How Would You like GNOME 2.32 on Fedora 15?

Some folks just aren't happy with GNOME 3. Some aren't happy with the whole concept while others think it just really needs more simmering. Regardless of where you might fall in that spectrum, there may be hope yet. Juan "Nushio" Rodriguez, Fedora Ambassador and packager, has been working on bringing the deprecated desktop back to life for Fedora 15.

BlueBubble, as he's calling the project, has been in the works for several weeks now and Rodriguez seems to have most components working on Fedora 15 using GTK+3. He hopes to make his packages available in a YUM repo by Monday, but the ultimate goal is to "provide installable media (32 and 64bit DVDs and CDs) that will allow you to install a straight up "Fedora Classic" experience." It hasn't been an easy feat. In fact, very much to the contrary, but it's nearly there:

Rodriguez has been blogging about his work since he began and he recently posted a FAQ. Some of information includes:

Q: What exactly is BlueBubble?

A: It's an effort to bring back the Gnome 2.32 desktop in Fedora 15, or as Hannah would put it.. "The best of both worlds".

Q: Why did you do this?

A: Gnome 3 just isn't *there* yet. The fallback mode is horrible, and the Shell itself needs a metric ton of extensions to become usable.

Q: What is the target audience?

A: The same people who miss the Coke "Classic", are afraid of change and/or suffer from Freemanic Paracusia.

Q: What architectures are supported?

A:i686 / x86_64. No ARM / PPC packages are planned.

Q: Will you make a LiveCD or DVD?

A: Yes

Those interested can keep an eye on his blog for availability. His posts are an interesting read as well, which include the trial and tribulations encountered during his quest.

Good luck Nushio, and good on you.