System76 Developing "COSMIC" Desktop Environment For Pop!_OS

[gedgon]

I don't get it what people love about the GNOME desktop [...]

Different people, different needs. I prefer GNOME because it's ready to use OOTB (it's sane defaults doesn't require two weeks of tinkering before is usable), stays out of the way, is simple, gets job done, is visually pleasing, is boring and yet modern, and way, way less buggy than Plasma. Long story short, GNOME is not perfect, but is the best option for me.

PS. I was a happy KDE 3 user in my early years on Linux and then a very unhappy KDE 4 user, when I enjoyed wasting my time on never ending tweaking and fixing my desktop.

[Mez']

I might give it a spin when available.

I like how they take user feedback and make it happen, how they try to empower the user in his/her preferred workflow (either keyboard-centric or mouse-centric).
This is the correct mindset to adopt.

My main complaints with Gnome 3 have always been 1. Gnome lacks basic options and 2. it is inefficient either with the keyboard or the mouse, and even with both together (although I'm more optimistic with touchpad gestures in Gnome 40). They acknowledge these deficiencies, if from there they can offer something slightly different that try to address these deficiencies, it's worth following up on their endeavor.

I hope we can deactivate the tiling though. I am not a big fan of horizontal viewing angles. I'd rather avoid contorting my body/head in order to get my eyes in front of the focused window.

[scottishduck]

You can’t build a palace on top of a trash heap

[Drago]

Just curious, how many of the you liked Ubuntu Unity?
I am currently using Ubuntu derivative with Unity 7, and I found unity to be superior on my single 21:9 monitor.

[dekernel]

Used to use kde before all the weird plasmid things hit, then switched to cinnamon. I don't need popping out things and 4d puzzles. Just want to be able to launch a damn app and move shit around without hunting for it. Perhaps that's what S76's aim is here, which would be welcome.

This is exactly why I am still using LXDE. It does everything I need and nothing more. Simple, elegant and fast.

[lyamc]

I don't get it what people love about the GNOME desktop

I don't think it's the "desktop" specifically, but the applications. There's coherence in the UI design of all of the applications and I generally prefer the gnome ones over the KDE ones from a usability standpoint.

Their defaults are garbage though.

[Vistaus]

Wasnt it the KDE Project who wanted something like this: Providing the technology to build whatever desktop on top of its technology without fragmenting the project?
Years later the community is at this point, but it is GNOME, not KDE, with desktops like:Ubuntu Shell, Endless Shell, PHOSH, and now COSMIC that are extensions, where every single one of them also contributes to GNOME upstream. It's nice to see the community finally comming together, while still keep an own identity.

With KDE you have alternatives based on their foundation too, like LiquidShell for example, which is basically Plasma 5 Lite. And Deepin also uses some KDE libraries. But yeah, most of the big names use GNOME.

[Vistaus]

Different people, different needs. I prefer GNOME because it's ready to use OOTB (it's sane defaults doesn't require two weeks of tinkering before is usable), stays out of the way, is simple, gets job done, is visually pleasing, is boring and yet modern, and way, way less buggy than Plasma.

GNOME has never visually pleased me, feels outdated to me, nor worked right for me out-of-the-box (manual tweaking was definitely needed!). I've never felt like I could "get the job done" with GNOME either. The closest to all of that IMHO is Deepin, which I'm happily using partly since 15.10 and full-time since 20.0. Looks visually pleasing, modern, is coherent, simple, stays out of the way and has sane defaults OOTB.

[gedgon]

GNOME has never visually pleased me, feels outdated to me, nor worked right for me out-of-the-box (manual tweaking was definitely needed!). I've never felt like I could "get the job done" with GNOME either. The closest to all of that IMHO is Deepin, which I'm happily using partly since 15.10 and full-time since 20.0. Looks visually pleasing, modern, is coherent, simple, stays out of the way and has sane defaults OOTB.

Whatever floats your boat. Like I said. Different people, different needs.

[Teggs]

We’re searching for Windows and macOS users to experience COSMIC firsthand.

I'm guessing Windows users fall into three groups.

Those who dislike the Metro/flat scheme and the UI that came with it (Windows 8+) - may prefer Budgie

Those who like the Metro/flat scheme and the UI that came with it - may like COSMIC (or Gnome itself)

Those who like the art style but not the functionality, or the other way around - may be out of luck?

I have long wondered how the numbers fall out in that breakdown. Many people claim a majority for whatever style they want to pursue, but I haven't seen any hard figures.