3 ms·

Is there any supporting evidence for GNOME 3 being great for most people? My experience with it was so bad that I can't really imagine that being true. And it's

by jsnell 15y ago

Is there any supporting evidence for GNOME 3 being great for most people? My experience with it was so bad that I can't really imagine that being true. And it's much easier to find negative than positive comments about it on the net. Clearly the dislike isn't quite universal, but my impression is that it's the most hated "upgrade" ever. Also, recommending the fallback mode as a solution is disingenous. At least performance doesn't suck as badly as with the real shell, and it's not totally alien to existing users. But it still has a number of totally ridiculous and gratuitous differences to both GNOME 2 and every existing UI I've ever seen. For example how could the way panels are configured make sense to anybody? And if that's not enough, the word is that the fallback mode is going to get killed once performance without hardware acceleration is good enough. (And the bar for that has to be pretty damn low).

kamechan 15y ago
i hated gnome3 at first. i even stayed on gnome2 for quite a while to avoid the upgrade. as it seemed inevitable, i bit the bullet and upgraded. linux is my only OS so i use gnome3 all the time. i have grown quite fond of it. what's best is that it hides so many of the distracting ui elements (either on purpose or simply because so many widgets just don't work) that used to pull me away from my work that i feel i'm actually more productive now. plus i love that my windows key launches the lens (is it called that?). i think gnome3 is much better than unity.
- ajross 15y ago
  That's exactly my experience too. I used unity on a netbook for a while and just couldn't make it work -- too many edge cases (even to the extent of getting my preferred side-by-side terminal and emacs to work cleanly). I stuck with it for a while, but never really came around. I similarly tried gnome-shell when Fedora 15 was released and hated it, but stuck with it for the same reasons. And it paid off. I'm a convert now -- I don't like everything (app-based Alt-Tab will never work for someone with 12 terminals running, I really do want nautilus icons on my desktop, etc...) but the things I don't I know how to tune. I'm honestly more productive now than I was on gnome2. It's a great environment, and still getting better.
  - kamechan 15y ago
    not to mention the fact that i'm now hardwired to go to the left corner or "windows key" to do things, which is something i really like doing (and do intuitively now). i really like that one can just press the windows key and start typing. regarding showing nautilus style icons on the desktop, you'll want to get the gnome-tweak-tool and then go to Desktop and enable the "have file manager handle the desktop" option. You'll have to restart, logout, or restart the desktop manager to see the change, but this should do it for you.
  - thristian 15y ago
    Just checking: when alt-tabbing, you know you can pause on the Terminal icon (or hit the down arrow) and switch between all your terminal windows that way, right? Granted, it's not as convenient as having all your terminals available from one keypress, but it's better than having to switch to the mouse. Also, if you want Nautilus icons on the desktop, that option's available in gnome-tweak-tools (although I just found an extension that puts a menu of Nautilus bookmarks in the menu-bar).
    - ajross 15y ago
      Yes, I'm aware of that feature. And no, it's not good enough. I want to bounce between my shell and my emacs without having to deal with the 11 other shells and 3 other emacs windows present. The idea of app-based navigation is that you'll stay in that "app". I don't, my workspaces are collections of windows. But the traditional navigation is still present (though still a little buggy -- the MRU order sometimes gets confused, and sometimes the graphical popup of each window gets the wrong location), it's just bound to a different key and can be fixed.
ominous_prime 15y ago
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I must have been using gnome the same way as the gnome developers, as the gnome3 interface basically gives me a setup I enjoy without the added configuration. I really like the dynamic virtual desktops, and the expose-style overview. Though I haven't written any myself, the framework for writing plugins looks nice as well. Like the Windows anecdote, we have to account for the inherent confirmation bias. People who find the new environment adequate don't go online to rave about it and counter the negative opinions. The users giving the impression that this is "the most hated 'upgrade' ever", may still be the minority overall.
- seanp2k2 15y ago
  I think what you say about users who like/don't mind G3 not talking about it has some merit, at least as far as I can tell from personal experience. We are a Linux shop and we are about 60/30/10% split between Linux, Windows 7, and OSX. Fedora is what most of us are using now, but we have some Ubuntu. Everyone that uses G3 at work likes/loves it. I personally switched off Ubuntu to Fedora because F16 have newer G3 than Ubuntu with PPAs had. I guess I'm also in the minority in that I think Unity is decent, especially with all these new vertically-challenges 16:9 screens. This problem becomes much worse on netbooks which typically have only 600px vertical, 768 if you're lucky. In a day and age where we have stuff like the Galaxy Nexus and retina displays, why are desktop and laptop screens so far behind in pickle density? Alas, an argument for another time, but I say "long live 16:10". I love unity on my HP netbook (which also has a magnesium chassis and a 1366x768 screen and TWO mouse buttons.) Going back to Gnome2-style WM feels like a big downgrade to me. I hate the ask bar. I also really like the "alt-back tick" to switch between different windows of the same app in G3. That said, it needs an option to auto-hide the top bar and PLEASE LET ME HIDE THE ACCESSIBILITY ICON. I know there is a package in F16 to do the latter, but installing a package to hide an icon is idiotic.

by jsnell 15y ago

kamechan 15y ago

i hated gnome3 at first. i even stayed on gnome2 for quite a while to avoid the upgrade. as it seemed inevitable, i bit the bullet and upgraded. linux is my only OS so i use gnome3 all the time. i have grown quite fond of it. what's best is that it hides so many of the distracting ui elements (either on purpose or simply because so many widgets just don't work) that used to pull me away from my work that i feel i'm actually more productive now. plus i love that my windows key launches the lens (is it called that?). i think gnome3 is much better than unity.

ajross 15y ago
That's exactly my experience too. I used unity on a netbook for a while and just couldn't make it work -- too many edge cases (even to the extent of getting my preferred side-by-side terminal and emacs to work cleanly). I stuck with it for a while, but never really came around. I similarly tried gnome-shell when Fedora 15 was released and hated it, but stuck with it for the same reasons. And it paid off. I'm a convert now -- I don't like everything (app-based Alt-Tab will never work for someone with 12 terminals running, I really do want nautilus icons on my desktop, etc...) but the things I don't I know how to tune. I'm honestly more productive now than I was on gnome2. It's a great environment, and still getting better.
- kamechan 15y ago
  not to mention the fact that i'm now hardwired to go to the left corner or "windows key" to do things, which is something i really like doing (and do intuitively now). i really like that one can just press the windows key and start typing. regarding showing nautilus style icons on the desktop, you'll want to get the gnome-tweak-tool and then go to Desktop and enable the "have file manager handle the desktop" option. You'll have to restart, logout, or restart the desktop manager to see the change, but this should do it for you.
- thristian 15y ago
  Just checking: when alt-tabbing, you know you can pause on the Terminal icon (or hit the down arrow) and switch between all your terminal windows that way, right? Granted, it's not as convenient as having all your terminals available from one keypress, but it's better than having to switch to the mouse. Also, if you want Nautilus icons on the desktop, that option's available in gnome-tweak-tools (although I just found an extension that puts a menu of Nautilus bookmarks in the menu-bar).
  - ajross 15y ago
    Yes, I'm aware of that feature. And no, it's not good enough. I want to bounce between my shell and my emacs without having to deal with the 11 other shells and 3 other emacs windows present. The idea of app-based navigation is that you'll stay in that "app". I don't, my workspaces are collections of windows. But the traditional navigation is still present (though still a little buggy -- the MRU order sometimes gets confused, and sometimes the graphical popup of each window gets the wrong location), it's just bound to a different key and can be fixed.

ominous_prime 15y ago

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I must have been using gnome the same way as the gnome developers, as the gnome3 interface basically gives me a setup I enjoy without the added configuration. I really like the dynamic virtual desktops, and the expose-style overview. Though I haven't written any myself, the framework for writing plugins looks nice as well. Like the Windows anecdote, we have to account for the inherent confirmation bias. People who find the new environment adequate don't go online to rave about it and counter the negative opinions. The users giving the impression that this is "the most hated 'upgrade' ever", may still be the minority overall.

seanp2k2 15y ago
I think what you say about users who like/don't mind G3 not talking about it has some merit, at least as far as I can tell from personal experience. We are a Linux shop and we are about 60/30/10% split between Linux, Windows 7, and OSX. Fedora is what most of us are using now, but we have some Ubuntu. Everyone that uses G3 at work likes/loves it. I personally switched off Ubuntu to Fedora because F16 have newer G3 than Ubuntu with PPAs had. I guess I'm also in the minority in that I think Unity is decent, especially with all these new vertically-challenges 16:9 screens. This problem becomes much worse on netbooks which typically have only 600px vertical, 768 if you're lucky. In a day and age where we have stuff like the Galaxy Nexus and retina displays, why are desktop and laptop screens so far behind in pickle density? Alas, an argument for another time, but I say "long live 16:10". I love unity on my HP netbook (which also has a magnesium chassis and a 1366x768 screen and TWO mouse buttons.) Going back to Gnome2-style WM feels like a big downgrade to me. I hate the ask bar. I also really like the "alt-back tick" to switch between different windows of the same app in G3. That said, it needs an option to auto-hide the top bar and PLEASE LET ME HIDE THE ACCESSIBILITY ICON. I know there is a package in F16 to do the latter, but installing a package to hide an icon is idiotic.