Did you know:

The GNOME developers do not care how you pronounce GNOME. However, if I do not use “the hard G GNOME (/ɡəˈnoʊm),” there’s a chance it will create a headache for me to format subtitles later.

Intro

Have you ever tried using the GNOME Desktop Environment? It’s the default of Ubuntu, Fedora, and many more. But how many people really use GNOME? Lots of Linux distributions don’t use GNOME the way its developers intended (more on that later). They make all sorts of modifications, making it look like Windows (Nobara). Or they add extra applications on top of it (Pop!_OS or Ubuntu). Instead, I want to take a deep dive into examining the default GNOME experience and why the default GNOME experience provides one of the most optimal desktop workflows.

The GNOME Way

GNOME is built using what they call the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG). The HIG provide the basis to the why and how GNOME functions.

  • truly follows the Unix way: simple apps inside a simple ecosystem. Minimalist by default.
  • Removing complicated or confusing features based on how maintainable something is. It’s done to ease developer burden and a better OOBE.
  • The prioritization of accessibility. All features are accessible as equally as possible. You can use a mouse, keyboard, or touchscreen and you can do almost everything.

In Practice

  • adjustable windows for those with small displays
  • Generic application names. Names are also carefully chosen so applications don’t conflict across different localizations and have double meaning.
  • Priority support for common desktop hardware (yes, even NVIDIA)
  • Same keys as Windows (mostly), perfected workflow from macOS, and a mash of features from tiling window managers.

The GNOME Workflow

There is no one workflow nor is it defined by the GNOME foundation. However, there’s an implied way GNOME’s developers hint about how you to use it.

  • Super key opens an “exposé” view to see all of the open windows, similar to macOS. You can also access it by clicking/tapping the workspace dots.
  • Typing in after opening the dash allows you to search applications, then searching your files and GNOME integrated applications.
  • Navigation is done using mouse, touch, or the arrow keys.

The common hiccups are things that other direction environments do differently.

  • Maximize is accomplished via keybind or dragging a window up.
  • Minimizing windows is not necessary because of the Activities menu. It also encourages the minimalist nature: if you don’t need something open, close it. If you want to leave it open, send it to another workspace.
  • Keyboard window switching is done in two ways to give equal access to the open windows of your focused application and which application you want to focus on. Alt + Tab to change your focused application and Alt + ~ to change windows of your focused application. This way, compared to traditional window managers, you always have access to all of your windows without a confusing menu.
  • The window switching is dependant on what keyboard you use. The key is always whatever is above your Tab key. For example, on German keyboards, it’s Alt + +. Thanks to @kuhluhOG on YouTube for telling me about this.

Workspaces

Of all graphical desktop environments, GNOME’S virtual desktops are much more user facing and accessible than Windows, Mac, or other desktop environments.

Workspaces via GUI keybinds are limited to 4, but this can been increased using gsettings, GNOME’s equivalent to Windows’ Registry Editor. However, this becomes redundant once you embrace one of GNOME’s killer features—dynamic workspaces. Rather than having a set number, workspaces are added based on need them.

You also always know where you are using the newly added workspaces dots. Like most tiling window managers, and unlike Windows or macOS, you get a glance of which workspace you are on, similar to the pages on phone home screens.