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As a data point for a bystander: I much prefer Unity over Gnome 3. Here's the quick list of things that prevent me from taking Gnome 3 seriously: Alt+Tab is co

As a data point for a bystander: I much prefer Unity over Gnome 3. Here's the quick list of things that prevent me from taking Gnome 3 seriously: Alt+Tab is completely broken: it gathers windows from all virtual desktops, ruining the very purpose of virtual desktops. There are plug-ins that help, but they keep breaking after version updates and they don't function as sleek as Unity's built-in default window switcher. Gnome's "workspaces" are not as powerful as traditional virtual desktops. The biggest problem is that they're dynamic: for example Gnome won't let you have an empty workspace - it will kill it and re-arrange apps from adjacent workspaces to fill the space. Last, but not least, Gnome's way of launching apps gives me nausea: it insists on animating every pixel on my 30" desktop every time I want to launch an application. Finally, Unity is much more responsive and less buggy, at least on my (modest) hardware: 2 year old i5 with Intel graphics.

danford 13y ago
>Alt+Tab is completely broken This is kind of an opinion. There is no rule book that says it needs to behave a certain way. I prefer this. >ruining the very purpose of virtual desktops I use virtual desktops to separate windows in overview mode so when they're presented for picking they aren't really small. And also for organization. >Gnome's "workspaces" are not as powerful as traditional virtual desktops. The biggest problem is that they're dynamic: for example Gnome won't let you have an empty workspace - it will kill it and re-arrange apps from adjacent workspaces to fill the space. Why would you need an empty workspace (except at the end, which gnome provides)? Seems to make since to me. It doesn't really "re-arrange apps" it just moves the work spaces to fill in the empty gap. >Last, but not least, Gnome's way of launching apps gives me nausea: it insists on animating every pixel on my 30" desktop every time I want to launch an application. Eh.. Animations aren't for everyone. They have not bothered me though, and I think for most users it provides a better experience than just having things "happen". >Finally, Unity is much more responsive and less buggy I'm running gnome 3.11 on an i5 with intel graphics also, and it seems pretty snappy, after all, it's just javascript. I have not experienced any bugs outside of experimental software I installed. To be honest, I have never experienced a snappier desktop than gnome 3.
- asdfaoeu 13y ago
  > This is kind of an opinion. There is no rule book that says it needs to behave a certain way. I prefer this. In case you wanted more proof of this I think both of these are wrong and it should be by window not application. Thankfully MATE does this and is coincidentally available now in Ubuntu 14.04.
  - sampo 13y ago
    > MATE does this That's also the default on Xfce.
  - yebyen 13y ago
    Alt+` does this, right next to Alt+Tab, within a single application. So if you wanted to pick a particular window, and you have five apps with three windows each open, instead of pressing Alt+Tab ceil~14 times, you press Alt+Tab until you have the app you want (possibly zero times) then Alt+`, potentially saving 12 or more keypresses.
    - andrewaylett 13y ago
      Or, sometimes even better, press Alt-Tab once, then hold Alt and use your mouse to select which app then which window you want.
- gknoy 13y ago
  Why would you need an empty workspace (except at the end, which gnome provides)? Seems to make since to me. It doesn't really "re-arrange apps" it just moves the work spaces to fill in the empty gap. To each their own, I guess, but I think it's related to how we mentally map our workspace. For example, I know that my code editor and shell are on workspace 2, and my time tracker and music player are on workspace 4, so it's two keystrokes to get between them. If workspace 3 were munched due to being empty (I normally use it for Github and code review), it would be __very__ jarring to be in the wrong workspace when I switched workspaces twice to the left from my last workspace. In practice, that's not likely to happen to me often, since I leave all of my workspaces open and populated nearly all the time, but it's still an option that I would turn off if I could.
rufugee 13y ago
Every point you make except, to my knowledge, the last, is easily fixable via the gnome tweak tool or extensions. I found the same things to be frustrating when I switched to gnome, but I've been able to tweak it to the point that I now find it to be a productive work environment. That said, I've used gnome, unity, cinammon, xfce, mate and KDE, and have found each to be good in its own way and frustrating in others. I love the fact that I can choose between many great options.
- glesica 13y ago
  "...tweak tool or extensions." To me, this is the problem. I don't want to rely on extensions that will potentially break when Gnome updates or be abandoned when their developers move on to other things. I also don't want to be forced to spend hours fiddling with settings in order to get something that isn't completely broken. I just want my stuff to work. I also find the graphical nonsense in Gnome 3 and KDE 4 nauseating. They make for some sexy Youtube videos (like Compiz when it first came out) but for day-to-day use I find them awful (and shockingly buggy, but that's another debate).
  - rufugee 13y ago
    It took me all of 10 minutes to get it working the way I like. And the extensions are simple javascript....easy to hack if you need to. I get what you're saying, but I think you're overstating things a bit...probably because you just haven't tried it.
  - sandGorgon 13y ago
    actually the extensions system in gnome is kind of magical. You go to extensions.gnome.org using Firefox and click a button and suddenly your alt-tab behavior has changed. It is awesome - I think the phrase "extensions" has come to connote "complications" ... but is not the case in Gnome. I'm actually impressed at how they built a javascript API to be able to mess with core UX !
sandGorgon 13y ago
1. Alt+Tab is completely broken - in fact you have a choice on how you want the alt-tab to work: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/15/alternatetab/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/15/alternatetab/ or https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/38/windows-alt-tab/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/38/windows-alt-tab/ or https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/97/coverflow-alt-tab/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/97/coverflow-alt-tab/ or https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/310/alt-tab-workspace/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/310/alt-tab-workspace... 2. static workspace - this is actually fixed in 3.10 (part of 14.04) now. Enabled by the Gnome Tweak tool 3. slow animation - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/277/impatience/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/277/impatience/ Gnome 3.10 is really good and incredibly good slick alternative to Mac - without being a clone. 3.12 is likely to be better.
- dvirsky 13y ago
  I've been using 3.12 with 14.04 beta2(using the gnome staging ppa). I can't say it's very different from 3.10, but it feels a bit faster, and they fixed a few UX problems in the settings menus etc. Most extensions I wanted work with it. There are a few bugs that are probably due to working with an unstable distro with an unstable gnome ppa, but overall it's nice.

danford 13y ago

>Alt+Tab is completely broken This is kind of an opinion. There is no rule book that says it needs to behave a certain way. I prefer this. >ruining the very purpose of virtual desktops I use virtual desktops to separate windows in overview mode so when they're presented for picking they aren't really small. And also for organization. >Gnome's "workspaces" are not as powerful as traditional virtual desktops. The biggest problem is that they're dynamic: for example Gnome won't let you have an empty workspace - it will kill it and re-arrange apps from adjacent workspaces to fill the space. Why would you need an empty workspace (except at the end, which gnome provides)? Seems to make since to me. It doesn't really "re-arrange apps" it just moves the work spaces to fill in the empty gap. >Last, but not least, Gnome's way of launching apps gives me nausea: it insists on animating every pixel on my 30" desktop every time I want to launch an application. Eh.. Animations aren't for everyone. They have not bothered me though, and I think for most users it provides a better experience than just having things "happen". >Finally, Unity is much more responsive and less buggy I'm running gnome 3.11 on an i5 with intel graphics also, and it seems pretty snappy, after all, it's just javascript. I have not experienced any bugs outside of experimental software I installed. To be honest, I have never experienced a snappier desktop than gnome 3.

asdfaoeu 13y ago
> This is kind of an opinion. There is no rule book that says it needs to behave a certain way. I prefer this. In case you wanted more proof of this I think both of these are wrong and it should be by window not application. Thankfully MATE does this and is coincidentally available now in Ubuntu 14.04.
- sampo 13y ago
  > MATE does this That's also the default on Xfce.
- yebyen 13y ago
  Alt+` does this, right next to Alt+Tab, within a single application. So if you wanted to pick a particular window, and you have five apps with three windows each open, instead of pressing Alt+Tab ceil~14 times, you press Alt+Tab until you have the app you want (possibly zero times) then Alt+`, potentially saving 12 or more keypresses.
  - andrewaylett 13y ago
    Or, sometimes even better, press Alt-Tab once, then hold Alt and use your mouse to select which app then which window you want.
gknoy 13y ago
Why would you need an empty workspace (except at the end, which gnome provides)? Seems to make since to me. It doesn't really "re-arrange apps" it just moves the work spaces to fill in the empty gap. To each their own, I guess, but I think it's related to how we mentally map our workspace. For example, I know that my code editor and shell are on workspace 2, and my time tracker and music player are on workspace 4, so it's two keystrokes to get between them. If workspace 3 were munched due to being empty (I normally use it for Github and code review), it would be __very__ jarring to be in the wrong workspace when I switched workspaces twice to the left from my last workspace. In practice, that's not likely to happen to me often, since I leave all of my workspaces open and populated nearly all the time, but it's still an option that I would turn off if I could.

rufugee 13y ago

Every point you make except, to my knowledge, the last, is easily fixable via the gnome tweak tool or extensions. I found the same things to be frustrating when I switched to gnome, but I've been able to tweak it to the point that I now find it to be a productive work environment. That said, I've used gnome, unity, cinammon, xfce, mate and KDE, and have found each to be good in its own way and frustrating in others. I love the fact that I can choose between many great options.

glesica 13y ago
"...tweak tool or extensions." To me, this is the problem. I don't want to rely on extensions that will potentially break when Gnome updates or be abandoned when their developers move on to other things. I also don't want to be forced to spend hours fiddling with settings in order to get something that isn't completely broken. I just want my stuff to work. I also find the graphical nonsense in Gnome 3 and KDE 4 nauseating. They make for some sexy Youtube videos (like Compiz when it first came out) but for day-to-day use I find them awful (and shockingly buggy, but that's another debate).
- rufugee 13y ago
  It took me all of 10 minutes to get it working the way I like. And the extensions are simple javascript....easy to hack if you need to. I get what you're saying, but I think you're overstating things a bit...probably because you just haven't tried it.
- sandGorgon 13y ago
  actually the extensions system in gnome is kind of magical. You go to extensions.gnome.org using Firefox and click a button and suddenly your alt-tab behavior has changed. It is awesome - I think the phrase "extensions" has come to connote "complications" ... but is not the case in Gnome. I'm actually impressed at how they built a javascript API to be able to mess with core UX !

sandGorgon 13y ago

1. Alt+Tab is completely broken - in fact you have a choice on how you want the alt-tab to work: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/15/alternatetab/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/15/alternatetab/ or https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/38/windows-alt-tab/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/38/windows-alt-tab/ or https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/97/coverflow-alt-tab/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/97/coverflow-alt-tab/ or https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/310/alt-tab-workspace/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/310/alt-tab-workspace... 2. static workspace - this is actually fixed in 3.10 (part of 14.04) now. Enabled by the Gnome Tweak tool 3. slow animation - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/277/impatience/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/277/impatience/ Gnome 3.10 is really good and incredibly good slick alternative to Mac - without being a clone. 3.12 is likely to be better.

dvirsky 13y ago
I've been using 3.12 with 14.04 beta2(using the gnome staging ppa). I can't say it's very different from 3.10, but it feels a bit faster, and they fixed a few UX problems in the settings menus etc. Most extensions I wanted work with it. There are a few bugs that are probably due to working with an unstable distro with an unstable gnome ppa, but overall it's nice.