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> I think the major distros defaulting to GNOME is not going to end well I agree. While standardization has its benefits, I think homogeneity also has signific

> I think the major distros defaulting to GNOME is not going to end well I agree. While standardization has its benefits, I think homogeneity also has significant drawbacks. Unfortunately, rare is the Linux desktop environment that gets things right for me. KDE comes close, I guess. > And my wife long complained "why don't you switch my machine to the nice interface you use" and finally last week I did switch her off of GNOME and she's much happier. What did you switch her to?

_emacsomancer_ 8y ago
> I agree. While standardization has its benefits, I think homogeneity also has significant drawbacks. Unfortunately, rare is the Linux desktop environment that gets things right for me. KDE comes close, I guess. I haven't seriously tried KDE, though I've heard lots of good things about it recently. I don't know why Ubuntu chose GNOME over Mate, the latter seems a perfectly fine typical desktop environment paradigm. > What did you switch her to? AwesomeWM (which is technically a windows manager and not a desktop environment, but it's full-featured enough to be essentially like a DE), which I keep coming back even after trying other DEs/WMs. I had hesitated to put her on it since its configuration isn't user-friendly (it's a .lua text file..), but I just essentially copied over my configuration, and she's been much happier than on GNOME.
- mcny 8y ago
  I've recently started playing with i3. It is very nice. I don't know how to do a lot of things. I have to Google how to connect to a new WiFi connection every time on my phone. However, I like it a lot. Worst case scenario, I have to reboot and log in with gnome. Personally, I am all for standardization and homogeneity. We need standards and homogeneity. I would gladly steamroll over all the people who oppose "monoculture" for the sake of opposing something. You can't please everyone but I think gnome is the right answer for most people. Don't like something? Come join the discussion at https://gitlab.gnome.org https://gitlab.gnome.org (I hope I got that right) Better link https://gitlab.gnome.org/groups/GNOME/-/issues https://gitlab.gnome.org/groups/GNOME/-/issues
  - groovy2shoes 8y ago
    I haven't used i3 in a long time, but if it's got support for systray icons, you can run the NetworkManager applet and manage your network settings there as you would in any ol' desktop environment. I do this with awesome, and it works well. It's a one-liner in rc.lua: awful.spawn.with_shell "nm-applet" Also good for volume control applets :)
  - _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
    > You can't please everyone but I think gnome is the right answer for most people. Don't like something? Come join the discussion at https://gitlab.gnome.org https://gitlab.gnome.org (I hope I got that right) The problem is I think the deep issues I have with Gnome are not things which are easily fixed, e.g. "stop leaking memory", "don't be a single-threaded Javascript process", "allow me to control workspaces independently on each monitor/screen", &c. &c. I would love to see Gnome improve though, even if I never end up using it, but I am not currently seeing any obvious signs that this will occur.
    - mcny 8y ago
      I have seen these problems as well and yes the community seems dismissive of the issues with various *-factories https://askubuntu.com/questions/480753/remove-evolution-calendar-factory-from-startup https://askubuntu.com/questions/480753/remove-evolution-cale... I mean I still can't get over the asinine comment covered here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4757077 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4757077 Very poor choice of words which will hurt us for a long time. Archived at https://archive.fo/NbzkY https://archive.fo/NbzkY This is the opposite of the standardization and cooperation across desktop environments and window managers that I want!

_emacsomancer_ 8y ago

> I agree. While standardization has its benefits, I think homogeneity also has significant drawbacks. Unfortunately, rare is the Linux desktop environment that gets things right for me. KDE comes close, I guess. I haven't seriously tried KDE, though I've heard lots of good things about it recently. I don't know why Ubuntu chose GNOME over Mate, the latter seems a perfectly fine typical desktop environment paradigm. > What did you switch her to? AwesomeWM (which is technically a windows manager and not a desktop environment, but it's full-featured enough to be essentially like a DE), which I keep coming back even after trying other DEs/WMs. I had hesitated to put her on it since its configuration isn't user-friendly (it's a .lua text file..), but I just essentially copied over my configuration, and she's been much happier than on GNOME.

mcny 8y ago
I've recently started playing with i3. It is very nice. I don't know how to do a lot of things. I have to Google how to connect to a new WiFi connection every time on my phone. However, I like it a lot. Worst case scenario, I have to reboot and log in with gnome. Personally, I am all for standardization and homogeneity. We need standards and homogeneity. I would gladly steamroll over all the people who oppose "monoculture" for the sake of opposing something. You can't please everyone but I think gnome is the right answer for most people. Don't like something? Come join the discussion at https://gitlab.gnome.org https://gitlab.gnome.org (I hope I got that right) Better link https://gitlab.gnome.org/groups/GNOME/-/issues https://gitlab.gnome.org/groups/GNOME/-/issues
- groovy2shoes 8y ago
  I haven't used i3 in a long time, but if it's got support for systray icons, you can run the NetworkManager applet and manage your network settings there as you would in any ol' desktop environment. I do this with awesome, and it works well. It's a one-liner in rc.lua: awful.spawn.with_shell "nm-applet" Also good for volume control applets :)
- _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
  > You can't please everyone but I think gnome is the right answer for most people. Don't like something? Come join the discussion at https://gitlab.gnome.org https://gitlab.gnome.org (I hope I got that right) The problem is I think the deep issues I have with Gnome are not things which are easily fixed, e.g. "stop leaking memory", "don't be a single-threaded Javascript process", "allow me to control workspaces independently on each monitor/screen", &c. &c. I would love to see Gnome improve though, even if I never end up using it, but I am not currently seeing any obvious signs that this will occur.
  - mcny 8y ago
    I have seen these problems as well and yes the community seems dismissive of the issues with various *-factories https://askubuntu.com/questions/480753/remove-evolution-calendar-factory-from-startup https://askubuntu.com/questions/480753/remove-evolution-cale... I mean I still can't get over the asinine comment covered here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4757077 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4757077 Very poor choice of words which will hurt us for a long time. Archived at https://archive.fo/NbzkY https://archive.fo/NbzkY This is the opposite of the standardization and cooperation across desktop environments and window managers that I want!