Installing Gnome 3.10 in Ubuntu 13.10

Installing Gnome 3.10 in Ubuntu 13.10

The Gnome project has lived enough changes in recent years, when we first saw the new shell many were surprised, partly for good and partly bad. Gnome 3 is quite heavier than its predecessor, but we’re also in an era with more powerful computers, and often happens that modern operating systems are being designed for machines with more capabilities than those of an old pentium III.

Ubuntu some time ago and stopped using Gnome, and uses its own desktop environment: Unity. But this does not mean we can not enjoy Ubuntu with another environment, as we have several flavors of this distribution as: Kubuntu (KDE), Lubuntu (LXDE), Xubuntu (with XFCE), and more recently a year: Ubuntu Gnome, the official version of Ubuntu with Gnome Shell.

The latest version is Ubuntu 13.10 Gnome , which we discussed in depth in Bitelia, where we make a thorough analysis, but using the latest version of Gnome: 3.10. By default Ubuntu 13.10 Gnome Gnome 3.8 includes, as it is considered completely stable, Gnome 3.10 and was not ready to be included when the semi hit shows Ubuntu.

Several users asked how to install Gnome 3.10 , and how to get extra applications Gnome included with this new version, so to please them and explain in detail the process we will explain everything step by step.

Install Gnome 3.10

Gnome 3.10 introduces many changes, especially in the cosmetic section, now the menu bars of the windows were removed and transferred to a look more minimalist.

To install Gnome 3.10, you need to either Ubuntu 13.10 Ubuntu Gnome or Ubuntu with Unity , but not earlier. The first thing to do is add the Gnome 3 repository by typing in the terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: gnome3-team/gnome3-next
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell gnome-desktop-ubuntu

Expects packages are downloaded, if you are using Ubuntu with Unity will appear on the terminal a dialogue for you to choose your display manager , ie the type of login screen. By default Ubuntu with Unity uses LightDM , but use your own Gnome, GDM . Use the arrow keys to select your preference, press enter and continue the rest of the installation. The advantages of GDM for LightDM will come still basically notifications in the lock screen.

Now you just need to restart your session.

Install Gnome apps and extras

Gnome 3.10 comes with several new, still experimental features and also includes its own set of own applications: weather, music, maps, documents, contacts, and several more. As not to be considered stable at all, not in the previous repository, but an unstable. So do not expect it to work perfectly every time.

To add the unstable repository type in the terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: gnome3-team/gnome3-staging
sudo add-apt-repository ppa: gnome3-team/gnome3
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Then, to install the applications writes:

sudo apt-get install gnome-weather 
sudo apt-get install gnome-music 
sudo apt-get install gnome-maps 
sudo apt-get install cheese 
sudo apt-get install gnome-documents

Uninstall Gnome 3.10

It is important that before making these changes’re aware that bad things can happen, even if you follow all the steps and you’re lucky you should be happy. If you want to uninstall Gnome 3.10 PPAs must purge your system and uninstall the environment and applications.

Open a terminal and type:

sudo ppa-purge ppa: gnome3-team/gnome3-next
sudo ppa-purge ppa: gnome3-team/gnome3-staging
sudo ppa-purge ppa: gnome3-team/gnome3
sudo apt-get remove gnome-shell gnome-desktop-ubuntu

This pending any question throw the terminal, and then restart the system. If there are some applications that are not going to purge, you must uninstall them manually.