luna with old slingshot. Why wait for others to "fork" Luna and make a mess of it? Release it and see the feedback! When it is ready is pretty negative! If I had the direct line to Distrowatch to announce a distro, I'd announce "Luna till elementary Team releases" distro. I have your team's work in both 12.04 and 12.10 and working without a hitch! And mine is a 3 year old laptop...