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GNOME Devs are rethinking the "Activities" button (www.omglinux.com)
submitted 1 year ago by thegreenguy@sopuli.xyz to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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[-] jollyrogue@lemmy.ml 37 points 1 year ago

This is really cool. I install extensions to remove the Activities button and display a workspace indicator.

A lot of Workspaces might present a problem though. Currently, the Workspace indicator extension with collapse into a number after 8, or so, and I’m not sure how that scenario would work with the proposal.

[-] thegreenguy@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 year ago

Btw, they released it as an extension.

[-] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

It seems more and more that the GNOME extension ecosystem is going to make it more customizable than Plasma one day

[-] RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

From my experience so far it's more like installing gnome extensions just to get a fraction of the customization of stock kde, and I don't really see that changing any time soon.

[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 4 points 1 year ago

It's cool in some ways, but in my experience updates of GNOME breaking some extensions, or extensions being abandoned, etc made it a real pain.

[-] FaeDrifter@midwest.social 1 points 1 year ago

KDE's user created widgets and kwin scripts is still more flexible and powerful, and Gnome has been falling behind for a long time. Pretty much everyone would have to give up on Plasma and choose to maintain Gnome extensions instead - I don't think that's likely.

[-] merthyr1831@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Cant wait for them to revamp the package manager app to make discoverability better. ATM you have to sift through a lot of old and unsupported additions to find something that works well

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[-] s20@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago

Well, I'm trying it out and I gotta say... I just don't care.

I mean, it looks nice, and I guess the extra info is good. On the other hand, I weirdly miss the word in the corner. On the other, other hand, it's such a small change I can't imagine getting upset about it if it became the default.

So... Yeah. Whatever's clever, Gnome team. I'm happy either way.

[-] Vincent@feddit.nl 11 points 1 year ago

On the other, other hand, it’s such a small change I can’t imagine getting upset about it if it became the default.

Haha, more folks should have this attitude.

[-] s20@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

I agree. I saw someone said something along the lines of "kill it with fire" an all I could thing was that sounds like a lot of effort for a couple dots in a corner.

[-] GenBlob@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I'm using it now and I feel the same way. It makes more sense to have a workspace indicator but I'm so used to the activities text at the top left that it just feels weird. I don't care if they change it it's just weird not having it after seeing it for 6 years

[-] flashgnash@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

Configurability is the answer. Some people like it some don't, just have a setting to turn it off and it's fine

Personally I don't see much point in it as I just use the three finger swipe anyway, too much effort to mouse up to the top left and click it then navigate a GUI compared to just swiping left and right

[-] Vincent@feddit.nl 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hmm, I wouldn't like having such a setting cluttering up my settings panel. Maybe they could allow the user to configure whether they want such a setting?

[-] flashgnash@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

You'd need a setting to decide whether you wanted that configuration file too though, I'm not sure if I'd want it taking up space on my disk

[-] Secret300@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

I like it. Def more useful

[-] pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org 8 points 1 year ago

It's not a terrible idea... I actually use the mentioned Space Bar and really like it (makes me miss i3 less :)).

[-] DeadGemini@waveform.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Why'd you switch from i3? If it was for Wayland support, in case you didn't know, the Sway window manager is basically a drop-in replacement for i3, but for Wayland rather than X11. You can literally copy/paste your i3 config into ~/.config/sway/ and it will only need a few minor tweaks to get fully working!

I just made the switch this past week. The one caveat is Polybar doesn't work correctly with Sway, so I had to configure Waybar instead. Waybar has some cool features though, like being able to place the tray anywhere you want, so it was worth the effort to switch.

[-] pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org 3 points 1 year ago

I don't use Wayland at all, though I am aware of Sway.

I switched to Pop and GNOME because... for lack of better phrasing, I wanted a more normal experience that I could recommend others. I used Void and i3 for about 6 years (Arch + i3 for years before that) and just wanted something I could recommend to new users and support them as well (hard to support something I don't use myself). Pop and GNOME with the tiling features is a happy medium for me. Far from perfect, but good enough.

[-] DeadGemini@waveform.social 2 points 1 year ago

Gotcha, fair enough! I run Arch with Gnome on my desktop gaming rig for similar reason, I just wanted a normal DE that I didn't have to tweak much. Laptop is where I have Sway/Waybar and experiment with different window managers and such.

[-] sounddrill@lemmy.antemeridiem.xyz 5 points 1 year ago

As long as I can hit the top left for the activities or a similar/more useful screen, I am happy

[-] merthyr1831@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Good! I don't get much use out of the button (or hot corner tbh) on a laptop. Gestures are king

[-] Gecko@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Been using the PoC extension for a few days now and I'm absolutely in love with it <3

[-] ghostblackout@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

What das it do?

[-] s20@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Read the article?

Basically, it replaces the word "Activities" with dots representing your workspaces, with the one you're on being a pill-shape. So if you had three active workspaces and you were looking at the third one it'd be kinda like this:

O O (__)

It doesn't affect the button itself at all, just changes the visual.

[-] spongeborgcubepants@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

That seems l like a fine addition, although visually an explicit number being shown would be enough and even better imho.

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this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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