Imo the problem with Linux GUIs is that there are 2 kinds of devs working on it:
- Those who want to bring about The Year Of The Linux Desktop and believe this can be brought about by removing every remotely complicated feature under the sun.
- Those who think the only purpose of GUIs is to display multiple terminals side by side.
The enlightened, then, know that the only purpose of ANY desktop environment is to start the correct program when I hit "super" and then type the first 3-4 characters of a program name. And to do that left/right screen split thing when you hit super+left/right.
I can't figure out how my workflow is that different from other linux users or if I'm just part of the silent majority. Literally all I ask of my DE is:
- the super+search thing i mentioned above
- run the following programs fullscreen: terminator, intellij, pycharm, vscodium, firefox
And... that's just it. Oh wait, one more thing:
- make video, wifi, audio, multiple monitors etc just work
It's in service of that last one that I've been pretty happy with Gnome 3 the whole time it's been out. None of their shuffles or excisions have interrupted my workflow, so I don't mind it at all.
I agree with the point you're making, however for some reason on Linux, desktop environments usually are far more extensive than that.
KDE, GNOME, etc. usually don't only consist of an app launcher, but a file browser, text editor, archive manager, browser, image viewer and who knows what else.
I never understood this tribalism, doesn't the spirit of open source mean that I'm free to choose the tools of my liking, may the best tool win, etc.?
This certainly the case on Windows, where people usually just replace tools to their liking.
Most distros usually strongly push the desktop environment's native apps for every niche.
When I have multiple screens I run 95% of my applications in fullscreen mode. There is not much heavy lifting that a DE needs to do. Occasionally I use split windows.
Honestly, I think the latest version of gnome-screenshot that has been directly integrated into the DE is amazing.
- Those who want to bring about The Year Of The Linux Desktop and believe this can be brought about by removing every remotely complicated feature under the sun.
- Those who think the only purpose of GUIs is to display multiple terminals side by side.