GNOME Has Forgotten That Desktop Users Want Choices

LinuxLinks has kindly given me space for a semi-regular blog about open source, Linux, Windows and whatever else catches my attention. The views and prejudices are my own.

GNOME can make the smallest desktop preference feel like an argument about how computers ought to work. Want a dock that stays on screen? Install an extension. Want a familiar tray icon for a background application? Install another. Question either decision and, sooner or later, someone will suggest KDE. That seems a rather drastic answer when you like the desktop and simply want to change one thing.

I like plenty about GNOME. Its clean layout is refreshing, the Activities Overview works well once you get used to it, and there’s something appealing about a desktop that doesn’t ask you to configure everything before getting started. But I think that confidence in its design sometimes goes too far. A preference for keeping the desktop uncluttered shouldn’t make a visible dock such a contentious request.

A dock shouldn’t need an extension

In GNOME’s default desktop, the dash lives in the Activities Overview. Some distributions change that experience, but GNOME itself expects you to enter the overview to see it. There are keyboard shortcuts, and the overview works with a mouse too. Even so, when you’re moving between a browser, file manager and messaging client, a dock gives you a convenient place to see what’s running and switch applications. You might understand GNOME’s approach perfectly well and still prefer that.

Dash to Dock provides exactly this functionality, with options for its position and behaviour. It’s a useful extension, and its developers deserve credit for maintaining it. What puzzles me is why such a conventional preference needs a separate project at all. Keeping the existing layout as the default while offering a supported option for a visible dock seems a reasonable compromise. People who enjoy the current arrangement could leave it alone.

Application status icons are harder to dismiss as a matter of taste. A file synchronisation client might use its icon to show that transfers are running, flag a problem or offer a menu for pausing its work. That remains useful after you close the main window. GNOME Shell doesn’t provide the traditional application tray support these programs expect, so users often turn to the AppIndicator extension. I struggle to see why checking whether your files have finished syncing should depend on an additional Shell extension.

The maintenance lands somewhere

GNOME Shell extensions give the desktop much of its flexibility, and plenty are maintained carefully for years. The catch is that they have their own compatibility requirements and release schedules. When GNOME Shell changes, an extension may need updating before it works with the new version. Support might be ready immediately, or users might have to wait. If you depend on that extension every day, checking its compatibility becomes part of deciding whether to upgrade your desktop.

That’s a frustrating consideration when all you wanted was to keep your dock visible. The initial installation might take only a few minutes, but the dependency remains. Putting the feature into GNOME would carry a maintenance cost too, of course. Somebody would need to design it, test it and make sure it works with accessibility features. Those are legitimate concerns. They’re also reasons to discuss which features deserve support, rather than treating the existence of an extension as a complete answer.

“Use KDE” doesn’t answer the question

GNOME benefits from having a clear direction. Accepting every feature request would place an impossible burden on its developers, and Linux already offers desktops with different priorities. But someone can prefer GNOME’s applications, overview and workspace handling while wanting a permanent dock. Telling that person to switch desktops avoids discussing whether their request has merit. It also makes an oddly sweeping recommendation over a small disagreement about the interface.

I’d like GNOME to take a closer look at the features people install extensions to obtain, and consider which deserve a supported place in the desktop. Popularity alone shouldn’t decide it, but neither should “that isn’t the GNOME way” settle every discussion. A visible dock and application status icons seem reasonable places to start. Do you use GNOME as it comes, or is there an extension you wouldn’t use it without? Which feature should GNOME take responsibility for supporting?