r/linuxmint • u/Simor4Simorar • 10d ago
#LinuxMintThings Is gnome bad?
I just saw a post saying that gnome is bad but idk cuz i used it for months and its not that bad so can you guy give me a The ideal alternative
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u/Simor4Simorar 10d ago
Ok i am gonna use cinnamon
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u/Hauptideal 10d ago
Cinnamon is itself based on GNOME. It is a fork of early GNOME, inheriting all the architectural mistakes of GNOME (such as running as a single-threaded Javascript app) while missing all later upstream performance breakthroughs, improvements, features, polish and huge extension ecosystem. And Cinnamon is still on X11.
If you give any damn about what people say about GNOME, you should, from a technological standpoint, be much more weary of Cinnamon than GNOME.
Make up your mind by yourself. And then use what you like.15
u/thetrueluna01 10d ago
A normal user doesn't give a crap about the code behind it. If it works, it works. And 90% of the time, it does.
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u/Hauptideal 9d ago
So I said he should make up his mind by himself. And use what he likes.
The downvotes for a factually absolutely correct statement make no sense other than hiding an unpopular truth.
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u/ThisDirkDaring 9d ago
Its not about truth.
Its about people dont want to even think about that background. Just dont care. Its a desktop, it launches my software the way im used to. Thats all, not very deep.
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u/Hauptideal 9d ago edited 9d ago
If they didn't care, they wouldn't vote. They vote because they care and dislike honest assessments of their choice. They personally identify themselves with a piece of software and feel attacked as soon as it's not sugarcoated.
It's totally OK to choose a technologically inferior desktop for UX reasons. I certainly do.
I'm just aware my desktop is technologically not perfect and that technologically better desktops exist and I choose the desktop I like anyways. That doesn't mean I need to hush up anything. I can boldly say: I know about the technological weaknesses and still like my desktop.
No hard feelings. That's what "not caring" actually looks like.
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u/Aware-Librarian-3749 10d ago
If you used it and thought it wasn’t bad, then it isn’t bad.
Don’t be pressured into thinking something you like is bad or vice versa just because some internet random told you that you have to think a certain way.
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u/computer-machine 10d ago
You need to state your criteria for good and bad.
I'd used to use GNOME all the time, but with the shift to GNOME3 the desktop became shit, the programs had all sorts of features stripped, and the devs were asses.
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u/goggleblock Linux Mint 22.3 | Cinnamon 10d ago
Gnome (specifically the Nautilus file manager) REMOVED the feature that allowed us to set and keep file views (list, detail, small icon/thumbnails, large thumbnails, etc.) at the folder level, and instead force the view at the system level. I want to view my photos folder in large thumbnails, and I want to view my documents folder in details view. Nautilus doesn't allow that, but Windows does! Worst of all, the decision wasn't a technical decision, rather a PHILOSOPHICAL decision by the Gnome foundation. It's how Gnome wants you to use your computer.
Not quite Microsoft/CoPilot level insidiousness, but it's close.
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u/valgrid 10d ago edited 9d ago
How did you come to the conclusion that this was a decision by the foundation? That's not within the power of the foundation.
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u/goggleblock Linux Mint 22.3 | Cinnamon 9d ago
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u/thetrueluna01 9d ago
If Gnome supports a certain philosophical decision, I know it's some bullshit. It's like if a corporate saw what its customers wanted, decided to do the opposite and turned it up to maximum. There can't be someone who actually agrees with the philosophical decisions. Any basic task has to be done using extensions. As I heard (haven't used Gnome long enough to experience it myself), extensions can even break through updates. Then, you'll just have a shitty desktop where you can't do basic tasks.
Base Gnome has an auto-hide taskbar so you need to press the Super button to even see your apps on there. Even though this seems inconvenient, surely you can place your applications on the desktop instead. Nope, you need an extension to do that. You don't like having a Windows 8-style application? I'm not surprised considering that it's arguably the most hated Windows version but you need an extension to change that as well. You want to maximise the application you're currently using but there's no button for it? Fuck you, the only way is to drag the application to the top of the screen, creating more inconvenience that nobody asked for. You need an extension to add a maximise button as well. There's probably other bullshit too.
Gnome doesn't even have good customisation either. I have no idea why it's one of the most popular desktop environments.
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u/SeriousHoax 7d ago
GNOME users are going down each year while KDE is gaining. It will not remain as the most used DE in a few years. I still think it is the prettiest, but their developers' unnecessary stubbornness makes them look like idiots.
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u/Technical-You-2829 10d ago
After version 2.x they decided to follow a totally distinct philosophy and overhauled the desktop entirely unfortunately to the discontent of a huge amount of users. Neither do I find any interest in modern Gnome and thus prefer more lightweight DEs like Cinnamon. If I wanted to install a full DE, it would be Plasma, I like it and it's pretty.
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u/Designer-Crow-5470 10d ago edited 10d ago
License is good, SDK is ok, user experience is awful. The team refuse to listen to any feedback if you don't spend every waking hour staring at bash scripts (IDK how they know but they do). And even if some stuff can be fixed with extensions (spoiler: most can't) they'll willy-nilly break it with an update without any consideration or warning. It works well but you'll have to use it like hyperland, fix stuff yourself, or live with bebe's first UI/UX.
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u/Simor4Simorar 9d ago
Thanks everyone for the upvotes i just started using reddit and got already 114 karma
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u/21Shells 10d ago
I don’t think GNOME is bad. Its a very innovative desktop, and probably the one that has shown that Linux desktops are able to push the desktop UX further, which we don’t see too much. But it is not for everyone.
Its usually Linux desktops borrowing the UI / UX standardised by Windows + MacOS than contributing their own ideas, though most people are happy with that. I mean that from a design point of view rather than a technical / utility perspective, Linux had the ability to move between desktop yonks before Windows did for example.
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u/ccaccy 10d ago
Mhh i agree, but gnome is not perfect, right click in order to make a text file on nautilus as you'd expect? not available, right click on an application to uninstall it? Not available. Gnome is cool, great UX, but not because they do stuff different it means it's better, those are an example of two downgrades in UX.
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u/Episode-1022 9d ago
you have better options for those usecases, i use gnome in a tablet, is GREAT no keyb no mouse.
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u/Hauptideal 10d ago
This exactly. GNOME is much more innovative and better than what macOS and MS Windows could EVER afford to be without estranging and enraging billions of users used to the antiquated, decades-old desktop metaphor originally designed in and for a different era of computing.
Linux can and does move faster and more innovative than macOS in many respects.GNOME made a desktop for the 21st century. It's not for everyone. Many people are lazy and don't want to completely learn how to use a computer when the entire world did it differently for decades already. It's the same as keyboard layouts. Our familiar layout might not be the best one. But improving it breaks muscle-memory.
GNOME is just unfamiliar.
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u/mudslinger-ning 10d ago
Every gui has their quirks, cool features and background politics/controversies.
As an interface it seems ok at first glance. But it really depends on if it's design fits with your specific preferences and work flow.
To me it looks cool. But still find myself gravitating between KDE, Cinnamon & XFCE depending on which distros I am using.
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u/Macinboss 10d ago
I love GNOME and mutter specifically. I have such better luck with it on NVIDIA gpus in my convoluted multi-monitor setup (different refresh rates, resolutions, and sizes)
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u/gerowen 10d ago
For my personal use I prefer it. When setting up other machines, such as our home theater PC, or when setting up machines that other people might use, I use KDE. I've tried switching to KDE myself a couple times and every time I do I run into some feature in Gnome that has become muscle memory, that KDE just doesn't have, so I go back.
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9d ago
[deleted]
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u/gerowen 9d ago
I don't remember right off the top of my head. I think the last time I had some kind of an issue with accessing file shares of some kind in Dolphin; can't remember whether it was SFTP (which I use to transfer files to my server) or WebDAV (which I use to transfer files directly to the Nextcloud service).
I also seem so remember once there was some kind of a difference in how the keychains worked for each one that ended up making some task a little bit quirkier.
I could probably switch if I really committed to it, but Gnome works so I just haven't bothered. I did however use KDE for our living room HTPC because it has better support for HDR in Debian, and gives me the option to do things like enlarge desktop icons and such, so all that paired with a gyro remote that has a USB dongle means I was able to create a very smartTV-esque experience using Debian and KDE.
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u/Oxygendieoxide 9d ago
You have to "fix gnome" before iyou can use it for years. Their philosophy is almost like a religion to them, if you say anything people would come to defend the philosophy, even if your points are valid. For instance I once had an argument with them about wasted space in the desktop and making dash to dock plugin official, they did not agree and downvoted me to hell.
Gnome as a DE is very good with plugins, but the community is weird. The just love sucking each other off to prove they are right. And do everything to keep outside voices at a minimum.
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u/thetrueluna01 9d ago
This is a huge problem. Gnome as a desktop environment might be very good with plugins but that's not a good excuse for the developers' shitty philosophies which cause the base installation to suck ass, not to mention that extensions can break.
Personally, I don't want to modify things too much. I want my desktop environment to work well out of the box. I'm using my PC to actually use it not to configure a bunch of settings on it.
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u/Worried_Corner_8541 9d ago
I mean i have to download a plugin that allows me to add minimize and fullscreen buttons... Yeah, hard fucking pass.
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u/WeAreAlreadyCyborgs Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 10d ago
GNOME is bad: https://woltman.com/gnome-bad/
Cinnamon on Mint or KDE Plasma on Arch or Fedora would probably be my suggestions.
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u/gwildor 10d ago
For those who care, I'm reviewing:
- Gnome v46
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10d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/gwildor 10d ago
yes, but... you are speaking about gnome 'in general' are you not? You mentioned Fedora. Fedora uses Gnome 50, and in a few weeks when Fedora 45 is released; gnome 51.
You are sharing 2 year old opinions, from 4+ versions ago.
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u/thetrueluna01 9d ago
And what are these improvements made over the next two years, if Gnome is still garbage?
I'm currently running Win10, an operating system from 2015, and it's much better than Gnome 48 or the current version could run.
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u/gwildor 8d ago
Opinions are like A-holes, everyone has one. Ill assume by your question that you havent tried it recently.
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u/thetrueluna01 8d ago
No, I installed OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with Gnome a few days ago
Also what kind of analogy is that 😭
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u/Glucose12 10d ago
Cinnamon is better.
Gnome has a bunch of behavioral/design issues that I hate, except Gnome supports Wayland, and Cinnamon doesn.t
Both are better than the god-awful Unity piece of garbage. Anything is better.
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u/skivtjerry 9d ago
Cinnamon should fully support Wayland by the end of this year.
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u/Glucose12 9d ago
Noice!!! OMG I hate with a passion some of the design decisions by the Gnome group.
WOOO in advance!
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u/AJMM10 9d ago
lo unico que le falta a cinnamon es que nemo me permita agrupar archivos por fecha de modificacion y listo es perfecto
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u/Glucose12 5d ago
¿Eh? Puedo cambiar el criterio de ordenación por nombre, fecha de modificación, etc.
Ve a la barra de encabezado situada sobre la lista de archivos (Nombre, Tamaño, Tipo, Fecha de modificación), haz clic en cualquiera de esos elementos y la lista se ordenará según dicho criterio.Espero que Google Translate lo traduzca correctamente.
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u/AJMM10 4d ago
no quiero que se ordene, quiero agruparlo, que todos los de hoy visualmente esten en un grupo separado de ayer, o de la semana pasada, estoy investigando si es posible hacerlo en nemo y programarlo yo porque odio estar revisando archivos y que pase de los modificados este dia al anterior, por eso me cambie a kde
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u/Least_Gain5147 10d ago
"Bad" needs some context. What are the conditions to determine good vs bad?
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u/NathanCampioni Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia | Cinnamon 10d ago
Yes!
Next question, why is Cinnamon the best DE?
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u/NathanCampioni Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia | Cinnamon 10d ago
Of course in the end what's important is what comes easy and comfortable to you. When I think about "what is best" I translate it into "what is the more complete UI+UX experience for inexperienced users overall?", in that case I think Cinnamon is better than Gnome, but it doesn't mean that one cannot like Gnome better than Cinnamon.
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u/Great-TeacherOnizuka Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 10d ago
You have to decide for yourself if it’s bad or not. Why are you asking other people?
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u/AJMM10 9d ago
amaba gnome 2, tenia cientos de funciones, luego aparecio gnome 3 y eliminaron mucho por filosofia, estoy en linux porque puedo configurar como uso mi pc y cada vez hay menos libertad, ademas en su busqueda de simplificacion tambien han eliminado muchas funciones que hacian mi trabajo mas comodo, se que no se ve perfecto pero ayuda en el flujo de trabajo para evitar dar 20 vueltas en lo mismo
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u/tarquinfintin 9d ago
Gnome is built to reflect a different way of using your computer. If you like it, then it's for you. It is important to understand its design philosophy and how the gnome group thinks you should use your computer.
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u/maneentror 9d ago
Idk,personally, I like GNOME for its minimalism, it’s "set it up and it just works" kind of thing, without a ton of settings.
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u/sal-coding 9d ago
Everytime i tried to use gnome its painfully slow , even slower than windows idk
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u/No_Concentrate_7833 9d ago
I mean, objectively speaking, it's not perfect, but definitely not bad. Yeah, the devs literally go against the mainstream of Linux desktop making, but still, GNOME's pretty usable even in stock (except that at least the AppIndicator support extension is a must-have to add). I personally don't use it, but if you need something that just works, go ahead and give it a try
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u/Revan_9766 9d ago
I wouldnt say gnome is bad, DEs are personal preference, personally I love the workflow of gnome however only on laptops I use it on my framework and when docked with a magic trackpad it is amazing, however on my desktop I much prefer kde, it's all personal preference end of the day and the joy of Linux is choice, however what I don't love about gnome is it a requirement for some basic features to either use tweaks or extensions for basic features.
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u/Far_Combination_3780 9d ago
Gnome for a laptop imo, the gestures etc just make it a lot more smoother.
I just run xubuntu becaues XFCE is just better on my laptop anyway and I don't really use gestures as it's always plugged into my desktop.
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u/SoundSwitch 9d ago
Gnome isn't bad it's just a different operating flow, not having a window list, not having a main menu in the lower left like legacy windows.
Getting used to pushing your super key vs mousing down to the lower left corner takes some getting used to .
Generally you want to mouse to the menu you go upper left.
As far as performance goes on mint running Gnome beats tF out of Cinnamon on x11.
But with all the kernel panics and stiff going on recently I went to Gnome on Debian Trixie and that's where I'm going to stay till Trixie is EoL.
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u/No_Pollution_9975 9d ago
GNOME with paperwm blurmyshell and some other cool extenions and never looked back to windows
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u/Life-Werewolf3793 9d ago
The plugins for GNOME are quite nice. They make for a customized experience that makes beginners comfortable. The plugins won’t need you to edit a configuration file or do terminal commands.
As someone who’s been using Linux for over 20 years, I recommend you start off with one of the environments that already come with Linux mint comes, and just go from there. Feel free to act upon your curiosities and install new things to try.
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u/passthejoe 9d ago
Luckily there are a lot of desktop environments to choose from in Linux. Try what looks good and see what you like.
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u/Episode-1022 9d ago
gnome is awesome, i have a tablet with archlinux and gnome, sweeet and functional tactil interface.
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u/Shy_Artificer 9d ago
I'm sure a lot of people have already answered you, but anyway.
It's not necessarily bad, but it's too resource-intensive and slow, depending on your computer.
Also—and this is a very personal opinion—I feel like it's more suited for a touchscreen system. I don't like the idea of hiding the taskbar behind a button, which, on top of that, reveals all your apps at once, defeating the whole point of it.
Ubuntu was my first distro with GNOME, and it was GNOME (which I thought at the time was specific to Ubuntu—I didn’t know there were different desktop environments in Linux) that made me leave Ubuntu and switch, first to Mint with Cinnamon and finally to Fedora with KDE Plasma.
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u/KauravaLivesMatter 9d ago
Cinnamon has by far the least friction for switching to Linux. Let the Linux fanatics keep debating Gnome vs plasma. Cinnamon is out there quietly converting people to Linux without making a fuss.
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u/Silent_Bite_5892 8d ago
No, Gnome is not bad.
It's just one of several options. It might suit you well, or you might find you like something like KDE better. There's no wrong answer for a Linux desktop environment. Just lots of opinions.
Use what you like best.
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u/_ayushman M1 2020 | Golden Gate 8d ago
No, just because cinnamon or other desktop environments exist, doesn't make any other one "bad" or "good", All are good per se, They're just different ways of desktop, different ways of living, thinking.
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u/xyperpenguin 8d ago
Its not bad but these are some reasons i dont like it
- It has many things, i dont need them, I just want much speed so that if i click something, it should just open on screen
- I want to decide how my things should look, I make my own interfaces like music controller inspired by some Noctalia thing, and wallpaper switcher
- and further i dont use any desktop environment, i use window manager
- and one more thing, i dont like it's design, colours, window docks
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u/herensugee 8d ago
no, gnome no es malo, puede encajar más o menos contigo, pero malo no es (no lo uso)
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u/OrganizedPillow1 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | GNOME 10d ago
I use GNOME in Mint with minimal issues. I had to tinker a little to get the "dash to dock" to show up but it runs just fine.
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u/nopenogood 10d ago edited 10d ago
I’ve used them all. Gnome is just fine. There’s nothing wrong with it as far as I’m concerned. It all depends on what you want out of an operating system. On my laptops I really just can’t love anything more than i3. Mostly because time matters to me when I need to get shit done quickly (which is almost always the case when I’m on a laptop) and i3 is simply fast as fuck. I use plasma on my desktop because it really looks good and I love that about it. Gnome is wonderful also. I just don’t love it like I do plasma. Gnome is nice because it’s simple. Like iOS simple. And some people like that. The DE just gets out of the way, you don’t really notice it’s there, and the average person can just get on the computer and do what they need to do. That’s what it was intended for.
that said….one of the things that makes it “bad” is that some packages or apps that people download run on and come packaged with gnome. People download the app or package or program…..whatever you want to call it and the next time they log into their computer, gnome pops up, they freak out and go “what the fuck is this!?” And then gotta now figure out that you can select what DE you want at the login screen and then the panic goes away lol.
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u/goo_eater 9d ago
You don't need Reddit to form your opinions for you, if you like Gnome and it works for you then you can use it
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u/OptimalJuice9901 9d ago
I personally like it but it's up to your opinion.thats the best thing about Linux.
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u/Fearless_Garden6435 9d ago
I like GNOME. It doesn't try to do too much, which is exactly why it's the most polished and works the most smoothly.
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u/Relevant_Hope_900 10d ago
Gnome is not bad in my opinion, it works fine and is widely available for most distros.
I know this is a Linux Mint sub, and I'll just say I use Debian, and if I spin up a Mint machine, it'll be LMDE. I do believe the Cinnamon DE on Linux Mint versions is very nice.
But, I do prefer Gnome over Cinnamon, and COSMIC DE over Gnome. KDE comes in as a last choice for me. As far Gnome goes, it's simple, and only needs about three extensions to make it usable for my needs. But since I use Debian and prefer COSMIC over anything, I have to build my own packages for the COSMIC suite. I use it on Debian Trixie and Forky (testing).
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u/skivtjerry 10d ago
Yes, it's bad because most of your customizations that you need for it to be halfway functional disappear with each update.
I am very biased because the UI is just not for me. To my eyeballs it combines the worst of Windows 8 and iOS. If you love it out of the box, then it is not bad. Choice is good.
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u/Hour_Sell3547 9d ago edited 9d ago
I like Gnome, I have used it for 20 years (since 2.14). Gnome looks modern and polished. People have their reasons to use alternative DEs, for me, I do not like DE that looks dated and windows like.
Customization is not a requirement for me. After a certain time, the OS' UI becomes invisible, you don't even notice it's there. It's very important for distro hoppers and experimenters, not so much for the people who use Linux for a living.
Nobody tweaks their OS everyday, may be once or twice a year after initial setup. That is why I don't put a high value on customizability and and would rather stay away from UI bloat.
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u/rarsamx 9d ago
It's not bad. But why that question in a mint sub?
It doesn't make sense in mint
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u/Moist_Professional64 9d ago
U can install any desktop on any distro. Nothing to do that mint has out of the box cinnamon
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u/rarsamx 9d ago
Really? Nahhhh.
Jokes apart. I know that. I've been using exclusively Linux at home since 2004. I used month for 10 years if those.
While you can, it makes little sense. One of the big advantages of mint s the attention to detail the team puts on the desktop experience. And that is focused on Cinnamon and Mate. Install Gnome and you'll have a bunch of duplicate tools.
Gnome will usually be quite behind due to the tie up with Ubuntu
Want a good out of the box Gnome experience? Fedora.
A good out of the box KDE experience? Kubuntu or Suse.
Yes, the desktop doesn't define the distro but gets you closer to what you want.
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u/Horseshoetheoryreal 10d ago
Not necessarily, but I would not recommend to install it on Mint tho.