The ultimate desktop would be something like: KDE’s usability in terms of a bottom bar, notification area and menu (or ArcMenu and Dash to Panel under GNOME) + the design consistency of GNOME + optional desktop icons + window switching like Apple’s old Exposé or the current Windows Task View (Win+Tab).
Windows got one thing (almost) right, fast and snappy multitasking and that’s about it. GNOME adds long animations and takes the focus from the applications to itself - it become the “center of user’s attention”. This isn’t good, a DE should be almost invisible, as minimalistic as it can be so the user can quickly switch between windows and get their job done specially on smaller screens. I guess most people run/enjoy GNOME never touched Apple’s old Exposé (macos Tiger and before?) or the current Windows Task View (Win+Tab) thus aren’t aware how far and how productive they can be on a very small screen with a simple way to move around.
Gnome was nothing but terrible for me. Lacking of very basic features and many apps, including the freaking file explorer, would constantly crash. I cannot fathom how people use this garbage. Really made me appreciate KDE even more.
For the file explorer it mostly boiled down to the fact that every time I searched something, which is mandatory since it does not have a “jump to” feature, it would very likely crash.
You were using a niche distro maintained by a single person and encountered problems? Shocking.
To be fair, I used Nobara myself for a bit until I got tired of suffering from the problems GE was creating himself. But regardless, experience on something like Nobara is not a fair way to evaluate Gnome. Try it on actual Fedora or something else mainstream that isn’t constantly fuckering around with all kinds of shit and breaking stuff.
I’m not sure what he could’ve done that affected the file explorer to such a degree? And obviously that was just one extreme example of many other problems I had. I don’t think he removed basic functionalities that I require, I am pretty sure that’s just Gnome being so hell bent on being puristic that they just don’t ship with it, which breaks my workflow entirely without offering any sort of replacement steps.
And if his stuff breaks so much, why does KDE just works? I only have / had two issues since then. First one was that Dolphin just crashed instantly, which was a known Dolphin bug and required me to manually create the thumbnail folder. The second is the inability to drag & drop out of Firefox, like my finished downloads can’t be dragged into a folder anymore - and I know this was a feature from my previous distros (namely EndeavourOS & Manjaro). So, if it was caused by GE, then surely there would be all sorts of things broken with KDE too, right?
That seems very convoluted to me. Let’s say I have a mod folder for a game, somewhat deep folder structure thanks to Wine and such, containing hundreds of mod folders and sub folders. I download updated mod files for one mod, how would you quickly reach the corresponding folder and copy the files into that? I typically have a shortcut to the mod folder in my gaming folder, so that’s somewhat quickly to reach. I’d then go into / through the correct subfolders by typing out the letters contained in the folder names and then just copypasta the corresponding files. Is there a better way than that without losing track of things?
Hmm. This case comes up for me regularly. I usually have a hidden file on level lower than my home directory that is linked to the directory in question. I then launch nautilus, and drag and drop as needed.
If it happens often enough I create a bash script that automatically launches nautilus at that location.
The problem with plugins is what we can see with desktop icon extensions nowadays. GNOME removed their native desktop icons some time ago and all the subsequent extensions that popped up to get that functionality simply aren’t are good - you can’t drag and drop to some other places, there are weird things happening when you move icons and/or the selection box doesn’t make sense.
For a keyboard and mouse yes.
The ultimate desktop would be something like: KDE’s usability in terms of a bottom bar, notification area and menu (or ArcMenu and Dash to Panel under GNOME) + the design consistency of GNOME + optional desktop icons + window switching like Apple’s old Exposé or the current Windows Task View (Win+Tab).
Windows got one thing (almost) right, fast and snappy multitasking and that’s about it. GNOME adds long animations and takes the focus from the applications to itself - it become the “center of user’s attention”. This isn’t good, a DE should be almost invisible, as minimalistic as it can be so the user can quickly switch between windows and get their job done specially on smaller screens. I guess most people run/enjoy GNOME never touched Apple’s old Exposé (macos Tiger and before?) or the current Windows Task View (Win+Tab) thus aren’t aware how far and how productive they can be on a very small screen with a simple way to move around.
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KDE looks and feels like ass.
Well, let’s be polite and say it’s not for everyone. TCB13 isn’t the only person to really love this DE 😛
I don’t get the enthousiasm either, there is always to much information for me on the screen and inconsistent UI all over the place 🤷
Yes 😀 But at least they don’t outright refuse to have basic desktop functionality. GNOME has good UI while KDE has good UX.
Gnome was nothing but terrible for me. Lacking of very basic features and many apps, including the freaking file explorer, would constantly crash. I cannot fathom how people use this garbage. Really made me appreciate KDE even more.
Really? I haven’t had any issues. What was wrong with the file explorer.
That being said, my system is base Fedora plus a few extensions.
I’ve had a thread listing most short term issues here: https://kbin.social/m/linux/t/152231/Nobara-Gnome-is-just-a-terrible-experience
For the file explorer it mostly boiled down to the fact that every time I searched something, which is mandatory since it does not have a “jump to” feature, it would very likely crash.
You were using a niche distro maintained by a single person and encountered problems? Shocking.
To be fair, I used Nobara myself for a bit until I got tired of suffering from the problems GE was creating himself. But regardless, experience on something like Nobara is not a fair way to evaluate Gnome. Try it on actual Fedora or something else mainstream that isn’t constantly fuckering around with all kinds of shit and breaking stuff.
I’m not sure what he could’ve done that affected the file explorer to such a degree? And obviously that was just one extreme example of many other problems I had. I don’t think he removed basic functionalities that I require, I am pretty sure that’s just Gnome being so hell bent on being puristic that they just don’t ship with it, which breaks my workflow entirely without offering any sort of replacement steps.
And if his stuff breaks so much, why does KDE just works? I only have / had two issues since then. First one was that Dolphin just crashed instantly, which was a known Dolphin bug and required me to manually create the thumbnail folder. The second is the inability to drag & drop out of Firefox, like my finished downloads can’t be dragged into a folder anymore - and I know this was a feature from my previous distros (namely EndeavourOS & Manjaro). So, if it was caused by GE, then surely there would be all sorts of things broken with KDE too, right?
I’ll test this stuff out of curiosity later tonight!!
It occurs to me now I never searched for anything through the explorer.
Can I ask how you usually quickly jump to a specific sub-folder if you don’t type in the letters of the folder name?
I usually click around the gui like a ham-fisted animal
I search in the terminal.
The tasks are separate for me. I usually launch the explorer at pwd to do my clicks, and close it.
That seems very convoluted to me. Let’s say I have a mod folder for a game, somewhat deep folder structure thanks to Wine and such, containing hundreds of mod folders and sub folders. I download updated mod files for one mod, how would you quickly reach the corresponding folder and copy the files into that? I typically have a shortcut to the mod folder in my gaming folder, so that’s somewhat quickly to reach. I’d then go into / through the correct subfolders by typing out the letters contained in the folder names and then just copypasta the corresponding files. Is there a better way than that without losing track of things?
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Hmm. This case comes up for me regularly. I usually have a hidden file on level lower than my home directory that is linked to the directory in question. I then launch nautilus, and drag and drop as needed.
If it happens often enough I create a bash script that automatically launches nautilus at that location.
Is it better? Prolly not, but it’s how I do it 😅
That delay can be removed with plugins so its instant but I agree - adding delays makes no sense to me either.
And yeah I havent used windows or macs in a long time now.
The problem with plugins is what we can see with desktop icon extensions nowadays. GNOME removed their native desktop icons some time ago and all the subsequent extensions that popped up to get that functionality simply aren’t are good - you can’t drag and drop to some other places, there are weird things happening when you move icons and/or the selection box doesn’t make sense.