Linus on Gnome 3.2

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Fri, Dec 02, 2011 at 03:04:10PM -0500, Thomas Milne wrote:
> I have had exactly the same experience, but with KDE, so I think it is
> more a matter of personal preference. KDE always seems like a
> nightmare to make anything work the way I want it, and I find the look
> of it kind of awkward. I hate the file chooser dialogue beyond
> comprehension.
> 
> I only use maybe half a dozen apps on a regular basis, so maybe that
> has something to do with it. I hate the KDE menu, I don't need even a
> fraction of the applications.
> 
> Gnome 3 without the Tweak Tool would be infuriating for anyone with a
> desire for a lot of personalization, but now that I have that working
> I honestly don't see what's missing.

Actually it is infuriating to anyone wanting to just work.

I expect and want very little:

I want my programs to be in a box that I can resize, minimize and
maximize.  I like it if double clicking the title bar toggles maximize
on/off.

I want alt+tab to switch between windows.

I like alt+f2 to give me a box to type a command to run.  This is the
only way other than typing stuff in an xterm I use to start things.
I don't ever use menus.

I expect sloppy focus.  If I point at a window, give it focus.  If I
alt+tab to a window, give it focuas and bring it to the top.  If I click
on it, bring it to the top.

I prefer not to waste too much space on the screen for things, but I do
like having a clock/date in the corner, with a place for icons of things
like pidgin and such to show the status.  A list of running programs that
I can click if I don't feel like alt+tabing for some reason is nice too.

I can't be bothered with multiple desktops.  I can't ever remember what
I put where, and find switching between them too ackward.  Besides I
only ever have about 5 applications running.

- iceweasel.  Two windows with many tabs each.  One holds comics and
  other fun things, the other holds more useful stuff.

- chrome.  One window, lots of tabs.

- konsole.  Many tabs.

- pidgin.  Only shows as a window if I am chatting with anyone.

- korganizer.  To handle popus for any meetings I have to remember.
  Nicely tied into mutt using a perl and python thing that parses .ics
  meeting requests and send either accept or reject replies, and adds it
  to my calendar if accepted.

So that's really all I want.  I don't want automatic window arranging,
tiling, fancy animated anything (although it looks neat), keyboard
shortcuts that override what applications default to, lots of panels
taking up space with useless applets, etc.  I very much do NOT want a
filemanager of any kind what so ever.  I don't want desktop icons.
In fact I tend to run almost everything maximized and hence don't even
see a desktop background image.  I show pictures in my screensaver.
At least then I see them sometimes.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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