If somebody is coming from a different DE he wants the same interactions that they used to do. It’s easy to hate Gnome because people see that first. And they find:
- there’s no tray
- what’s that line at the top
- where’s the start menu
- where are the opened apps
- is the app drawer really that ugly
And these are only expectations and you just learn to do things differently.
Just because it has a different workflow that big players implanted in people, Linux needs to match that?
The worst thing you can do is to install a dock extension to make it feel like you are in your previous DE. If you want to get the real Gnome experience, you need to let it be Gnome.
As for the design, it’s indeed subjective, but we can agree that it is modern with balanced spacing. You can feel that a graphic designer worked on it. And if you don’t like it, that’s the same as with other DEs, install a theme. As you can’t change QT apps to use titlebar you can’t change GTK apps to use app menu instead.
And finally the keyboard efficiency: Indeed every major DE is keyboard efficient, but I wasn’t expecting it for Gnome when I was learning it, because I’m videos, you always see clicks, so I mentioned it.
Not at all. Newcomers want intuitive UI. And gnome is really that.
Examples:
One unified settings app. Containing all the settings that as a average user needs. It’s always at the top right corner.
Change the wallpaper? Top right corner -> settings
Add a network? Top right corner -> settings
Extend display to projector? Top right corner -> settings
It’s not weird at all.
What would be a better starter DE then?