Problems With The GNOME Shell

[liam]

They'll do the tasks faster and in a more simple way. Gnome shell is simply too complex.

Those are all debatable points but my experience doesn't sync with yours.

[ninez]

I found a simple solution to Gnome-Shell problems...lol..

Disable it..lol

I use gnome3 with compiz. works nicer than gnome-shell with my tablet and Stylus. the DE behaves more like gnome2 - although my gnome desktop doesn't use gnome-panel. Kupfer is faster at locating apps/files/etc than the gnome-shell way of doing things with a keyboard.

ditched most of the fat widgets/menubar, and have reclaimed my screen real estate.

I cah do customization (as far as compositing/desktop behavior without having to modify javascript at all. (it's all point and click), and at this point has way more options for me to take advantage of..

there is far less distraction using my gnome3/compiz desktop than with Gnome-shell. gnome-Shell requires you to leave your desktop (by using activiteis) to open apps, etc. It reminds me of dashboard in MacOSX - which i also find distracting and somewhat useless... The new app menu is far less efficient and 10x more distracting than your standard menu - which is quick and easy, and not distracting at all (as there is ZERO eye-candy/bling involved). But i actually prefer a dock anyway - i keep it on the left to maximize vertical space. . you can fit the vast majority of applications one might use on average and save a menu only for apps not used daily or even weekly.

I can easily control the timing of every effect in compiz and thus not waiting on Mutter's slow defaults for things that in my mind should be more instant - like moving to different workspaces, opening lcosing apps, etc.

my workspaces are static, and thus have spacial coordinates, meaning I ALWAYS know on which desktop my applications wil be found it is second nature). with Gnome-shell they tend to get moved around by opening and closing applications, which for me personally makes GS workspaces annoying and less usable. (yes, i know the gnome-flippery extensions can make them static, but you are still left with vertical workspaces, that take longer to navigate too and they still are annoying to use, with mutter's "casino - slot-machine-like" like FX, that are VERY distracting. - i typically set compiz workspace switcher to zero animation time. (it feels more instant when using gestures).

I forget the command off hand, but the only way i have been able to speed up gnome-shell's effects was to use part of looking glass' debugging tools for mutter, but it's speeds up or slows down ALL FX - so there is zero granular control + they are debugging tools, so i don't think they are meant for tweaking mutter - and that was the best advice i could get...

Also, using multiple desktops instead of minimization seems silly to me. it essentially means that i can manage more applications on 1 single workspace, than Gnome-shell can do with 10 workspaces.

then, there is Gnome-Shell's shotty implementation of the "scale" plugin. You would think with how many ideas were directly pulled from MacOSX for gnome3 - they might have put more effort into making 'scale' as useful as both Apple has made expose and how useful Compiz has made 'scale'. - for me, as a non-mouse user (mostly using a stylus or my fingers) the scale plugin is my #1 way of moving between applications. it''s ability to also zoom in on running applications WITHOUT moving to it's workspace or selecting it - is also extremely handy...ie: quickly seeing if compiling is finished or an installation. Scale in compiz also is somewhat integrated with 'Expo' - meaning using natural view with scale, allows me to view all running apps and thier spacial location (which workspace they are on).


There are starting to be some okay extensions for GS, but i haven't found any that are extremely useful to me, thus far.... mostly , the useful ones have been one's that change some of the annoying default behaviors in the Shell, like ditching the suspend menu entry, or adding gnome2 behaviors back.

Maybe 3.2 or 3.4 will be a better release for gnome-shell, but from my perspective GS has miles and miles of trekking to do before it will be usable on my desktop. 9and that's with a few month's of using it on and off.

[bwat47]

I personally really like gnome 3/gnome shell. Its definitely missing a few features, it is a .0 release after all but I find it very stable, usable, and fast.

If you are a really die hard fan of the way gnome 2 did things simply switch to xfce, they are very, very similar. And xfce 4.8 is a great release.

[ninez]

I personally really like gnome 3/gnome shell. Its definitely missing a few features, it is a .0 release after all but I find it very stable, usable, and fast.

If you are a really die hard fan of the way gnome 2 did things simply switch to xfce, they are very, very similar. And xfce 4.8 is a great release.

if this comment was meant for me. it's not that i am a die hard fan of gnome2 - but my main two desktops are Gnome/Archlinux and MacOSX. (and at work i use CentOS and winXP/7/2008server). So, for 'me' Gnome-Shell is sort of inconsistent and less useful than; 1. MacOSX, 2. the kind of Linux Desktop i have been running for years, and 3. i dont even like it better than Win7's interface. (and i don't even run Windows at home! that's how much i like using windows).

I did try xfce, and 4.8 is totally their best release yet but it isn't my cup of tea, and also isn't a gnome-replacement (from my perspective). Don't get me wrong Xfce is great, but it's a different DE altogether. ( i find it strange that people tend to think and also suggest that Xfce is a gnome2 replacement, when in reality Gnome3 is a gnome2 replacement - when not using Gnome-shell. the experience is far closer than Xfce). I like gnome's backends, i like many of the core tools and applications provided too. Gnome is still gnome (i say this because so many people who didn't like the shell moved to KDE/Fxce/etc) - but Gnome-Shell is just that - a shell for gnome3, and can easily be swapped out.

but yes, as we both stated (in different ways), gnome-shell is young and future releases should be better. I am more curious to see at what point, if ever - will i personally want to use Gnome-Shell, as my Deskop...I like many of the ideas and technologies involved in gnome-Shell, but for the typical work i do, and general usage of my Linux machines, it's not very suitable, and comes with too many down-sides/hinderences - some things that i mentioned above, but also a whole slew of problems i did not mention. - many of which are stability problems (such as a few commercial applications, running like absolute crap in GS, then there is also the lack of good 3d-support being as they haven't even added the ability to undirect fullscreen apps yet - which should've been in there from the get-go!)...

there's just a boatload of stuff to be done in GS before it will be of any use to me. but, by the same token - many people like yourself like it fine, which is awesome

cheerz