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Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

material-shell.com

231–240 of 271 posts

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#232

How does this handle multiple monitors? Isn't the default on gnome 3 still to only switch the primary monitor when switching workspaces?

It doesn't appear to work well with multiple monitors. I could open apps on different monitors but not move them between. The native GNOME shortcuts just caused the windows to flicker and their shortcuts don't have anything to do with monitors.

https://github.com/material-shell/material-shell/issues/269

>We are currently only compatible with the one workspace per external monitor mode since it's was the most adapted to my vision of the ideal workflow and also because altering the behavior of GNOME Shell can be a bit complex and maintain multiple mode can be very time consuming. Therefore step after step our code base is becoming more mature and I may be incline to work a second option if there enough demands. But we also have other fundamental stone to build like window resizing.

Seems like figuring how it works across multiple monitors would be a rather basic building block but dev has different priorities it seems.

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#233

Nice! I use i3 but I've always thought it would be great if it supported manipulating windows with the mouse as well. I don't use GNOME so this isn't for me but I like the idea.

You can have floating windows with i3. Try meta-shift-space, you will get a floating window that can be dragged and resized with the mouse.

I know about that and it's a handy feature but I meant the typical window operations (moving in the tile grid, resizing of grid rows/columns possibly also sending to other workspaces or the scratchpad and toggling floating or fullscreen mode via a context menu on the title bar)

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#234

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…

Aesthetic evolution is a fact in user interfaces as much as it is in other functional objects like automobiles, furniture, and architecture. Priorities in trade-offs between things like information density and rapid visual navigation are also subject to this kind of change. Part of that evolution is influenced by technical context, such as what has become possible or practical that wasn’t before. Part of that evolution is influenced by cultural context, including both art and the aesthetics of physical objects (or software). Successful UI in Japan is strikingly different than it is elsewhere, even allowing for differences in language.

One of the things that all user interfaces do is marshal user attention, and newness or freshness is one tool for that. That can be used to advantage or disadvantage users, but it is a constant pressure for change in user interfaces.

The term Modern in user interfaces tends to translate as “inspired by the Functionalist school of Industrial Design, particularly as exemplified by Dieter Rams at Braun and Apple’s Industrial Design team under Jonny Ive”. There’s functional value to freshness, so the definition isn’t static, but the term Modern means something other than new or contemporary.

It isn’t a waste of time for producers and critics (in the neutral sense) of user interfaces to learn some art history, architectural history, and history of Industrial Design.

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#235

> for GNOME For the life of me, I can't understand why there are that many GNOME-based desktop environments. I personally dislike most of their approach to UI. Maybe the innards are very pleasant to work with, but it's GTK-based, isn't it? That a somewhat-dated C toolkit, even if it has bindings in other languages. So I kind of doubt that. And yet - MATE, Cinnamon, XFCE (ok, that's just GTK, not GNOME proper), Unity.…

I will tell you why I use Gnome. Gnome/Fedora was the first distro that played nice with my 4k XPS display AND the various 2k and HD secondary displays I use. I switched from Ubuntu/XFCE about five years ago. As I get older, I look for applications and DE's that require as little mouse use as possible. In Gnome 3, it's super+space, type application name, enter and use. Super+arrow to snap around the screen. A minuscule top bar gives me the perfect amount of screen real estate. The only application that I like to tile is a terminal and tmux works just fine. So for my use, Gnome just seems to stay out of my way.

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#236
post #69

when is this material crap gonna die? There are gaps everywhere who wants more gaps in their DE?

I do. I don’t need them when every pixel counts but I think they are useful If not pleasing in many cases. That’s why I created what I believe was the first tiling wm "useless gaps" patch for dwm 10 years ago. Since then, it has been adopted by other wm, i3 being a notable exception. I don’t use a DE, but I guess a little space between those fat bars and backdrop’d windows might help to see through the bloat.

I was referring more to the excessive padding in material design in general, but yeah I'm not a fan of gaps so pairing that with gaps in tilling seems extra bloated to me.

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#237
post #90

Reminds me of the 10/GUI ("contenuum") http://10gui.com/ A user interface mockup where everything is grouped, spatially oriented, and scrollable. https://vimeo.com/6712657

PaperWM is inspired by/implements parts of this: https://github.com/paperwm/PaperWM/

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how far away from the screen do you sit?

Looks like between 2 and 3 feet - closer to 2. I use the huge monitor like the virtual desktop - we've all heard the metaphore but don't really use it. Spreading things out left to right is fine, but I don't like to tilt my head to look up (I have progressive lenses so that's worse for me than younger people), so the top is - like further away areas of a desk - where I shove things I don't need right now but want nea…

That’s an interesting approach. I can picture the system quite vividly.

You’ll probably use 100% scaling?

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#239
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

KDE uses less memory than Xfce does.

Re: Material Shell – A modern desktop interface for GNOME

#240
post #210

I can't recommend AwesomeWM enough. You don't really have to customize it at all for the workspaces + basic tiling to be incredibly useful. And the workspaces can be per monitor !!! Or you can tie them together! Or use them as tags instead of workspaces! It's really just so good. I think the only thing I really added was audio key support and I changed the menu shortcut...? I'm not actually sure what the argument is…

> I'm not actually sure what the argument is to not use it. I'm currently using it, but if I switch away, it will be because there is no wayland support yet.

Heh, valid point.
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