4 ms·

Miming mobile OS lock screens is one of the weirdest damn things about modern desktop trends. It's so obviously a bad idea. I can't even figure out what useful

Miming mobile OS lock screens is one of the weirdest damn things about modern desktop trends. It's so obviously a bad idea. I can't even figure out what useful functionality anyone thought that would provide. It's a fucking desktop, there's plenty of room to stick notifications or the weather or whatever on the same screen as the login prompt, if that's what you want.

dylan-m 5y ago
One unfortunate reality is, for a lot of new users - especially people who haven't used desktop computers before - their first computer was a mobile device. If we don't want Apple and Google to take over the entire space, we need to meet them halfway. The lock screen is weird, though, I agree. The newer (blurry background) one is better than the old one with the tedious swipe animation, but really could use a persistent "do this to unlock" prompt / button, because many people just aren't comfortable poking their computer unless they know what it is going to do. A lot of modern UI design unfortunately forgets that. For what it's worth, the original design for GNOME's current lock screen involved bridging the gap between it and the login / switch user screen, which _would_ involve some more UI elements, but the actual implementation must have stalled somewhere.
- ldng 5y ago
  Oh ok, so people don't make the difference between a mobile phone and a computer. That is also why they don't know how to use a TV because it's not like a smartphone, right ? That was a very bad idea from the very start. But it's the motto Gnome 3 was built on... I agree with the initial comment, Human-Computer Interraction SCIENCE went down the toilet drain to be replaced with so called UI/UX "experts"
apatheticonion 5y ago
Honestly it's what annoys me most about Gnome. I daily drive Gnome 4x but for the love of god stop making design decisions for mobile users. - Why is there a full screen app drawer? - Why does the top bar do nothing and function like my Android top bar? - Why are there no icons in my tray for my background apps (steam, slack, etc)? - Where can I go to see my current running applications? I would love to use a Linux distro on my phone, but not at the expense of my Desktop experience.
- Timpy 5y ago
  These things made me move away from Gnome. In gnome3 occasionally the login screen would require me to click the screen and drag upwards to get the login prompt. Customizing any if these things was always a hacky workaround. I'm very happy with Mint Cinnamon right now.
- throwaway82652 5y ago
  >Why are there no icons in my tray for my background apps (steam, slack, etc)? I understand the other ones but I don't understand this one. The Android tray does exactly this, background icons on the bar are a mobile feature. If you consider the Windows taskbar to be the ideal desktop experience, it doesn't do that, it hides the icons in a menu.
  - apatheticonion 5y ago
    Not sure what you mean here - both MacOS and Windows have icons in the system tray for background applications and it's been that way since before Android was a thing. Windows does hide excessive icons, which MacOS doesn't do - it's a great way to hide running the pre-installed Skype and Teams at the same time :laugh:
    - throwaway82652 5y ago
      Normally I'm a Mac/Linux user, but last time I tried Windows it hid all the icons by default. They used to show them in older versions but they do not anymore, probably because everyone including the OS vendor itself uses it as a dumping ground for product tie-ins and clutter like that.
- abenga 5y ago
  I've said this on Reddit before, but the current Gnome is excellent for someone who loves it and only needs a few changes to make it work for you. Personally, I like how everything works (you could also say that this is some form of Stockholm Syndrome, ha ha). I like not having anything distracting from The answer for most of these is "there's an extension for that" > - Why is there a full screen app drawer? https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6/applications-menu/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6/applications-menu/ (fully supported by the Gnome team; hopefully shouldn't break from release to release) > - Why are there no icons in my tray for my background apps (steam, slack, etc)? There are a variety of extensions that do this, I use Topicons Plus (https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/495/topicons/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/495/topicons/), which also seems to be a part of the core suite. > - Where can I go to see my current running applications? I rarely have to do this (for me it's almost always IDE, Terminal, Browser), but "alt-tab then escape" is an option. For the window list at the bottom, there is the Window List Extension (https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/602/window-list/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/602/window-list/), part of the core Gnome desktop as well. In short, most of your complaints would be solved by logging into Classic Mode, which tries to emulate the Gnome 2 experience using some built in extensions. > - Why does the top bar do nothing and function like my Android top bar? I am not sure what this means, but I like the Shell's current behavior where we have as few active elements as possible detracting from your active window.

dylan-m 5y ago

One unfortunate reality is, for a lot of new users - especially people who haven't used desktop computers before - their first computer was a mobile device. If we don't want Apple and Google to take over the entire space, we need to meet them halfway. The lock screen is weird, though, I agree. The newer (blurry background) one is better than the old one with the tedious swipe animation, but really could use a persistent "do this to unlock" prompt / button, because many people just aren't comfortable poking their computer unless they know what it is going to do. A lot of modern UI design unfortunately forgets that. For what it's worth, the original design for GNOME's current lock screen involved bridging the gap between it and the login / switch user screen, which _would_ involve some more UI elements, but the actual implementation must have stalled somewhere.

ldng 5y ago
Oh ok, so people don't make the difference between a mobile phone and a computer. That is also why they don't know how to use a TV because it's not like a smartphone, right ? That was a very bad idea from the very start. But it's the motto Gnome 3 was built on... I agree with the initial comment, Human-Computer Interraction SCIENCE went down the toilet drain to be replaced with so called UI/UX "experts"

apatheticonion 5y ago

Honestly it's what annoys me most about Gnome. I daily drive Gnome 4x but for the love of god stop making design decisions for mobile users. - Why is there a full screen app drawer? - Why does the top bar do nothing and function like my Android top bar? - Why are there no icons in my tray for my background apps (steam, slack, etc)? - Where can I go to see my current running applications? I would love to use a Linux distro on my phone, but not at the expense of my Desktop experience.

Timpy 5y ago
These things made me move away from Gnome. In gnome3 occasionally the login screen would require me to click the screen and drag upwards to get the login prompt. Customizing any if these things was always a hacky workaround. I'm very happy with Mint Cinnamon right now.
throwaway82652 5y ago
>Why are there no icons in my tray for my background apps (steam, slack, etc)? I understand the other ones but I don't understand this one. The Android tray does exactly this, background icons on the bar are a mobile feature. If you consider the Windows taskbar to be the ideal desktop experience, it doesn't do that, it hides the icons in a menu.
- apatheticonion 5y ago
  Not sure what you mean here - both MacOS and Windows have icons in the system tray for background applications and it's been that way since before Android was a thing. Windows does hide excessive icons, which MacOS doesn't do - it's a great way to hide running the pre-installed Skype and Teams at the same time :laugh:
  - throwaway82652 5y ago
    Normally I'm a Mac/Linux user, but last time I tried Windows it hid all the icons by default. They used to show them in older versions but they do not anymore, probably because everyone including the OS vendor itself uses it as a dumping ground for product tie-ins and clutter like that.
abenga 5y ago
I've said this on Reddit before, but the current Gnome is excellent for someone who loves it and only needs a few changes to make it work for you. Personally, I like how everything works (you could also say that this is some form of Stockholm Syndrome, ha ha). I like not having anything distracting from The answer for most of these is "there's an extension for that" > - Why is there a full screen app drawer? https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6/applications-menu/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6/applications-menu/ (fully supported by the Gnome team; hopefully shouldn't break from release to release) > - Why are there no icons in my tray for my background apps (steam, slack, etc)? There are a variety of extensions that do this, I use Topicons Plus (https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/495/topicons/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/495/topicons/), which also seems to be a part of the core suite. > - Where can I go to see my current running applications? I rarely have to do this (for me it's almost always IDE, Terminal, Browser), but "alt-tab then escape" is an option. For the window list at the bottom, there is the Window List Extension (https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/602/window-list/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/602/window-list/), part of the core Gnome desktop as well. In short, most of your complaints would be solved by logging into Classic Mode, which tries to emulate the Gnome 2 experience using some built in extensions. > - Why does the top bar do nothing and function like my Android top bar? I am not sure what this means, but I like the Shell's current behavior where we have as few active elements as possible detracting from your active window.