Linux Mint Looks to Fork More Gnome Software, Make XApp More Independent

Mint is one of those distros that have walked the middle way between ease and power remarkably well. They have proven that they can be restrained in a manner that makes for great results.

To fork these things and make them fit in more with the entire Mint ecosystem could be a good thing, lets just hope they aren't biting off too much.

Mint is one of those distros that basically took the usability essence of Windows XP and just continued that into the future. No whacky concepts or bold plans for radical change based on a hunch, just subtle and measured improvements one after another. Arguably they took the hardest path forward and nailed it.

The one thing I don’t like about Gnome is bringing phone paradigms to the desktop, especially those hamburgers menu and the full screen application launcher. If they wanted minimal toolbars, they could just give the option to customize and toggle them like macOS. I think tablet mode for a laptop should be stylus based, and touch interactions need a different type of UI and windows managing.

From the Linux Mint blog (https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4675), it seems this is the crucial issue.

"They will integrate well. If we let you choose a desktop theme, ALL installed applications will support it."

So it seems like these Xapps will be built for Mint's desktop themes instead of the Gnome design language. Hopefully the work will be worth it for the Mint project.

As the article didn't bother explaining what XApp is, I had to go search for it and it is:

> Cross-desktop libraries and common resources

Wave play

Your agnosticism brings all the, well me to the yard.