GNOME Is Making It Easier To Track Running Background Apps

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  • middy
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2013
    • 232

    #31
    Originally posted by Monsterovich View Post

    Wow, I'm so old already. In truth, it's not just that touch screens require a separate interface design. In GNOME, the devs throw out features under the excuse of "simplicity". Even Android has those features, for example, desktop icons, and even workspace widgets, which is even cooler than the desktop ones. GNOME is like gathering all the dumbest designers from all the corporations and forever rearranging the beds instead of inventing the design once and building off of it. Remember, GNOME2 was good. Everyone was satisfied.
    after using gnome for nearly two years, this is why i went to kde. i got tired needing extension after extension, that typically break after a new gnome release, just to get basic, fundamental desktop features back.

    like the system tray and a dock that shows on my desktop instead of being hidden. i'm also really liking having thumbnails in the QT filepicker.

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    • Myownfriend
      Senior Member
      • Mar 2021
      • 1046

      #32
      Originally posted by sarmad View Post
      except that the re-invention is worse because you now need an extra click before you can see those background apps.
      *sigh* Except that tray icons are just icons. They tell you what apps are running in the background but nothing about their state, which is what this menu does. This allows you to see the state off all background apps at once and it allows you to close them when right clicking each one and selecting an option to close them.

      Read the design proposal. https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/Desig...s/-/issues/191

      Also nobody said this is the final design of the feature. As you can see from the proposal, they intend to do much more with it in the future. Perhaps after they remove the App menu, they'll move the background apps menu to a second menu in it's place that's triggered by a button that looks like a tray. Then it would also have the one benefit that tray icons have over it.
      Last edited by Myownfriend; 08 February 2023, 10:41 PM.

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      • curfew
        Senior Member
        • Aug 2010
        • 645

        #33
        Originally posted by user1 View Post

        This doesn't seem to be the same thing. Tray icon is a functionality that is built into apps like Steam, which have a tray menu that gives you certain functions without having to open the app itself. This however looks like a simple indicator that just shows which app is running in the background. Judging from the screenshot, this mostly seems to be useful for Flatpaks.
        Nope, it it is the same thing. In general apps cannot run without a window, the process would exit after the main window has been closed. This is how modern toolkits work out of the box. However, there exists a mechanism for keeping the process alive even after the main window has been closed: the tray icon. That is also the only way to detect which graphical apps are running "in the background". Otherwise you'd end up listing all the processes, even user daemons, and that would be just useless.

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        • oiaohm
          Senior Member
          • Mar 2017
          • 8490

          #34
          Originally posted by curfew View Post
          Nope, it it is the same thing. In general apps cannot run without a window, the process would exit after the main window has been closed. This is how modern toolkits work out of the box. However, there exists a mechanism for keeping the process alive even after the main window has been closed: the tray icon. That is also the only way to detect which graphical apps are running "in the background". Otherwise you'd end up listing all the processes, even user daemons, and that would be just useless.
          Order of operations Curfew you wrote correct then did not understand it because you missed a step.
          1) closed main windows/tray icon registration.
          2) perform resource clean up.
          3) exit process.
          What happens if something goes wrong in the resource clean up that like saving application settings closing off network connections and so on. This leads to a process without main window or tray icon registration not closing in many cases.

          I have had it with VLC where I have told VLC close but then cannot start another one because the one I told to close did not close completely so was blocking new instance starting. Most commonly some network connection was refusing to close off but had closed off mainwindow and trayicon. Few other programs as well.

          General apps normally should not be running without main window. Problem is should not does not equal cannot. If something that a general application is running without a main window and without being registered with tray icon something has most likely gone horrible wrong in resource clean up before process termination. User most likely need to be informed of the application that gone horrible wrong so they are not pulling there hair out wondering why X application that they closed 5 mins ago will not start now. Yes current problem is lack of notification that application has gone horrible wrong and did not in fact exist process and has in fact remained running.

          I really don't have a formal name for this. They are not zombie processes because they are not officially dead yet but they are not correctly live either.

          The tray icon staying around after the main window is closed is because the application process it self it not in fact linked to if main window or tray icon exists. Most people don't look far enough to notice that its 100 percent valid for applications that had graphical windows or tray icon registrations in the past to end up without main window or tray icon in future and user not be informed they have turn into rogue applications without proper controls.

          Its something I wish to see fixed. Application gone strange there should be reporting about it.



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          • cj.wijtmans
            Senior Member
            • Mar 2016
            • 1404

            #35
            Originally posted by curfew View Post
            Nope, it it is the same thing. In general apps cannot run without a window, the process would exit after the main window has been closed. This is how modern toolkits work out of the box. However, there exists a mechanism for keeping the process alive even after the main window has been closed: the tray icon. That is also the only way to detect which graphical apps are running "in the background". Otherwise you'd end up listing all the processes, even user daemons, and that would be just useless.
            you are wrong on exactly everything. And guess what the tray icons pretty much exist for user daemons(even by your own logic).

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            • TemplarGR
              Senior Member
              • Dec 2009
              • 1627

              #36
              There extension for the tray is the only one i use.

              Comment

              • TemplarGR
                Senior Member
                • Dec 2009
                • 1627

                #37
                Originally posted by Monsterovich View Post

                Is Gnome still a desktop DE?
                Define desktop.... What -IS- a desktop to begin with? If you mean "a desktop is something that copies 100% the Windows interface", then no, Gnome is not a desktop.

                PS: Desktop DE shouldn't be used together.... DE stands for Desktop Environment, duh! You wanted to write UI...

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                • oiaohm
                  Senior Member
                  • Mar 2017
                  • 8490

                  #38
                  Originally posted by TemplarGR View Post

                  Define desktop.... What -IS- a desktop to begin with? If you mean "a desktop is something that copies 100% the Windows interface", then no, Gnome is not a desktop.

                  PS: Desktop DE shouldn't be used together.... DE stands for Desktop Environment, duh! You wanted to write UI...


                  TemplarGR the term Desktop environment starts with Xerox Alto to define collective of parts that make up a desktop environment. The term desktop predates MS Windows Interface existing. Desktop environment has refined as a term over the years so it all your default graphical stuff not caring about the term desktop at all. Yes sometimes includes login display managers other times not. So this has got a little grey..

                  Yes after all these years what a computer desktop term means is not solid defined. Early define of what a computer desktop was simple on screen display of what could appear on a physical to make interfacing with computer simpler. That define kind of went out the favor by about the early to mid 1980s before MS Windows.

                  MS Windows Interface cannot be used as example of what desktop is because did not exist early enough to define the term and before MS windows existed the term desktop in computer world had become a broken mess with everyone making user interfaces defining desktop differently. Yes the Microsoft own written define of what desktop is just happens to be exact copy of what all the predecessors did as well including being different to all prior versions of what the term desktop means.

                  Desktop a term that people say that is basically as bad of defined mess as cloud computing. So the question is gnome a desktop is best answered as just it is because the gnome foundation defines it self as a desktop just like everyone else who has called their solution a desktop.

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                  • EvilHowl
                    Senior Member
                    • Sep 2019
                    • 159

                    #39
                    Originally posted by Mthw View Post

                    Yes, but maybe not on desktop?
                    Why not? GNOME 43's implementation is not intrusive at all.

                    Comment

                    • aaahaaap
                      Phoronix Member
                      • Dec 2009
                      • 56

                      #40
                      Originally posted by QwertyChouskie View Post

                      I've been digging the new quick setting menu in Gnome 43, and the improvements in Gnome 44 are looking great!
                      Imho it's significantly worse than 42, definitely can't find the button I'm looking for as quickly. My guess would be that's because instead of just having to scan a vertical list it's spread out horizontally as well now. Plus the added blue introduces too much visual noise. All in all a definite regression.

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