In defense of Gnome 3


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    Join Date
    Jan 2004
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    In defense of Gnome 3

    In my other few posts lately you can follow my review of my netbook and my "return" to Linux.

    There are two thoughts going on in my selection of the perfect Linux setup:

    Which distro to use (debian, fedora, mint, etc) and which DE/WM (GNOME, KDE, XFCE4, etc).

    I have been a "loyal"(?) debian based user for a long time, starting with debian and moving to Ubuntu, as well as the classic gnome 2 desktop.

    To me, you can't beat "apt-get install package" (or so I thought), nor could the simplicity of gnome 2 (with my own configurations) be improved upon.

    However, I did recently get a new job supporting Redhat (instead of Ubuntu) and gnome is slowly being replaced everywhere with gnome-shell (gnome 3) in most distro's.

    What to do what to do...

    I tried Debian/Mint and XFCE which installed fine, and worked as expected but...I don't know...with the power I have in the netbook, do I really need a stripped down desktop for the sake of saving a few meg's of RAM? I have 8gigs for goodness sake.

    Don't get me wrong...it worked fine and on a lesser machine a very usable option, it just wasn't for me.

    I also tried the classic gnome 2 based Mint install which also worked well, but is a debian distro right for me if I have to support RH all day long?

    So I tried Fedora 16 with the new gnome-shell desktop....meh....it was OK. No "start" bar....everything is kind'a abstracted a bit...I just type an application name and it comes up...workspaces are stacked on top of each other instead of side by side...pop up notifications from chat windows and things that need my attention just kind of appear.

    Blah....that wasn't for me either, so I put Windows back on to get some actual work done for a while.

    While Windows 7 works fine, it reminded me why I started down the Linux path in the first place...I had gotten so used to it and really did miss the comfort of Linux.

    So I tried again, stuck with Fedora 16 (again to re-acquaint myself with RH support) and decided to stick it out with the new gnome-shell....which leads me to this post.

    First, yum has some great features: you can run it "twice" and the second instance will automatically wait for the database to free up and then install a package.

    Perhaps a minor detail but during the first few days of install, I am always remembering more packages to install while I'm already installing other packages. A second yum install package in another shell will work, when it is allowed to.

    There was another yum advantage but it escapes me at the moment!!

    Second, the gnome-shell:

    If you read my other posts, you'll see that I have started to realize that the gnome-shell is doing by default what I've typically had to setup myself using compiz.

    Being primarily a netbook user, I am typically only working with an 11inch screen and either the touchpad mouse (which I don't like) or the classic Lenovo stick mouse (which I love). I don't often have an external mouse with me.

    Because of this, most of my interaction with the desktop is keyboard driven, and the more mousing I have to do, the less efficient I am.

    This lead me to use compiz to switch between applications or workspaces by keyboard tricks (alt tab or window-key tab, etc) or by using very basic mouse movements (positioning the mouse in the top right corner exposed all my workspaces, the bottom right corner showed me all my apps, etc).

    Also, the use of gnome-do changed my life: window-key plus space brought it up and I could start typing just about anything I wanted and gnome-do figured out what I was trying to do and did it.

    Guess what: this is basic behavior in gnome-shell!

    I will say it isn't perfect (I want to switch the default top-left corner action to my preferred top right for instance, but I can't), and the "search" tool isn't nearly as perfect as gnome-do.

    However, after sitting with gnome-shell for a few days, I'm starting to understand how the developers are thinking.

    I am running this on a small screen, with not the most efficient mouse setup, so it has to make great use of my desktop space and be a bit more keyboard-centric than if I had a 21 inch monitor and a "real" mouse.

    Some people complain that the "Favorites" bar doesn't hold enough apps, but maybe I'm a simple user, but how many apps do I use?

    Chrome, pidgin, rhythmbox, file browser...terminal...??? Let's say at the very most 10.

    Since my hands are already on the keyboard at "home position", hitting the windows key brings up the search bar (gnome-do like powers) and I type "ch" and it's already realized I want to open Chrome and it launches.

    Or better yet: hit the window key and type www.justlinux.com and BAM! It opens chrome to this page.

    I've just eliminated the need for 1 of my 10 apps from being on the Favorites bar.

    Window key "pidg"...pidgin opens.

    Window key "rh" ... rhythmbox opens.

    Not only do I need fewer and fewer icons on my Favorites bar or desktop, I am significantly more efficient for not needing to move my hands off "home" keys.

    The "pop up" notification area in the bottom center of the screen is actually very convenient now that I've used it.

    As I sit here and type this (which has become quite long!), a chat dialog box has appeared from pidgin that shows me what someone just sent.

    By simply looking down I can decide to keep typing here, or enter a quick response in that dialog box, never changing apps, never moving off this page, never losing my current train of thought, but also not missing that conversation.

    So I get it gnome-shell creators. I get it.

    I do have complaints, that's for sure (slowness at times, and the lack luster search box (just steal gnome-do), and the extensions need a better manager), but I get it.

    I'll stick with Fedora and gnome-shell for at least a month and come back to this post for an update.

    I look forward to what else I can learn about gnome-shell, and maybe I'll remember that other nice yum feature I still can't recall!
    Last edited by happybunny; 02-09-2012 at 10:28 AM.

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