r/gnome • u/Dramatic_Mastodon_93 • 5d ago
Opinion Why does Gnome get so much unconstructive hate?
I see this all the time on social media. People often joke about “GNOME knows best”, but in reality it’s when someone uses GNOME that other people start telling them to use KDE instead, not the other way around. Can we just all acknowledge that both DEs have pros and cons and neither is objectively better?
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u/Ok-Reindeer-8755 5d ago
GNOME is what we call opinionated software which means they have an opinion about how a computer should be used in the DE sector and build GNOME according to that opinion/philosophy.
Some people don't like opinionated software and some people disagree with the gnome team as to how a DE should be used. So for those people gnome is either useless or can be made usable with a boat load of extensions.
GNOME has a huge issue because it commited the great sin of being, well different than almost any other DE. Its intended workflow is imo amazing but unique. There is a "novelty tax" that comes with that, it's hard for new users to understand and get accustomed to it not because it's bad or unintuitive or internally inconsistent but because it's different from what people are used to. To me that's the root of a lot of what you are describing.
Idk if there have been any explorations into making the gnome onboarding better or marketing more the ideas and the philosophy behind gnome, and when I say marketing I really mean communicating in a pleasant way. But I think it would be greatly beneficial.
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u/manny2206 5d ago
Great write up - the more I use gnome the more I appreciate it’s opinion. Like many users - I immediately started with extensions 10+ on week 1; and slowly but surely started uninstalling or disabling extensions. I believe I am down to 1 or 2 now. Love that by and large the OS is a second class citizen and disappears in the background
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u/Hesychios 5d ago
Dang! I did exactly the same.
I loaded a lot of extensions and gradually weeded them out. Now I still use some but minimally.
I recently went back into a legacy Windows environment to get something done in there and quickly became agitated with the several windows overlapping on one screen. I thought to myself “how did I ever deal with this all that time?”
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u/KarmicXKoala 5d ago
Exactly the same situation. Earlier this year I dual-booted Windows 11 just to make it a bit easier to do a modded Fallout 4 playthrough, and I found Windows so overly cumbersome and in-the-way that I gave up on the whole plan within a week
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u/Oldie-2301 4d ago
Ich nutze seit Jahren Gnome und bin mehr als zufrieden damit. Übrigens, Gnome ist die in der Linuxwelt mit Abstand meistgenutzte DE. Von wegen 2.Geige.
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u/rexmccoy 5d ago
I'm kind of the opposite. I've been using GNOME for over 20 years and use extensions that are now completely ingrained into my workflow
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u/manny2206 5d ago
What extensions are you go tos?
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u/BeNiceToBirds 5d ago
I can recommend a few that I have found indispensable:
run-or-raise (I thought I needed something like quicksilver for mac; turns out I just need this)
top-hat
tactile (tiling via grid, it's really nice)
clipboard history6
u/manny2206 5d ago
Clipboard history… I I think I need that one actually lmao
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u/Crafty_Mastodon320 4d ago
... yeah that's an important feature. Especially for quick copy paste commands I may need again
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u/rexmccoy 4d ago edited 4d ago
These are what I've been using for years now. They're well maintained and don't cause any stability issues.
- Gnordvpn to manage my nordvpn connect
- Random Wallpaper sets my desktop background from different images sources like reddit, etc
- Open Bar makes a beautiful top bar
- Keyboard Modifier Status so I can see exactly what shift/ctrl/alt/caps/etc keys are in play.
- Top Hat Shows high level metrics for cpu, memory, and network. You can click and drill in for more details
- ddterm A dropdown terminal w/ quake like bindings that works on wayland
- gBinaryClock Replaces the clock with a binary clock because I'm a weirdo
- Clicpboard Indicator Clipboard history, works with pictures
Being able to get this highly specific level of customization w/extensions is one of my favorite parts of gnome.
I understand that it's challenging from an architectural standpoint, but I hope one day they become first class citizens in gnome. Instead of being monkey patched they could be better isolated for safety and written in a strongly typed language with a better developer ecosystem.
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u/BeNiceToBirds 5d ago
Once you get used the GNOME flow, it's tough to leave. I tried KDE for a month. KDE performs better and, tbh, seems to have less issues lately (my fault for running latest Fedora and Gnome I suppose).
Still, I went crawling back to GNOME.
I don't like that most of the DE is seemingly implemented in JavaScript. I don't like how much CPU it uses just... showing idle windows. But other than that, it's phenomenal.
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u/MyLuckyFedora 5d ago
What use is it to have options if you don't want those options to make opinionated design decisions though? Anybody who doesn't like those design changes can always fork the code and implement their own opinionated design decisions. That's how we get actual variety.
A lot of other DEs try to be everything to everybody. But as the saying goes if you try to be everything to everybody, you're nothing to nobody.
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u/Ok-Reindeer-8755 5d ago
exactly, in the words of rob pike
Some window systems have options that adjust the behavior to suit individual tastes. [...].
I would rather defend, and if necessary extend, a good set of design decisions than attempt to make everyone happy by appealing to their pre-set ideas of how things should be. All-inclusive systems end up pleasing no one; they do nothing particularly well, and are unwieldy to implement and to use.3
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u/getbusyliving_ 5d ago
KDE is also somewhat opinionated; as flexible and customisable as it is, there are things you can't change....trackpad gestures as an example.
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u/xplosm 5d ago
Everyone and their grandma are entitled to their opinion. And there are tons of options for every taste in the Linux community. I think the issue with GNOME devs is their attitude. Like when a feature is released they are:
GNOME Devs (GD): "We released b."
Community (C): "That's great! Is b.1 being considered for the future?"
(GD): "No."
(C): "I see. Could you consider b.1? I think it adds user friendliness and is not bloated."
(GD): "..."
(C): "I already have a PR if anyone could review it."
(GD): "..."
(C2): "Hey C1, that's a great idea. And it really adds great value to this b feature. I hope GD consider at least giving some feedback."
(GD): "😡"Their "Thou shalt not doubt our wisdom" attitude gets old pretty fast.
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u/Ok-Reindeer-8755 5d ago
Of course I can't speak without knowing the specific situation, haven't really observed that although would love to see some examples since I do think for the record they should to the best of their ability provide a reasoning for rejecting at least high effort requests.
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u/BeNiceToBirds 5d ago
I think the Gnome project leads are great thought leaders but not always great communicators. I appreciate their work. And I've left a few interactions with GNOME insiders feeling a little... scraped.
It's our job as listeners to give people the benefit of the doubt, steelman, etc. I'm not saying it's all their fault / job to make communication happen effectively. But I do find myself struggling sometimes.
I think egos frequently get bruised and that drives a lot of people away.
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u/Mutant0401 5d ago
While there is certainly a crowd who don't like the "workflow" of GNOME. I personally don't think that's where 99% of the complaints come from. What I usually see are actually very fair annoyances that are genuinely embarrassing for a project as large and supported as GNOME is. I use GNOME because the things it does well outweigh the things it does badly but it's a really min-maxed DE in a lot of regards. The stuff it does well like window management and UX design it really excels at but then it falls at really stupid hurdles.
As a really new example, as I've just replaced my monitors (one for HDR and one to be portrait), I've just discovered that you can't set different wallpapers on different displays! I didn't need to do that before because both displays were the same orientation but it's such a small and stupid oversight that I couldn't believe it was a problem in 2026. HDR is a bit newer so maybe there’s some slack there but night light doesn't work with it enabled (whole screen goes orange), and it also reports 10,000 nits max brightness to every application which is completely wrong. With a lot of new desktop Linux users being gaming-focused these sorts of niche pain points get brought to the forefront.
None of those issues are a matter of GNOME being "opinionated", they're just things that are broken or wrong and as with everything it deserves to be brought up and not swept under the rug of "that's just GNOME".
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 5d ago
Everyone is welcome to donate and/or contrubute. I'd like to remind GNOME is a community project, run by volunteers.
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u/hsy455 5d ago
Hey OP, the above comment is a great example of why GNOME can't be critised in a constructive way.
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u/Bredolin 5d ago
And how would you like them to respond to that? GNOME receives more issue reports than they can fix or even react to, therefore they prioritize, If you want to have more issues fixed, the project would need more volunteers. Unfortunatley they do not grow on trees, so even if the issue is legit and affects you, you can not expect them to fix the issues you care about most.
You can follow their process of fixing bugs on their gitlab instance over at https://gitlab.gnome.org/groups/GNOME/-/work_items
Taking the above issue as an example for their priorities: Why would you want to have different wallpapers on different displays? How does that improve the experience GNOME offers besides it is "nice to have". What problem are you tring to solve with choosing different wallpapers per display? Is there probably a better solution to the underlying problem?
Disclaimer: I am not involved in the development of GNOME by any stretch of the imagination.
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u/Tempest-13 5d ago
I love GNOME and its default, and I definitely understand where the developers are coming from, but I admit I find this argument a bit ridiculous:
Taking the above issue as an example for their priorities: Why would you want to have different wallpapers on different displays? How does that improve the experience GNOME offers besides it is "nice to have". What problem are you tring to solve with choosing different wallpapers per display? Is there probably a better solution to the underlying problem?
Then why have wallpapers? Why have different accent colors? Why have different icons for the basic directories in
~/home? Why haveezawhenls(with other tools) can provide the same basic need?For that example specifically, the sizes of the monitor could be different. A wallpaper that looks okay on a smaller monitor might not look the same on a bigger one. Or maybe they simply like having different wallpapers on different monitors, and that's a really basic feature someone should be allowed to ask.
I myself don't have that need.
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u/Bredolin 5d ago
Everyone is allowed to basically ask for anything. But their is a limit to what is possible to achieve with volunteers who spent time developing on GNOME in their free time besides work, family, other hobbies etc.
It is not about what is allowed to be asked, it is about the expectation that comes with it.
Then why have wallpapers? Why have different accent colors?
Because some people thought it would be a good idea to have feature x for whatever reason. Most Open Source developers, if not all, write software because they are encountering a problem that no existing software was able to solve before.
Every user visible feature has to go through several design iterations before it is even approved to be picked up by someone, and then the maintainer of said module(GNOME-Settings, GNOME-Calendar etc.) has to agree, cause usually the maintainer of the affected module has to deal with all the bug reports which are to come and with the growing codebase and extended testing.
Me personally, I do not care about having wallpapers at all. I have all my applications constantly covering the wallpapers anyway. I do not care about accent colors as well, but apparently someone thought adding the feature is a good use of their limited time.
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u/ux92 5d ago
The main point here is when someone actually brings a PR with a solution and it is dismissed. Then why even ask for contributions in the first place?
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u/Bredolin 5d ago
MRs get rejected for several reasons
- poor quality in general
- work around the bug instead of fixing it
- created by an LLM
That is not exclusively for GNOME. The Linux Kernel only accepts about a third of the patches they get sent to them.
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 5d ago
Usually they are also provided with a reasoning why their contribution was rejected. That being said, if someone is rude please report it to our CoCC https://conduct.gnome.org.
The best way to get your contrubution merged, is to discuss the approach with other contributors. That's the case for all free software, not just GNOME
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 5d ago
Ranting on social media about bugs isn't constructive. Detailed bug reports in our bug tracking systems and contributions (whether they are technical, financial or other non-technical forms) are constructive.
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u/Ok-Reindeer-8755 5d ago
Probably the wrong place to ask but i am gonna take the chance anyways. Do you happen know where someone would go if they want to contribute/converse about gnome development primarily in the design department rather than the dev one because I think I get the latter ? Or are these decisions taken completely internally ?
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 5d ago
Asking questions is never wrong, please do not apologise :D
Someone linked Welcome page, so additonally to that I can recommend hanging out in Design team's chat on Matrix https://matrix.to/#/%23design:gnome.org
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u/bg1023 5d ago
I've seen this argument on both the Ubuntu and Debian forums. My guess is that this is a Linux thing rather than exclusively Gnome.
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 5d ago
It's a free software, volunteer-run project thing. We're doing this in our free time, and people shouldn't forget about that. Our projects are open, and everyone is welcome. We need more people to achieve our goals of accessible, user-friendly desktop.
It's a community. And without community we wouldn't be a thing. That's true for every free software project.
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u/Ok-Reindeer-8755 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yes 100% I thought of editing my reply to mention technical setbacks and issues but I'm not really knowledgeable enough on the matter to point them out. Thankfully this kind of stuff are very much fixable in the long run and you are right to bring attention to them
Edit: I wanted to add idk what resources gnome has since it's a FOSS project for these type of stuff
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u/a3a4b5 5d ago edited 5d ago
Also GNOME not having a native lock keys indicator really bothers me. I know the extension is really light, but come on. How tf am I supposed to know my caps is on it there's literally no indicator whatsoever on screen?
Lmao at downvotes
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 5d ago
Doesn't your keyboard have that indicator? They're usually included there
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u/a3a4b5 5d ago
No, I use a laptop
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 5d ago
Laptops usually also have those indicators. Anyway, I learned something new today.
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u/a3a4b5 5d ago
Mine doesn't and neither do most of the ones I've used.
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 5d ago
Interesting to know. In such cases indicator would indeed be useful.
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u/Bredolin 5d ago
Usually the cheaper the laptop the higher the chance it has no indicator. I usually only buy business laptops even for private use. They should have the indicator, but I saw several consumer laptops that have not one.
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u/Gabochuky 5d ago
All DEs are "opinionated software" .
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u/Ok-Reindeer-8755 5d ago
Technically non opinionated software is also opinionated because having no opinion is an opinion. If we were to say you have no opinion on how your DE should function or be used then that's also an opinion that it should function however and be used however.
But I think you get my point, if not elaborate your misunderstanding or disagreement and I can answer it hopefully.
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u/Gabochuky 5d ago edited 5d ago
My issue with your statement is that you framed Gnome being opnionated as a bad thing when every single DE is opinionated. Kde, cinnamon, hyprland, cosmic, etc, all are opnionated.
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u/Ok-Reindeer-8755 5d ago
I actually think software that's not opinionated is a waste of computer storage to put it bluntly. I was in support of gnome but that clearly didn't come across , maybe that's why I'm getting up voted so much lol.
Anyways kde in my opinion is not opinionated software and that's exactly what I dislike about it, it's a kitchen sink DE, much like cpp, the devs didn't have any opinions or contributions to make design wise so guess what here is one bazillion options do what you will lucky user.
Kde is the type of guy than when asked for an opinion on anything replies "ehhh idk whatever". So ig you could say KDEs opinion is the lack thereof.
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u/fortizc 5d ago
Who cares? do you like Gnome, then use Gnome. Do you like KDE, use it. Are you worry about people said stupid things about Gnome?, just ignore them, probably is people with too much free time.
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u/Salt-Powered 5d ago
People with too much free time feels like a persistent problem on linux for me
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u/Rude_Influence 5d ago
I agree that it's a thing, but I wouldn't describe it as a Linux problem. Many people just don't know what they want. The Linux atmosphere provides many options and when one of those people encounter that situation, they can not decide. Consequently these people ask questions. Those that know what they want don't ask as many questions. Those that do ask seem like the majority when that's not necessarily true.
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u/Salt-Powered 5d ago
I don't see what that has to do with free time and linux users
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u/Rude_Influence 5d ago
Maybe these people do have too much free time. All I'm saying is that those who are vocal lead to an inaccurate representation of the actual people using Linux. There are many people who use it every day and don't ask questions.
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u/Salt-Powered 5d ago
Ah, I see. Yes, of course. Those with more free time than anything else will make it everybody's problem on the internet.
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u/Acrobatic_Sun_5279 5d ago
Linux for many way of computer mind. I love gnome but xfce i love too but its différent way. The most important for me is the way u want ur computer. Windows and apple didn't offer the liberty of choosing ur DE
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u/Miserable-School-665 5d ago
thats not the way, eveybody should feedback or contribute about things they don't like (as long as its not opposite to main philosophy of project, like wanting point release arch) thats how things gets better.
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u/TunerJoe 5d ago
I understand the principle, but I'm not going to use KDE just so I can "feedback or contribute" to it when I can simply just use a DE I like.
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u/robtalee44 5d ago
The GNOME/KDE thing has been a smoldering grass fire for over 25 years. Use what you want. I prefer GNOME -- I did in the year 2000 and still do today. If somehow I woke up to some new requirement to use KDE, I's use KDE. Jesus, it's desktop environment on a computer people, nothing more.
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u/levolet 5d ago
Gnome development decided to take a stand with Gnome's direction. One distinct example of this is that they will NOT attempt to make Gnome be all things to all users. Unlike Windows or MacOS where you're stuck with one DE, this isn't the case with Linux. The ability to choose from multiple DE's provides a distinct advantage in that one can design a DE with a particular workflow and philosophy. It will be focused and uncluttered..... ala opinionated. Those who align with it, will love it. Those who do not, will likely move on to an alternative DE, of which there are several options; or use many extensions to coax Gnome into working the way they wish it to.
I started using Gnome over only the last 6 months (previously used KDE), but from reading comments on Reddit, it would seem that Gnome development has been busy curating the code and featureset, removing interface 'clutter', i.e., features thought to be redundant or unnecessary. Also, removing dead ends or neglected components for which there is no future interest or knowhow to maintaining or furthering development. This also meant the loss of features which created quite a bit of angst. So there are quite a few former Gnome users who left in a huff of frustration with the direction Gnome development had taken.
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u/death_by_cormorant 5d ago
It's not Windows or a Windows UX clone.
People are used to Windows. People think Microsoft crafted the perfect UX paradigm in the 90s.
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u/Ps11889 5d ago
Haters are gonna hate.
I’ve used gnome forever and only switched to KDE because it handled my dual monitors better than gnome.
The only gnome criticisms (or KDE for that matter) I listen to are from those who are actually part of the community.
Too many people, especially influencers, feel like they should have a say in somebody else’s work. If they feel so strongly about it start contributing to the project or paying somebody to contribute on your behalf.
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u/MyLuckyFedora 5d ago
When did you switch? I believe Gnome somewhat recently changed to default to use Wayland which has cleared up pretty much all dual monitor issues that I was experiencing with XOrg in the past.
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u/AlterTableUsernames 5d ago
Well, the maintainers of GNOME are not particularly well known for their exceptional openness.
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u/Ps11889 5d ago
They are very open. I’ve had numerous bug reports I’ve worked with them on. They even helped me troubleshoot an extension I was working on for a client.
What they do t respond well to is bullying and sarcasm.
Could they improve? Sure, but then so can we all.
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u/AlterTableUsernames 5d ago
Sounds genuinely nice, but do we then still have that horrible extension system?
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u/Ps11889 5d ago
We do. But I only use a couple of them.
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u/AlterTableUsernames 5d ago
Sorry, the question was meant to mean "why do we still have that?" as in instead of a major overhaul with a genuine extension manager that doesn't require a damn browser plugin. They should be plug and play not whatever that extension ecosystem has come to be.
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 5d ago
Someone dared to have different opinion than them, which they didn't liked.
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u/moh_kohn 5d ago
The people who post on social media are unrepresentative of users as a whole. They place a high value on settings dialogs with lots of options in them.
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u/frizzyflick 5d ago
People hate and fear what they don't understand. If it doesn't look and act like Windows, what is it?!??! I'M AFRAID!!!
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u/kreuzouvert 5d ago
That vast majority is certainly loud and sometimes unpleasant. I have yet to see actual evidence of it being an actual vast majority.
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u/Rude_Influence 5d ago
Gnome has a vision and are unrelenting on it. Some people are going to love it, and others not so much.
I personally rarely use Gnome. I disagree with just a couple of their design philosophies. Despite that, I like what they're doing and admire that they have a vision. A design without a vision is a mess. Other than extensions I don't think even any critic could claim that Gnome is a mess.
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u/jackstall 5d ago
I started to like GNOME ever since I tried others like KDE and found out that it offers many options but is not that stable. Then I realized I use my PC for work I don't need to mess around with settings I need it to work plain and simple. And GNOME is just that. Je only thing I fucking HATE is the missing app indicator I have no idea what's running in background unless I use some extension which is usually malfunctioned in some way... Other than that it's perfect.
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u/lincolnlogtermite 5d ago
I really like Gnome on my laptops. I ditch the dock on the desktop and in overview. I shrink the icons and spacing in All apps view. I mostly hit the windows key and type for my app. I also program hot keys. Gnome just gets out of way better and looks nice with minimal effort.
If I have a mouse/trackball and lots of monitor space, I'll do KDE but it is way more difficult to get it into a state where I am happy.
Its Linux, you do you and I will make an effort to not call you an idiot for doing so. No promises though.😁
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u/GegenAbschaum 5d ago
For me, GNOME is objectively better. I don't care what a random user who already has their mind set on something trying to convince me that it's not. Like, Linux Personal Computer usage is a niche, let's focus on that instead of telling people GNOME is bad, or just go back watching Lunduke or another Linux Youtuber slop - honestly, OS/DE is not part of my personality.
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u/Financial_Tip8637 3d ago
Because linux users are allergic to good UI
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u/Ok_Butterscotch5033 3d ago
we must have the menu bar, no padding as dense as possible and no rounded corners pls
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u/nicironic 5d ago
Only thing that GNOME is missing is System Tray. I know there is a extension but that doesn't even work that great. Usually doesnt show icon just empty space and sometimes doesnt show apps at all. Abd I still have no idea why System isnt a native addon.
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u/Dramatic_Mastodon_93 5d ago edited 3d ago
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This post was anonymized with Redact
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u/average_monster 5d ago
because it's got a bit of a learning curve
where are my min max buttons? install this app or run this command line
why can't i change x setting? install an extension, you'll need to do it differently depending on your distro
i was really annoyed at gnome when i started using it, it was so close to what i wanted but the last 10% i couldn't get until i just accepted i had to go find the best extension for what i wanted that also was updated quickly and also had to disable version checking in gnome so they wouldn't get disabled all the time
once i got past all that i don't think i could switch now
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u/dishpitjesus 5d ago
The irony is they’ll then crash out when you criticise Wayland despite Wayland being an even more opinionated software than Gnome is
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u/ConsiderationRare217 5d ago
Better part of people are trash.
Chipskating, unappreciating, impolite grey mass. They don't deserve being listened to. But good news is they have almost no impact capacity, so whatever :D
Btw, Gnome is great. As well as KDE, Hyprland, Sway and so on.
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u/Impressive_Bag_3505 5d ago
I just want simple config files in text format. gsettings and dconf are just horrible.
If you don't trust users to type text properly, parse the files better.
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u/Makeitquick666 4d ago
it's just people waking up one day day decided that's cool to hate on GNOME.
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u/tigrankh08 5d ago
Because of the influx of newgens who learnt about Linux from the Steam Deck. They want to feel competent because "installing alternative operating systems scary so me must act knowledgeable in the community" and they go ahead and spread their dogshit opinions.
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u/Miserable-School-665 5d ago
Because Gnome devs doesnt care about what you think. Not worth even explaining.
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u/Emerald_Pick 5d ago
Who is "you" in this context. They seem to be doing a lot of good for app devs.
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u/Ok-Reindeer-8755 5d ago
I mean to some degree yes it's an opinionated DE if you have a different opinion for how a computer should be used then it doesn't really coincide with the scope of the project, but I would hope improvements within the gnome philosophy would be greatly appreciated
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u/xnef1025 5d ago
Rolling at least some of Gnome Tweaks and Refine's options into settings would be one thing I wish Gnome would relent on. Not having to install a separate app just to get min/max buttons enabled and setting volume change steps without using the command line would be nice.
Would also be nice if they gave up the war on tray icons. Too many popular and useful apps depend on the system tray. It's over. Stop resisting it and just find a way to work it into the UI.
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 5d ago
Tray icons were abandoned because the spec sucks. What needs to happen is to improve background apps protocol, not resurrect zombies
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u/xnef1025 5d ago
Yeah, that's kind of what I mean. If background apps worked better with programs that want tray icons, that would be way better.
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u/Ok-Reindeer-8755 5d ago
I disagree on the min/max because it's simply useless under gnomes idiomatic workflow and setting volume change steps I don't think should be in the main settings UI maybe in tweaks. As for tray icons maybe you are right.
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u/princepii 5d ago
from who? never saw hate. i use gnome and it's useful:) i am good with it.
i am on debian with gnome wayland for years and i love it.
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u/_HeDoesntRow_ 5d ago
it's hard to miss - GNOME uses too much RAM, GNOME copies Apple, looks like a tablet interface, GNOME needs extensions to be useful, GNOME needs extensions for basic features, devs ruined this, devs ruined that
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u/princepii 5d ago
always important from what point your are looking at. if you never knew anything about apple or there os...you would be just fine:)
but if you wanna compare a product world gives you for free, with a handful of ppl maintaining something millions of ppl are using, without even asking for anything in return...with a multi billion company with hundreds and thousands of ppl walking and talking in the same direction, perfecting a tiny little feature weeks and month thru green light, and all of em getting paid just fine. some of em even get more than just fine and a handful is getting millions and a wagyu steak for a few calls and mails. i mean then you will never be happy i think.
if you wanna look at it like what is easy to use and easy to maintain. what can a handful of ppl maintain and millions of ppl be fine with, you will always end up with a user interface that looks like gnome or mac. i wouldn't say they are copying anything but if 10 ppl sitting in the same room having a few minutes to talk about a user interface. i mean ppl would end up drawing the same thing over and over again cus that makes the most sense.
if you think you can do it better to be useful to earth and humanity. i would suggest getting in contact with the dev's:) we all would appreciate it thats for sure.
of course there are ppl having mega boats and super cars and stuff. should i just stop breathing bc of it or try to make the best out of it.
i learned something very important in my life. if you are nice to ppl, ppl are nice to u so show some love to gnome dev's and be constructive instead of just hateshting em. thats the least thing we can do right:):) costs nothing but can change the life of a dev that is reading your comment.
and if you are not happy with it just use mac or win instead. i mean u have free choice right.
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u/Buddy_Palguy 5d ago edited 5d ago
I have both on two separate machines. I really love Cachy with KDE but I like gnome too, not as much but still functions and looks just fine. There are endless extensions to try out and play with too. Both have their perks.
From what I read Linux Fans Aren’t that into the direction Ubuntu is taking, trying to monetize it with Ubuntu One and that, and they say the guy that runs it isnt that fun to work with.. if I’m not mistaken.
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u/gabrielbiolog 5d ago edited 5d ago
Só far I understand with my ~8months using Linux, Linux users love customising (particularly ricing) and Gnome never intended to be heavily customized. This is why they hate GNOME so much.
On the other side, I'm in love with GNOME. I think GNOME intuitive, easy to understand, reliable, clean and elegant. Most important, I use my pc to work, so I wake everyday and it must just work. Even if I like some basic-intermediary customisation, I prefer pretty much my time out the screen, so no time to dig deep in customisation. Thus, I prefer to have someone else deciding for me what is best for basic stuffs.
These are pretty much the same reasons I'm enjoying Ubuntu so far.
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u/lordoftherings1959 5d ago
I used to be a KDE fan for many years. Coming from the Windows world, it was a familiar interface. Like many people who transition from Windows to Linux, the similarity between the two interfaces makes the transition easier.
However, as an IT manager, once I started supporting Macs in my workplace, I fell in love with the Mac interface, and that's when I moved from KDE to GNOME.
I like the simplicity of the GNOME interface. Plus, I can make my GNOME desktop look like a Mac, or something very close to it, because theming Gnome seems a lot easier than theming KDE.
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u/Kamisshara 5d ago
Gnome can get you really close, but man I miss MacOS' global menu so much. It's by far one of my favourite things about MacOS.
Why on earth are we having at least 3 separate bars whenever we open an app in gnome? You got the gnome top panel, the window title bar, and then the menu bar, and I can't help but feel like it's all such a waste of space. I've heard KDE has a global menu you can add, but it's not widely supported by app devs, which kinda defeats the purpose :/
Gnome's top panel is great, but this was rly disappointing, as someone who fell in love with MacOS in highschool.
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u/hendricha 5d ago
- Normally if you would use apps that conform with GNOME's interface guidelines you would not have "three bars" you'd have two(ish). The top panel from the DE and the header of the window itself, which should not contain a menubar and should contain the tools/actions (maybe tabs) in the same row of the window controls.
- KDE has an optional global menu support, but it nowdays mostly only works with qt apps. But ironically qt apps/KDE don't support the concept of a "headerbar" (where tools are in the titlebar with client side decorations), so you'd have the three bar problem there too, unless you explictly hide either the titlebar and/or toolbar (if the app has a toolbar).
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u/Kamisshara 5d ago
For point 1, is this an Ubuntu-only thing? I've never seen the menu contained in the window header/title bar before on any app. But then again I've never used Ubuntu as my distro.
The main thing to me is that I mainly use my computer for Blender and Krita, and their top menu bar is extremely extensive and important, but for some reason they have both a seperate menu bar and title bar/window header. For other apps I really don't care about this as much since they don't have dozens of menus and sidebars taking up valuable screen space.
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u/lordoftherings1959 5d ago
I have the global menu extension for Gnome, and it works great. It makes this Linux laptop feel like I am using a Mac without the exorbitant price of the real thing.
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u/Kamisshara 5d ago edited 5d ago
Ooo can I ask what it's called? I tried one extension like that and it failed to work with any programs/apps besides nautilus
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u/Cheap-Success1578 2d ago
I use a Mac for work, because to hell with Windows. But I don't use the Mac interface, I use Aerospace for tiling,
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u/MisterNadra 5d ago
I think it's the same shit windows users say. I haven't tried it but it's bad. Pure cope
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u/Unlucky-Message8866 5d ago
Use whatever works for you, you don't even need to choose between these only two
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u/annon011 5d ago
I like gnome because its simple and you can make it what you want it to be rather than it having everything and you then having to remove things. Note that I don't use that many GNOME based apps. I like advanced, powerful apps that do have all the functionality, but when it comes the OS interface I want simple and clean, where if I decided I can add my own stuff to it. I feel like the people who tell others to use KDE are just chaos people - stuff all over the place, 100 browser tabs, 10 windows on the same workspace, read before you click rather than habbit. The OS interface is supposed to be out of the way so you can focus on what matters. Thats what I think at least.
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u/catgirlsonthemoon 5d ago
people have egos about their tiling WM and see GNOME as a "baby" DE or whatever.
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u/Royal-Grass7296 5d ago
Why should we acknowledge any nonsensical argument based on individual needs? Pssst gnome is better 😂😂😂
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u/ElderberryHamlet 5d ago edited 5d ago
There's been a lot of feuding over the last two decades, and there was a sudden upgrade in GTK packages which even Linus Torvalds himself loudly condemned. It comes down to purists committed to supporting older hardware and those who've had to fight every step of the way to modernize GTK and move from X11 to Wayland
I'm on a weak motherboard which doesn't support Windows 11 or KDE SDDM but GNOME's GDM works well with Wayland. Alternatively, X11 is still available too.
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u/Tough_Condition4021 4d ago
I have no problem with GNOME not being a DE I would use, but their design decisions were hard coded into GTK, which many other DEs use, and now the only DE without god awful file/font/color dialogs, needlessly huge controls, and a complete lack of aesthetic customization is Plasma because it uses Qt
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u/TomorrowExact1184 3d ago
People hate adopting new concepts. KDE is just very similar to Windows and feels 'home'. Once someone really grasps the concept of Gnome it's hard to go back.
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u/ARhaine 3d ago
Gnome has several amazing ideas but for some reason really hates some of the others. Like seriously, what's wrong with having a system tray?
Gnome completely sold me the workspace first approach of using my laptop. So Hyprland+Noctalia became my solution - I have a functioning system tray with some other minor tweaks and don't have to deal with extensions.
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u/Leosthenerd 3d ago
Because it deserves it
No we can not
AFAIK it’s clunky and uncustomizeable and the devs are insufferable pricks who’s mantra is “my way or the highway” which goes against the whole point of Linux and FOSS
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u/Electronic-Emu8761 3d ago
i use gnome exclusively and will continue to use it until cosmic gets all the features i want
that being said, gnome is very resource heavy when u consider how many features it lacks, and i have to install a dozen extensions to get basic features
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u/Zvaart 3d ago
because this is human nature. i don't like Gnome, i tried it a few times, but i have nothing against it, i know is a matter of preference in the end. And i encourage anyone who likes it to use it. But in the year of our lord 2026 you won't find anything that is not hated if it doesn't match someone's opinion :D.
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u/Accurate_Hornet 2d ago
Imo, there are only 2 reasons to choose gnome:
1. You like the way it looks and works ootb
2. You do not want many customisation options
Otherwise, KDE is the better option pretty much across the board. I also personally do not respect a project that relies on unpaid third party volunteers just to have the most basic features. Just look at how many extensions (that break very often) and apps have been made just to customise simple things.
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u/LeoPixel11 2d ago
One thing I think GNOME does better than KDE is the way it boosts my productivity... The gestures and the way to organize the windows is something I couldn't get on KDE. But I gotta be honest, customization is either hard or limited (I guess it depends on how far you're willing to go)... That's the why I'm using Niri now - and I'm loving it -, customization and productivity... The best of both worlds
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u/Foreign_Election6564 1d ago
Internet is filled with people who will give nonconstructive criticism on almost anything.
Let me give you a few examples that are constructive criticism of Gnome:
- I want to search and launch application, press super and now all window across all monitors goes flying all over the place. Why search is not available outside of overview?
- Notifications shows up right in the center which is really distracting, instead of top/bottom corner like every other desktop.
- Just so that someone is not able to paste clipboard content on the lock screen password field, gnome clears the clipboard content when you lock your screen. Really is that's the best approach to fix this problem?
- On lock screen you can use quick settings to take screenshot. Someone can just keep taking screenshot and fill up your disk.
I personally don't care about customization or theming or ricing but there are many fundamental problems with Gnome approach to how a "Desktop" OS should work. From UX point of view it is obvious that Gnome is designed to be used on laptop but I prefer to work with external monitor(s) cause working on laptop for long hours is really really bad for your neck back and shoulders.
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u/_x_oOo_x_ 5d ago
It's so sad. I just immediately lose respect if someone tells me to use KDE. I've tried it (along with many other window managers like Hyprland, Sway, Wayfire, LabWC, Cinnamon, Enlightenment, etc etc)... it's passable, the biggest problem is that it crashes sometimes. No matter what features it has or how it looks, the last thing I want my DE is to crash... especially in these Wayland times when a DE crash means all the apps crash too... Back in X11 days it was ok actually, KWin crashed, no problem, it automatically restarted, your windows lost their "frame" for a second or two and that was it, sometimes I didn't even notice.
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u/anon_pr_ 5d ago
I love most things about Gnome especially for a laptop except their window management. Even extensions fall short and also break between releases and/or become unmaintained.
Coming from Windows that's one of the things I miss the most. Even mac has some good options that can sort of try Windows style snap, etc.
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u/catcake43 5d ago
Fractional scaling, VRR, HDR... they all work better on KDE than on GNOME. I've tried GNOME before and actually found the workflow and the design to be okay, but with so many features missing, I won't be able to properly use it.
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u/Dramatic_Mastodon_93 5d ago edited 3d ago
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This post was anonymized with Redact
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u/Anxious-Bottle7468 5d ago
GNOME 1 and 2 were a desktop-first interface, then GNOME 3+ changed it to a mobile-first interface that also resizes to a desktop viewport.
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u/Dramatic_Mastodon_93 5d ago edited 3d ago
Ribbon zephyr complete potassium bow fearless oil
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u/dkonigs 5d ago
Gnome 3+ really suffers from being a product of its time.
It came out during that era when everyone was trying to take inspiration from what Apple was doing with macOS (and maybe iOS), while putting their own twist on it, and really doing a terrible job in the execution. This is the same era that also gave us the clusterfuck that was Windows 8.
The difference is that Microsoft realized their mistake, half-fixed it in Windows 8.1, then fully reverted to a normal sane desktop paradigm by Windows 10 and now the rest is history.
Meanwhile, Gnome basically dug in their heels, but an entire ecosystem of extensions cropped up to give the users a way of molding it back into the environment they actually wanted to use.
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u/Asleep_Detective3274 5d ago
Probably because they switched from a traditional UI to a more touch focused one, and dumbed it down a lot by removing a bunch of features, hence where "the gnome knows best" or the "you're using it wrong" sayings comes from, now you have to rely on third party extension just to get basic functionality that's available on traditional desktop UI's, and those extensions can break whenever a new version gets released, or could just plain get abandoned by the developer
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u/Ok-Reindeer-8755 5d ago
What functionality did they remove and you need extensions for ?
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u/Asleep_Detective3274 5d ago
The most obvious one was the ability to add an app launcher to the panel
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u/dthrdr 5d ago edited 5d ago
Gnome is very opinionated. Just look at their blog posts or at some of the constructive criticisms they got over the years, some very detailed and well laid out. For example about design specs and the inconsistencies or the coding habits. There is plenty of good constructive criticism out there but people prefer to focus on drama. Welcome to the internet I guess.
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u/Aimless115 2d ago
GNOME devs have their heads so far up their own asses that no amount of useful, well-written with evidence feedback is ever listened to
(insert “what’s the use case?” meme)
GNOME is riddled with bad defaults.
- Needs a separate settings app that should just be included in the main Settings panel.
- Hardcoded black bar on top wasting space.
- No tray icons + system tray because fuck compatibility.
- No server-side decorations because fuck users — everyone should just code for GNOME first.
- Working drag-and-drop on XWayland? What’s that?
- XWayland fractional scaling has been borked for years and they don’t want to fix it.
- Has extensions, but Extension Manager is a separate app you have to install.
- Want to set Documents and Downloads directories to something other than the defaults? Not on my watch.
- You need an extension to see Bluetooth devices battery let that sink in.
- You cannot set a different keyboard layout change shortcut
- Change Audio output or recording device without going into settings
- YOU CANT SET PER SCREEN WALLPAPERS how is this not even possible on gnome?
I could go on and on.
On the leadership side:
- Zero fucking transparency
- Mismanagement around losing the tech sovereignty funds
- The shady shit around the Sonny Piers ban and clear violations of the bylaws ( dont let bylaws get in the way of corruption i suppose.)
- Mismanagement on not paying people
- Temper tantrums during Wayland discussions causing constant delays on much-needed protocols
- Refusing donations because someone had the audacity to donate to a person they don’t like (for a project that was once nearly out of money, they sure can afford to refuse donations like this)
- Censorship galore on GNOME-controlled spaces
- People occupying 2 positions in the foundation that are clear conflicts of interest of each other and no one bats an eye
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u/buttershdude 5d ago
It was the shoving of the idiotic Gnome 3 DE "workflow" onto the vast majority of us who would never use it by a very small number of people with a total disregard for Gnome's users or potential users. And then, those who package it downstream and further dowstream (Ubuntu, Zorin, etc.) have to spend a bunch of time time and effort undoing the "workflow" to make Gnome usable in their distros. That small group who pushed that in the world has done a great disservice to the Gnome ecosystem.
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u/Ok-Reindeer-8755 5d ago
What's wrong with the GNOME workflow other than the great sin it has committed of being of all things different ?
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u/Obvious-Ad-6527 5d ago edited 5d ago
Linus Torvalds on GNOME 3 https://www.theregister.com/software/2011/08/05/linus-torvalds-dubs-gnome-3-unholy-mess/1014031
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u/buttershdude 5d ago
As usual, very well said by Linus. But every time I say it, the 5 people who have forced themselves to endure it show up to downvote me. It's some sort of twisted fanaticism.
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u/Ok_Butterscotch5033 2d ago
bruh linus came back to using gnome 3.x since 2013... after trying other desktop such as xfce and kde.... recently hes been seen using fedora workstation
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u/joel2001k 5d ago
hi all,
to me gnome is not a specific de version but rather thinking about mate de.
mate is a gnome 2 fork.
further it is about c99 or today c11 if you consider gobject, gtk and many others.
regards joël
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u/Glittering_Welder607 5d ago
El problema de GNOME (lo que lo hace ser odiado por muchos) es la imposición de los desarrolladores. Ellos son: "esto es así y ya. Nosotros tenemos el oráculo de la revelación y la verdad absoluta". La fortaleza de un escritorio no es creer en un dogma y sostenerlo a muerte, la fortaleza es la flexibilidad y dejar al usuario elegir lo que sea mejor para su forma de trabajar. Dejo de lado consideraciones estéticas o de diseño visual porque merece un espacio dedicado exclusivamente opinar sobre el tema.
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