I think you have to learn, but I don’t think it’s difficult to learn. As I said I find it intuitive. My mum could learn it and she is not techy at all. That’s actually a very good example, because she couldn’t print on Windows and now she can with Linux.

Like KDE? It would be a lot more complex. I would fear giving KDE for newcomers. It’s basically windows 98, but with frosty glass themes, fragmented apps.

Or Cinnamon? You upgraded to windows XP. Congratulations.

Deepin? Looks cool until you try to use it.

Xfce? That’s stable and fast. But would you advertise Linux as that outdated?

Cosmic, still early.

Budgie, maybe.

I really think gnome is the best default.

Nevertheless, It’s you mixing intuitive and familiar. Moreover, people who give Linux a trial, they wish for something different. And they really like Gnome from my experience.

Not at all. Newcomers want intuitive UI. And gnome is really that.

Examples:

One unified settings app. Containing all the settings that as a average user needs. It’s always at the top right corner.

Change the wallpaper? Top right corner -> settings

Add a network? Top right corner -> settings

Extend display to projector? Top right corner -> settings

It’s not weird at all.

What would be a better starter DE then?

If somebody is coming from a different DE he wants the same interactions that they used to do. It’s easy to hate Gnome because people see that first. And they find:

• there’s no tray
• what’s that line at the top
• where’s the start menu
• where are the opened apps
• is the app drawer really that ugly

And these are only expectations and you just learn to do things differently.

Just because it has a different workflow that big players implanted in people, Linux needs to match that?

The worst thing you can do is to install a dock extension to make it feel like you are in your previous DE. If you want to get the real Gnome experience, you need to let it be Gnome.

As for the design, it’s indeed subjective, but we can agree that it is modern with balanced spacing. You can feel that a graphic designer worked on it. And if you don’t like it, that’s the same as with other DEs, install a theme. As you can’t change QT apps to use titlebar you can’t change GTK apps to use app menu instead.

And finally the keyboard efficiency: Indeed every major DE is keyboard efficient, but I wasn’t expecting it for Gnome when I was learning it, because I’m videos, you always see clicks, so I mentioned it.

It is included because it is innovative, newby friendly (Windows and Mac are both more complex), It has efficient keyboard navigation by default. And it has pleasant, modern UI by default.

Could you please not excite cancel culture against a great DE?