this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024
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What's the problem with GNOME?
Gnome = bad is a common Linux community circlejerk.
I really don't understand why anyone feels the need to hate on a desktop environment. It's not like on windows or mac where it is what it is and you're stuck with it. If you don't like it, just shut up and switch to something else (unless you like your de overall but have some improvements in mind of course, no reason to shut up for that).
People forget that freedom is a lie within the natural world. Why do they think they have freedom within the digital realm they all made up?
Because they made it up with freedom
It's still bound to the natural world, where freedom is a lie
It's not so much a circlejerk as much as a knowledge that KDE plasma is the most approachable DE with the most polished first experience for the majority of new users
The reason it gets interpreted as Gnome bad is that both Plasna and Gnome both mainly target users who want something that just works out of the box and doesn't have a steep learning curve, however KDE have managed to keep up better with what new users want in recent years while Gnome has fallen into a semi-trap of doing what their current/older users want. That doesn't mean it's a bad distro, frankly it's great for their current users, however it does little for newer users who may not find it as intuitive as other DEs, therefore making it a worse default DE for "off-the-shelf" distros targeting new Linux users.
At the end of the day though, it is about personal choice, and nobody's saying i3 isn't better for powerusers or that LXDE doesn't run faster, but if you have the knowledge that you want to install one of those or the many other DEs available, then you can just find the iso/distro/package with that DE and install it rather than just clicking the all-in-one-guaranteed-to-work-lts download button on the distro's homepage
That and the Gnome devs carry a lot of anti-consumer opinions and practices in particular since Gnome 3. Must be something to do with the Microsoft influence from around that time.
What are these anti-consumer opinions? And where is this Microsoft influence?
You say that like it's a fact rather than just your personal opinion.
No no no. I'm not misunderstanding people liking or preferring Plasma as hating Gnome. I love Plasma, and so should most people, it's a very good DE. I pretty much only use Gnome and Plasma these days, and can happily praise or criticise either of them.
People do have a hateful circlejerk about Gnome. Look at any large discussion about Gnome and it gets full of haters who still can't accept that Gnome 3 went in a very different direction to the traditional WinUX. People that say it's shit. People that accuse the devs of being evil. Go onto a submission about a new Gnome release and you'll find some smoothbrain making the classic wHaT fEaTuReS DiD tHeY rEmOVe tHiS TiMe joke which holds zero basis in reality.
And I'm not talking about fair criticisms either. I could rattle some off the top of my head. I'm talking about hatred.
Shitting on Gnome very much is the hip, trendy thing to do in the Reddit/Lemmy/reactionary YouTuber space.
According to many in the Linux community, Linux is all about choice, so long as your choice is the same as theirs.
It's a safe assumption to make though, based on the fact that KDE most closely mimics the Windows UX, which Gnome does not, and that the vast majority of human beings who use computers are most familiar with the Windows UX, hence most approachable.
I reject the premise that just because more people use Windows, a Windows UX must be the most intuitive and alternatives must appear more complicated to use.
There are more households that drive cars than ride a bike - is a car therefore a more intuitive to use transport tool than a bike?
That's one hell of a 'heavy lift' to create a non-Windows UX experience that is more intuitive and easier for Windows user to adapt to that is completely different from the Windows UX experience they know today.
Not saying it's not possible, but I think you'd have better success in pulling people over from Windows to Linux if the UX experience was similar, since they're already dealing with a retraining issue (Linux) that is a barrier they have to overcome when transferring over.
There's no need to add more obstacles to that transference process.
You're again assuming that being a windows clone will intrinsically make a DE more intuitive. I don't think that's true at all.
Yes I am, and I base that on my observance of human nature, and how a level of complexity of learning something new is a barrier that affects adopting something new, as well as my own personal experience as a UI/UX software developer for some decades.
An alternative UX would have to be incredibly intuitive to overcome that. And, with respect, Gnome is not that.
Well we'll just agree to disagree then. Appreciate the discussion though.
That’s a crazy take though. Everyone knows that what you’re most familiar with is way more intuitive than something you’ve never touched in your life.
How intuitive something is only affects the initial experience. This is why driving a car usually takes a year to learn in most countries - it’s not very intuitive. If you know how to drive a car, however, you can learn to drive a bus much faster - it’s now intuitive because you already know how to drive a car, which is similar.
So of course whichever DE replicates windows the best is going to be the most intuitive. Doesn’t mean that it’s better once you’ve gotten used to it though.