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The GNOME Way


raymac46

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Hedon James

Yeah, I appreciate knowing more background and philosophy about their processes.  But change for the sake of change isn't necessarily progress.  And if you're driving away your users, while other DEs are increasing in popularity (Gnome refugees); folks are creating extensions to duplicate functionality you've deemed unworthy and have removed; and folks are developing a whole new DE (thinking of Mate here) to fill the void of what you abandoned.....maybe, just MAYBE, it's time to reconsider your philosophies and raison d'etre.

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1 minute ago, Hedon James said:

Yeah, I appreciate knowing more background and philosophy about their processes.  But change for the sake of change isn't necessarily progress.  And if you're driving away your users, while other DEs are increasing in popularity (Gnome refugees); folks are creating extensions to duplicate functionality you've deemed unworthy and have removed; and folks are developing a whole new DE (thinking of Mate here) to fill the void of what you abandoned.....maybe, just MAYBE, it's time to reconsider your philosophies and raison d'etre.

 

100% !!

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I certainly don't think the traditional desktop is dead, except maybe for those power users like Josh who are more into tiling and terminal and keyboard.

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Just now, raymac46 said:

I certainly don't think the traditional desktop is dead, except maybe for those power users like Josh who are more into tiling and terminal and keyboard.

 

Hehe :thumbsup:

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V.T. Eric Layton

Heh! I could post screenies from my Ubuntu daze 15 years ago and they would look pretty close to this one above, except running Gnome. I guess I'm old and set in my ways. ;)

 

HAHA! Here's one... instead of a hidden panel on the left that I currently use, this one had the "drawer". Remember that?

 

ZOWZhdC.png

 

 

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11 hours ago, raymac46 said:

I do use GNOME in Debian but I would not do so if I didn't have the Shell Extensions.

 

I use GNOME in Debian, too. For me it's a lot nicer now than in the old days. I'll add one or two extensions, but I'm comfortable using it without any extensions, too. I guess not many users would say that.

 

I don't use it in Arch. In Stable it takes a few years before any major changes come down the pipe, and I think that's better for me.

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6 minutes ago, saturnian said:

 

I don't use it in Arch. In Stable it takes a few years before any major changes come down the pipe, and I think that's better for me.

 

Well Archlinux only releases the latest, stable versions of applications.

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17 hours ago, securitybreach said:

At one time, you couldn't even change the wallpaper without gnome-tweaks.

 

Or move that bar from the top to the bottom or side. Best thing to do with a gnome is stick em in the garden 😂

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I remember the drawer!!

 

raymac46, which are your must-have extensions? I like the Workspace Indicator and "Appindicator kstatusnotifieritem support" (what's up with that name?? - ha-ha). I was testing out the "Horizontal workspaces" extension, but it removes the ability to switch workspaces with the mouse wheel while in the Overview, and I have to do it with the Workspace Indicator. I kinda like it otherwise, but I disabled it.

 

And, do you find yourself using keystrokes more often with GNOME? I use Alt+Tab quite a bit to switch between running apps. That's something I don't use with other DEs/WMs, but it was handy back when I used Windows.

 

From my notes, here are the main GNOME Shell keystrokes I use:

 

Alt + F2 - run command dialog

Alt + F2 > R > [enter] - restart GNOME Shell

Alt + Tab - switch between open windows

Super - toggles the overview

 

That's pretty much it. So, I go back and forth between those keystrokes and using the mouse, just depends on which feels more convenient in the given moment. I like the workflow, seems easy for me to get things done. But when I'm busy doing stuff in GNOME, I often find myself with one hand on the mouse and the other hand working that Alt + Tab combo, and that might not feel comfortable to other users.

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My three biggies are Dash to Dock and the ones that replace Activities with Applications and Places on the taskbar. Also one that puts some tray icons on the taskbar.

I am keyboardphobic I guess. I have used a mouse since my earliest days with Commodore Amiga, and I am not a touch typist. The only keyboard shortcut I use is the Super key.

I don't use GNOME with Arch, as I prefer something lighter like LXQt.

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8 hours ago, raymac46 said:

I should also say that I hate GDM, so I replace it with LightDM. I like to try out wayland so I use that with GNOME.

 

Until Wayland supports multi-monitor on nvidia, I will not be moving towards it. I could on my intel laptops and such buts its all in or not at all.

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For folks who aren't comfortable with GNOME Shell, is the GNOME Classic session option acceptable and okay to use? I've logged into it but haven't spent more than a few minutes with it.

 

For me, there are at least a few annoyances with every DE, and GNOME is no exception. I should probably stick with only Fluxbox or Openbox. I use tint2 with both of those WMs, and I think I have a better workflow with either of them than I have with any DE. But that may be because I spend more time with them than with any DE. Hm.

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4 hours ago, saturnian said:

For folks who aren't comfortable with GNOME Shell, is the GNOME Classic session option acceptable and okay to use? I've logged into it but haven't spent more than a few minutes with it.

 

For me, there are at least a few annoyances with every DE, and GNOME is no exception. I should probably stick with only Fluxbox or Openbox. I use tint2 with both of those WMs, and I think I have a better workflow with either of them than I have with any DE. But that may be because I spend more time with them than with any DE. Hm.

 

And eventually you will end up tiling. I went through a similar path that led me to tiling. I started off with DEs and slowly got lighter and lighter until I was on openbox and fluxbox. Once my workflow was more minimal and console based, it was the next logical step and I havent looked back since.

 

Just do not start off with a more difficult one like XMonad, jump straight into i3 instead as you'll end up there anyway.

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I think LXQt is as minimalist as I am ever going to get. I will never be into multi-monitor setups and I run everything full screen and rarely have more than one program active at a time. I find WMs like Fluxbox and Openbox to be rather annoying and difficult to configure. I never worry about bloat because I always have memory overkill if I can. Really I was happy with the mouse and keyboard computer (WIMP) paradigm of the 1990s and stuck to it. That said, I would never recommend my way as the best one for everyone else. Horses for courses.

I guess I have configured my own GNOME Classic but I have a dock at the bottom and not a second panel. I think if you don't like DEs and want something lighter you'll never be happy with any DE - Cinnamon,GNOME, Xfce, KDE...whatever.

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Why does this happen in GNOME?

 

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock. It is held by process 825 (packagekitd)
N: Be aware that removing the lock file is not a solution and may break your system.
E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/


In Software & Updates, I have "Automatically check for updates" set to "Never", but the system still automatically checks for updates. When I log out, I see an option to install pending updates, even though I haven't run apt update.

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48 minutes ago, securitybreach said:

And eventually you will end up tiling.

 

Maybe not, though. I've spent some time with some tiling window managers but it seems that I don't lean that way. I had AwesomeWM installed here for a good while, and enjoyed it. I've played around with tiling WMs in antiX, too.

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$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure unattended-upgrades
[sudo] password for user1:         
dpkg-query: package 'unattended-upgrades' is not installed and no information is available
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files.
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: unattended-upgrades is not installed

 

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You're good, raymac46!!

 

I'm probably gonna end up removing the lock file. Maybe. This part bugs me, though:

 

N: Be aware that removing the lock file is not a solution and may break your system.

 

Also I don't like that I have "Automatically check for updates" set to "Never" in Software & Updates, and yet the system automatically checks for updates. Lol, is this one of those reasons folks can't stand GNOME??

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