[Discuss] Ubuntu 17.10 / Gnome first impressions

[David Kramer]

My main Linux computer (tracer), was running an old version of Kubuntu, 
because I really didn't like what either Gnome or Unity became.  But 
that decision was years ago. My main objections to both were a removal 
of choice and control, and a move away from having multiple fixed 
desktop ( I usually have 4 distinct desktops for 4 different purposes 
and different apps running on them).  And the overall attitude of the 
project, which was a very clear dismissal of anyone who wanted to work 
differently than their vision.

When Ubuntu went back to Gnome/Wayland, I thought I would give it a try 
again.  I planned on reformatting and installing from scratch anyway.  A 
personal goal was to be a big boy and separate out things that 
objectively don't meet my needs, from things that I was just not used to 
or didn't like subjectively, but could get used to.  This list is only 
about the former, because the rest is my problem.

  * There has been an increasing trend of shoving components into
    distributions well before they are ready, "because clearly we need
    them, and we can't wait for them to be perfected".  First one I
    remember is pulseaudio. I know many in our group feel the same way
    about systemd.  I feel Wayland might fall into this category.  It
    appears to work well for the most part, but I ran into serious
    problems, like applications like Synaptic can't run as root.  I
    ended up switching to Xorg.
  * There still seems to be the same "We know what's right" attitude and
    a dismissal of any objections.  All of my googling found results
    like "Just run this command before you launch apps like synaptic. 
    No official documentation, no response to the bug reports, and no
    solutions that solve the problem so you don't have to run a command
    before running the command each time.  Much of the other basic
    functionality I was looking for required third party software and
    GnomeTweaks.
  * In KDE, all sorts of gadgets appeared on the panel, and more can be
    added.  In particular, apps running in the background had indicators
    in the panel to they can be brought up (eg: SimpleScreenRecorder,
    Sococo, VPN, Mega, etc).  By default, you get nothing and like it. 
    You have to install gnome shell extensions to get some of them
    showing up, and some never showed up.  I have to run Sococo from the
    command line in my terminal, otherwise there's no way to exit the
    application.
  * Another related problem I had is suspend.  I set up a keyboard
    shortcut for suspending my computer, which I do several times a
    day.  Not only is there not an event to map to a keyboard shortcut,
    but if you click on the power thing in the upper right corner,
    there's no suspend option. You actually have to hold down the Alt
    key while pulling down that menu then there will be a suspend
    option.  Totally ridiculous gymnastics.  There is another Gnome
    Shell Extension that will add a suspend button, but when I installed
    that, clicking on the suspend button did nothing.  I eventually
    found a setting to suspend when the power button was pressed once,
    but that's ergonomically more difficult than a keyboard press for me.
  * About those Gnome Shell Extensions... You have to install a back end
    program, and then install a browser plugin in order to install them.
    There is a perfectly fine package manager in Debian, and there are
    several other popular ones that don't involve such nonsense. 
    Amazingly, they don't appear to be categorized at all.  There's
    almost 100 pages of extensions and no categories or groups.  Yes
    there's search, which helps if you know what's available
  * Multiple desktops, as I mentioned, are much harder to set up, and
    require extra software.  Desktops can only be arranged vertically in
    one column, and there doesn't appear to be a way of going directly
    to a desktop with a keystroke.   That's not a deal-breaker, that's
    more into the "not what I'm used to" level.  However, with KDE, I
    can bind specific apps to specific desktops and even specific
    monitors.  When I start up, all my apps start where they belong. 
    That doesn't seem possible under Gnome.  And I run many apps at
    startup, across the 4 desktops.

I'm not saying Ubuntu/Gnome/Wayland is bad. I'm saying it's less likely 
to appeal to power users who like things the way they like them, and use 
lots of applications at once.  And that I'm going to install the latest 
Kubuntu.  While it was way better than years ago, I don't see Gnome 
moving in a direction that works for me anytime soon.