I made this post because I really like the design of GNOME, and although i’d like customizability, it is mostly enough for my everyday needs. But I want to understand why people may choose other desktop environments…or why you would/would’nt use GNOME.
What I like:
- I like GNOME 40 more than GNOME 3 because it’s prettier.
- I like GNOME in general because it’s stable with pretty, high quality bundled programs.
- I like the UX. It takes all the good things about the macOS UX and makes them better, while taking all the bad things and making them less stupid.
- I like that they completely separate the dock from normal window management, so I never hit it when my cursor reaches the edge of the screen.
- I like that you can set Nautilus to use one-click to open folders, even though that is cribbed from Dolphin. (Even if I use
lfmost of the time) - I like the simple IBus integration that lets me setup my Japanese IME easily.
What I dislike:
- I dislike that I need a system tray extension for some software.
- I dislike how in-your-face the notifications are and that they can’t be stacked.
- I dislike that I need to use Dconf to set shortcuts for workspaces 5-10.
- I dislike needing GNOME Tweaks to set autostart software/daemons—this is a basic feature, not a “tweak”.
- I dislike not having an easy way to port my settings for GNOME to a new computer. It’s annoying to have to set all this stuff up again compared to Sway, where I clone a repository and copy some config files over.
- I dislike the new screenshot tool in GNOME 40+. It automatically saves photos to a directory, rather than letting me copy it. Come to think of it, I also dislike that it doesn’t support the same screenshot protocols Sway does for
grimandslurp, which is my favorite screenshot workflow.
export settings on old pc:
dconf dump / > dconf-settings.dumpimport on new pc:
cat dconf-settings.dump | dconf load /Oh! Super handy, thank you! I was just considering how I might use dconf to get this setup.
I haven’t tried it out yet but it seems like it would work well!
Glad to help! Just keep in mind that what you’re doing there is dumping the entire dconf settings tree and applying it as is. That will include a lot of things you don’t want/care about, including state data of certain applications. You should probably sift through the dump file and throw stuff out before loading it again, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out.
I’ll keep that in mind. The main thing is changing keyboard shortcuts—I like most of the defaults in GNOME. In theory, this should actually be easier to port over to new computers than Sway, because I only need to import one configuration dump.
I mean, I probably could have written a Makefile or something for my
dotfilesrepository but I’m lazy…
I like GNOME but there’s something so frustrating about how much it’s lacking out of the box. It feels like you have to fish out a lot of extensions to make it comfortable to use, and these extensions often break each update. Not having native support for a taskbar to quickly show/minimize the apps you have open… Just why?
Luckily a lot of distros do add those features out of the box like Zorin/Nobara, but otherwise I’d just go for Plasma. A lot of Gnome feels like it’s copying Mac for the sake of copying Mac which I don’t like very much, but maybe I’m biased because I mostly use and got comfortable with Windows-style UI. People compared it to Windows 8 and I totally agree, the way they want you to use Gnome feels more like it’s made for tablets than desktops.
Gnome is pretty good otherwise, it’s just their team makes weird decisions and never seem to change their stance.
copying Mac
I don’t get this. I like macOS’ UI. It’s really not like GNOME at all. I very much dislike GNOME
I love the clean look of GNOME and the way I open apps - press super and start typing it’s name and enter. So simple, so fast. Also the overview is so good compared to taskbar for switching apps and for me. I only use Blur My Shell extension for even better cleaner look. The simplest, fastest de i’ve tried that works for my monkey brain
and the way I open apps - press super and start typing it’s name and enter. So simple, so fast.
that… is the way one opens apps on every mainstream de by default? be it a start menu (plasma, windows, cinnamon, etc.), list menu, (old plasma, many old de’s), or some other launcher, i think that’s pretty standard
It’s been a while since i used any other DE but i remember Windows being slow couple years ago on high-end pc, and i remember a de where super did nothing, think it was Xfce. Nice if most major DEs have this feature
I agree here 100%. My first experience with GNOME was using POP_OS’s tweaked version of it and then trying out regular GNOME 3 made me wanna pull my hair out since it seemed like the UX was severely lacking there.
I think there are awesome elements of it but it does feel like I’d need to download all those extensions and gnome-tweaks to make it function the way I want it to which isn’t really worth it; i’d rather have an environment that functions well out of the box .
I admire their uncompromising stance on feature creep and polish of the core functionality.
I’m a simple man, all I need 95% of the time is keyboard shortcuts to switch between maximized browser and a maximized terminal emulator.
Compare and contrast KDE, where you have three infinitely configurable screen zoom plugins, and I’ve never seen 3/3 working.
If that’s all you need, sway may be perfect for you
I’ve used it for… IDK, 2017-2022? I’m well aware of what it offers.
I like GNOME because I don’t want customizability.
OK, I like a bit of customizability, but I’m not a designer and trying to make things look consistent and nice is a pain. I once spent days making an icon theme work in Xfce (the freedesktop standards for naming icons are not followed by anyone… (meaning both Xfce and icon themes))
I use GNOME as is and accept it and everything is swell.
Also I use a laptop and I’m addicted the three-finger swipe window preview…
I love customisation and used to customize KDE, but one I saw the new gnome it was pretty much exactly how I was trying to make kde look anyway
I was going for Pantheon-like before and then realised that’s basically just GNOME with some extra bits
Also yes three finger swipe is essential for me on a laptop now every DE should have it
Coming from Windows, gnome was the desktop that taught me how to use and appreciate multiple workspaces. I’m now entirely sold on KDE, but there’s something to be said about the gnome workflow.
I use a vanilla Gnome without extensions - Arch Linux.
- clean desktop
- I don’t want distraction desktop with tons of infos…app like NextCloud must running without infos about syn etc.
- for productivity need clean and optimal desktop with tiling windows
- 3 or 4 working desktops
- and keyboard shortcuts
Most important for me, less blotware, functional, clean and minimal distraction - minimalist desktop.
GNOME is opinionated and beautiful. Lots of focus on reasonable design instead of massive amount of customization. It also has a great app ecosystem and documentation. I love it.
I use vanilla gnome. Dead simple, no nonsense, gets out of my way. Perfect DE for me.
gnome 40+ has a great workflow
coming from windows 10, it was different at first but now it feels just naturalI ran Pop! OS for about a day which uses Gnome (don’t know which version) and while I liked bits of it I really disliked the file browser and image viewer. The file browser makes it difficult to browse folders outside of my home folder, there are no image previews and there’s a needlessly large gap between folders and files wasting visual space. The image viewer is not great, it can’t open the images made by my Nikon DSLR and quite a few times the image viewer would load the image at full resolution putting the title bar off the top of the monitor.
So. Much.
Wasted
Space
I like Gnome Shell. It’s polished and extensible. Libadwaita and the header bars are nice as well. I generally prefer nautilus to dolphin, even if I hate having to ctrl-l to edit the path.
I use KDE however because Mutter is still dogshit slow, especially in wayland. My work PC has a R5 3600, RX 570, and 48GB ram and it struggles to maintain 60fps across 3 1080p monitors. KWin runs significantly better, so I use KDE and just configure it like I would Gnome.
I hate the giant app menu thing where everything is massive and clearly designed to accommodate a touch interface, so I’ve never used it much beyond that. I am on a desktop, not a mobile device, why is it designed like a mobile device? It’s the same thing people hated about Windows 8, why the hell would you follow that design philosophy?? I really don’t get it.
I understand you can use extensions and whatnot to change that, but why would I want to fight with it when other DE’s are already designed for a desktop experience? Gnome is just flat out not for me.
What do you think about using a keyboard-based workflow: hit Super button (or click on Activities) to make the fullscreen menu pop-up, then write the first few letters of the app name, and finally hit Enter? Search-based workflow is my favourite way to navigate app menu, on GNOME and KDE alike.
I do this sometimes, yes. But still, even if you do that exclusively, I see no point to it being so massive and out-of-place looking on a desktop. I like KDE’s launcher and Rofi, for example.
I like a lot of pre-customised versions of GNOME like with Ubuntu or Pop!_OS but (and I’m currently using this on Fedora) the default “out of the box” GNOME experience is a bit rough and unfriendly. Sure I’ve got it customised now with some fancy top panel stuff but its still clear I just shoehorned in a bunch of GNOME extensions - and I’m still yet to find a tray that is 1) still supported and 2) to my liking.
Mostly like. Big negatives list:
- constantly breaks extension compatibility
- actively hostile towards tiling
- forced horizontal workspaces
- fails miserably if dri doesn’t work 100%
- changes configuration systems like socks
- output/logs noisy and not useful
What I hate is CSD… using it with CSD is sad for #xfce user :'(
