Gnome devs: you will take what we make and you’ll like it!
Also gnome devs: Apple did nothing wrong
Extensions are amazing if you need one or two small fwatures but if you mod something too much it will break eventually even if there is no update to the API. This time it’s a easy fix again but it’s also quite universal breakage sincee they switch from GJS to some more normal JS implementation and that changes some syntax but I expect developers to implement that quickly, maybe most of it could even be done with scripts I guess.
If you are looking for a “normal” desktop, there’s KDE, Cinnamon and Xfce.
Don’t try to turn Gnome into something it wasn’t designed to be.
Gnome is great for a keyboard-and-touchpad-driven workflow on notebooks. You can install one or two extensions to tweak it a bit, preferably through your distros package manager (which solves the issue of extensions breaking after a Gnome update).
But if you find yourself collecting a list of them, or want a more traditional UI, choose a different DE.You can easily get away with more than one or two. I typically run between eight and ten and have rarely had had any issues surrounding updates.
It’s really just as simple as waiting a couple of weeks after a new Gnome update drops before you update. By then, the majority of the more popular extensions will have already fixed any compatibility issues or, if not, there’s a very good chance that an outdated extension can be replaced by a newer alternative.
I usually stick to two or three and don’t try to findmentally change the workflow but you are right, especially for small changes like this one!
Don’t try to turn Gnome into something it wasn’t designed to be.
Don’t tell me what to do. We all have our own preferences, that’s the beauty of Linux.
Personally, I have tried many different desktop environments with various customizations. I still think that GNOME + Extensions is the most beautiful and productive desktop experience for me.
Even despite the obvious flaws of GNOME, I still find it easier to customize and configure to my personal preferences than other desktop environments.
I think the point they were making was that Gnome is made for a touchpad / keyboard driven approach, so complaining that it’s not something else or that it requires multiple extensions is pointless.
If you use 15 extensions to get your perfect desktop and don’t say a word, no-ones going to care, just don’t complain when it breaks.
This comment reads like you’ve never actually tried Gnome with proper extensions (like arc menu and dash-to-panel), because those aren’t even comparable in quality. I mean that when comparing to KDE as well.
I want to love XFCE, but whisker-menu doesn’t support opening it on meta key release, which is baffling to me. Also the lack of night mode, which redshift is just throwing a random program into the mix. Which if you don’t mind that, then you wouldn’t have a problem with Gnome extensions in the first place.
Install 10 Gnome extensions to get KDE Plasma but worse. Well to each their own I suppose. At least Gnome looks nice, I can’t deny that. IMHO that is the one advantage they do have over KDE Plasma.
I just don’t get the vendetta GNOME has against background processes. GNOME devs just don’t use email clients, cloud sync applications, chat clients…? GNOME treats my Nextcloud sync app (which I NEED to be running at all times) as if it was malware or something.
Context for not-Gnome users? How does a desktop care about anything not desktop?
If you minimize a window, it goes into a list of “Background Apps” in the charms menu where the only option you have is to close it. There’s no native systems tray.
there’s a tray, it’s just in the activities tab. press the super key (or click activities in the top left) to bring up the activities view, then the tray is at the bottom
That’s an app launcher, not a systems tray
Well, it’s where minimized apps go
I wasn’t sure, what that screen looks like these days. Well, it wasn’t terribly helpful to type into image search “gnome activities”. 🙃
Yeah, if you need to install extensions to make GNOME usable, GNOME is not for you. Seriously, there are other options. I can’t stand using GNOME, but they have a vision they are sticking to and I can respect that.
Most distro maintainers disagree as they also ship Gnome with extensions pre loaded. Gnome with some extensions is an awesome DE.
Or you just wait a little before you update or keep the extensions to small changes that are easier to update!
Conversely, after I tried vanilla gnome, I can’t go back. It gets out of my way, is pretty bug free, visually consistent, and the workflow is lightyears ahead of anything else I’ve used.
The Win95 UX paradigm that pretty much everybody uses just seems so clunky to me.
Nah, dash-to-panel is really good and makes it 10x better for me personally.
Cinnamon is probably the best DE to give that old GNOME feel. At least in my opinion.
Cinnamon is so close to the way I configured Gnome with extensions. Just that Cinnamon does not need any extensions for that. Best GTK based DE I think.
Gnome also has their own GNOME Classic for people yearning for the old GNOME experience. Cinnamon is probably better though.
I’m tired of GNOME messing with it’s API but hopefully this is the last time since they’re switching to a standard system. Besides that, it’s my favorite DE on Linux. I have to give plasma 6 a shot when it comes out but right now GNOME feels just right compared to other desktops.
Gnome doesn’t have an extension API. That is why it is prone to breakage, since the code is injected into the actual shell. The upshot of this is that extensions can do pretty much anything. The downside is there is no stable API.
Personally, I like the current system. I am biased, I am a trusted review on https://extensions.gnome.org
Exactly! Just integrate the bloody notification tray /running apps extension.
I get why that thing isn’t implemented because it’s really ugly and most of the icons there serve literally no purpose but they need a proper replacment because some apps simply need it!
They’ve actually been talking about this for ages, but they won’t unless it’s cross-compatible with other DEs, using freedesktop standards. I wish we’d make headway on it soon.
If they didn’t serve a purpose, people wouldn’t constantly ask for them back.
That’s not at all what my comment claims…
GNOME is basically the Apple of desktop environments. “You’re wrong to want this super common thing, we know what’s better for you and don’t you defy us!”
You are free to fork it at anytime. I really can’t hate them for having a cohesive vision they plan on developing.
That’s fair, and people have.
Yep. GNOME is terrible. Unfortunately, it’s the default desktop for most distros, so it’s most new users’ experience of “what Linux is”.
I don’t always use Fedora, but when I do it’s always Fedora KDE. Sometimes I forget that the default is GNOME which leads to confusion when posting about issues I run into on Fedora lol.
I’m not gonna lie, I really hated the direction that Gnome went after Gnome 2. Shell just felt way too constricting for my taste. Thankfully, Cinnamon and Mate released to fill in the void.
GNOME bad
Plasma good
XFCE better
Plasma isn’t stable, gnome isn’t flexible and xfce is both stable and flexible, but no Wayland. Yet.
Plasma isn’t stable
How so?
I’ve had several freedesktop issues with dbus, certain black screen crashes on desktops that require deleting .kde and other such annoyances.
Nothing major, just recurring issues.
This is from a 100-150 client environment.
Previous workplace was smaller but used gnome. Had more pebcak than actual issues.
Sounds like Ubuntu underneath your Plasma. I’ve had the exact same experience when using Neon, Kubuntu, and Ubuntu+KDE. I install any non-Ubuntu based distro with KDE (like openSUSE) and whiz bang everything is working again.
Really? Hmm… yet another excuse to move away from Ubuntu. I’ll take it up with my manager.
Cheers!
The last time I tried it it crashed just from moving the panel around on the desktop. After a reboot it didn’t do it again. Plasma just does odd things like that sometimes.
And if you used Plasma 4 all the way up to around Plasma 5.15/5.16, Plasma was practically unusable due to instability. It’s why Plasma stopped being the default DE of choice and Gnome took over.
Plasma has improved a lot over the past year or two in particular, but it’s not close to as stable as, say, Gnome or Cinnamon.
I couldn’t get used to plasma. I dunno why. I really like the gnome style applications window over a start menu.
Liking the fullscreen app search thingamafuck is your prerogative even if I feel this kind of UX is only at home on a mobile phone (also I’m fairly sure Plasma can also do that with some fennagling–)
The thing people (me included) detest about GNOME has very little to do with that anyway, peeps don’t like how locked down it is and how it refuses to support certain features thought to be ‘basic’, so you have to use extensions… Which can be janky on occasion – And definitely will get abandoned by their creators and disabled when you upgrade GNOME version.
Valid. I’m a pretty new Linux convert (6 months or so) and gnome is what I landed on. I tried KDE Plasma and it was okay, maybe I am not giving it enough of a chance. I noticed the desktop and windows were kind of flickering as well, not sure why. Nvidia graphics card, so it’s already a bit janky anyway.
Yeah, NVidia+Linux means some jankiness.
NVidia+Linux+Wayland and at that point you’re just engaging in self-flagellation.
I use two extensions in gnome I cannot live without. Currently travelling, so I don’t know their names by heart. One is for vertical workspaces, the other to visualize CPU/memory/network/disk.
I’ve had to use a Macbook for a month now, and let me tell you. The world of “I need some functionality = install third party stuff” is infinitely worse.
Want to launch custom terminal with global hotkey? => third party app
Want to manage window layout with keyboard shortcuts? => third party app
Want to add support for normal keys on an external keyboard? (like, home key not being dead) ? => third party app
Want better screenshot support? => third party app
Want to be able to navigate workspaces without waiting 2 second with 120Hz refresh rate monitors (because developers implemented it wrong)? => third party app
Want an alt+tab functionality that isn’t a mix between bugged and useless? => third party app
The situation of gnome would be a godsent. It’s so bad that I don’t care about system monitoring or vertical workspaces. But, once I do, those too would be third party apps.
Me, casually running Mate and enjoying on stable and customizable it is. I’ll let you guys fight while I enjoy my polished experience!
I would love Wayland support tho…
Same, I love Mate but cannot use it due to it not supporting fractional scaling (I use a 4K TV as my monitor).
For me the only shell extension that matters is material-shell which gives me nice window tiling. When it works it works when there’s an update it breaks 90% of the time. I almost always have to do some hacky shit with js to get it working.
chuckles in i3
Why are they doing this? Because they want to envolve and don’t be stuck with old things. However, if they did the transition in a good way by giving the developers time to adapt, that I don’t know
Well, most extensions still break on every GNOME major version. Some are actively maintained and will be updated quickly-ish, others not.
IMO if a lot of the small extensions were just integrated into GNOME, some of them could be a single toggle somewhere in the settings. Like a clipboard manager or Launch New Instance, or Wallpaper Switcher.
