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Linus switches to Xfce, calls for a Gnome 2 fork

Posted by mariuz on · 11 comments
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It's not that I have rendering problems with gnome3 (although I do have those too), it's that the user experience of Gnome3 even without rendering problems is unacceptable. Why can't I have shortcuts on my desktop? Why can't I have the expose functionality? Wobbly windows? Why does anybody sane think that it's a good idea to have that "go to the crazy 'activities'" menu mode? I used to be upset when gnome developers decided it was "too complicated" for the user to remap some mouse buttons. In gnome3, the developers have apparently decided that it's "too complicated" to actually do real work on your desktop, and have decided to make it really annoying to do.

Linus Torvalds - +Cyrill Gorcunov: it's not that I have rendering problems with gnome3 (although I do have those too), it's that the user experience of Gnome3 even without rendering problems is unacceptable.

Why can't I have shortcuts on my desktop? Why can't I have the expose functionality? Wobbly windows? Why does anybody sane think that it's a good idea to have that "go to the crazy 'activities'" menu mode?

I used to be upset when gnome developers decided it was "too complicated" for the user to remap some mouse buttons. In gnome3, the developers have apparently decided that it's "too complicated" to actually do real work on your desktop, and have decided to make it really annoying to do.

Here's an example of "the crazy": you want a new terminal window. So you go to "activities" and press the "terminal" thing that you've made part of your normal desktop thing (but why can't I just have it on the desktop, instead of in that insane "activities" mode?). What happens? Nothing. It brings your existing terminal to the forefront.

That's just crazy crap. Now I need to use Shift-Control-N in an old terminal to bring up a new one. Yeah, that's a real user experience improvement. Sure.

I'm sure there are other ways, but that's just an example of the kind of "head up the arse" behavior of gnome3. Seriously. I have been asking other developers about gnome3, they all think it's crazy.

I'm using Xfce. I think it's a step down from gnome2, but it's a huge step up from gnome3. Really.

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Comments (11)

this is a story because...

fischerville ·
Is this a story largely because much of the community agrees with him? That is, i would say, the real story. Whenever i hear "Linus has switched from X to Y", it reminds me of the rhetorical device of invoking what "the founding fathers would have wanted".

The real story is not what Linus is doing, but what the community needs and wants.
helios ·
The "real" story is that Linus is reflecting the attitude of much of the community. It punctuates the situation, if not defines it.
vainrveenr ·
Quoting:The real story is not what Linus is doing, but what the community needs and wants.
One could also write: The real story is not just what Linus and the community need and want, but what the Gnome3 developers have already developed (supposedly, for the benefit of "the community") in this particular 3x release.

As Linus points out to +Cyrill Gorcunov:
Quoting:... Why can't I have shortcuts on my desktop? Why can't I have the expose functionality? Wobbly windows? Why does anybody sane think that it's a good idea to have that "go to the crazy 'activities'" menu mode?

I used to be upset when gnome developers decided it was "too complicated" for the user to remap some mouse buttons. In gnome3, the developers have apparently decided that it's "too complicated" to actually do real work on your desktop, and have decided to make it really annoying to do.




There is no call for a fork of gnome2 - why exagerate?

mxc ·
this headline is deliberately misleading. There is no call for a fork of gnome 2 at all. He is just saying how much he hates gnome 3.
Koriel ·
Actually if your read Linus's original post and not the paraphrased one shown here he did ask if the Fedora developers would fork it. although im guessing based on his sense of humour he did so jokingly.

The original thread is here
DrDubious ·
Personally, I'd rather see "faster development on XFCE" rather than "fork of Gnome2".

(I may be a moderate KDE fanboy, but I'm happy using XFCE as well.)
Koriel ·
Have to agree with you on the XFCE angle, Ive been an XFCE user for almost a year and a half now after switching from KDE4.

Although I like KDE4 it just consumes too much resources, XFCE is a good balance between useability and resource usage and therefore suits my needs perfectly.

It would be nice to see more development on XFCE as long it doesn't introduce bloat.
Steven_Rosenber ·
Now that Xfce has the ability to run network shares out of Thunar, it's closer to GNOME in terms of functionality than ever.
jdixon ·
> Although I like KDE4 it just consumes too much resources, XFCE is a good balance between useability and resource usage and therefore suits my needs perfectly.

That's been my experience also. XFCE seems to just strike the right balance.

Jeff91 ·
Thunar really turns me off.

Is there anything thunar does better than PCManFM? Because I personally have yet to find anything.

~Jeff
scan2006 ·
@Jeff91 Thunar has custom actions which is super easy to use and handy as h#ll.

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