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What end-user problems are they solving though? I only see some quibbles about customization/theming, which seems like an insane reason to drop the entire stack

by cle 5y ago

What end-user problems are they solving though? I only see some quibbles about customization/theming, which seems like an insane reason to drop the entire stack and write one from scratch. From the information given, this just seems like riding the Rust hype wave.

smoldesu 5y ago
Well, for the record, the current Cosmic desktop is pretty limited. It's clear that Pop!OS has some really good ideas in the desktop space, but they're frankly held back by their reliance on GNOME as a starting point. Particularly these days, with how disastrous the release of GNOME 40 was, I can understand wanting to step away from that dev team. Maybe choosing Rust was hype-driven decision, but writing a new desktop was certainly not uncalled for.
- Ar-Curunir 5y ago
  > Maybe choosing Rust was hype-driven decision, They've been using Rust internally for various tools already, so I think this decision has been motivated by their positive experience with Rust
rhinoceraptor 5y ago
GNOME keeps making absurdly bad decisions about pretty much everything, and wantonly removing features that even average desktop users expect. For example, you need an extension to enable putting files/icons on the desktop (!?!?!). And the APIs for GNOME extensions are constantly changing, so the extensions are constantly breaking. Not to mention, the extensions are written in JavaScript and if they crash, the entire shell crashes. It's absolutely insane. It seems like they want to lock down the UI to customization even more than MacOS and Windows do. I see GNOME as basically a dead end at this point.
- LinAGKar 5y ago
  >if they crash, the entire shell crashes And the entire session if you're on Wayland
- preisschild 5y ago
  > For example, you need an extension to enable putting files/icons on the desktop (!?!?!). Was so happy about the decision to remove desktop icons. You basically never get there anyways and its just cluttering up the background when you do. Here's a funny thread about this: https://www.reddit.com/r/gnome/comments/l8euqf/i_get_why_they_removed_it_now/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gnome/comments/l8euqf/i_get_why_the... Btw, there were some misconceptions about "disallowing theming". I recommend giving this a read: https://blogs.gnome.org/alatiera/2021/09/18/the-truth-they-are-not-telling-you-about-themes/ https://blogs.gnome.org/alatiera/2021/09/18/the-truth-they-a... I totally understand your point about extensions though.

by cle 5y ago

smoldesu 5y ago

Well, for the record, the current Cosmic desktop is pretty limited. It's clear that Pop!OS has some really good ideas in the desktop space, but they're frankly held back by their reliance on GNOME as a starting point. Particularly these days, with how disastrous the release of GNOME 40 was, I can understand wanting to step away from that dev team. Maybe choosing Rust was hype-driven decision, but writing a new desktop was certainly not uncalled for.

Ar-Curunir 5y ago
> Maybe choosing Rust was hype-driven decision, They've been using Rust internally for various tools already, so I think this decision has been motivated by their positive experience with Rust

rhinoceraptor 5y ago

GNOME keeps making absurdly bad decisions about pretty much everything, and wantonly removing features that even average desktop users expect. For example, you need an extension to enable putting files/icons on the desktop (!?!?!). And the APIs for GNOME extensions are constantly changing, so the extensions are constantly breaking. Not to mention, the extensions are written in JavaScript and if they crash, the entire shell crashes. It's absolutely insane. It seems like they want to lock down the UI to customization even more than MacOS and Windows do. I see GNOME as basically a dead end at this point.

LinAGKar 5y ago
>if they crash, the entire shell crashes And the entire session if you're on Wayland
preisschild 5y ago
> For example, you need an extension to enable putting files/icons on the desktop (!?!?!). Was so happy about the decision to remove desktop icons. You basically never get there anyways and its just cluttering up the background when you do. Here's a funny thread about this: https://www.reddit.com/r/gnome/comments/l8euqf/i_get_why_they_removed_it_now/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gnome/comments/l8euqf/i_get_why_the... Btw, there were some misconceptions about "disallowing theming". I recommend giving this a read: https://blogs.gnome.org/alatiera/2021/09/18/the-truth-they-are-not-telling-you-about-themes/ https://blogs.gnome.org/alatiera/2021/09/18/the-truth-they-a... I totally understand your point about extensions though.