[GTALUG] in defence of GNOME 3

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

It works for me.  Few tasks seem awkward or difficult.  The learning curve 
wasn't bad (unless, perhaps, you are grumpy and resentful).

I admit:
1. I like simplicity.  Some enjoy the power of a complex interface.
2. the changes have mostly been gradual (cue lobster boiling story)
3. I don't use other desktops often (so I don't know what I'm missing)

It is visually simple.  Of course that seems to be a common complaint: 
"GNOME has simplified away my favourite things".  It can feel a bit like 
the novel "The Memory Police".

I don't remember a painful learning experience

I don't understand how everything is plumbed together (iBus?).
That doesn't seem to matter but it makes me nervous.

I don't have to use my mouse too often.  But that means learning 
replacements that may not seem obvious or be easy to discover.


One goal of the designers is to reduce options (to simplify things).  I 
think they have gone too far in some cases so the first thing I do is 
install the GNOME Tweaks tool and adjust a few things.

- switch to EMACS keystrokes

- switch the touchpad to have reserved space for button emulation 
  (although I'm now playing with using multi-finger gestures instead as a 
  personal experiment)

- put the day-of-the-week in the date at the top of the screen

- display the battery charge as a percentage (that setting has migrated to 
  the standard interface, albeit in a hard-to-find corner)

- turn off the setting Windows: "Attach Modal Dialogs"

- I don't, but you can add more buttons to window headers (eg. minimize)


The key to using GNOME effectively is to know a few things that are not 
announced with visual affordances.  The GNOME intro video presented when 
you first use GNOME may explain them, I don't know.

Describing actions in a GUI, in words, is long and laborious.  Sorry.

The WINDOWS key is very powerful.

- tapping it shows you all your running desktop programs in a matrix of 
  screen images filling the whole screen.

  + you can choose one of them with the mouse or the arrow keys

  + you can start typing the name of a program (and some other things) and 
    it will show you likely targets.  You can:

    * hit ENTER to start or switch to that program

    * hit TAB to switch the selection to the next program in the array

    * keep typing to narrow the selection

  + you can switch workspaces (but only if there is a program running in 
    it: you have to select a program running in it)

- if you press and hold the WINDOWS key you can switch between running 
  programs using the tab key and the arrow keys.  Using arrow keys you can 
  switch between windows of the same program.

Sample easy tasks:

- ping-pong between the two most recent running desktop programs:  
  WINDOWS-TAB (use the WINDOW key as a modifier or shift for TAB)

- switch between windows of a program: While holding down WINDOWS, tab to 
  the correct program, down-arrow (showing each instance), use arrow keys 
  to select the one you want, release WINDOWS.

  Alternatively, at the top second-from-left position is the name of the 
  currently running program. If you click on it, you can select between 
  instances.

- power down the system.

  + Normal way: click on power symbol in top right corner. From the 
    resulting, choose the second power symbol, choose "power off".  
    Confirm that you really mean it.

  + mouseless: type WINDOWS, "pow", TAB (to highlight power off), RETURN 
    to select it. Confirm that you really mean it (mouse click OR TAB 
    ENTER)

I don't tend to use the mouse to operate the desktop, except for 
infrequent tasks.  Oh, and selecting a different window, if already 
visible and my hand is already on the mouse)

What I'd welcome: some more automated way of configuring the layout of 
windows.  But I don't know what I would actually like.