You can already run Ubuntu without extensions. Either disable them via the app called ‘Extensions’, or enable the vanilla upstream GNOME experience by:
sudo apt install gnome-session
Log out.
On the login screen before entering your password, click the icon and select ‘GNOME’.
Last I checked, the desktop icons extensions would refuse to load on GNOME 40 but only because 40 is not yet in the list of supported releases. You can add 40 to the list by editing
the extension’s metadata.json file, and then it does seem to work.
Just because I somehow tried to follow gnome designers here: they do not have a perma dock, thus the desktop is completely empty except the panel after start-up, so users do not see any app icon/shortcut. So they introduced this new start-up mode which makes much sense considering they do not have a dock. Sure, options are nice, but this options is kind of risky/contra-design So I would rather not put this into tweaks
I strongly disagree with that. Vertical dock in Ubuntu was originally designed and developed to work both with horizontal and vertical workspace layouts in Unity7. It was a great experience. Only when Ubuntu switched to Gnome 3 did it loose the horizontal workspaces.
@neffscape
Wow! Thanks for the link
I never could have imagined that an extension like this (even though in early stage) could have been released so fast.
I’ve tried it on Manjaro with Gnome 40 and works good… really smooth!
By the way here a couple of direct links:
The first thing I thought was: vertical-overview in combination with Dash to Dock
(At the moment Dash to Dock doesn’t work in Gnome 40)
Absolutely true.
On the other hand I think that if you have in mind a specific user experience, as Canonical has with Ubuntu, relying on Gnome will constantly bring some headache.
Let’s say, In the end Ubuntu developers will find the way that suits them best. At the moment this extension could be something to take in consideration. The next LTS is not that far away…
Given that Gnome 40 already changes several things I think Ubuntu should take the opportunity to finally drop the ubuntu-dock. Other than the maintenance burden the ubuntu-dock is basically a waste of screen estate for little gain. I understand it’s a distinctive trait of Ubuntu, but this alone can’t be a good reason to carry over what nowadays is bad design (it was not so in the early Unity days, but today it just is).
Shipping vanilla Gnome is an excellent option IMHO, but if an always visible dash element has to be kept then dash-to-panel is a much better option, as the panel is mostly empty. The panel was meant to host the applications menus, which are now deprecated. Integrating the dash into the panel really makes sense, and it’s very nice graphically, especially if the panel is placed at the bottom of the screen
I’m sorry but this “little” gain is a game changer to those people who mostly interact with their computer using mouse, compered to vanilla gnome.
Do you aware that vanilla gnome doesn’t have min/max window buttons? Also vanilla gnome do not have app-indicators on which some big applications rely on?
Also vanilla gnome is broken at it’s core. It looks like tablet OS but doesn’t act like one. You don’t have easy way to manipulate your windows other than close them, you can not hide them because in vanilla it’s pointless as there is no panel that indicate that app is running and you can’t easily bring hidden app back. What it should do instead, to not be broken, is to launch apps ALWAYS maximized and have ability to auto tile said windows to left and right part of the screen.
I’m sorry I wasn’t clear: I meant stop shipping an extra extension to add a dash somewhere, keeping what Gnome does by default in this regard. I didn’t mean dropping all the Ubuntu customization.
I can see the value of having an always visible dash. I’m not sure if this value wins over the drawbacks, however once decided that it does, I think the dash-to-panel way is the best option we have, mostly due to its efficient use of screen estate (remember the Gnome panel is already there and always visible).
Personally, I appreciate the dash-to-panel extension. (And the desktop icons). If GNOME’s own dock doesn’t remove any conveniences I wouldn’t mind using it I suppose. That said, I really like the left vertical dock. Until this point in time, I have tried GNOME with no extensions on several occasions and tried to adapt to that sort of workflow, and this may not sound totally objective, but I simply do not like it at all.
I am grateful that Ubuntu devs are working so hard to keep GNOME sane for ‘the rest of us’. I couldn’t have outfitted the ones I have with Ubuntu (coming from Windows) had it not been for the baked-in extensions.
Imo the best way is to continue with a Dash to dock on the left side. It is an established design and workflow feature of Ubuntu. It’s basically its signature.
Not to mention that in the experience of many it has proven to be much superior placement position for the dock than the bottom position. That is also supported by data Ubuntu initially did when designing Unity7. Nothing has changed since then to make that conclusion less relevant. If anything it is more relevant today when we moved from 16:10 to 16:9 display ratio.
Dash to dock with left placement all the way. I’d just add that imo Ubuntu should bring the Close, Min, Max buttons back to the left side of the header bar by default as it was a part of the original UX.
I am concerned about the switch from vertical to horizontal app menu scrolling. That will be odd with a vertical mousewheel, which I use heavily in my daily workflow (I use Ubuntu/GNOME on multiple machines for personal and work roles).
How do the Canonical folk / devs feel about such changes? I try not to spread unbridled FUD about GNOME, but they do change things often, and seem fine with abruptly dropping functionality (worried about extensions after some recent dev blogging, and without the dock and minimize functionality I’d be done- but where would I go?).
I experimented with KDE (Kubuntu) recently, and was pretty sad to find some irritating bugs even in the LTS branch. They just haven’t had enough help up until this time I suppose. GNOME gets the most support because it is so standard, but it is ironic that it feels like the most unpredictable.
GNOME has a lot going for it, but it scares me at the same time because it can (and does) change tomorrow.
icon and select ‘GNOME’.
