← Back to context

Comment by bjoli

2 months ago

I cane back to plasma after about year of gnome. It made me realize how much I dislike gnome. There are just so many issues. Inhad to solve them with extensions, but then it broke on updates. I couldn't get it to have English as language but ISO units.

I had to install an extra app to control startup applications.

Fractional scaling and several displays was wonky, made screen recording impossible. My 60fps display has a stuttery mouse pointer.

Hiding keyboard layouts like Swedish Sami or svdvorak didn't make things better.

Copy and paste not working cross screens (wtf?). Drag and drop not working if you switch windows using alt+tab. Context menus locking focus from the whole desktop: open the nautilus file transfer dialogue and suddenly I couldn't click anywhere else than in nautilus. Having it open and trying to interact with another app just wouldn't work.

At the end had accidentally tried KDE in a VM and realized I wouldn't tolerate a hammer behaving badly. I went back to opensuse the same day.

9 comments

bjoli

Reply
masom  2 months ago

It's really sad what happened with Gnome3.

Gnome2 was a good functional desktop, sure it was copying the 2000s with windows 98/2000 style, but it worked. Hell, even OpenStep is more functional than Gnome3 as a daily computer interface.

Gnome3 targeted a weird mix of incompatible devices, like a windows 8 interface, and kinda failed as a design given the devices it optimized for never took over the market. There's not that many tablets running Gnome or touchscreen laptops anymore.

It's almost like Android took the design team by complete surprise, while they tried to make desktops a tablet experience, but failed at doing both.

  • zozbot234  2 months ago

    > Gnome3 targeted a weird mix of incompatible devices, like a windows 8 interface, and kinda failed as a design given the devices it optimized for never took over the market.

    I'm not sure about that. Convertible laptops are quite popular as a product category, and GNOME 3 works great on those. Besides, MATE and Xfce are still around if you prefer a traditional desktop interface.

  • mixmastamyk  2 months ago

    Agreed. I gave gnome a pass for years because, well it’s largely designed for touchscreen devices right?

    Fast forward to 2024 I get a Linux tablet with gnome installed (phosh) and guess what? Not a single gnome video player exists that works well with the touchscreen, and many of the apps only work by keyboard!!

    We lost so much in the transition, and they didn’t even bother to nail the supposed new use case. Gnome in itself is a complete failure, so far at least. Cinnamon and Mate are decent but suffer from GTK deterioration. Phosh seems to work well enough.

    I like kde these days and have it on a machine, but every time I open the context menu on konsole I get upset because there are a hundred options in there. I want a simple menu.

qalmakka  2 months ago

GNOME has great software, nice UI, horrible UX. It's like as if the designers actively tried to make their software as opinionated and as castrated as they physically could

  • skydhash  2 months ago

    GNOME is nice, but only if you only GNOME. Any attempt to alter the linux ecosystem beneath will result in a lot of pain.