Window management is one of those areas I’m fascinated with because even after 50 years, nobody’s fully cracked it yet
The article begins with a false premise, misrepresenting the capabilities of Windows and macOS in terms of window management. In reality, both operating systems have been offering effective window management features for years, dating back to Apple’s Exposé release with macOS Panther in 2003. On the other hand, current versions of
iPadOS, and GNOME are plagued by poor desktop experiences that hinder efficient multitasking.
Most of us simply want a DE that doesn’t get in the way, but the “solutions” proposed by GNOME often create more obstacles, slow down multi-tasking, and obstruct proper window management. Instead of addressing these issues, the GNOME team continues to introduce convoluted features that fail to improve the user experience. For instance, requiring users to switch to a full-screen interface to access other applications is subpar UX design - Windows 8 did this and proved it was the wrong approach. Additionally, GNOME’s lacks a decent notification area / menu bar like Windows and macOS. Where’s a way to control what icons show up and what are hidden? What about reordering them?
The GNOME team’s fixation on their own unique desktop vision holds back the progress of desktop Linux as a whole. With its potential to excel in this space, GNOME has an opportunity to become a top-tier DE, but poor decisions such as removing desktop icons and insisting on subpar window management keep it from reaching its full potential, becoming the face of Linux desktop.
Until you find out that extensions don’t provide the same level of integration as something that comes built in with the DE. A prime example of this was when they dropped desktop icons in GNOME 3.28 and all extensions for that available to this day have issues with drag and drop and other things.
The GNOME team’s fixation on their own unique desktop vision holds back the progress of desktop Linux as a whole.
nah, this is totally wrong, want to have a windows like ui?, switch to every other DE that exist, it’s thwir project, they do what they want, and they can experiment thungs if they want, that’s the beauty of linux
yes, they can take bad decisions sometimes, but don’t act like they are slowing down progreds, because they aren’t, why we want have 200 looklike DEs?
Those preset layouts you get in Windows 11 when you hover over the maximize button are a huge step forward. Also nice is the way it remembers your window groupings and treats them as a single unit when you hover over the icon of any of the applications involved in the task bar, so you can restore the whole window group with a single click.
That said, on my Linux machines I use Cinnamon and KDE, and I haven’t found either frustrating for window management. Gnome lost me during their first major overhaul.
KDE would’ve been great if they had some sense of design and knew how to properly apply spacing and proportions across the DE. But in terms of pure usability they are orders of magnitude above the crap GNOME is pushing for.
I think the current KDE Plasma looks just as good as many of the alternatives. It’s certainly far from the jarring design mess that KDE was for decades, and for the first time in years I’m actually happy to use it.
Yeah that’s not the greatest. I admit it could still benefit from more tidying up. But it no longer provokes the instant “Oh God no!” reaction that used to send me running for anything but KDE.
The ideal desktop would be something like… KDE’s usability in terms of a bottom bar, notification area and menu + the design consistency of GNOME. I’m currently doing that with ArcMenu and Dash to Panel under GNOME but still get annoyed from time to time with a bunch of details.
Windows is always one step ahead because they experiment a lot. their experiments may flop, they may face outrage, but they are always trying new things. and when they find something good they stick with it.
Things appearing suddenly on screen is more distracting than 200ms animations. On Gnome you’re supposed to click the meta key, type the first 3 letters of the app name, click enter, and the app opens. If you can do it fast enough then you won’t even see the animations, if you can’t then the animations aren’t the problem.
MacOS window management sucks, and Gnome/Plasma are already the face of the Linux desktop.
For instance, requiring users to switch to a full-screen interface to access other applications is subpar UX design
no?, it’s simply easier to click and find the app, it’s not like you are looking anywhere ense when you open windows start, and i use KDE with the fullscreen start-menu
it’s not like you are looking anywhere ense when you open windows start
That’s just not true, at least in my experience. I typically use the search box to open what I am looking for, and frankly would be very annoyed if I had to switch to something that takes over my entire screen to do that. I don’t even have to do that on my phone, and that is my biggest complaint with Gnome is that it looks and feels like they are trying to make a mobile interface first, not a PC interface. And if I have to browse for something, I do still much prefer a small organized menu to something filling my entire screen. I’m on an ultra-wide screen, I don’t want to have to physically turn my head to see the entire list. Maybe this makes sense on very small screens but that circles me back around to feeling like Gnome is meant for a tablet and not my desktop PC.
Clearly we all have different ideas and work flows that we like, and that’s fine. I’m very happy there are alternatives to Gnome as I’ve hated it every time I’ve tried it; but, obviously there are a lot of people that like what they are doing. I just probably won’t ever understand those people.
His ideas are mostly disjointed. Windows got one thing very right, very fast and snappy multitasking and that’s about it. GNOME adds animations, takes the focus from the applications and the information inside them to become the “center of users attention”. This isn’t good, a DE should be almost invisible, as minimalistic as it can be so the user can quickly switch between Windows and get their job done specially on smaller screens. I guess most people running GNOME that say they enjoy never touched Apple’s old Exposé or the current Windows Task View (Win+Tab) this aren’t aware how far and how productive you can be on a very small screen with a simple way to move around.
The article begins with a false premise, misrepresenting the capabilities of Windows and macOS in terms of window management. In reality, both operating systems have been offering effective window management features for years, dating back to Apple’s Exposé release with macOS Panther in 2003. On the other hand, current versions of iPadOS, and GNOME are plagued by poor desktop experiences that hinder efficient multitasking.
Most of us simply want a DE that doesn’t get in the way, but the “solutions” proposed by GNOME often create more obstacles, slow down multi-tasking, and obstruct proper window management. Instead of addressing these issues, the GNOME team continues to introduce convoluted features that fail to improve the user experience. For instance, requiring users to switch to a full-screen interface to access other applications is subpar UX design - Windows 8 did this and proved it was the wrong approach. Additionally, GNOME’s lacks a decent notification area / menu bar like Windows and macOS. Where’s a way to control what icons show up and what are hidden? What about reordering them?
The GNOME team’s fixation on their own unique desktop vision holds back the progress of desktop Linux as a whole. With its potential to excel in this space, GNOME has an opportunity to become a top-tier DE, but poor decisions such as removing desktop icons and insisting on subpar window management keep it from reaching its full potential, becoming the face of Linux desktop.
Window management in macOS is not even as good as current Linux stuff
Yeah, but it used to be. Why can’t we just pick the good parts instead of the garbage…?
deleted by creator
Until you find out that extensions don’t provide the same level of integration as something that comes built in with the DE. A prime example of this was when they dropped desktop icons in GNOME 3.28 and all extensions for that available to this day have issues with drag and drop and other things.
nah, this is totally wrong, want to have a windows like ui?, switch to every other DE that exist, it’s thwir project, they do what they want, and they can experiment thungs if they want, that’s the beauty of linux
yes, they can take bad decisions sometimes, but don’t act like they are slowing down progreds, because they aren’t, why we want have 200 looklike DEs?
Those preset layouts you get in Windows 11 when you hover over the maximize button are a huge step forward. Also nice is the way it remembers your window groupings and treats them as a single unit when you hover over the icon of any of the applications involved in the task bar, so you can restore the whole window group with a single click.
That said, on my Linux machines I use Cinnamon and KDE, and I haven’t found either frustrating for window management. Gnome lost me during their first major overhaul.
KDE would’ve been great if they had some sense of design and knew how to properly apply spacing and proportions across the DE. But in terms of pure usability they are orders of magnitude above the crap GNOME is pushing for.
I think the current KDE Plasma looks just as good as many of the alternatives. It’s certainly far from the jarring design mess that KDE was for decades, and for the first time in years I’m actually happy to use it.
C’mon this isn’t right:
Yeah that’s not the greatest. I admit it could still benefit from more tidying up. But it no longer provokes the instant “Oh God no!” reaction that used to send me running for anything but KDE.
The ideal desktop would be something like… KDE’s usability in terms of a bottom bar, notification area and menu + the design consistency of GNOME. I’m currently doing that with ArcMenu and Dash to Panel under GNOME but still get annoyed from time to time with a bunch of details.
Windows is always one step ahead because they experiment a lot. their experiments may flop, they may face outrage, but they are always trying new things. and when they find something good they stick with it.
Things appearing suddenly on screen is more distracting than 200ms animations. On Gnome you’re supposed to click the meta key, type the first 3 letters of the app name, click enter, and the app opens. If you can do it fast enough then you won’t even see the animations, if you can’t then the animations aren’t the problem.
MacOS window management sucks, and Gnome/Plasma are already the face of the Linux desktop.
No, it is not.
no?, it’s simply easier to click and find the app, it’s not like you are looking anywhere ense when you open windows start, and i use KDE with the fullscreen start-menu
https://youtu.be/GkxAp2Gh7-E
and windows 8 did a lot more shit to just blame it in the start-menu
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That’s just not true, at least in my experience. I typically use the search box to open what I am looking for, and frankly would be very annoyed if I had to switch to something that takes over my entire screen to do that. I don’t even have to do that on my phone, and that is my biggest complaint with Gnome is that it looks and feels like they are trying to make a mobile interface first, not a PC interface. And if I have to browse for something, I do still much prefer a small organized menu to something filling my entire screen. I’m on an ultra-wide screen, I don’t want to have to physically turn my head to see the entire list. Maybe this makes sense on very small screens but that circles me back around to feeling like Gnome is meant for a tablet and not my desktop PC.
Clearly we all have different ideas and work flows that we like, and that’s fine. I’m very happy there are alternatives to Gnome as I’ve hated it every time I’ve tried it; but, obviously there are a lot of people that like what they are doing. I just probably won’t ever understand those people.
His ideas are mostly disjointed. Windows got one thing very right, very fast and snappy multitasking and that’s about it. GNOME adds animations, takes the focus from the applications and the information inside them to become the “center of users attention”. This isn’t good, a DE should be almost invisible, as minimalistic as it can be so the user can quickly switch between Windows and get their job done specially on smaller screens. I guess most people running GNOME that say they enjoy never touched Apple’s old Exposé or the current Windows Task View (Win+Tab) this aren’t aware how far and how productive you can be on a very small screen with a simple way to move around.