new user of gnustep on ubuntu question about basic usage

[Zhang Weiwu]

Dear list

I am a new user of gnusteps, this is the 4th time I decide to try use 
gnustep as my daily desktop, last 3 times all failed with this or that 
problem, mostly because not everything is pre-configured very well for 
most Linux/BSD distributions, at least not pre-configured as well as 
Ubuntu's Gnome.

My system is Ubuntu 7.04 (what's the best system to run GNUStep? I 
mean, the platform that have least compatibility problems?) And my 
problems are:

1. all gnustep applications (e.g. GWorkspace & Terminal) start frozen. 
"Solved" by switching to 24-bit color mode in xorg.conf, at the cost 
of turning of DRI (my video card driver only support DRI at 16-bit 
color mode);
2. GWorkspace starts without desktop, must click "Show Desktop" each 
time I login. Cannot find options like "Show Desktop By Default" in 
Preferences, and man GWorkspace give no information about parameter 
that helps GWorkspace start with Desktop;
3. In Shelf the shortcut I created (by drag & drop) always disappear 
after logout and login back, must re-create these shortcut each time;
4. If I start evolution (yes, I should use GNUMail and I am using it, 
I use evolution only some-times for HTML emails), even if I close it, 
it stay as an icon at the bottom, unless killed.
5. When I switch from GNUMail to Terminal, the menu of Terminal is 
brought up in front of GNUMail's menu (good!) and if I click to open a 
sub-menu, this menu is displayed behind GNUMail's sub-menu, making it 
impossible to click anything on that menu unless I drag whole Terminal 
menu away. I think the user-expected behavior is: if menu is in the 
front, its sub-menu should also be in the front. This also happen to 
other applications, not just between GNU Mail and Terminal;
6. Is there a good way to run a gecko browser in GNUStep way? I mean, 
firefox doesn't look like a GNUStep application when I run it in 
GNUStep.

That's just the problems I start to meet, I believe there will be more 
when I use more of it. Sorry to not to do in-depth STFW before asking 
these (but I did STFW for a while without obvious answer) but I'd 
always think it's better a new user don't have to neither STFW nor 
post questions on the list to start using basic feature like Desktop & 
GNU Mail. If I understood it well then usability is a goal of gnustep 
project and I hope my list of new user question / experience can help 
improve usability.

Thanks a lot in advance.
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Login: zhangweiwu                       Name: Zhang Weiwu
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