I should preface that I love Gnome and am excited by the future. My criticisms come from a place where I want to see it be the best experience possible on desktop, and the obvious choice when it comes to choice of DE.
> there's an extension for that
Yeah this is fair, sadly it's not a satisfying solution. Extensions are often not supported on the latest version of Gnome for some time and even then, there's an issue of discoverability for both experienced and new users.
I understand the desire for customizability, but I'd prefer my desktop environment come out of the box tailored to facilitate a desktop experience.
I am happy there is an alternative however this has the side effect of removing the "Hit the super key then type a search query" workflow. Ironically, an actual application menu is nearly entirely useless for me outside of niche cases. I have been using start menu search and spotlight for years at this point - gnome's activities overlay is just that with extra animations.
> I rarely have to do this (for me it's almost always IDE, Terminal, Browser), but "alt-tab then escape"
This is exactly how I use my desktop too.
In MacOS I used virtual desktops so heavily to organise this and it was an _incredible_ workflow.
Monitor 1, desktop 1 is terminal, desktop 2 is IDE. Monitor 2 desktop 1 is debugging browser, monitor 2 is slack, music and misc. Flicking between the desktops, everything is positioned exactly where I want it to be and there is no guessing what is going to be shown.
I only started using Alt+Tab after coming back to Windows and now again on Gnome. Alt tab is a bit too guess-y for my taste. If you have multiple windows of the same type (e.g. browser and seperate browser debugger) open, what does Alt-Tab open?
In Gnome, rather than using virtual desktops, I hit the super key and pick the application out of the application mosaic because it's deterministic and faster than Alt-Tab
> I am not sure what this means
Swipe down from the top left and you have applications, swipe down from the top right and you have quick settings. Clock is in the center. The elements are responsive. It looks and functions like the top bar for a mobile device.
The top bar doesn't have application shortcuts, it doesn't show you active background applications.
If you look at the effort that all desktop experiences have made to make their top bar/desktop bar useful, you will see distinct differences when compared to mobile operating systems that have to be cognizant of their use of space.
MacOS has a global menu, taskbar tray, taskbar add-ons (for cpu usage, international clocks, etc) and applications are opened via spotlight (Albert) search.
Windows has shortcuts, a start menu with search, and a taskbar tray, along with lots of options to administer the computer when you right click the start bar.
Gnome offers a horizontally space efficient mobile-optimised top bar and a full screen, mobile style application picker. Application search and the open apps mosaic are the saving factors of it
> there's an extension for that
Yeah this is fair, sadly it's not a satisfying solution. Extensions are often not supported on the latest version of Gnome for some time and even then, there's an issue of discoverability for both experienced and new users.
I understand the desire for customizability, but I'd prefer my desktop environment come out of the box tailored to facilitate a desktop experience.
> https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6/applications-menu/
I am happy there is an alternative however this has the side effect of removing the "Hit the super key then type a search query" workflow. Ironically, an actual application menu is nearly entirely useless for me outside of niche cases. I have been using start menu search and spotlight for years at this point - gnome's activities overlay is just that with extra animations.
> I rarely have to do this (for me it's almost always IDE, Terminal, Browser), but "alt-tab then escape"
This is exactly how I use my desktop too.
In MacOS I used virtual desktops so heavily to organise this and it was an _incredible_ workflow.
Monitor 1, desktop 1 is terminal, desktop 2 is IDE. Monitor 2 desktop 1 is debugging browser, monitor 2 is slack, music and misc. Flicking between the desktops, everything is positioned exactly where I want it to be and there is no guessing what is going to be shown.
I only started using Alt+Tab after coming back to Windows and now again on Gnome. Alt tab is a bit too guess-y for my taste. If you have multiple windows of the same type (e.g. browser and seperate browser debugger) open, what does Alt-Tab open?
In Gnome, rather than using virtual desktops, I hit the super key and pick the application out of the application mosaic because it's deterministic and faster than Alt-Tab
> I am not sure what this means
Swipe down from the top left and you have applications, swipe down from the top right and you have quick settings. Clock is in the center. The elements are responsive. It looks and functions like the top bar for a mobile device.
The top bar doesn't have application shortcuts, it doesn't show you active background applications.
If you look at the effort that all desktop experiences have made to make their top bar/desktop bar useful, you will see distinct differences when compared to mobile operating systems that have to be cognizant of their use of space.
MacOS has a global menu, taskbar tray, taskbar add-ons (for cpu usage, international clocks, etc) and applications are opened via spotlight (Albert) search.
Windows has shortcuts, a start menu with search, and a taskbar tray, along with lots of options to administer the computer when you right click the start bar.
Gnome offers a horizontally space efficient mobile-optimised top bar and a full screen, mobile style application picker. Application search and the open apps mosaic are the saving factors of it