GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 786298
Replace the Desktop with Activities Overview
Last modified: 2021-07-05 14:47:47 UTC
This bug report arose out of a productive discussion we had on the subject of GNOME usability on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/6tkk7z/the_gnome_way/dlmwv1l/ I was watching Jakub Steiner's presentation to GUADEC 2017 and came across the part where he talks about the difficulty of helping new users understand that Activities Overview exists (https://youtu.be/-9t0CY2ep1I?t=15m25s). I have an idea that I think will resolve this issue, help new users get accustomed to GNOME, and teach them about its major UI convention, the Activities Overview: Replace the Desktop with Activities Oveview. Without icons (the default configuration), the desktop is kind of useless. Just a pretty picture. And Activities Overview is hidden behind a tiny button marked "Activities" (and not "Apps" or "Programs" or something that would clue you into the existence of a program launching UI) that's stuffed away in a corner. If it's the primary on-screen UI, it's always visible on boot-up, and users always know where they can access it. Everything else can stay the same. The Activities button just hides windows and displays the Activities Overview that's always there underneath them.
This is similar to bug 648456 (and similar suggestions discussed in the past), but much more intrusive: (In reply to Nate Graham from comment #0) > Replace the Desktop with Activities Oveview. > > [...] > > Everything else can stay the same. That's definitively not true - off the top of my head: - showing the window picker while the actual windows are visible would be extremely confusing - type-to-search must be disabled while any window is open (though it may be kept working on empty workspaces, see bug 648153) - dash and workspace switcher likely need changes besides adding them to the input region on X11 (would they just sit in the background? Or stay always visible and set struts? Would we need to go bat-shit crazy on options like dash-to-dock with autohide?) It's also a complete departure from the "distraction-free" mantra that has been one of the defining principles behind gnome-shell, so I don't think we want to go that route (at least in the radical form that is suggested). I'll defer the actual decision to the design team though, so marking for ui-review.
Thanks for your input, Florian. You're right, it's not as simple as I made it out to be. Here's my suggestion, in detail: - Replace the desktop with AO's app grid mode, with focus (for type-to-search) - Whenever any other window is covering the app grid, it has focus - Keep the Activities button/hotcorner doing exactly what it does now: animate and resize all open windows to present AO's window viewer mode, and give it focus (for the purpose of type-to-search). Maybe rename this button "Windows" - Add another button/hotcorner in another corner perhaps called "Apps" that will animate away all open windows to the edges of the screen (like macOS Expose) and reveal the app grid beneath I know this is pretty radical, so I don't expect it to be implemented in the form I've presented here, but I wanted to start a conversation about solving AO's new user/first-boot discoverability problem, and also making use of the yawning chasm of space freed up by removing the ability to create desktop icons in the default configuration. I *really* like AO, and I think you guys are too timid with it right now. It's magnificent. So showcase it! Put it front-and-center! Make it the first thing users see when they log in!
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #2) > - Replace the desktop with AO's app grid mode, with focus (for > type-to-search) Isn't this what Endless OS is doing now? I can't recall the precise detail. But take a look; maybe it's already close to what you want. (Collab between GNOME and Endless is typically high, and more code is flowing in both directions recently, but I doubt it'll reach this level. I think it's good enough that the foundations are shared but the projects can diverge on their visions for UI)
Yep, this is what Endless OS is doing. It works really well, IMHO. I don't think we need to copy them per se, but displaying *something* useful on where-the-desktop-used-to-be solves a lot of the usability issues we're grappling with.
Personally, I love the default minimalism of GNOME (to which I add by hiding the top bar [albeit subtract by restoring the other window buttons]), so I love a totally clean desktop with a nice background. I appreciate why others might want the desktop to serve a functional purpose at all times, but I personally don't want anything to be there that I don't put there; I couldn't stand that if the constant presence of any kind of content were enforced and incapable of opt-out. Obviously, this isn't about me; my intent is to identify a contrasting preference that I suspect may recur throughout the userbase.
There are various edge cases in Endless OS that currently do not satisfy us; the dash in one, and the transition between desktop and app grid and window selection is another. Additionally, on Endless we disable multiple workspaces, so there's that particular interaction to take care of; and our target markets are typically not affluent enough for multi-monitor set ups, so we have not spent that much time on that particular side. I'm pretty sure the GNOME design team has been speaking with the Endless designers, and they are aware of what we do and what we'd like to be improved.
Yeah Daniel, in fact my personal preferences are strongly different from what I'm proposing. The nice thing about GNOME (and all Linux DEs, in fact), is that you can customize them to have them work generally however you want. The reason why I'm proposing this change is not for myself or for you, but rather for GNOME's target demographic: the new user who is not very technically interested and just wants to quickly get things done without having to care about the workings of the computer itself. It's an acknowledged issue that new users can get confused with the current user interface's extreme minimalism. They sometimes have difficulty figuring out how to "get started," to so speak.
So, presumably this only proposes a default behaviour that could be turned off, right? in which case, sure, it could end up being better overall, if done well.
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