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Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

material-shell.com

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Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#211

Post by nyolfen »

Naac wrote: post #199
generalk wrote: post #34

Trying this out as it's typed. For background: I really want to love tools like i3 or awesome, but I always go back to Gnome because it juts gets stuff done. I liked Gnome 2, I like 3. So: just like the site says. Top is the taskbar, which also has a left icon for the current tiling pattern (fullscreen, tiled vertically, etc). The left side panel starts at the top-left with the search button that does the Gnome activ…

I would check out Regolith[0]. It's i3 on top of gnome, so you get the best of both worlds. It's available as a distro or an Ubuntu PPA. [0] https://regolith-linux.org/

i switched to regolith a few months ago on my desktop and +1 this; convenient defaults that are relatively close to what i previously built up on my own, and overall a nice preconfig for i3+rofi. the only real tweak it needs out of the box is enabling tray icons.

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#212

Post by pimlottc »

arendtio wrote: post #149
pimlottc wrote: post #113

The word "modern" is really overused in tech, and it doesn't really tell you all that much, just that "this is better because it's new, and new stuff is better than old stuff". Consider a more descriptive word, such as: - minimal - streamlined - sleek - simple - opinionated - spatial - comprehensive etc...

How about providing an explanation for those words? - minimal: limited features set aka either you like it in 10 seconds or you don't - streamlined: good looking?!? - sleek: combination of streamlined and minimal? - simple: IMO even more overused than 'modern' and as diverse in its meaning - opinionated: There is exactly one way of doing it right and either you like it or you don't, but it might come with an extensiv…

I think those are all valid interpretations that give some useful information about the product.

I tend to think of the words as staking a position vs its opposite, so you at least have some idea where the product lies on at least one axis.

- minimal vs maximal: "we favor fewer few design elements vs more"

- streamlined vs not streamlined: "we have intentially chosen to focus on a few specific goals"

- sleek vs rough: "we are aiming for a polished appearance"

- simple vs complex: "we prioritize ease of use over supporting lots of use cases"

- opinionated vs configurable: "we have a philosophy of the right way to do this, which this tool supports out of the box; if you have a very specific use case, it might not be for you"

etc..

On the other hand, the opposite of modern is... old fashioned? Isn't almost everything basically modern, then? And how is that necessarily any better?

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#213

Post by pimlottc »

choward wrote: post #192
arendtio wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about providing an explanation for those words? - minimal: limited features set aka either you like it in 10 seconds or you don't - streamlined: good looking?!? - sleek: combination of streamlined and minimal? - simple: IMO even more overused than 'modern' and as diverse in its meaning - opinionated: There is exactly one way of doing it right and either you like it or you don't, but it might come with an extensiv…

Modern is associated with your definition and has a positive connotation. However, it really just means it's new. That doesn't necessarily mean the things you listed. But it does mean that it's probably under active development, the creator has it fresh in their mind, and you can probably contact them.

> But it does mean that it's probably under active development, the creator has it fresh in their mind, and you can probably contact them.

This is true! But that's usually a given for projects being promoted via HN posts. Not usually a lot of Show HNs for for old, abandoned projects.

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#214

Post by iso8859-1 »

pimlottc wrote: post #113

The word "modern" is really overused in tech, and it doesn't really tell you all that much, just that "this is better because it's new, and new stuff is better than old stuff". Consider a more descriptive word, such as: - minimal - streamlined - sleek - simple - opinionated - spatial - comprehensive etc...

Why is it worse to use the word "modern" in tech compared to any other context?

If they called it "postmodern", would that be acceptable? BTW, do you propose renaming the Museums of Modern Art?

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#215

Post by stjohnswarts »

andrepd wrote: post #117
generalk wrote: post #34

Trying this out as it's typed. For background: I really want to love tools like i3 or awesome, but I always go back to Gnome because it juts gets stuff done. I liked Gnome 2, I like 3. So: just like the site says. Top is the taskbar, which also has a left icon for the current tiling pattern (fullscreen, tiled vertically, etc). The left side panel starts at the top-left with the search button that does the Gnome activ…

I use cinnamon, for that very reason. Just works, and works well for my use case, is very stable, and I've no wish to learn and configure another desktop paradigm.

same here. the 4 quadrants limited tiling works pretty well. Sometimes switch over to KDE as well just to have a change of pace but unsurprisingly it works a lot like cinnamon, just with a lot more options that I dont' really change from the default :)

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#216

Post by mobb_solo »

pimlottc wrote: post #113

The word "modern" is really overused in tech, and it doesn't really tell you all that much, just that "this is better because it's new, and new stuff is better than old stuff". Consider a more descriptive word, such as: - minimal - streamlined - sleek - simple - opinionated - spatial - comprehensive etc...

Good point️ Additionally, people seem to forget about the term CONTEMPORARY.. It annoys me out that I can't use the word 'contemporary' when talking to 50% (~a lot?) of people. Somebody whose talking about some band they like and, I ask if they are a "CONTEMPORARY act?", they OFTEN reply, "No, they are a new/modern band".. lol

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#217

Post by heartbeats »

pimlottc wrote: post #212
arendtio wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about providing an explanation for those words? - minimal: limited features set aka either you like it in 10 seconds or you don't - streamlined: good looking?!? - sleek: combination of streamlined and minimal? - simple: IMO even more overused than 'modern' and as diverse in its meaning - opinionated: There is exactly one way of doing it right and either you like it or you don't, but it might come with an extensiv…

I think those are all valid interpretations that give some useful information about the product. I tend to think of the words as staking a position vs its opposite, so you at least have some idea where the product lies on at least one axis. - minimal vs maximal: "we favor fewer few design elements vs more" - streamlined vs not streamlined: "we have intentially chosen to focus on a few specific goals" - sleek vs rough…

The opposite of modern is quaint. Modern means that it uses new technologies (Web/HTML5/React), quaint means that it uses old technologies (Win32 UI/HTML 4/command line)

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#218

Post by GekkePrutser »

stormbrew wrote: post #108
michaelmrose wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were wrong. Emphatically. Ridiculously wrong. Remember for context that virtually nobody was using virtual desktops for windows as it not part of the UI unless you installed it and it sucked besides. Also remember most people's internet was very very slow. Screens were also not that big. Not that they are much bigger now with everyone using laptops. Grouping related windows in the task bar makes it frustrating t…

They weren't wrong, they just did an awful job of making it so individual apps wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel to get tabs. There's no reason browsers should have to implement it themselves or that other apps shouldn't be able to have the same semantics. Ironically the pieces were there with MDI but that was also a bad implementation of the same semantic concept. For whatever reason, only tiling wms like i3 have…

Oh yes MDI was horribly bad. Window management within other windows... Ugh.

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#219

Post by stjohnswarts »

dheera wrote: post #174
andrepd wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use cinnamon, for that very reason. Just works, and works well for my use case, is very stable, and I've no wish to learn and configure another desktop paradigm.

I've been using cinnamon as well but in 20.04 the new mac-ish taskbar that conflates the quick launch favorite apps and running apps in one widget turns me off. Starting to look for alternatives that aren't trying to copy Apple. Installed apps and running instances of installed apps are different concepts, damnit, and I don't need a phone-like interface that fakes the idea that all apps are "always running" when they…

KDE? You would be surprised at how small it's footprint has shrunk, it's as small or smaller than cinnamon now.

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#220

Post by stjohnswarts »

michaelsbradley wrote: post #91
ebiester wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tiling people would create a group up on the top. When you want to bring it down, it's just a keyboard command away. After going back to mac (for work reasons), It's been a painful experience adjusting to the lack of tiling.

Tiling isn't particularly difficult to implement on macOS with e.g. Phoenix: https://github.com/kasper/phoenix/ I hacked something together several+ years ago (see below) based on someone else's config, and I've maybe edited it twice since then, so it likely can be substantially improved. Also, I'm sure it's not as slick as a true tiling manager, but I've certainly gotten a lot of mileage out of it: https://gist.gith…

The Tiles app works fine for me. Usually i have floating windows but sometimes I need tiling and I use Tiles for that.
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