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When Ubuntu dropped the hammer on Gnome2, I saw Unity desktop and was kinda... ewwww. And next I have installed Gnome 3. After 15 minutes with it I decided that

When Ubuntu dropped the hammer on Gnome2, I saw Unity desktop and was kinda... ewwww. And next I have installed Gnome 3. After 15 minutes with it I decided that Unity is actually not that bad, so I switched to it. In the following years Unity kinda grew on me, so I'm sad that it was axed and now everyone use this Gnome3 abomination. It is not as bad as it was five years before, but loss of top menu and general preference for biggins buttons instead of drop-down menus is a bad idea for desktop computers. I wish someone would fix Gnome3 by making it look back like Unity .

znpy 6y ago
I have found peace of mind using XFCE :)
silon42 6y ago
A someone that prefers Gnome2 and KDE... Gnome3 and Unity are both ewwww...
- pmontra 6y ago
  I'm using a dozen extensions to make Gnome 3 behave like Gnome 2 as much as I can. No animations, no menu on top, no top bar, task bar at the bottom, no dock, no activities, one virtual desktop per project. That was impossible with Unity.
  - nikodunk 6y ago
    Why don’t you use Gnome Classic out of curiosity?
    - pmontra 6y ago
      I did use Gnome Fallback (Flashback?) until Gnome Shell had all the extensikns I needed and got rid of some bugs. Gnome Fallback was almost abandonware by the time I switched. It started to develop new glitches as the world around it moved on. Is Gnome Classic the other option I have at login on Ubjntu 20.04? I gave it a try one year ago. Either it didn't work or wasn't the desktop I was looking for. I prefer my custom desktop. Of course nobody can develop one system that suits the tastes of every single person. The important thing to do is to leave enough freedom to make people customize their systems.
  - cglong 6y ago
    Have you tried MATE? I haven't, but I believe it's a modernized fork of GNOME 2.
    - pmontra 6y ago
      I never managed to install its desktop on Ubuntu. Anyway I'd have to customize it too. I never liked desktops with a top bar, since the very first Mac. I couldn't get rid of it on Unity so I never used Unity (same for Macs.)
CoolGuySteve 6y ago
The best thing about Unity is that now it will never change for better or worse and still works with Ubuntu 20.04. It's fairly minimalist and frozen in stasis like I wish Apple had done with the SnowLeopard UI.
- thepangolino 6y ago
  The only thing I liked about unity was the HUD that allowed you to search through application menus by typing the setting you were looking for. Do you know if there’s anything offering that functionality for Gnome3?
  - ekiwi 6y ago
    If you hit the Windows key on Gnome 3, you can type the name of a program, file or system setting and it will generally find it.
    - llarsson 6y ago
      That's not it. Unity let you find at you typed to get to menu options. So you did not have to care whether the item you wanted was under File, Edit, or whatever, you could just start typing "preferences" and it would let you find it and go to it with the keyboard. That was pretty good, actually.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - christophilus 6y ago
        That works in Gnome for os level items, but not for application level items.
        hda2 6y ago
        Again, that's not what is being asked.
bmurphy1976 6y ago
I never liked Gnome3 and I never liked Unity. I have however been more than happy with XFCE distros. Simple task bar, simple menu, doesn't waste space and can look quite nice if a little attention is given to design. If you are unsatisfied with the major DEs it's worth at least trying.
- crooked-v 6y ago
  To me, XFCE feels like a visual evolution and refinement of Windows 98 - and I mean that in the best possible way. Windows has three or four separate and inconsistent visual styles that get mixed nowadays, macOS has UI style changes in every single yearly update for seemingly no other reason than to change things, and Gnome 3 threw any good sense in usability out the window, but XFCE is still trucking along with a single style that stays consistent and highly usable without being ugly.
- zem 6y ago
  and xfce supports using a tiling window manager and keeping the rest of the desktop environment, which makes it perfect for my needs.
  - nerdponx 6y ago
    LXDE and LXQt also do this, for anyone looking to learn about more DEs.
dguaraglia 6y ago
Maybe join us Plasma users in the dark side. Honestly, it's pretty sweet and you can configure it to look and behave just the way you want it.
- fiddlerwoaroof 6y ago
  Yeah, I’m really glad the KDE world seems to have recovered from the KDE4 disaster. However, the Linux desktop ecosystem largely feels like it’s just sort of rotting: I really like KMail, for example, but it had a bunch of show-stopper bugs last time I used it.
  - dguaraglia 6y ago
    Yeah... the desktop environment itself is pretty nice, but a lot of the apps built around it are either abandonware or just plain low quality. At least nowadays GTK applications don't look completely out of place so even using all kinds of disparate programs (Thunderbird, Goland, Slack, Chrome, etc.) results in a pleasantly consistent experience.
- type0 6y ago
  I do like that everything is configurable but it can be a huge timesink when trying to tweak everything.
  - dguaraglia 6y ago
    Agreed. That's why I settled with using the standard theme (Breeze) with some minor panel changes to make the system work a bit like macOS: global menu on top, small self-hiding dock at the bottom. The whole thing took maybe a couple hours of experimentation two years ago, and I've since been running with the same configuration.
- kaba0 6y ago
  If only their Wayland implementation would be a bit more stable.
fiddlerwoaroof 6y ago
I had abandoned all the desktop environments for xmonad and then stumpwm. However, I’ve recently given KDE Plasma a chance, and it’s really grown on me: especially for my current setup (55” TV), it’s much more ergonomic than tiling WMs and it doesn’t have the annoyances I had with KDE4, Gnome 3 or Unity.
Wxc2jjJmST9XWWL 6y ago
As someone who has used too many distributions and window managers to count (over the course of many years), I've settled on Ubuntu and whatever their default UI. And I quite liked Unity as well after a while. Of course if there was a major reason to switch away from Ubuntu or their default DE, I would, but it's the pragmatic choice. The constant "finding" of the perfect fit gets in the way of actually doing stuff. Once you adjust expectations towards a system, I'm still far happier with Ubuntu I could ever be with macOS or Windows, and don't waste time having a different system to work with every two weeks (slightly exaggerating). Is it perfect? No. Is it good enough? Yes. Is it great compared to alternatives (factoring in speed of deployment and productivity from the get to)? Definitely yes. I'm glad popOS uses Ubuntu and Gnome as backbone and tries to give you a customized experience rather than completely reinventing everything. Though for me, as long as Canonical doesn't screw it up in a major way, stock Ubuntu it is.
- dsego 6y ago
  > Though for me, as long as Canonical doesn't screw it up in a major way, stock Ubuntu it is. It's not like they're not trying, with snaps and all... we shall see.
  - Wxc2jjJmST9XWWL 6y ago
    I guess what constitutes a "major screw up" can be debated. I don't have a problem with snaps.
    - mixmastamyk 6y ago
      The basic idea is fine, but the obnoxious gnome-esque, "we don't care about convention or your preferences" is the main problem.
      - hda2 6y ago
        To me, the fact we aren't given full control over when apps update is the main problem. As far as I can tell, Ubuntu's position is still that users shouldn't be allowed to stop updates indefinitely: https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/disabling-automatic-refresh-for-snap-from-store/707/ https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/disabling-automatic-refresh-for...
rbreaves 6y ago
First off.. this is not an official release (kairos) like my Kinto project, but you can install https://ubuntubudgie.org https://ubuntubudgie.org and use their global menu or run my script which will fully configure everyone w/ my Kinto project and other various fixes. You will have a modern desktop with a global menu. https://github.com/rbreaves/kairos https://github.com/rbreaves/kairos
eitland 6y ago
Unity had its own problems, mostly related to trying to be Mac OSX without being Mac OSX: - Breaking alt-tab - Moving window controls
- bregma 6y ago
  Or, rather, fixing alt-tab and moving window controls to where they should be. I guess it's a matter of taste and habit. Full disclosure: I'm a former EM for the Unity dev team. I have heard more mindless opinion disguised as fact than you can possibly imagine.
  - eitland 6y ago
    > Full disclosure: I'm a former EM for the Unity dev team. The real problem here is you had an extremely enthusiastic fan base and chose to break everything for many of us. I tried really hard to like it but for me it was broken and unlike in KDE where I can tweak anything there was no way to fix alt-tab. Such a minor thing, such a major productivity killer for those of us who rely on years of keyboard experience.
lobstrosity420 6y ago
> general preference for biggins buttons instead of drop-down I could never understand the strong revulsion some people have with that design language. To me the Windows 95 "File Edit etc." toolbar is terribly eye straining and has no place in the 21st century. Besides, with the ubiquity of touch screens in laptops the GNOME team has been entirely vindicated in their decision to take a more touch oriented approach. Larger buttons are easier to click with the mouse too.
- gowld 6y ago
  And we can't understand your revulsion to having usable screen real estate and high quality (non-touch) screens and input methods. I don't want to paw at my screen all day with gorilla arms.
graynk 6y ago
> loss of top menu There's a Unite extension for that: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1287/unite/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1287/unite/
nightowl_games 6y ago
I agree. So now I'm on Linux Mint. Cinnamon is the natural extension of GNOME 2. It's really really good. It's just simple and clean.
- XorNot 6y ago
  Yeah I've been on cinnamon consistently. It does everything I need comfortably.
- girvo 6y ago
  I installed Mint on a 9 year old iMac for my girlfriend to use, who's not particularly technically inclined. She picked it up immediately, without issue, which is honestly a great selling point of Cinnamon in my opinion
girvo 6y ago
You're not alone. Once I had the keyboard shortcuts down-pat, I adored Unity honestly. I can't seem to get used to Gnome 3 no matter how hard I've tried, so I've given up sadly. I don't have any desktop Linux installs these days aside from my old iMac running Linux Mint downstairs that only my girlfriend uses!

znpy 6y ago

I have found peace of mind using XFCE :)

silon42 6y ago

A someone that prefers Gnome2 and KDE... Gnome3 and Unity are both ewwww...

pmontra 6y ago
I'm using a dozen extensions to make Gnome 3 behave like Gnome 2 as much as I can. No animations, no menu on top, no top bar, task bar at the bottom, no dock, no activities, one virtual desktop per project. That was impossible with Unity.
- nikodunk 6y ago
  Why don’t you use Gnome Classic out of curiosity?
  - pmontra 6y ago
    I did use Gnome Fallback (Flashback?) until Gnome Shell had all the extensikns I needed and got rid of some bugs. Gnome Fallback was almost abandonware by the time I switched. It started to develop new glitches as the world around it moved on. Is Gnome Classic the other option I have at login on Ubjntu 20.04? I gave it a try one year ago. Either it didn't work or wasn't the desktop I was looking for. I prefer my custom desktop. Of course nobody can develop one system that suits the tastes of every single person. The important thing to do is to leave enough freedom to make people customize their systems.
- cglong 6y ago
  Have you tried MATE? I haven't, but I believe it's a modernized fork of GNOME 2.
  - pmontra 6y ago
    I never managed to install its desktop on Ubuntu. Anyway I'd have to customize it too. I never liked desktops with a top bar, since the very first Mac. I couldn't get rid of it on Unity so I never used Unity (same for Macs.)

CoolGuySteve 6y ago

The best thing about Unity is that now it will never change for better or worse and still works with Ubuntu 20.04. It's fairly minimalist and frozen in stasis like I wish Apple had done with the SnowLeopard UI.

thepangolino 6y ago
The only thing I liked about unity was the HUD that allowed you to search through application menus by typing the setting you were looking for. Do you know if there’s anything offering that functionality for Gnome3?
- ekiwi 6y ago
  If you hit the Windows key on Gnome 3, you can type the name of a program, file or system setting and it will generally find it.
  - llarsson 6y ago
    That's not it. Unity let you find at you typed to get to menu options. So you did not have to care whether the item you wanted was under File, Edit, or whatever, you could just start typing "preferences" and it would let you find it and go to it with the keyboard. That was pretty good, actually.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - christophilus 6y ago
      That works in Gnome for os level items, but not for application level items.
      - hda2 6y ago
        Again, that's not what is being asked.

bmurphy1976 6y ago

I never liked Gnome3 and I never liked Unity. I have however been more than happy with XFCE distros. Simple task bar, simple menu, doesn't waste space and can look quite nice if a little attention is given to design. If you are unsatisfied with the major DEs it's worth at least trying.

crooked-v 6y ago
To me, XFCE feels like a visual evolution and refinement of Windows 98 - and I mean that in the best possible way. Windows has three or four separate and inconsistent visual styles that get mixed nowadays, macOS has UI style changes in every single yearly update for seemingly no other reason than to change things, and Gnome 3 threw any good sense in usability out the window, but XFCE is still trucking along with a single style that stays consistent and highly usable without being ugly.
zem 6y ago
and xfce supports using a tiling window manager and keeping the rest of the desktop environment, which makes it perfect for my needs.
- nerdponx 6y ago
  LXDE and LXQt also do this, for anyone looking to learn about more DEs.

dguaraglia 6y ago

Maybe join us Plasma users in the dark side. Honestly, it's pretty sweet and you can configure it to look and behave just the way you want it.

fiddlerwoaroof 6y ago
Yeah, I’m really glad the KDE world seems to have recovered from the KDE4 disaster. However, the Linux desktop ecosystem largely feels like it’s just sort of rotting: I really like KMail, for example, but it had a bunch of show-stopper bugs last time I used it.
- dguaraglia 6y ago
  Yeah... the desktop environment itself is pretty nice, but a lot of the apps built around it are either abandonware or just plain low quality. At least nowadays GTK applications don't look completely out of place so even using all kinds of disparate programs (Thunderbird, Goland, Slack, Chrome, etc.) results in a pleasantly consistent experience.
type0 6y ago
I do like that everything is configurable but it can be a huge timesink when trying to tweak everything.
- dguaraglia 6y ago
  Agreed. That's why I settled with using the standard theme (Breeze) with some minor panel changes to make the system work a bit like macOS: global menu on top, small self-hiding dock at the bottom. The whole thing took maybe a couple hours of experimentation two years ago, and I've since been running with the same configuration.
kaba0 6y ago
If only their Wayland implementation would be a bit more stable.

fiddlerwoaroof 6y ago

I had abandoned all the desktop environments for xmonad and then stumpwm. However, I’ve recently given KDE Plasma a chance, and it’s really grown on me: especially for my current setup (55” TV), it’s much more ergonomic than tiling WMs and it doesn’t have the annoyances I had with KDE4, Gnome 3 or Unity.

Wxc2jjJmST9XWWL 6y ago

As someone who has used too many distributions and window managers to count (over the course of many years), I've settled on Ubuntu and whatever their default UI. And I quite liked Unity as well after a while. Of course if there was a major reason to switch away from Ubuntu or their default DE, I would, but it's the pragmatic choice. The constant "finding" of the perfect fit gets in the way of actually doing stuff. Once you adjust expectations towards a system, I'm still far happier with Ubuntu I could ever be with macOS or Windows, and don't waste time having a different system to work with every two weeks (slightly exaggerating). Is it perfect? No. Is it good enough? Yes. Is it great compared to alternatives (factoring in speed of deployment and productivity from the get to)? Definitely yes. I'm glad popOS uses Ubuntu and Gnome as backbone and tries to give you a customized experience rather than completely reinventing everything. Though for me, as long as Canonical doesn't screw it up in a major way, stock Ubuntu it is.

dsego 6y ago
> Though for me, as long as Canonical doesn't screw it up in a major way, stock Ubuntu it is. It's not like they're not trying, with snaps and all... we shall see.
- Wxc2jjJmST9XWWL 6y ago
  I guess what constitutes a "major screw up" can be debated. I don't have a problem with snaps.
  - mixmastamyk 6y ago
    The basic idea is fine, but the obnoxious gnome-esque, "we don't care about convention or your preferences" is the main problem.
    - hda2 6y ago
      To me, the fact we aren't given full control over when apps update is the main problem. As far as I can tell, Ubuntu's position is still that users shouldn't be allowed to stop updates indefinitely: https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/disabling-automatic-refresh-for-snap-from-store/707/ https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/disabling-automatic-refresh-for...

rbreaves 6y ago

First off.. this is not an official release (kairos) like my Kinto project, but you can install https://ubuntubudgie.org https://ubuntubudgie.org and use their global menu or run my script which will fully configure everyone w/ my Kinto project and other various fixes. You will have a modern desktop with a global menu. https://github.com/rbreaves/kairos https://github.com/rbreaves/kairos

eitland 6y ago

Unity had its own problems, mostly related to trying to be Mac OSX without being Mac OSX: - Breaking alt-tab - Moving window controls

bregma 6y ago
Or, rather, fixing alt-tab and moving window controls to where they should be. I guess it's a matter of taste and habit. Full disclosure: I'm a former EM for the Unity dev team. I have heard more mindless opinion disguised as fact than you can possibly imagine.
- eitland 6y ago
  > Full disclosure: I'm a former EM for the Unity dev team. The real problem here is you had an extremely enthusiastic fan base and chose to break everything for many of us. I tried really hard to like it but for me it was broken and unlike in KDE where I can tweak anything there was no way to fix alt-tab. Such a minor thing, such a major productivity killer for those of us who rely on years of keyboard experience.

lobstrosity420 6y ago

> general preference for biggins buttons instead of drop-down I could never understand the strong revulsion some people have with that design language. To me the Windows 95 "File Edit etc." toolbar is terribly eye straining and has no place in the 21st century. Besides, with the ubiquity of touch screens in laptops the GNOME team has been entirely vindicated in their decision to take a more touch oriented approach. Larger buttons are easier to click with the mouse too.

gowld 6y ago
And we can't understand your revulsion to having usable screen real estate and high quality (non-touch) screens and input methods. I don't want to paw at my screen all day with gorilla arms.

graynk 6y ago

> loss of top menu There's a Unite extension for that: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1287/unite/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1287/unite/

nightowl_games 6y ago

I agree. So now I'm on Linux Mint. Cinnamon is the natural extension of GNOME 2. It's really really good. It's just simple and clean.

XorNot 6y ago
Yeah I've been on cinnamon consistently. It does everything I need comfortably.
girvo 6y ago
I installed Mint on a 9 year old iMac for my girlfriend to use, who's not particularly technically inclined. She picked it up immediately, without issue, which is honestly a great selling point of Cinnamon in my opinion

girvo 6y ago

You're not alone. Once I had the keyboard shortcuts down-pat, I adored Unity honestly. I can't seem to get used to Gnome 3 no matter how hard I've tried, so I've given up sadly. I don't have any desktop Linux installs these days aside from my old iMac running Linux Mint downstairs that only my girlfriend uses!