[GTALUG] desktop comfort [was Re: Upgraded to Beaver and Command Line Says 'command not found']

[Val Kulkov]

On 4 May 2018 at 12:54, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:

> | From: Val Kulkov via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
>
> | Gnome 3.28 feels like a significant downgrade to me, coming from 16.04
> | Unity interface.
>
> Why?
>
> (This isn't a challenge -- I'm hoping to learn something that I can
> adopt from the answer.)
>

> | I played with it for a few days in an honest attempt
> | to get used to it and make the most use of it. No, I am missing too
> | many time-savers from Unity.
>
> Like what?
>

1. Useless workspaces in Gnome.

Avoiding the use of mouse saves me a lot of time. I use Alt-Tab to switch
between windows, and I try to limit the number of open windows to three,
maximum four on a given workspace. This way I can avoid using mouse and
avoid using Super-W to "spread windows" which do not always appear in a
predictable order.

Where I need to have more than three or four windows open at the same time,
I distribute open windows between workspaces. In Unity + compiz, switching
workspaces is done with Alt-Ctrl-<arrow> by default. Then in another
workspace I can, for example, open and edit two documents and switch
painlessly and accurately between them with a single Alt-Tab while having
tons of open windows in other workspaces. This is a _huge_ time saver for
me.

Where I must concurrently keep three or four documents open at the same
time with the same application like LibreOffice Writer, it becomes a little
difficult to know which document I am switching to with Alt-Tab, especially
where Alt-Tab icon bar collapses all open files into the same app icon. In
such case I use "Shift Switcher" (a compiz plugin) with Super-Tab. It gives
me the same functionality as Alt-Tab, but with a preview of contents of
other windows, by the way all of them appearing in a predictable order.

Gnome 3.28 supports workspaces, but Alt-Tab works across all workspaces in
Gnome -- basically, across all open windows no matter what workspace they
are placed into. I could not find a way to tell Gnome to limit the list of
windows for window switching with Alt-Tab to a current workspace.

The loss of the ability to limit Alt-Tab to only windows in a current
workspace was perhaps the most painful loss for me.

I should also mention that some eight years ago I got diagnosed with
tendonitis in my right elbow. Holding computer mouse in your right hand for
decades is what gives you tendonitis (eventually). With some therapy, my
tendonitis now appears to be mostly gone. I have now learned to use mouse
by both hands and I now hold mouse interchangeably in my left or right
hand, but most importantly -- I have learned to avoid using mouse whenever
possible.

On a side note, when a Windows user observes me switch between workspaces
(I use desktop cube with cube rotation), quite often I get amusing
questions like "whoa, how did you do that?" I like that. It's fun, and it's
an opportunity to show off the power of Linux to those poor souls.

2. The loss of HUD.

HUD may have been the most mis-understood and under-utilized Unity feature.
There are people who hate it. I totally love it. It saves me time. It saves
me the necessity to remember where exactly in menus or toolbars a
less-often-used function is, or even remember the name of the function. If
I need to save a document as a PDF in LibreOffice, I simply hit "Alt" then
type "PDF" and here we go, the desired function is right in front of me. I
simply need to hit enter. No mouse interaction involved.

If I cannot even recall the name of a rarely-used function, I can start
typing what I think its name should be and most often I get the desired
function in a list that appears. Awesome.

3. Gnome 3.28 removed desktop support from Files. It's not that I often put
icons on my desktop -- I rarely do that -- but I do not like being told
what to do and what not to do with my desktop. Making decisions for me is
very much the Microsoft Windows way, something that in my opinion
contradicts the core Linux principles.

Yes, Ubuntu 18.04 ships with Nautilus 3.26 to allow desktop support for the
time being, but for how long is this going to continue before the desktop
support is removed completely?

4. I agree with Stewart Russell that Nautilus, with the stripped
functionality, is quite useless. One of the first things I did after
installing Ubuntu 16.04, and now Ubuntu 18.04, is to install Nemo as the
main Files application.


> |  I am missing my Thunderbird icon in the
> | system tray.
>
> It's trivial to add those in the Gnome Desktop or Shell or whatever
> the proper name is.
>
> While running Thunderbird, the icon will be there.  Just right-click
> on the icon and ask to pin it.  While you are there, unpin all the
> cruft you don't intend to use much.
>
>
I do not want Thunderbird to occupy an open window. I do not want an extra
window on my workspace at all -- see my comments above about the workspaces
and limiting the number of open windows. I want Thunderbird to "minimize to
tray" and stay there. The MinTrayR (MinimizeToTray revived) add-on for
Thunderbird, after application of the appropriate pull request for
MinTrayR, works to, as the name suggests, minimize Thunderbird to the
system tray. When I get new mail, Thunderbird systray icon turns blue. Then
I can review how many new messages I have per account, can activate
Thunderbird window that shows me exactly the screen I minimized, can invoke
"compose message" without opening the main Thunderbird window, etc. This is
convenient and useful and saves me time.

In Gnome 3.28, Thunderbird cannot be minimized to system tray. It appears
that the system tray functionality has been severely reduced in Gnome 3.*
to the point of being quite useless.


> | Finally, I gave up and switched back to Unity + compiz
> | and now I am happy again.
>
> Glad to hear that you are happy.  The future of Unity appears a bit
> challenging.
>

I am well aware that there is most likely no future for Unity and
definitely no future for Compiz as we know it. This is sad.

For as long as I possibly can, I am going to stick with what I have right
now, Unity + Compiz, because they are damn convenient and useful and save
me a lot of time. At least, I will stick with them until I can find
something that is somewhat comparable in convenience and usefulness.
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