I’m tired of GNOME messing with it’s API but hopefully this is the last time since they’re switching to a standard system. Besides that, it’s my favorite DE on Linux. I have to give plasma 6 a shot when it comes out but right now GNOME feels just right compared to other desktops.
Haha, gnome becoming stable. What a bunch of malarkey
Much more stable and polished than KDE and I am running KDE myself. I think it only makes sense to run GNOME if you like the vanilla experience.
Gnome is phenomenally stable considering it’s a modern desktop.
You only really get more stable by going to XFCE or something, which is basically on life support at this stage.
Literally the reason why the Linux world went from Plasma being the standard to Gnome being the standard is because KDE was an unstable mess and Gnome was super stable.
Gnome doesn’t have an extension API. That is why it is prone to breakage, since the code is injected into the actual shell. The upshot of this is that extensions can do pretty much anything. The downside is there is no stable API.
Personally, I like the current system. I am biased, I am a trusted review on https://extensions.gnome.org
I just don’t get the vendetta GNOME has against background processes. GNOME devs just don’t use email clients, cloud sync applications, chat clients…? GNOME treats my Nextcloud sync app (which I NEED to be running at all times) as if it was malware or something.
Context for not-Gnome users? How does a desktop care about anything not desktop?
If you minimize a window, it goes into a list of “Background Apps” in the charms menu where the only option you have is to close it. There’s no native systems tray.
there’s a tray, it’s just in the activities tab. press the super key (or click activities in the top left) to bring up the activities view, then the tray is at the bottom
That’s an app launcher, not a systems tray
Well, it’s where minimized apps go
I wasn’t sure, what that screen looks like these days. Well, it wasn’t terribly helpful to type into image search “gnome activities”. 🙃
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Don’t try to turn Gnome into something it wasn’t designed to be.
Don’t tell me what to do. We all have our own preferences, that’s the beauty of Linux.
Personally, I have tried many different desktop environments with various customizations. I still think that GNOME + Extensions is the most beautiful and productive desktop experience for me.
Even despite the obvious flaws of GNOME, I still find it easier to customize and configure to my personal preferences than other desktop environments.
I think the point they were making was that Gnome is made for a touchpad / keyboard driven approach, so complaining that it’s not something else or that it requires multiple extensions is pointless.
If you use 15 extensions to get your perfect desktop and don’t say a word, no-ones going to care, just don’t complain when it breaks.
You can easily get away with more than one or two. I typically run between eight and ten and have rarely had any issues surrounding updates.
It’s really just as simple as waiting a week or two after a new Gnome version drops before you update. By then, the vast majority of the more popular extensions will have already fixed any compatibility issues or, if not, there’s a very good chance that an outdated extension can be replaced by a newer alternative.
I usually stick to two or three and don’t try to findmentally change the workflow but you are right, especially for small changes like this one!
This comment reads like you’ve never actually tried Gnome with proper extensions (like arc menu and dash-to-panel), because those aren’t even comparable in quality. I mean that when comparing to KDE as well.
I want to love XFCE, but whisker-menu doesn’t support opening it on meta key release, which is baffling to me. Also the lack of night mode, which redshift is just throwing a random program into the mix. Which if you don’t mind that, then you wouldn’t have a problem with Gnome extensions in the first place.
Install 10 Gnome extensions to get KDE Plasma but worse. Well to each their own I suppose. At least Gnome looks nice, I can’t deny that. IMHO that is the one advantage they do have over KDE Plasma.
GNOME is basically the Apple of desktop environments. “You’re wrong to want this super common thing, we know what’s better for you and don’t you defy us!”
You are free to fork it at anytime. I really can’t hate them for having a cohesive vision they plan on developing.
That’s fair, and people have.
Yep. GNOME is terrible. Unfortunately, it’s the default desktop for most distros, so it’s most new users’ experience of “what Linux is”.
I don’t always use Fedora, but when I do it’s always Fedora KDE. Sometimes I forget that the default is GNOME which leads to confusion when posting about issues I run into on Fedora lol.
Me, casually running Mate and enjoying on stable and customizable it is. I’ll let you guys fight while I enjoy my polished experience!
I would love Wayland support tho…
Same, I love Mate but cannot use it due to it not supporting fractional scaling (I use a 4K TV as my monitor).
I would have thought a 4K TV was enough to use 200% on, no?
No, since it’s far too big for me to use
Depends wythey have a 4K TV. If it’s beccause they want to see more apps at the same time, no
base gnome + blur my shell is enough for me
This is the way👌
chuckles in i3
GNOME bad
Plasma good
XFCE better
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Plasma isn’t stable
How so?
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Sounds like Ubuntu underneath your Plasma. I’ve had the exact same experience when using Neon, Kubuntu, and Ubuntu+KDE. I install any non-Ubuntu based distro with KDE (like openSUSE) and whiz bang everything is working again.
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I’ve experienced desktop crashing on Plasma, never happened on other DEs.
The last time I tried it it crashed just from moving the panel around on the desktop. After a reboot it didn’t do it again. Plasma just does odd things like that sometimes.
And if you used Plasma 4 all the way up to around Plasma 5.15/5.16, Plasma was practically unusable due to instability. It’s why Plasma stopped being the default DE of choice and Gnome took over.
Plasma has improved a lot over the past year or two in particular, but it’s not close to as stable as, say, Gnome or Cinnamon.
I couldn’t get used to plasma. I dunno why. I really like the gnome style applications window over a start menu.
Liking the fullscreen app search thingamafuck is your prerogative even if I feel this kind of UX is only at home on a mobile phone (also I’m fairly sure Plasma can also do that with some fennagling–)
The thing people (me included) detest about GNOME has very little to do with that anyway, peeps don’t like how locked down it is and how it refuses to support certain features thought to be ‘basic’, so you have to use extensions… Which can be janky on occasion – And definitely will get abandoned by their creators and disabled when you upgrade GNOME version.
Valid. I’m a pretty new Linux convert (6 months or so) and gnome is what I landed on. I tried KDE Plasma and it was okay, maybe I am not giving it enough of a chance. I noticed the desktop and windows were kind of flickering as well, not sure why. Nvidia graphics card, so it’s already a bit janky anyway.
Yeah, NVidia+Linux means some jankiness.
NVidia+Linux+Wayland and at that point you’re just engaging in self-flagellation.
Yeah, if you need to install extensions to make GNOME usable, GNOME is not for you. Seriously, there are other options. I can’t stand using GNOME, but they have a vision they are sticking to and I can respect that.
Most distro maintainers disagree as they also ship Gnome with extensions pre loaded. Gnome with some extensions is an awesome DE.
Conversely, after I tried vanilla gnome, I can’t go back. It gets out of my way, is pretty bug free, visually consistent, and the workflow is lightyears ahead of anything else I’ve used.
The Win95 UX paradigm that pretty much everybody uses just seems so clunky to me.
Cinnamon is probably the best DE to give that old GNOME feel. At least in my opinion.
Gnome also has their own GNOME Classic for people yearning for the old GNOME experience. Cinnamon is probably better though.
Cinnamon is so close to the way I configured Gnome with extensions. Just that Cinnamon does not need any extensions for that. Best GTK based DE I think.
Nah, dash-to-panel is really good and makes it 10x better for me personally.
I’m not gonna lie, I really hated the direction that Gnome went after Gnome 2. Shell just felt way too constricting for my taste. Thankfully, Cinnamon and Mate released to fill in the void.
I use two extensions in gnome I cannot live without. Currently travelling, so I don’t know their names by heart. One is for vertical workspaces, the other to visualize CPU/memory/network/disk.
I’ve had to use a Macbook for a month now, and let me tell you. The world of “I need some functionality = install third party stuff” is infinitely worse.
Want to launch custom terminal with global hotkey? => third party app
Want to manage window layout with keyboard shortcuts? => third party app
Want to add support for normal keys on an external keyboard? (like, home key not being dead) ? => third party app
Want better screenshot support? => third party app
Want to be able to navigate workspaces without waiting 2 second with 120Hz refresh rate monitors (because developers implemented it wrong)? => third party app
Want an alt+tab functionality that isn’t a mix between bugged and useless? => third party app
The situation of gnome would be a godsent. It’s so bad that I don’t care about system monitoring or vertical workspaces. But, once I do, those too would be third party apps.
I just can’t get used to GNOME. I’ve been using “classic” DEs for too long, so every time I try GNOME I start customizing it and end up withh a worse version of KDE
I struggled with that for ages, eventually someone said I should give a serious go of vanilla Gnome for a while and if it doesn’t work out, get something else because I was trying to force Gnome to be like the Win95 UX paradigm that pretty much everyone else uses, when that’s not what it was made for.
I took their advice. I tried vanilla gnome and was infuriated by it. It made me angry to use my PC. Until after a couple of days, it just clicked all of a sudden and made so much sense.
Now I find the workflow amazing. It just gets out of my way and puts the actual programs I need to use centre-stage. Honestly, lightyears ahead of anything else I’ve used.
I’m glad KDE has added an experimental activities view option, because that’s the main thing I miss when I’m not using Gnome.
I tried to do that as well but I realized, that my main use of my Linux desktop which is gaming and having a second screen for whatever else on the side, so usually two fullscreen applications at all times isn’t that well served. I’m sure if I used my PC for more serious multitasking and had limited screen space I would be avle to appreciate Gnome better.
Exactly! Just integrate the bloody notification tray /running apps extension.
I get why that thing isn’t implemented because it’s really ugly and most of the icons there serve literally no purpose but they need a proper replacment because some apps simply need it!
They’ve actually been talking about this for ages, but they won’t unless it’s cross-compatible with other DEs, using freedesktop standards. I wish we’d make headway on it soon.
If they didn’t serve a purpose, people wouldn’t constantly ask for them back.
That’s not at all what my comment claims…
Gnome has been rudderless since 3.x. I said it.
Xfce has been my daily driver for a reason.
Can you sell me on Xfce? Haven’t really tried it. How does it compare to KDE in terms of customization?
Why are they doing this? Because they want to envolve and don’t be stuck with old things. However, if they did the transition in a good way by giving the developers time to adapt, that I don’t know
Well, most extensions still break on every GNOME major version. Some are actively maintained and will be updated quickly-ish, others not.
IMO if a lot of the small extensions were just integrated into GNOME, some of them could be a single toggle somewhere in the settings. Like a clipboard manager or Launch New Instance, or Wallpaper Switcher.
