Oh, thanks for this update. When I have started with Gnome and several extensions it was the way, that you have had to update everything manually.
One other point why I am using the AUR is the problem that with the Gnome extension app I have to install every update of an extension for every single user on every machine he can logon to. As I do have LDAP and NFS for all the users in my family and additionally local admin users that can login to many of the machines we have that would a lot of work to be done.
For me the installation via AUF fits better.
I’ve tried cosmic a bit with the new 21.04 Pop_OS! and sincerely, even if I generally love the work of system76 (pop shell is amazing IMO) COSMIC is a downgrade from gnome in term of performance and usability. It makes an hybrid between the gnome intended workflow and the “usual desktop” workflow making something that is not needed at all. I understand that gnome workflow is not for everyone; i personally like it a lot and a lot of people cannot tolerate it, but i don’t think Linux need an in-between in this case. You like it, you use it, you don’t, you use KDE, cinnamon, xfce or any of the great alternative that exists in the ecosystem.
I hope they will “redeem” it and make it usable but we will see. Also on a side note, it’s just a big extension right now, so very prone to breakage on every gnome update and will work very bad in a rolling environment. (I think that to make it work right now pop is still at gnome 3.38 version).
I suspect that if they hadn't got that 'bee-in-the-bonnet' about CSD, that the workflow would be not too bad at all. CSD is a 'solution' to a real problem, but I can't see it as a real solution. It has (possible) advantages for use on 'vertically challenged' screens, but that is not reason enough to send responses to the top right corner instead of the bottom right (where it has happily been for 20+ years) or for the search for menus in the title bar. That last is borrowed, I guess, from touchscreens - but it is not a good fit for a desktop!
For a long while i hated Gnome 3, I had been using KDE in its place, when 3.36 came out i switched to Gnome and really like it. I was unsure of the 40 changes but they are not that bad, I actually don’t find myself wishing for the old layout.
When 40 was announced i moved back to KDE and to be honest didn’t like it as much as i remembered liking it, to me it has way to many settings and options. Perhaps I just prefer the more similar things now, plus at the time Gnome supported Wayland while KDE did not, even today KDE and Wayland isn’t as developed as Gnome is. Obviously that is changing as time goes on and more development happens.
I haven’t really had much issues with Gnome, I do however only use about 6 extensions all of which are not major changes, I don’t use a dock or something that changes the core layout of Gnome.
I should note that I use an all AMD system and one 27" monitor so I have no clue how Gnome works with multi displays or NVIDIA.
I use packages from repos, AUR, and even flatpak with no issues. I do updates basically daily and haven’t had anything break that wasn’t from my lack of reading a pacdiff which would have broken on KDE as well.
I also use Gnome on my laptop with a 4k screen and it seems to work well on that device as well.
Depends on taste and habits. I would always choose KDE over Gnome. At least for me, KDE is more responsive. No minor stutters for animations, apps open faster etc, which are present on Gnome.
Start up and shutdown is faster on Gnome.
I like how everything i want to customize or use is already there. No need to install extension for some simple stuff to have. Gnome is nice to use with touchpad gestures (when it works as supposed).
Overall lack of customization in almost every aspect and need to install extensions is a no go for me. On KDE i can customize workflow to suit my needs and habits. Even defaults on KDE are good enough for most users.
It’s not that Gnome is bad, it is a very polished DE, as i said, just depends on expectations from user.
I’ve just never taken to Gnome not that it isn’t good. Gnome just reminds me of ubuntu. I used to be a Cinnamon desktop user then Xfce took my fancy and then Kde became my thing because it’s fast, responsive, uses little memory, and is very fluid. I’ve always like Mate too so i won’t leave it out. i3 on EOS has open my eyes to the possibility of using a wm. I like the way it is set up because i can jump back and forth between windows, do some tiling and not get too lost. I also don’t have to remember an enormous amount of key bindings. It’s very good to start with and learn.
I was considering that as well. Not that I NEED to, but I kind of WANT to. Also, if I did do that I’d prob install it using BTRFS instead of ext4, but truthfully I don’t know if I really need that setup or if I’m more just getting drawn in to all the hype BTRFS has gotten recently. I don’t think I’d noticed too much of a difference either way tho
The one time I had a problem I wanted to resolve by using an older BTRFS snapshot, I couldn’t because the problem was with timeshift-autosnap, & none of my snapshots were appearing in GRUB.
Booting snapshots from grub is like being able to stop and then alter time by clicking your fingers.
Gives you that feeling of invincibility, truly priceless.
It’s not that bad, although I’m leaning towards EXT4 or F2FS for my next install. Apart from that one time, I’ve not really had a need for snapshots. Maybe I’ll come to eat those words
Maybe you will - but my experiences so far suggest that ZFS snapshots can save your butt, btrfs snapshots can save your time, and non-fs based snapshots only give you a hobby setting them up!
As an overall thing, ext4 has proven to be d(*& good at everything including good speed, good stability, good recovery and even a journal…though it may not be optimised for your particular use case, it will still work well… Most of the other filesystems sound pretty good, but in normal use (if all goes well) are hard to notice in action! F2fs is theoretically built for SSDs (and nvme!) - but I barely notice a difference on the systems where I set it up. A difference to you have to benchmark carefully to know it is better - well it is more for experimentation and knowledge expansion that utility for most of us!
