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Comment by Mikeb85 | Hacker News Reader

Gnome is very usable for many of us. I'm tired of seeing the same 'it sucks as a productivity environment' comments.

If it's not your preference, you can say that, but Gnome Shell is perfectly fine when it comes to productivity. Quick app switching, searching, app launching, etc... How do these things hurt productivity?

I personally dislike KDE, but that's just my taste. Some people love XMonad or XFCE, and some people even like Unity.

Dunno, I'm a developer and my workflow involves several different tools, Gnome Shell certainly doesn't hurt 'productivity'.

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> I'm a developer and my workflow involves several different tools, Gnome Shell certainly doesn't hurt 'productivity'.

I'm also a developer whose workflow involves several different tools. One of those tools is Firefox, and I currently have several hundred tabs open in more than a dozen Firefox windows. I want to be able to instantaneously switch from Emacs to a specific Firefox window. I don't want to switch from Emacs to Firefox and then switch to a specific Firefox window (e.g., using Alt+`) like some desktop environments force their users to do.

The best solution I've found is to use a desktop environment or window manager that will display the Alt-Tab window list vertically with full titles displayed for all windows (which is similar to how I display tabs in Firefox using the Tree Style Tab extension). KDE and Openbox support this setup, and the last time I checked, Gnome didn't. So using Gnome would hurt my productivity.

I see your (valid) point but I am also positive that you could, if you wanted to, create an simple js plugin for gnome shell that would have the desired effect, as others have created alternative alt+tab switchers: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/15/alternatetab/

While this may be an issue for you, I doubt having so many Firefox tabs open is all that common. I wouldn't consider this a failure of Gnome.

Personally, having that many tabs open would make my head hurt. I'll generally have Vim open with a few open buffers, one browser window, one terminal, and the running program I'm working on...

Actually, you are countering his personal experience with your own. Just because you would find that many open tabs to be problematic doesn't mean he will. He could be like a lot of developers, lots and lots of documentation pages pointing to API info whilst they code :-)

> Actually, you are countering his personal experience with your own.

Kind of the point. Just because one developer finds KDE or Gnome or x better doesn't make it a universal fact.

Many of us find Gnome suits us just fine.

> He could be like a lot of developers, lots and lots of documentation pages pointing to API info whilst they code :-)

Most documentation pages are searchable and well organized. No need to keep hundreds of open pages.

+1 I have the same issue with alt+tab and have stopped using Gnome shell.

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/294/shellshape/

finally fixed this for me. Awesome-style window switching without Awesome-style window glitching.

Use workspaces, that is the best way to switch between maximized windows in gnome. Even easier with 'workspaces to dock' extension - just scroll at the right edge of the screen.

I currently have several hundred tabs open in more than a dozen Firefox windows.

This is not a typical use case. I do periodically see people leaving comments which claim that they usually have the entire World Wide Web open simultaneously, but not often enough for it to be a use case worth optimizing for.

Look up OneTab, it improved my quality of browsing the web x100+

Onetab basically refuses to load all previous tabs when you open the browser. By default, Firefox doesn't open old tabs until you move to them. Firefox also offers tab groups by default as well. Most importantly, Firefox uses only around half as much memory as chrome and (in my use) seems to be more responsive with lots of tabs open.

After having switched to KDE from Gnome, I can say Gnome Shell does hurt productivity. One example would be, Nautilus can't be split into two panes. When I have to move a bunch of files from one folder to another, on Gnome it would require right-click copy and then open the folder and then right-click-paste. Whereas on KDE, it merely means drag and drop. It will even ask you, if you want to move or copy, that could come handy at times. Usually, I have a working folder open in split and a new tab if I want a full folder.

Secondly, KDE comes with a full suite of applications [1] that all follow same philosophy of user choice than minimalism. Gnome severely lacks that kind of application database. For example, there are not many applications, including big names like Banshee, that use Gnome's message tray. Some applications use split menu and some don't. Overall, it's not a great user experience. Not to mention there is no way in Gnome to entertain Dropbox icon which is specifically designed for system tray.

[1] http://www.kde.org/applications/

And you could say that file managers hurt productivity because they need you to focus on the file, after finding the specific one you were going to move. And then you have to wait for it to ask and focus your view on the option you were to choose, when you had the option to go with mv or cp in the first place and you don't have to navigate to the folder you need to copy the files either.

For moving and copying files from one directory to another, it's arguable that Gnome's select files, right-click and select "Move To", or "Copy To" from the context menu and select the destination from the resulting dialog is as efficient as the split-pane way.

You get split Nautilus windows in GNOME the same way you get split anything windows: tile the window to the left (Super+Left or drag window until mouse touches the left screen edge), open new Nautilus window, tile it to the right (Super+Right or draw window until mouse touches the right screen edge). Presto.

Instructions to split a window in KDE.

   click split

"Quick app switching"

For me, it's candy app switching but definitely not quick. Having to look at animated transitions is extremely distracting and definitely hurts productivity.

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