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Re:On the Graying of Gnome by fbelzile on Sunday December 20, 2020 @04:30PM (#25489705)
True, but I also feel this might also be part in staying relevant with touch displays. The dumbification of UI coincided with the rise of tablet computers and touchscreen devices. Windows 8 came out around that time too.

I personally preferred Gnome 2 when Gnome 3 came out, but I've gotten pretty used to the top-left corner flick after a couple weeks. I sometimes do it on Windows and get disappointed when nothing happens :) This sounds somewhat perverse, but I kind of like the fact that it takes a little extra effort to switch applications. I'd say it keeps me maybe 5-10% more productive!

Ideally, UI's should be tailored for the device they get installed on, but I'm happy Gnome was able to accept a few design compromises in order to keep moving the project forward.

Re:On the Graying of Gnome by michaelt on Sunday December 20, 2020 @06:01PM (#25490429)
> True, but I also feel this might also be part in staying relevant with touch displays.

Undoubtedly - at about the same time, they introduced a swipe-to-unlock screen which is crucial on a tablet or smartphone, but useless on a desktop or laptop.

The thing is, Gnome don't seem to have achieved any success in the smartphone/tablet market. So with the benefit of hindsight, trading off mouse and keyboard power user UX to improve touchscreen UX doesn't seem to have paid dividends.

Re:On the Graying of Gnome by kaba0 on Monday December 21, 2020 @05:57PM (#25500707)
You can just start typing your password - something you can’t do on windows and it drives me mad there.
Re:On the Graying of Gnome by dleslie on Sunday December 20, 2020 @09:38PM (#25491612)
Curiously, with the PinePhone it is possible to use Desktop UIs on a phone form factor. It's worth a try!

IMHO, Firefox with desktop UI (and addons!) on a phone is _vastly_ superior to Firefox Android. It's shocking how much better I find it to be.

Re:On the Graying of Gnome by still_grokking on Sunday December 20, 2020 @10:14PM (#25491806)
Especially as one can customize Firefox quite well.

For example you can have the addressbar at the bottom (even it's not officially supported) with a few lines of CSS.