

GNOME to release official "classic mode" extensions - hendi_
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=685744#c6

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PieSquared
As much as people enjoy ragging on GNOME 3, I think the developers have been
doing a great job, and that this is a smart move that will allow them to move
forward while satisfying those that prefer the current fallback mode.

I am a huge fan of their extension mechanism, and use a bunch of them. It
seems like the mechanism is extremely flexible, as people use it for things
from creating quasi-tiling window managers (see shellshape or gtile) to
customizing the search dialog (like Unity's lenses) to just adding various
buttons in different parts of the UI. All in all, I am a huge fan of GNOME 3,
but I really do wish the extension mechanism were a bit more well-
documented...

~~~
rogerbinns
The current problem with extensions is they break with each Gnome release.
This forces a lot of user work with each upgrade wasting a lot of time (eg
having to wait for author to update, picking a different extension for the
same functionality, doing without).

It would also be beneficial if there were an official set of well maintained
extensions - ones that if you use them you know you will be fine through
upgrades etc. This also solves the problem of there being so many extensions
(you get 3 pages of search results for system monitor - how is any user
reasonably expected to deal with that?)

The area where Gnome shell is seriously lacking is for people who have
multiple monitors, and/or have many windows of the same app open. So far a
panel/taskbar has turned out to be the least worst UI way of handling this.
That is why I use fallback mode.

~~~
PieSquared
Just to be clear, I certainly wasn't criticising those who use fallback mode,
or trying to imply "they" (you) were all just whining for no reason.

I think they still have a lot of work to do. When I upgraded from 3.4 to 3.6,
I was pretty annoyed because out of the eight or so extensions that I used,
_all but one_ stopped working. Luckily, the extensions that I used were all
upgraded within several weeks, but it's still a major issue.

I think it's pretty clear from the extensions site that this is still a work
in progress. That's part of the reason I really like this announcement, though
- exactly as you've said, it looks like they're going down the path of
"official set of well-maintained extensions", which I think is the right
choice.

I guess that GNOME 3 isn't entirely ready for everyone yet, but the future
that I see for it is pretty awesome. For me, personally, it already far
surpasses GNOME 2, and I think it still has a lot of potential that it hasn't
utilized.

(I can't really comment on multiple monitor setups, though. I just have a
laptop.)

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randallu
Nice. It's neat that the top layer is written in JS and is malleable --
Cinnamon ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon_%28user_interface%29> ) is
an interesting project too (uses the GNOME3 platform, but implements a new UI
which looks more like GNOME2 in JS).

~~~
naner
I've been using Cinnamon after getting frustrated with Gnome Shell, it works
quite well.

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mindstab
Could be the best news in the Linux desktop wars I've heard this year

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hvs
After many attempts to use the Unity desktop, I decided that I just didn't
like it (some do, and I'm fine with that as well). What it has done is to make
me aware of the fine work that the Xubuntu team has done.

<http://xubuntu.org/>

~~~
nileshtrivedi
Did you mean to say GNOME desktop, instead of Unity?

~~~
hvs
No, I meant Unity. I did try the GNOME 3 desktop on Fedora as well, and liked
it less than Unity. I was a GNOME desktop user until I switched to Xubuntu.

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dicroce
I hate gnome 3. I had to spend a day installing extensions and tweak tools
just to make it usable.

Note To UI People: Tablet interfaces DO NOT MAKE SENSE FOR PEOPLE WITHOUT
TABLETS.

~~~
mseepgood
What's your definition of a tablet interface?

~~~
mindstab
touch centric design for people using a keyboard and mouse?

~~~
sn
So, with the right extensions I believe gnome 3 is actually /more/ usable with
the keyboard. Specifically

<https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/10/windownavigator/>

and

[https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/302/windowoverlay-
ico...](https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/302/windowoverlay-icons/)

combined with just having to type in the program name on the overview pane to
open it. That functionality works much better than it did in gnome 2.

The most annoying thing I've found is the multiple monitor support; apparently
one of the developers wants the second screen to always have the same windows
when switching workspaces and I want the workspaces to switch on all monitors.

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silon3
I just replace the window manager. If that can't be done, GNOME is not for me
anymore.

~~~
mpyne
As far as I know, the GNOME 3 "experience" relies heavily on the Mutter window
manager and so it can't be easily replaced. Maybe someone else can chime in to
confirm one way or the other though.

~~~
mseepgood
In fact, gnome-shell _is_ the window manager binary by linking to libmutter.
Running gnome-shell with another window manager is as feasible as running twm
with fvwm (i.e. not feasible).

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mariuolo
It's called Cinnamon.

