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Lobotomizing Gnome

eklitzke.org

61–70 of 224 posts

Re: Lobotomizing Gnome

#61
post #17
post #3

I recently switched to Linux (from Windows 10 - forced upgrade took 45' in the middle of an extremely important moment) Debian netinstall + Mate desktop (Gnome 2/3 extension?) I expected to switch back within a week. Surprisingly, I love it. After a few tweaks and Nvidia drivers installed, it's way better than I expected. Super fast, minimal, and no annoyances. Linux desktop really has improved in the last 20 years,…

Wait ~6 months, and you will encounter a case where simple package update will cost you more than that 45 minutes ;)

Windows significant issues with the update process. Every now and then microsoft releases their broken updates that cause your PC to enter a bootloop and then you have to reinstall windows. So far this has happened on almost every version of windows that I've used.

Re: Lobotomizing Gnome

#62
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had more or less the same situation with my last remaining Windows machine (mainly for games). I thought Windows reboots were supposed to get less over the years but it has only gotten worse and I've got less autonomy over them with Windows 10. Go away from your computer for a little while and come back to a reboot (a little hyperbole). Now my gaming PC run Void Linux and with native Steam and Wine (PlayOnLinux, Lu…

> I thought Windows reboots were supposed to get less over the years It's funny, I can't remember last time I had a forced reboot, either at work or at home, both on Windows 10. On the other hand, I'm shutting down my PC regularly

Anecdotal, but I, on the other hand, have had quite a few forced reboot.

I close the lid of my laptop and Windows goes to sleep, but during the night it somehow decides to do its thing and reboots. The thing is, I have BIOS password and a dual boot.

It will then just hangs indefinitely on the BIOS password prompt. Fans spinning, CPU unthrottled for hours. And then lose network drivers inside Windows. Reinstalling drivers in the morning is not fun.

Re: Lobotomizing Gnome

#63

Open-source desktops are never perfect for anyone, but everyone expects them to be. For everyone who says they are too bloated, someone else says they are too spartan. That's probably why there are so many of them. I would expect working on Gnome (or KDE or Cinnamon or Mate or XFCE or LXDE, the list goes on) to be a thankless task. You try to please everybody and yet please nobody. The imperfections of Linux desktops…

The problem with Gnome is not that it's too bloated or spartan -although it does use twice as much memory as KDE and four times as much as LXDE- but that many parts of the UX are plain stupid.

Re: Lobotomizing Gnome

#64
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait ~6 months, and you will encounter a case where simple package update will cost you more than that 45 minutes ;)

Would you elaborate? I have never had that problem with Ubuntu based distros.

I wish I had that experience. For me update to ubuntu 17.10 broke many things - the most annoying was migration to wayland which brought with it crashes when using multiple monitors via docking station.

Arch seems to have the same problems, and in addition few days ago I discovered that my wifi stopped working (that laptop was docked and was using wired connection for last few weeks but had wifi working before).

The worst part is those are the machines I use for work ;(

Re: Lobotomizing Gnome

#65

Open-source desktops are never perfect for anyone, but everyone expects them to be. For everyone who says they are too bloated, someone else says they are too spartan. That's probably why there are so many of them. I would expect working on Gnome (or KDE or Cinnamon or Mate or XFCE or LXDE, the list goes on) to be a thankless task. You try to please everybody and yet please nobody. The imperfections of Linux desktops…

> Open-source desktops are never perfect for anyone, but everyone expects them to be

Oppositely, if I haven't paid anything I am happy to put up with quite some grief. Just knowing you could fix it if you wanted to spend the time has value for me too.

However using MacOS makes me very sad: paying $1000 for the privilege of bugs and user interface flaws galls me.

I have quite low expectations of Windows too, but that is (a) historical expectations and (b) I don't expect much from a now advertising-based OS. [Aside: I just wish Microsoft would charge me a subscription for a professional version that didn't have crapware and adverts].

Re: Lobotomizing Gnome

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to switch to Linux for philosophical and customization reasons. Found it nearly impossible to configure stuff reliably and such it wont crash in new interesting ways. For example: Create a new keyboard layout and have it appear in KDE keyboard settings. Good luck. Input Manager for macOS: done.

It's interesting how different people can have completely opposite experience. I've modified my Microsoft keyboard that zoom slider works as Spotify control buttons play/stop/next. I doubt I would be able to achieve something like this in macOS or Windows. It works all the time, super reliably. https://gist.github.com/mauron85/5f4b640aa4e5e968e0496ac5a08...

You can probably use Autohotkey to achieve the same thing on Windows. It's a great tool to be aware of should you ever have to use Windows for any reason – you can also use it to push windows to virtual desktops and others, approaching a more Linux-y experience. Someone even wrote a tiling WM in AHK: https://github.com/fuhsjr00/bug.n

Re: Lobotomizing Gnome

#67
post #3

I recently switched to Linux (from Windows 10 - forced upgrade took 45' in the middle of an extremely important moment) Debian netinstall + Mate desktop (Gnome 2/3 extension?) I expected to switch back within a week. Surprisingly, I love it. After a few tweaks and Nvidia drivers installed, it's way better than I expected. Super fast, minimal, and no annoyances. Linux desktop really has improved in the last 20 years,…

Same here. Debian netinstall + MATE Desktop is simply put the best desktop experience I've had. I have Windows 10 in a VM, and it seems it needs updates + reboot every time I turn it on, although that might be because I only boot it once a month or so.

Re: Lobotomizing Gnome

#68
post #31
post #8

It is a bit of controversal article. There is need for 2 applications a terminal and a browser. Why do you need gnome for that?

> Why do you need gnome for that? From the article: – laptop to work correctly when connecting it to external displays or projectors – first class support for high-DPI displays

Might be just me but I always do dpi settings directly in x11 config. I can see this being a problem when connecting to different monitors. For my home workstation where everything is static I havent had to touch anything after set it up.

Re: Lobotomizing Gnome

#69
post #3

I recently switched to Linux (from Windows 10 - forced upgrade took 45' in the middle of an extremely important moment) Debian netinstall + Mate desktop (Gnome 2/3 extension?) I expected to switch back within a week. Surprisingly, I love it. After a few tweaks and Nvidia drivers installed, it's way better than I expected. Super fast, minimal, and no annoyances. Linux desktop really has improved in the last 20 years,…

It is not Linux DE that has improved but rather the applications that we use commonly are web based and available via the browser. This makes netbooks the logical next step IMO

Re: Lobotomizing Gnome

#70
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had more or less the same situation with my last remaining Windows machine (mainly for games). I thought Windows reboots were supposed to get less over the years but it has only gotten worse and I've got less autonomy over them with Windows 10. Go away from your computer for a little while and come back to a reboot (a little hyperbole). Now my gaming PC run Void Linux and with native Steam and Wine (PlayOnLinux, Lu…

> I thought Windows reboots were supposed to get less over the years It's funny, I can't remember last time I had a forced reboot, either at work or at home, both on Windows 10. On the other hand, I'm shutting down my PC regularly

Perhaps you're right and you just have to keep shutting your laptop down and booting up from cold to prevent Windows problems.. sorry, updates from happening at the wrong time.

I watched a three hour stream of a professional chess player and youtuber and at the start he's saying "...oh, and I just updated my Windows laptop a few days ago so hopefully it won't start to slow down or apply an update while I'm playing". Amazing - he's playing bullet chess where you typically make each move in a second or so, and hundreds of games like that in a row so even a hint of lag is going to result in him moving the piece to the wrong place, or timing out and losing the tournament and he has to "hope" that his own computer won't decide it knows when to update and/or reboot.

I have no idea how people put up with this shit. It's like an abusive relationship.

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