why gnome is so popular?

[JosephM]

You may not agree with design decisions but that is another matter.

Ain't that the truth

[kc1di]

Is this accurate, or perhaps a half truth in that LM is based on Ubuntu, the future version of which will be based on Gnome ?

Half-truth. Lots of things in many Linux desktops are based on gnome stuff. Mint18.2 will be based on the same things it was in 18 and 18.1. The biggest difference will likely be for Mate users since Mate 1.18 is now based on gtk3 instead of gtk2. Hopefully it will be mostly transparent to users though.

Mate's transition from gtk2 to gtk3 has been much less tramatic than the transition of some other desktops. On my equipment here mate runs really well and I seem to come back to it or xfce most often. Though gnome shell works ok - and cinnamon is ok also.. Much of the choice is personal preference for the way I work. I suspect it will be the same for most people. They will eventually find the DE that suit their personal needs. Gnome, KDE, Mate or whatever. again I think choice is good.
Enjoy the process and try them all if you have time. As different teams make differing choice - the getting upset at their choices in kind of a waste of time.
If they make choices you do not agree with simply change to another DE and let them go their own way. Or like Ubuntu and Mint you can make your own DE. Just a thought

[mr_raider]

I'm a late comer to this discussion and have very little understanding of it, but I have a (probably) related question.
On another forum someone told me they had read somewhere (yes, very vague) that LM 18.2 would be based on Gnome and therefore wouldn't be as good.....

Is this accurate, or perhaps a half truth in that LM is based on Ubuntu, the future version of which will be based on Gnome ?

Mint will not be using the Gnome Shell, which is the classic gnome desktop environment. This would require a new edition, and they already have KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon and mate editions. The Cinnamon desktop, however is heavily based on Gnome 3, with Cinnamon specific customizations. Most gnome native apps work in Cinnamon and vice versa. Cinnamon started out as an effort to make Gnome 3 look more like a "classic" desktop, back when Ubuntu shifted to Unity. Before then, Mint (standard) and Ubuntu were virtually identical distros.

[Lucap]

Extensions and Themes are somewhat flakey with Gnome live disk , some either don't work or spit out errors.

[xenopeek]

The extensions API is stable. I've not had any issues. What "Gnome live disk" are you running and what extensions and themes are buggy with that.

[Lucap]

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/04/easi ... ome-layout.

I've been experimenting and playing about with all types of things , so sadly it's impossible to remember every combination i've tried and with what livedisk.

Dlackware edition of Slackware - Gnome 3.22
Fedora 25
Fedora 26 Alpha
Solus GNOME
Ubuntu Gnome 3.24 ( yet to try the new patched 3.24.1 )

For example the above quoted Gnome windows layout didn't work on any of them and each live disk gave completely different errors ranging from Dconf too Mutter issues.

[xenopeek]

Can ya not read laddy? From your link:

This script is considered ‘alpha’ and is under development. You use it at your own risk.

Don't blame Gnome Shell.

[Lucap]

https://extensions.gnome.org

That was the only example i could think of that didn't work with any of the Livedisks but other extensions directly from the gnome link above either gave errors or just simply didn't work with the livedisk , annoying if you have to install gnome to Hardisk just to try them.

Not sure if the different errors between the live disks is down too different revisions from 3.22 and 3.24 or if they are setup differently such as paths to conf files.

As this is your forum and you use Gnome i think you should add a Gnome section to the forum.

[Hoser Rob]

I have a sneaking suspicion that Gnome has a larger pool of devs and this makes distros favor it. Many other DEs are lacking in dev staff. For example, I used to use LXDE, and I like it, but the dev staff seems to be ONE guy. And he mostly works on the file manager.

[kc1di]

Rob makes a good point. The Gnome foundation has many large projects/companies that support it's efforts. It also welcomes developers and currently list the following as members of it board of directors. so each one on the board is more likely to push gnome I would imagine.
Debian
Endless
FSF
Google
Linux Foundation
Private Internet Access
Red Hat
Sugar Labs
SUSE
The Document Foundation
Plus the board member companies have to donate not just code but money
There are two levels for commercial companies:

Small company: 1-49 employees. $10,000 / year.
Medium and large company: 50 or more employees. $20,000 / year.
Just to sit on the board.

you can find out more here: https://www.gnome.org/about/ This page has a picture of some of the developement team also.

[Lucap]

I like Dash to Panel , i've yet to play with Dash to Dock.

[Lucap]

Switching from Unity to Gnome-Shell: first challenges

https://insights.ubuntu.com/2017/07/03/ ... challenges

Sounds like they are having fun with the Gnome developer.

[exploder]

I work a lot of hours these days but I made some time to look at Gnome Shell recently. It was nice that extensions could make the desktop mostly the way I wanted it. People always complain about the lack of ability to customize in some desktop environments, Gnome extensions sure take care of that! Cinnamon is still my first choice though. I really can see why some are drawn to Gnome Shell though.

The appeal of Mint Cinnamon edition for me is that I can have it set up to my liking in seconds rather than hours and the polish is built in by default. I change the wallpaper, switch the theme to Mint Y, add two applications and I am pretty much all set. In my opinion Cinnamon is the most competitive desktop environment with Apple and Microsoft.

[Lucap]

The thing that is currently annoying me about Gnome is all Firefox widows are clustered to one tray instead of being separate along the task bar.

[Lucap]

I thought i'd solved the above problem with an extension called taskbar but it's buggy as hell and keep crashing.

There doesn't seem to be any sort of quality control with Gnome Shell extensions other than user comments complaining , so that's 90% of the extensions then.