Gnome constantly seems to tell me that the way I want the DE to work is "wrong" and eventually renegs on my complaints (e.g. vertical workspaces, forcing a user to slide up the lock screen, etc.). So I was pretty happy to see the change for workspaces to be horizontal instead of vertical.
That said - why couldn't they just go the full way and support a grid? Ironically it's the one way in which Mac offers a better option for desktop management.
Elementary is a great candidate for being "the best desktop Linux distro" - and I'm really rooting for them (and honestly for every Linux team!). I had some funky hardware issues on my last install that kept me from diving in - I'll give the upcoming release a shot though and see how far I get!
The only thing really keeping me from spending these past two weeks on holiday from shopping distributions has been my internet connection. We're on a DSL line that makes provisioning a fresh install (or even getting an ISO) too painful and slow.
Once we get our internet build-out completed I'll be looking for a weekend to try all of the latest!
@funnylookinhat that's always an interesting thing to do. I've been using Boxes for that for the last couple of years.
@funnylookinhat the beauty of Gnome is in its extensions. The vanilla UX is often questionable. My desktop UX is almost unchanged since 1998 or something around it:) And I can have it in the way I like in Gnome 3 as well.
For your case, there is this one https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1485/workspace-matrix/
@funnylookinhat So, Gnome tells you: "Start with this and build forward from it".
@funnylookinhat btw, this basically sums up everything about my preferred desktop UX:)
@lig Oh yeah I think you are right in that Gnome is a good clean slate - and ironically I use that same extension! But why can't the Gnome devs take some of these more popular ideas and own the extensions themselves so that they would have first-class support and not be at risk of breaking every release?
I think we're about 3 or 4 extensions away from covering 90 percent of the changes most users want or need.
@funnylookinhat they actually did exactly that for several of extensions' UX. I agree that there is still more to be done. Gnome devs have their own opinion on many things. Often that opinion is controversial. I prefer not to judge.
@lig Yeah I agree with you! I'm just trying to encourage them to keep looking for extensions to take over or provide! :)
@funnylookinhat you probably already looked at KDE Plasma? 😏
@RyuKurisu KDE Plasma has just never... felt right to me. Last time I gave it a try there were too many things that just didn't work right. Admitting my ignorance to the KDE dev process - my understanding was that it had lost steam a long time ago and was struggling to stay relevant. Most non-gnome effort seems focused on tiling WMs, XFCE, or other hobby DEs.
@funnylookinhat sounds like it was a few years since your last KDE effort? Because development never stopped, and last year they've had an amazing year with a lot of polish!
And if you still like the traditional desktop paradigm you could take a look at Lubuntu with LXQt. They can use some polish in the looks department (even if they are the best looking from the few LXQt distributions I've tried), but otherwise are great.
@funnylookinhat forcing the usar to slide up? That ain't a thing
@sotneStatue Whoops! Maybe it was just how my hardware worked? For a long, long time I had to click and drag the lock screen up before logging in after a suspend. Go figure!
@funnylookinhat is it working for you now? I always just start typing my password or press enter and it prompts for the password
@sotneStatue This was a thing they fixed a year or two ago.
@funnylookinhat I'm so used to the Gnome Way™ that everything else feels wrong now. (I feel like an apple user complaining about Android now)
the thing i want is minimalism. no big panels,no docks,no global menus,no application launchers that are buggy asf and take over your entire screen.this is why i use window managers
I end up flirting with another DE every few years because of the friction I feel when using Gnome - but every time I come back for basic/modern usability issues. The reality is that, if you have a dynamic workspace (e.g. a laptop that you switch monitors with or change peripherals), then the path of least resistance is Gnome.
I just wish they would view that as a position of responsibility rather than power - you're on the goal line for winning users over in so many ways - heed the feedback!