#[1]gnikyt feed

   [2]gnikyt Code ramblings.

                               New desktop setup

   /* Dec 11, 2022 — 6.5KB */

Introduction

   I haven’t had the time to tweak my desktop in over a year, I’ve been
   mostly stuck with the default settings of Fedora (GNOME) and slowly
   tweaked things, before that, a [3]Plasma/i3 setup (which was awesome!).
   I’ve had a long run of different setups over the last couple of
   decades… AwesomeWM, i3, KDE 2/3, GNOME 2/3/4, XFCE, etc.

   Using GNOME full-time has been fine, but not great. It is a dependable
   and well-working desktop environment out-of-the-box, but that is as far
   as that goes
     * With every update, extensions break
     * Hardly any customization options anymore
     * Requires too many extensions to change basic settings
     * It still feels restricted
     * No proper information is displayed

   For me, I like key information and easy access to things by both
   keyboard (mainly) and mouse. I’m a little old school in that sense…
   preferring information to eye candy. The days of everyone having CPU
   graphs, cool Conky configs, panels with functionality, and so on, seem
   to be a thing of the past for many users; which is fine! That is their
   choice. It just does not suit mine.

   The workflow GNOME offers, by default, has all those sorts of things
   very hidden or non-existent.
     * No list of open windows
     * No indication of what desktop you’re viewing
     * No quick access to device settings (Bluetooth, sound, wifi, etc.)
     * Did I say you need a lot of extensions yet?

   I simply miss my old XFCE and GNOME 2 layout of the early 2000s – the
   peak of the Linux Desktop, in my opinion, something which KDE continues
   to do with Plasma (I have my preferences with Plasma, but I will not
   get into it for this post).

Trying with GNOME

   To achieve an XFCE/GNOME 2 setup, I attempted several ways, which
   worked out decently well! But, of course, required a lot of extensions
   and a theme.

   [4]Finalized GNOME

   The above screenshot is an example of the resulting setup which has a
   similar feel to the old layout… two panels with proper information.

   To achieve this, it required the following extensions:
     * Applications Menu: To get the application menu as GNOME 2 had
     * Clipboard History: To have a history of clipboard information, like
       gPaste
     * Dash to Panel: To get the bottom panel with the task list enabled
     * Date Menu Formatter: To be able to format a date how we need
     * Disable Workspace Switch Animation: To disable the slow animations
       switching workspaces
     * Hide Activities Button: Because Activities is useless
     * Order Gnome Shell Extensions: To be able to order the extensions on
       the top right of the panel
     * Sound Input & Output Chooser: To be able to change the sound
       devices easily
     * Vitals: To show some stats (CPU, fans, memory, net, etc)
     * Workspaces Bar: To show the list of workspaces
     * Places Indicator: To show the Places menu as GNOME 2 had

   And the following theme is to be downloaded: [5]GNOME Theme Default
   Light.

   All-in-all, it worked well. But an instant update recently killed a few
   extensions and I simply got fed up.

   As I said, GNOME works well out of the box, the second you start
   tacking on a bulk of extensions to backfill some functionality, it
   breaks down. Not only that, GNOME visually does a great job with the
   unification of applications, dialogs, themes, etc, it’s very
   consistent. It’s a shame they took such a radical direction away from
   GNOME 2 which was a tried and true base.

Exploring Alternatives

   I decided to give XFCE a whirl again, I haven’t used it in maybe 5 or 6
   years. With XFCE still being actively developed, and pushing for a
   Wayland implementation in future releases, it seemed like a good
   avenue. Short and sweet result: consistency was hard to get between
   various applications which affected my workflow, I’ll skip the details
   as it’s simply an opinion.

   Next, a toss-up between MATE and Cinnamon (which I had not yet tried).
   My gut told me to try Cinnamon; it is very actively developed by the
   Linux Mint team, and its offered as a spin for Fedora, so I took the
   plunge and installed the meta package through DNF on Fedora for the
   complete desktop package. To be honest, I did not give MATE a real
   chance (yet), since I found everything I needed with Cinnamon!

Cinnamon

   Without touching anything on the base Cinnamon install, it was already
   impressive to me. It has a task list, workspace indicators, and menus,
   and as a bonus, it had a consistent look and a ton of settings!
   Settings that felt familiar, felt like I had some control over my
   desktop again.

   I hunkered down for 20 minutes and produced an initial desktop which
   got me back to my feeling of my old XFCE and GNOME 2 desktops:

   [6]Cinnamon result

   It’s everything I need to visually see at the moment (minus some system
   stats which I had not yet tackled). It is also consistent. The Linux
   Mint team has done a great job to build Cinnamon away from GNOME Shell
   but still provide a consistent look between applications for a bit of a
   bonus on the eyes.

   I can fully configure shortcuts, the panels, how I need the file
   manager to work, my desktop to function, etc., and all are done with
   minimal extensions (called Spices in Cinnamon).

   Top bar:
     * Default applications menu: Tweaked with Fedora logo and label
     * Places indicator: A Spice to add Places menu
     * Default DateTime: With a custom format to add a | (pipe) at the end
       of the time
     * Current workspace: A Spice to show the current workspace name
     * Default systray: Tray and X-Apps, and lastly, a mic toggle (click
       and keyboard)

   Bottom bar:
     * Default show desktop: No tweaks
     * Default window list: Minor tweak to the Python code to increase the
       window name length
     * Default workspaces: No tweaks

   Theming:
     * Icons: Papirus
     * GTK/WM theme: Mint-Y-Dark-Aqua
     * Desktop theme: Mint-Y-Dark-Aqua (but Cinnamon default is nice too!)

   Additionally, Mint’s [7]“X-Apps” work well and are customizable as I
   like. As well, Nemo, is much more full featured than Nautilus, it
   actually shows informations and has meaningful settings.

   All-in-all, I am very happy. Cinnamon for my week of using it is a
   great, well-thought-out desktop which brings back the feeling of
   nostalgia and control again.

   [8]MD | [9]TXT | [10]CC-4.0

   This post is 2 years old and may contain outdated information.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [11]Ty King

Ty King

   A self-taught, seasoned, and versatile developer from Newfoundland.
   Crafting innovative solutions with care and expertise. See more
   [12]about me.
   [13]Github [14]LinkedIn [15]CV [16]RSS
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References

   1. /rss.xml
   2. /
   3. /i3-plasma-a-solid-match
   4. /assets/images/posts/gnomeshelllook.png
   5. https://gitlab.gnome.org/eeshugerman/gnome-shell-theme-default-light/
   6. /assets/images/posts/cinnamon.png
   7. https://linuxmint-developer-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/xapps.html
   8. /new-desktop-setup/index.md
   9. /new-desktop-setup/index.txt
  10. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
  11. /about
  12. /about
  13. https://github.com/gnikyt
  14. https://linkedin.com/in/gnikyt
  15. /assets/files/cv.pdf
  16. /rss.xml