Maybe Ubuntu and Gnome aren't so bad after all ;-)

[Jason]

For my Introduction To Linux course offered by Linux Foundation through the edx learning platform, I had to install three different distros (as VMware guests) representing the families of Linux Distros - CentOS, Ubuntu and OpenSUSE Leap. They're all using Gnome although for CentOS I used the older 2.x version of Gnome (screenshot below) because that's what they use in the course. Lately, I've been doing a lot of stuff in the shell so I'm just using Ubuntu.

Now I'm starting to like Gnome; it's very pretty and not nearly as customizable at Plasma but sometimes simple is good. I still hate the the program picker. These two feelings are putting me in a state of cognitive dissonance. I blame Fox for this.

[fox]

....

Now I'm starting to like Gnome; it's very pretty and not nearly as customizable at Plasma but sometimes simple is good. I still hate the the program picker. These two feelings are putting me in a state of cognitive dissonance. I blame Fox for this.

I'm happy to take credit for your enjoyment of Gnome; it's about time! But what is a program picker? Do you mean Gnome software? If so, I don't care for it either and I don't use it.

[Jason]

Nah, I mean the huge screen full of icons to pick the application you want.

[buster]

"Now I'm starting to like Gnome"

Gnome's gnot for gbuster!

[fox]

Nah, I mean the huge screen full of icons to pick the application you want.

That's not the way I start an app. The ones I use most are in the doc. For others, I hit the super key and type the name of the app. When it comes up, click on it. Very fast.

[Jason]

That's not the way I start an app. The ones I use most are in the doc. For others, I hit the super key and type the name of the app. When it comes up, click on it. Very fast.

Plasma has the same thing. I'm talking about the way it looks now how it's used. I can't stand those giant icons. If I wanted Android on my computer, I'd have Android on my computer.

[fox]

To each his or her own, but one would never see those large icons if they don't use the Show Applications view. The size of the icons can be set in the dock in Settings/Appearance. My setting has the dock icons at probably half the size of that shown in the Applications view. Of course if you don't want a visible dock, you wouldn't have that option.

[buster]

Over a year ago the three of us had a long back and forth on Gnome -very civilized and pleasant. During all 3 pages, I never mentioned that for a virtual, Gnaome always felt 'heavy' compared to Plasma. Anyway, if you wish to look at it, here's the link:

https://beta.plugintolinux.ca/forum/index.php?topic=701.0

[Jason]

To each his or her own, but one would never see those large icons if they don't use the Show Applications view. The size of the icons can be set in the dock in Settings/Appearance. My setting has the dock icons at probably half the size of that shown in the Applications view. Of course if you don't want a visible dock, you wouldn't have that option.

I never thought of making them smaller. Thanks for the suggestion! I actually like the dock. They've done a much better job than in the past in making the icons look good on the dock. I just don't like that kind of menu but I don't hate it now. Plasma has the option to have that kind of view and I don't care for it there, either. I'm old and less open to change. I'm getting crankier every year and I was pretty cranky to start with!

But we're all different. Difference makes the world go around. I think most in the club use Linux Mint Cinnamon as their regular distro, you use Ubuntu, and Buster and I are pretty avid Kubuntu users. Oh and Brian uses Arch but he's an odd fellow (I'm kidding, Brian). If I've missed anybody, let me know! It's good to have us using different desktops/distros so we can help one another. You never know when one of us is going to switch.

I was curious, can you get more themes in Ubuntu? I see they have a dark theme now which looks similar to the Standard theme mostly. Do you use the Tweak tool to get them? Or are you happy with these choices?

[Jason]

Over a year ago the three of us had a long back and forth on Gnome -very civilized and pleasant. During all 3 pages, I never mentioned that for a virtual, Gnaome always felt 'heavy' compared to Plasma. Anyway, if you wish to look at it, here's the link:

https://beta.plugintolinux.ca/forum/index.php?topic=701.0

Thanks for the trip down memory lane as I had forgotten much of that post. You sure it wasn't too heated? I believe gauntlets were dropped, swords unsheathed and shields were readied. Or maybe that was Game of Thrones, I forget.

I'm using Ubuntu 20.04 with Gnome right now as a guest and it doesn't feel heavy. Programs seem to load as fast as in Kubuntu which has much more RAM. The Ubuntu guest does have 4 GB RAM and 2 processor cores allocated to it so maybe that's the difference that with you. It uses more RAM than Plasma (1.7 GB to 0.9 GB) but that doesn't seem to affect performance. And the difference in RAM disappears once you start opening programs. With Brave browser open with 3 tabs in Plasma and 3 tabs in Ubuntu, they both take up 2.1 GB of RAM.

[buster]

I'd also like to take any readers even farther back in time, to the late 1990's, when the quite different Linux club used Red Hat, with Gnome, and Mandrake, with KDE. Jason, you may have also used SUSE, but I can't remember the desktop.

I do remember the forum was a series of emails that went to all members, and I especially remember the arguments about KDE and Gnome went on even then, in 'the old days'. As you can imagine, I supported KDE.

[Jason]

I'd also like to take any readers even farther back in time, to the late 1990's, when the quite different Linux club used Red Hat, with Gnome, and Mandrake, with KDE. Jason, you may have also used SUSE, but I can't remember the desktop.

I do remember the forum was a series of emails that went to all members, and I especially remember the arguments about KDE and Gnome went on even then, in 'the old days'. As you can imagine, I supported KDE.

Yeah, KDE (it was called that then) came out before Gnome. In fact, Gnome was created because the libraries (Qt) used to create KDE programs wasn't considered "Free" by the way that the Free Software Foundation defined it. You could create programs with it but they couldn't be commercial. Free Software (as in speech, not beer) doesn't have any stipulations into how it is used. So the Gnome project was created to offer an alternative modern desktop environment. Up to that time, I remember you had fvwm, icewm, elightenment (very different back then), Afterstep, etc. But none of them other than the last two had much in the way of features, that is, none.

I remember downloading KDE rpms when it first came out and installing them on RedHat 5.2 (or 6?). They didn't even have proper package management back then so you had to install them in a specific order.

And I have SUSE Linux Workstation, which cost money back then. I still have the box and manual. I think it came with KDE and other desktops.

Bill was one of the original members when we used Linux Mandrake as it was called then. I started out with Red Hat.

[buster]

Bill had placed a free ad in Peterborough This week (or its ancestor) inviting computer enthusiasts to the building in the zoo. So you and Bill were there but I don't remember anyone else.

About 6 months before i had borrowed a Red Hat install and put it into an old computer with a small black and white monitor. You cannot believe the excitement when it booted!

Within the next year Clint found us and became the Treasurer.

Heady days indeed. Like explorers finding a new unknown continent.

[Jason]

I remember the zoo with the stuffed animals in it which I thought was weird to have in a building there but anyway, I didn't realize you went that far back. Before the zoo, we met at the Peterborough Native Learning Program, I believe. That was the beginning of the LUG after it became it's own group from having been a SIG of the Kawartha Computer Club. It was definitely exciting discovering something new and back then Windows really sucked - it crashed a lot unless you had Windows 2000 or NT 4. Linux has come a long way since then.

[Jason]

Speaking of the ole' days... here's an interview from last year with Gael Duval, the creator of Linux Mandrake, the first Linux distribution to come with a graphical installer and a real desktop environment.