Plus https://extensions.gnome.org/ is incredible.
P.S. - [2] this is my personal optimization script for a lean and developer friendly Gnome Ubuntu 14.04 install. YMMV.
[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGNOME/GetUbuntuGNOME
[2] https://gist.github.com/sandys/6030823#file-lean_install_ubu...
Alt+Tab is completely broken: it gathers windows from all virtual desktops, ruining the very purpose of virtual desktops. There are plug-ins that help, but they keep breaking after version updates and they don't function as sleek as Unity's built-in default window switcher.
Gnome's "workspaces" are not as powerful as traditional virtual desktops. The biggest problem is that they're dynamic: for example Gnome won't let you have an empty workspace - it will kill it and re-arrange apps from adjacent workspaces to fill the space.
Last, but not least, Gnome's way of launching apps gives me nausea: it insists on animating every pixel on my 30" desktop every time I want to launch an application.
Finally, Unity is much more responsive and less buggy, at least on my (modest) hardware: 2 year old i5 with Intel graphics.
2. static workspace - this is actually fixed in 3.10 (part of 14.04) now. Enabled by the Gnome Tweak tool
3. slow animation - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/277/impatience/
Gnome 3.10 is really good and incredibly good slick alternative to Mac - without being a clone. 3.12 is likely to be better.
This is kind of an opinion. There is no rule book that says it needs to behave a certain way. I prefer this.
>ruining the very purpose of virtual desktops
I use virtual desktops to separate windows in overview mode so when they're presented for picking they aren't really small. And also for organization.
>Gnome's "workspaces" are not as powerful as traditional virtual desktops. The biggest problem is that they're dynamic: for example Gnome won't let you have an empty workspace - it will kill it and re-arrange apps from adjacent workspaces to fill the space.
Why would you need an empty workspace (except at the end, which gnome provides)? Seems to make since to me. It doesn't really "re-arrange apps" it just moves the work spaces to fill in the empty gap.
>Last, but not least, Gnome's way of launching apps gives me nausea: it insists on animating every pixel on my 30" desktop every time I want to launch an application.
Eh.. Animations aren't for everyone. They have not bothered me though, and I think for most users it provides a better experience than just having things "happen".
>Finally, Unity is much more responsive and less buggy
I'm running gnome 3.11 on an i5 with intel graphics also, and it seems pretty snappy, after all, it's just javascript. I have not experienced any bugs outside of experimental software I installed. To be honest, I have never experienced a snappier desktop than gnome 3.
Why would you need an empty workspace (except at the end,
which gnome provides)? Seems to make since to me.
It doesn't really "re-arrange apps" it just moves
the work spaces to fill in the empty gap.
In practice, that's not likely to happen to me often, since I leave all of my workspaces open and populated nearly all the time, but it's still an option that I would turn off if I could.
In case you wanted more proof of this I think both of these are wrong and it should be by window not application. Thankfully MATE does this and is coincidentally available now in Ubuntu 14.04.
That's also the default on Xfce.
I love the fact that I can choose between many great options.
To me, this is the problem. I don't want to rely on extensions that will potentially break when Gnome updates or be abandoned when their developers move on to other things. I also don't want to be forced to spend hours fiddling with settings in order to get something that isn't completely broken. I just want my stuff to work.
I also find the graphical nonsense in Gnome 3 and KDE 4 nauseating. They make for some sexy Youtube videos (like Compiz when it first came out) but for day-to-day use I find them awful (and shockingly buggy, but that's another debate).
I'm actually impressed at how they built a javascript API to be able to mess with core UX !
Example: http://i.imgur.com/bKGyEo3.png
See: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GNOME#Reduce_title_bar_...
But the tweak tool lets you change the font size which was enough for me. I also installed htitle to firefox to hide the title bar when full screen.
FTFY
Plus, if you dont like certain things - you can customize it within seconds using extensions.gnome.org (for example - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/15/alternatetab/ )
I think all the design decision by Unity are a bit jarring for me - including all the left-window-close-maximize things. BTW, if you follow my script, Unity is not really wiped out, but certain heavy applications (like Nautilus/Gedit) are replaced by lightweight alternatives (like Nemo/Geany).
P.S. were you not surprised by the weird way Nautilus groups icons now ?
Same with Nautilus.
The main thing that's holding me back is that my machines aren't massively powerful - do you know if Gnome is as resource-hungry as Unity?
The only difference is that GNOME makes more serious use of your graphics card.
KDE with lots of effects >> Unity ~= KDE with fewer effects > GNOME ~= Xfce >> LXDE
One of the first things I recommend is aptitude over apt-get and that manages your stale packages much better. (for e.g. aptitude will offer to remove unused packages each time you remove an installed package, whereas apt-get will only do that if explicitly asked to with apt-get autoremove.)