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I understand that GNOME3 was an (successful) attempt to attract more users which were intimidated by the more "tracktor" or "steam engine" like designs of Linux
by danieldk 7y ago
I understand that GNOME3 was an (successful) attempt to attract more users which were intimidated by the more "tracktor" or "steam engine" like designs of Linux desktops back then.
But was it successful? Are there any user statistics? A lot of people I knew were pretty happy back in the day with GNOME 2. After GNOME 3, people fled in all directions (macOS, Xfce, MATE, Cinnamon). I rarely meet new GNOME users or someone who is really happy with GNOME 3.
I am still using GNOME, because it is the best Wayland + HiDPI. Otherwise, I would be looking somewhere else --- I strongly dislike the removal of menus, system tray icons, etc. and having to use flaky extensions to bring some of the functionality back. I just do not understand the GNOME project, they could cater to a lot of people if they brought back some UI elements that people are used to.
- atemerev 7y agoI like Gnome3 much more than Gnome2, and I don’t understand the hate (I am a power user who also uses xmonad).
- dschuetz 7y agoI don't hate it, but I also explained why I don't like it. Also, I used ratpoison a lot, but it doesn't mean I like it. It's useful for very specific use cases. I liked KDE a lot up until they started dumbing it down. It's still highly customizable, but it's also highly unstable still. Something always breaks, and I hate when than happens, especially in very specific use cases.
- dschuetz 7y agoI agree that GNOME in particular has spooked away power users, yet in terms of usability it also has attracted more naïve users (also thanks to Steam). It was successful attracting less experienced user at the cost of expert users. Exactly what Apple has had achieved. But, all of that is guesswork without numbers. Has anyone ever conducted a big fat user computer desktop UX survey yet?
- ddeck 7y agoI'm not sure if qualifies as big and/or fat, but LinuxQuestions perform an annual poll of their users on all manner of topics [1] including "Desktop Environment of the Year"[2]. Not sure how representative it is and it's only a few hundred participants, but here are the top 5: 29% - Plasma Desktop (KDE) 26% - Xfce 11% - Cinnamon 10% - GNOME Shell 10% - MATE This (larger) poll over at r/linux[3] puts GNOME Shell in 2nd place: 29% - KDE 21% - GNOME Shell 14% - xfce 12% - i3 [1] https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-news-59/2018-linuxquestions-org-members-choice-award-winners-4175648153/ https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-news-59/2018-... [2] https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/2018-linuxquestions-org-members-choice-awards-128/desktop-environment-of-the-year-4175645570/ https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/2018-linuxquestions... [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/879ram/poll_which_desktop_environment_do_you_use_on_your/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/879ram/poll_which_de...
- dschuetz 7y agoWell, yes, "Linux Questions" makes polls about Linux desktops. I was talking about any kind of desktop UX, hence "big fat".
- emilsedgh 7y agoThese surveys are taken within "linux community". Therefore, they are pretty wrong in numbers, as all those moms and granddands using Ubuntu are not part of "linux community". Debian's Popularity Contest shows 10% for Plasma Desktop [0] and 26% for Gnome Shell [1] installations. Which seems more accurate in terms of usage and popularity. Although Debian has been traditionally a more Gnome-friendly distro. But most popular distro's are. [0] https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=plasma-desktop https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=plasma-desktop [1] https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=gnome-shell https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=gnome-shell