GNOME Shell Continues Eyeing Improvements As It Approaches 10 Years Old

[ssokolow]

I hated GNOME for years too until I just gave myself a week to get used to it and learn the keyboard shortcuts. The keyboard is integral to GNOME, which is what a lot of new users don't understand. I rarely use my mouse anymore. It has the benefits of a tiling WM with additional spatial awareness. My single monitor setups no longer feel constrained.

I'm glad it works for you, but it's not just the workflow I hate about GNOME. I've never liked their sense of aesthetics, and I've always been the "It's my computer. It will adapt to whatever I don't want to change about myself" type, to the point where I've done things like ripping out the GTK+ update notifier used in Lubuntu Linux and replaced it with a quick Zenity-based hack (now nicer) because they removed the dconf key to turn off the daily "You should reboot to update your kernel" nags.

(I don't care what I should do. I've blacklisted businesses for managing to get ads in front of my eyes, and penalized businesses like the Rona chain of hardware stores for annoying me with growth hacking (those "Why don't you subscribe to our newsletter?" popups). If it nags, and it can't be turned off, it goes. For having that annoying nag, Rona has become the absolute last choice when I'm trying to find a part I need, even if that means my purchase total is a couple of dollars more.)

[phoronix_anon]

I hated GNOME for years too until I just gave myself a week to get used to it and learn the keyboard shortcuts. The keyboard is integral to GNOME, which is what a lot of new users don't understand. I rarely use my mouse anymore. It has the benefits of a tiling WM with additional spatial awareness. My single monitor setups no longer feel constrained.

[Paradigm Shifter]

The same goes with Fedora I reckon. Don't know of many people using it in Europe. And I don't think it really expanded beyond the US.
If Gnome is the number one Linux DE, I don't believe Fedora/Red Hat are the main spread vector.

I do think RedHat/CentOS is a big driving force for widespread usage of Gnome, installer defaults are a powerful thing... after all Microsoft have leveraged it for years.

RedHat and their service-as-a-service model worked quite well, it's the same idea as Windows in a way; by purchasing something, you have the ability to turn around and complain when something breaks... and the one time I ran a RedHat license they did try very hard to help with issues I had. Companies like that.

[Mez']

The massive tradeoff on Unity was all change were specific for Ubuntu outsidde the original libraries. Majority of distributions gave up porting because it was a nightmare code wise.
Mutter still needs re-factoring to fully take advantage of the new GTK engine considering the remaining codes from the X server era to fully use Wayland libraries which is time consuming. The team behind Budgie would need to actively participate to the effort rather than keeping fragmenting the desktop environment for another decades.

Complaining here in this forum is counter-productive as you could use your time contributing to the project.

I'm no developer. I'm a business and process oriented high level user. I'm closer to the average Joe than most developers will ever be, and I document their use cases. So I have a view on functionalities that is more pragmatic and for that matter I believe it's more productive than burying one's head in the sand, imposing a one-track thinking workflow and failing to acknowledge the diversity of workflows.

I'm not complaining for the sake of it, I have a solid background as I document for a living what end users want (then pass it on to IT).

In addition to that, since I also perform UATs on a professional level, I frequently report bugs (when I have time) as effectively as possible, with a description, steps to reproduce, expected result and actual result. Around ten-a dozen a year I would say.

So I contribute as much as my non abstract abilities allow me...

[Mez']

SuSE like(s/d) KDE, but SuSE never really made it big outside of Europe - or, rather, the only people I've met which use it regularly hail from there.

The same goes with Fedora I reckon. Don't know of many people using it in Europe. And I don't think it really expanded beyond the US.
If Gnome is the number one Linux DE, I don't believe Fedora/Red Hat are the main spread vector.

[Zico]

iv'e had nothing but trouble with screensavers so i dont use them no more. mostl;y when a screensaver kicks in are you actually at the computer ?

The screen saver could start when you log out.

More than likely not, by having a computer go to sleep, i would of though your saving power , , screensavers are so 19th century.

True when you work on a notebook. Compared to 4 displays and few servers, 1W doesn't matter. Even my notebook works 24/7 for 4 years. It's time to replace it In my case, this is very important for each of the ~300 computers to display Company logo before the CC consultant logs in. For now I have to use Xorg in XFCE ..

[bison]

Gnome Classic is not an option for you?

I could use it if I had to, but there's no compelling reason to use it. I'm currently using Xfce. If that were not available, I'd probably go back to MATE.

[JackLilhammers]

SuSE uses GNOME in their enterprise distributions along Canonical and Oracle. GNOME is currently the only major open source desktop environment leading the way to fully integrate Wayland protocol in addition touchscreen and stylus support. For those reasons, focusing on one major desktop environment is the top priority whether you like it or not.

KDE as desktop environment lacks focus when it comes to deal core libraries and got many changes it is hard to follow due to its inconsistency.


Red Hat will stay with systemd, de facto the system manager designed for Linux kernel as it should be for decades until a better system manager will come. OpenRC simply failed the criteria the debate was already over long time ago. Honestly, GNOME represents Linux as operating system distinctive enough from other desktop environment leading the major change of remove the legacy Xorg server. Some both KDE and XFCE agreed on those points.

Yeah, let's be free to like, use, and focus on just what's supported by Red Hat.
It may be open source, but to the end user is just as closed as Windows or MacOS.
Except that Windows could be more easily customizable than Gnome.

[TemplarGR]

GNOME is awesome. All we need right now is for Wayland to mature some more and for GTK4 to support proper hardware accelerating like Vulkan. Then we are good to go.

[finalzone]

I think the main reason the distributors favour Gnome is because it has RedHat behind it, which lends it an air of support from what is a major player in the Linux industry.
SuSE like(s/d) KDE, but SuSE never really made it big outside of Europe - or, rather, the only people I've met which use it regularly hail from there.

SuSE uses GNOME in their enterprise distributions along Canonical and Oracle. GNOME is currently the only major open source desktop environment leading the way to fully integrate Wayland protocol in addition touchscreen and stylus support. For those reasons, focusing on one major desktop environment is the top priority whether you like it or not.

KDE as desktop environment lacks focus when it comes to deal core libraries and got many changes it is hard to follow due to its inconsistency.

If RedHat turned around and started pushing OpenRC and KDE (which used to be the default desktop many, many moons ago!) or XFCE, I think you'd see a similar shift from vendors to those.

Red Hat will stay with systemd, de facto the system manager designed for Linux kernel as it should be for decades until a better system manager will come. OpenRC simply failed the criteria the debate was already over long time ago. Honestly, GNOME represents Linux as operating system distinctive enough from other desktop environment leading the major change of remove the legacy Xorg server. Some both KDE and XFCE agreed on those points.