I recently bought a low-end ASUS Tablet PC with a rather nice 13" OLED screen (Vivobook Slate 13 T3300), and exorcised Windows 11 S from inside it the moment I got it. I then installed the latest Fedora on it, and chose the GNOME spin, because of the supposed touch UI readiness.

I must say, I am not impressed by the UX of the whole setup... which is a shame, since they iirc slaughtered the perfectly good GNOME 2.x UI to cater to those devices specifically around a decade ago - and for what? If this is all that's there to reap, it's been a bad trade-off.

Looking forward to trying Plasma Mobile; maybe it can improve on the status quo.

> which is a shame, since they iirc slaughtered the perfectly good GNOME 2.x UI to cater to those devices speifically around a decade ago - and for what? If this is all that's there to reap, it's been a bad trade-off.

It was the fad of that time, when Microsoft also introduced Windows 8 and the "Modern UI" Metro.

But at least they came to their senses, also because no devs bothered to adopt it :) and they still didn't manage to sell any Windows tablets.

> they still didn't manage to sell any Windows tablets.

That was such a branding problem for Microsoft. Microsoft supplied so many Surface tablets to the NFL and the commentators kept calling them iPads.

they did to schools, i was cursed with an 8.1 acer windows tablet until they finally allowed a BYO program

I like to keep the Windows install around on small partition as I find at least on Thinkpads the Vantage app on Windows often has firmware and bios updates more available/earlier than on linux but ymmv. Plus is there for random need for windows-only app but maybe not as important.

> they iirc slaughtered the perfectly good GNOME 2.x UI to cater to those devices specifically around a decade ago - and for what?

There was a recent article on here that explained GNOME 2.x was windows-like enough that there was fear Microsoft would come after Linux distributions with patent lawsuits, hence the departure from that style of UI in the next version. KDE on the other hand was made with a patent sharing agreement in place.

Ah that explains a lot. Especially the feel I've always had about it being "change for the sake of change". There was a time when I actually tried to use it for real, I bought a used Surface Pro 3 and traveled with it, so the touch-based UI actually made sense. I wonder if that fear was realistic though. Though I have to admit MS at that time (under Ballmer) was really hostile to Linux.

Edit: The point made in that article seems to be disproven though: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39493246 . Even Miguel de Icaza said it's nonsense. Can't get more authoritative on Gnome than that.

But it was just too weird with the workspaces on the fly, the huge window decorations (despite touch I would mainly use the pen anyway) and the lack of a real launcher. I used it for about 3 months and got rid of it. It just rubbed me the wrong way constantly and I really couldn't stand the designers' attitude, every time I wanted to change something I ended up googling it and finding some excuse from the devs on why they wouldn't account for it (usually along the lines of "you shouldn't want/need that").

What didn't help was that Linux on the Surface Pro 3 was a huge PITA also. Often the keyboard wouldn't work after having been disconnected, or the pen would stop working, or it would turn on in my bag for some weird reason and be boiling hot, or it would fail to pick up the ethernet of the dock etc. Most of these issues were solved by a reboot but I ended up rebooting a lot to solve all these stupid random problems and I really got sick of that.

But the "Weirdness" of Gnome 3 didn't help. I have a lot of opinions on how stuff must work and tried modifying gnome with plugins to make it work that way, and that led to a lot of issues when updates came out and the plugins weren't updated. Opinionated software just isn't for me. I want options. Lots and lots of options :)

Eventually I moved back to a desktop and gave KDE another try (the last time was in the KDE 4 period and I didn't like it) and it felt like a breath of fresh air. Everything I wanted to change about the default UI had an option in there somewhere to do it. It felt like the developers were reading my mind and pre-empted every wish :3 I've always cherished software packages like that.

And it only kept getting better and better with things like accent colours in the anniversary update. I use a lot of my own theming as well for both my DE and web apps and KDE is really great for that. I was actually planning to make a real theme myself but it's so configurable now that I can really make it pretty much like I want with just some configuration clicks.

I donate monthly to KDE now just because I want them to continue this great work and philosophy.

Well, I appreciate your efforts to set the record straight --I was just parroting what I had read there, which is a bit lazy.

Yep, I much prefer KDE's default binding of meta+LMB/RMB anywhere on a window to move and resize it, rather than ginormous title bars.

Might not be "professional" but it sure is more productive.

And you can easily make KDE title bars even smaller by changing the title text size, and use global menu and hide title bar in maximized windows. Massively better use of screen real estate than GNOME. Imo much more "professional" and productive vs GNOME's cartoonish touch screen UI.

Nice.. definitely a bit chonky but distinctive. I like the yellow. Hadn't thought of doing that but I probably would prefer something besides the default blue.

I change it to alt, and then also install Alt Drag on windows devices, so I can do that everywhere!

That’s like, your opinion.

I do think that on a laptop, GNOME is probably the best environment to use, out of any OS.

True, it is my opinion alone.

And I don't use laptops, only desktops. Good point also as I have much more screen real estate available. For example I use a 3x3 grid of 9 virtual desktops (with the numpad as a quick-switching pad), something that on Gnome isn't possible without a whole bunch of addons that break with every update :) Because it doesn't allow for virtual desktops in a grid matrix by default and I don't think it's got direct access hotkeys to them either. I really love that I can just configure all that in KDE without having any kind of addon or modification (and many other things I change too).

I'm just not one of those "just use it like it's intended" people. I have my own ideas on how my computer should work. But yes not everyone is me.

I’m a happy Gnome user.

> Yet it's horrible to use and really wasteful.

Not really. According to Fitts's Law, it would be easier to point your mouse cursor to a larger target.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fitts_Law.svg

When someone says a design is harder to use, you don't get to say "no it isn't because Fitts' Law". If it's harder for someone to use, those are the facts on the ground. You need to adjust your theories to fit the facts, not try to say the facts aren't true so they fit your theories.

They can totally say that, there are plenty of people who have experience that would agree with it.

It’s not “facts on the ground” when you’re literally courting diverse opinions. That law just covers the average. ;P

The larger target here is the window, so according to this law you should move a window by grabbing the window itself (with either holding alt triggering a widow move mode or something else) rather than wasting space with a bigger, but still much smaller handle