Thoughts on shell redesign
by Matthew Miller
Overall, like it and think this is a good direction. It didn't really take
me long to adjust to. I do think we need to communicate this a _lot_,
because change is hard and there exist a lot of negativity around GNOME
changes in general (even when such negativity is really ironic). Let's make
sure to get positive messaging out there.
Personally, I think we should take this a step further and make an always-on
dock a configurable preference. But one thing at a time. :)
Anyway, here's my feedback after running with this for a week:
* The latest mutter update in the copr broke my ability to log in my
existing account (getting the sad face "can't do anything"). Haven't had
time to really diagnose yet. That makes me a little worried that others
might experience something similar. For non-techie users this basically
says "your machine is dead and now you have to reinstall".
* Super-L does not lock the screen. Actually that shortcut just plain
doesn't work no matter what I set it to.
* I really find overview-zoom and unzoom animations to be too slow. Turning
them off is, however, too jarring. Hopefully Impatience will be available
as an extension again, but I think we should consider making the default a
little faster and perhaps proving options in Tweaks. (I know this isn't
new, just missing it from not having that extension.)
* That said, when using the scroll wheel, the switch workspace animation
feels too _fast_. It's easy to get lost if I have more than two
workspaces. I know, it's all subjective, but that's my impression.
* Speaking of extensions, obviously the redesign is going to impact a lot of
them. Is the popularity sort on https://extensions.gnome.org/ meaningful?
We should consider explicitly testing the top 20 or so and commenting on
compatibility.
* I don't have a strong opinion about horizontal vs. vertical workspace
alignment, even after using it for a week. Either is fine with me. However
I had previously used always-zoom-workspaces, and there's not really a
logical place for that in the new design. The net result of this is that I
forget what's on my other workspaces and open up more new windows and
workspaces in general throughout the day.
From reading other feedback, I think many people have a strong opinion
about this even though I don't. One factor might be multi-monitor; if I
have two monitors side by side, the side-scrolling workspaces are
confusing and vertical makes more sense. Also, on a 16:9 panel vertical
space is precious, and especially so on 13" or 14" notebooks -- making a
side dock more logical.
I know we don't like having a lot of options, but I wonder if having a 90°
rotation mode for this might be a worthwhile option, where the dash (and
"top" bar) are on the sides and workspaces go up and down.
* Okay, this is long-standing rather than new, but it seems like this
redesign is an opportunity to address. I find the word "Activies"
puzzling. It's always on screen in a very prominent place, and isn't very
descriptive. I know it comes from the idea of activity-centered design,
but that actually makes things worse because that's not what the UX really
ended up being. And, it's been a while, but in the past I've encountered
people who thought the whole desktop environment or even OS was called
"Activities".
The menu on the top right doesn't have any words; maybe this could also
bceome an icon? I get the rationale for not making it a brand icon, so I'm
not asking for that specifically, just... _an_ icon. (Sadly, the most
logical thing for it would actually be what's printed on the Overview key.
But that's not really a possibility!)
* Launching something from the dash using the mouse requires a LOT of mouse
travel: up to the top left corner, then down to the middle. Then, it seems
that new windows prefer to appear back up in the top left, so it's back up
to there again. Maybe:
1. the botton edge of the screen could also be "hot" and bring up the
overview, and
2. new windows could bias more towards appearing in the center of the
screen even if that makes more overlap.
* Actually point #2 might be important enough that it's worth calling out
directly. The top left of the screen is rarely where I want a
non-maximized window to appear.
* The borders around the window positions in the overview make for even less
real-estate in that view, which is unfortunate. I don't have a great
suggestion, except maybe thinner margins.
- Bonus thought though: although it's not apparent onscreen in normal use
like the Endless logo is, (which is something I'd still like), maybe we
could make those margins Fedora Blue instead of gray, to give a little
bit of distro-specific theming?
I love that GNOME's main UI uses neutral colors, but since this won't
distract the eye while you're actually working in an application, maybe
it's something we could do.
(Actually, what I'd love for my own personal configuration is a black
background screen and the stars and gas clouds from the F33 wallpaper in
the overview margins... or, for a default, I can see a design with a
pattern which complements the default wallpaper, rather than just a
plain color. Maybe too busy, though. Just thinking out loud!)
* If I click the "show applications" icon, and then start to search, the
transition from the app panel with workspaces at the top to the search is
kind of jarring. I think this would be better if the workspaces were
_below_ the application icons rather than above.
* A dash-to-dock feature I miss: I want the terminal icon to launch a new
window rather than focusing an existing one. I know that's not new in this
design but it'd be nice to not have to use this extension. I might be able
to train myself to middle-click, but I'd rather swap the behavior.
* The first time I dragged a window to a new workspace, I was confused as to
where it went. I think it's probably the right behavior, just a surprise.
Maybe an animation can help here?
* If I have a single window on the second workspace and drag it to the
third, that second workspace (naturally) becomes empty. If I then
immediately launch a new application or new window without leaving the
overview, that new app lands on that workspace and everything is fine.
If, however, I don't launch a new app and return from the overview, the
empty workspace is collapsed, which in pratice means that the window I
dragged to the right is now back on the workspace in front of me, and
there are still just two workspaces.
There's not even an animation making this smooth, but even if it were, it
really feels like strange behavior. Consider not collapsing single empty
workspaces between occupied ones.
--
Matthew Miller
<mattdm(a)fedoraproject.org>
Fedora Project Leader
10 hours, 54 minutes
Anyone know offhand why rdma-core is on the Workstation live image?
by Matthew Miller
This only happened to come up because of a multilib glitch, but I'm
wondering why rdma-core is on the default Workstation image. It seems
unlikely that any of our users have Infiniband on their desktops.
----- Forwarded message from Jonathan Billings <billings(a)negate.org> -----
> Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:58:14 -0500
> From: Jonathan Billings <billings(a)negate.org>
> To: users(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
> Subject: Re: rdma-core-32.0-1.fc33.i686 has inferior architecture
> Archived-At: <https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.o...>
>
> On Tue, Jan 26, 2021 at 10:33:20AM -0500, Matthew Miller wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 25, 2021 at 06:40:10PM -0800, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
> > > Hi Matthew,
> > >
> > > I just did a
> > > # dnf remove rdma-core-32.0-1.fc33.x86_64
> > > and now `dnf upgrade` is happy.
> >
> >
> > FWIW the root cause is here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1919864
> > ... the package was accidentally built x86_64 only, which is why DNF
> > couldn't find the matching i686 package. But this is only needed for
> > special-purpose cluster networking hardware, and I'm pretty sure 0% of
> > desktop users even need this package. I'm not sure what has pulled it in for
> > so many people.
>
> Looking at the /var/log/anaconda files, it appears that rdma-core was
> included in the LiveCD image I used to load the fedora workstation
> that has it installed. I used the default Fedora Workstation
> (Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-33-1.2.iso). If I mount the rootfs
> inside the squashfs on the ISO, I can run:
>
> # mkdir /mnt/livecd /mnt/squashfs /mnt/rootfs
> # mount /slow/images/Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-33-1.2.iso /mnt/livecd
> # mount /mnt/livecd/LiveOS/squashfs.img /mnt/squashfs
> # mount /mnt/squashfs/LiveOS/rootfs.img /mnt/rootfs
> # chroot /mnt/rootfs/ rpm -q rdma-core
> rdma-core-31.0-1.fc33.x86_64
>
> Might want to remove that from the build if it shouldn't be
> installed.
>
> --
> Jonathan Billings <billings(a)negate.org>
> _______________________________________________
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> To unsubscribe send an email to users-leave(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
> Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org
----- End forwarded message -----
--
Matthew Miller mattdm(a)mattdm.org <http://mattdm.org/>
Fedora Project Leader mattdm(a)fedoraproject.org <http://fedoraproject.org/>
1 day, 6 hours
Self-Introduction
by Suhaas Joshi
Hello everyone! I am Suhaas, a first-year undergrad from India, eyeing this
year's GSOC. I am good at C++ and data structures and find C manageable. I
can contribute up to 7 hours per week until the end of February, after
which I can spend 17-18 hours working here per week. I was told to email
the subprojects I am interested in. I like the workstation since it seems
incredibly elegant and would love to be a part of it.
I don't have any experience contributing to open source or creating an
elaborate project before, and my programming journey started just a few
months ago. Therefore before the application period commences, I would love
to be able to finish contributing or helping around a bit to increase my
familiarity with the codebase. It would be much appreciated if a potential
mentor or anyone else could guide me through the initial stage or give me
pointers of where to begin! :)
Thanks
Suhaas
2 days, 12 hours
Fedora Workstation WG minutes, 2021-01-19
by Chris Murphy
==============================================
#fedora-meeting-2: Workstation WG (2021-01-19)
==============================================
Meeting started by cmurf at 03:16:13 UTC. The full logs are available at
https://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting-2/2021-01-21/workstation...
.
Meeting summary
---------------
* Roll Call (cmurf, 03:17:10)
* present: cmurf, aday, mclasen, mcatanzaro, otaylor, tpopela,
petersen, kalev, ngompa (cmurf, 03:17:12)
* regrets: langdon (cmurf, 03:17:14)
* present guests: miroslav suchy, salimma, msrb (Michal Srb) (cmurf,
03:17:16)
* Approval of 12 Jan minutes (cmurf, 03:17:18)
* LINK:
https://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting-2/2021-01-14/workstation...
(cmurf, 03:17:20)
* AGREED: Approved - no objections (cmurf, 03:17:22)
* Announcements, follow-ups, status reports (cmurf, 03:17:24)
* none (cmurf, 03:17:26)
* Updated activities overview design for GNOME 40 / F34 (cmurf,
03:17:28)
* LINK: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/210 (cmurf,
03:17:30)
* LINK: https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/Design/os-mockups/-/issues/80
(cmurf, 03:17:40)
* ACTION: mclasen to write a change proposal (cmurf, 03:17:52)
* Give ABRT some (cmurf, 03:17:54)
* LINK: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/130 (cmurf,
03:17:56)
* LINK: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/130#comment-705518
(cmurf, 03:18:02)
* LINK: https://github.com/abrt/abrt/issues/1399 (cmurf, 03:18:20)
* LINK: https://github.com/abrt/abrt/issues/1402 (cmurf, 03:18:24)
* Open Floor (cmurf, 03:18:30)
* meeting adjourned (cmurf, 03:18:32)
Meeting ended at 03:18:40 UTC.
Action Items
------------
* mclasen to write a change proposal
Action Items, by person
-----------------------
* **UNASSIGNED**
* mclasen to write a change proposal
People Present (lines said)
---------------------------
* cmurf (46)
* zodbot (7)
* mcatanzaro (0)
Generated by `MeetBot`_ 0.1.4
.. _`MeetBot`: http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot
1 week
Coordinating resolution of BZ 1912046
by Ben Cotton
I've been asked to coordinate a resolution of BZ 1912046 (BASH_FUNC
environment variables reigning havoc and it just keeps getting worse)
between systemd, GNOME, and KDE maintainers. Anyone want to volunteer
to be the contact?
[1] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1912046
Thanks,
BC
--
Ben Cotton
He / Him / His
Senior Program Manager, Fedora & CentOS Stream
Red Hat
TZ=America/Indiana/Indianapolis
1 week, 6 days
GNOME 40 first impressions
by Michel Alexandre Salim
Hi,
I just tried out the new GNOME 40 COPR discussed in the Workstation WG
meeting:
https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/210
https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/haeckerfelix/gnome-shell-40/
```
$ rpm -q gnome-shell
gnome-shell-40.0~alpha-1.20210110.0.x86_64
```
First impressions are positive! Breaking down my observations by
category.
UX:
- Mostly fine. I miss being able to have a "God's Eye view" of all my
desktops when triggering the Activities view, with the new design as is
I have to scroll
Stability:
- seems fine under Wayland. Experiencing screen tearing under X11
(using Element.io's Matrix client via Flatpak and Kitty)
Regressions:
- Toggling natural scrolling on and off has no effect, it behaves as if
natural scrolling is off
- GNOME Tweaks no longer allows toggling extensions on and off (even
though it doesn't come from this COPR; I have not looked into how this
works under the hood). It should probably recommend gnome-extensions-
app
- This interacts poorly with PaperWM: Alt-Tab/Super-Tab didn't work,
every window but the last launched would not show up (and every app
launched automatically on login), and disabling the extension via
gnome-extensions-app didn't fully fix the disappearing windows until
the next login. Not unexpected, let me know if I should file a bug
against PaperWM now or wait until later? I expect Material Shell to be
even more impacted, as it more heavily modifies the Shell environment
Best regards,
--
Michel Alexandre Salim
profile: https://keyoxide.org/michel@michel-slm.name
chat via email: https://delta.chat/
GPG key: 5DCE 2E7E 9C3B 1CFF D335 C1D7 8B22 9D2F 7CCC 04F2
1 week, 6 days
