this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
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I've quite enjoyed gnome so far. What are your complaints with it? Granted I don't think I have actually used another DE but I genuinely don't run into issues with gnome and the design is good enough imo.
What's your preferred DE and why?
My complaint with Gnome is just one, but it is overbearing: Gnome devs want to decide what is best for you, which stinks and goes against the very fundament of open software. But would not per se be a problem -- If they hadn't also decided that a bunch of things that are considered basic features that every other DE and even other OSes have implemented for the past 20 years are, in fact, unnecessary.
Consider the humble System Tray.
Gnome removed the System Tray in favour of a "Control Center". And the Control Center works really well -- For inbuilt Gnome stuff and applications that were written for Gnome. But stuff that is DE agnostic, or god forbid, ported over from another OS? Some of them expect a tray to be there. Have functionality that doesn't work without one. Or do work but are janky. Gnome doesn't offer a system tray. You have to install a third party extension, which would also be fine... Except every time Gnome updates every other third party extension breaks.
And like, sure, it's not Gnome Devs' job to ensure the operability of third party addons, but that you need them to begin with is a failure. Gnome's attitude towards everything seems to be "$#¨$ you, like just actually go &%$# yourself. You do things our way or you use something else. We have decided these things are useless, if you think they are necessary you are a $&@# and %$#$ you and the horse you rode in on"
As for my personal favourite DE? KDE Plasma. It's not something I'd ever recommend to a newcomer, but I like it precisely because of how many moving parts it has. I can make my system look, feel, and act just the way I like it. It's like the polar opposite of Gnome really.
In my humble opinion, the system tray is a crutch anyway. But sadly a needed crutch for "legacy" support.
What does an application need with a tiny icon persistent on screen? Aren't notifications enough to notify the user that something has happened? Why can't it just run in background, and when the user needs it open it up from the taskbar/dock?
Oh no, I entirely agree with the system tray being a leftover from an older era. The Control Center is actually super elegant. But it doesn't do to come up with a nicer, more elegant solution while telling all legacy support to go &*&$ itself in the same breath because it's no longer your problem.
That's some Apple bollocks, and if I wanted to deal with Apple's shit I'd get a Mac.