How do you use Gnome efficiently?

Using SUPER+[Left|Right]Arrow keys to make windows occupy either the left half or right half of the screen is something I do on a regular basis.

To be frank, though, if you’re at the stage where shaving seconds off your workflow ‘seems’ like ‘an important thing’ then I really think you should be looking at other options instead. Simply getting a second monitor will likely save you more time than all the keyboard shortcuts in the universe. Having an extension that checks mail for you, runs scripts over incoming mail, and only notifies you if the message is from ‘important’ senders is amazingly effective at creating a distraction-free environment. Having tools route job feedback through transient desktop notifications instead of you having to switch windows to check on them also helps. The list goes on.

Keyboard shortcuts are only one way to be more efficient and, IMO, not a particularly important one at that. The less I have to remember the better.

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No, I just prefer the Trackpoint to the Trackpad :sweat_smile:

Never heard of UKUI before.

I find KDE to be a good DE although a little bit too unstable compared to Gnome in my experience.

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You’re missing out on useful gestures then.

Do you have a Thinkpad yourself with a Trackpoint? Ever since I’ve tried the Trackpoint I can’t go back to a Touchpad. It just feels clunky and unergonomic.

No but I had a dell with a keyboard clit that was functionally the same. Once you get used to the gestures everything else is just slow.

Well, I guess I gotta try them out then :wink:

Thanks for the advice

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Been using gnome for a while now. Like others have mentioned. Super key + type whatever application or file you want to open.

Minimizing can be annoying but using alt + tab(switches between applications) in combination with alt + grave/tilde(between that applications windows) can help you navigate open windows quickly.

My favorite modification is using the gTile extension for quickly tiling windows.

I don’t use extra workspaces that often, but sometimes it’s useful to declutter the main workspace by moving off more background things.

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Just wanted to second this. After spending the time configuring my system how I want it, I have hyper custom scripts that save me a ton of time

… but would be tough to re-implement across DE’s. I totatlly get wanting to stay with one system for that reason

With that being said, I run Gentoo + i3 at home, and work as a programmer in a 100% Windoze shop. i3 taught me to use virtual desktops for the aforementioned reasons, and not I can’t live without them, even in the Windoze world.

FWIW, you can customize i3 keybindings to use the gnome-defaults and vice-versa. Then you can use git to easily replicate those configs across multiple machines.

TL;DR: Customizing the system to fit you specifically will always be worth it, imo

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Yes, indeed.

However, as I’ve said before, I cannot do this in my work environment :frowning:

For personal use, second this.

I only say that because otherwise I dont see any real advantage to running gnome. I think if you wanted a more keyboard oriented environment, gnome is probably not a great choice, but then again I’m a filthy windows user.

Linux is best experienced without a DE to me. :wink:

Heh, I am a dual boot filthy user, which is worse than that!

Yeah, Linux’s is unmatched for when it comes down to the terminal, although Powershell is really handy, from what I’ve heard.

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Can you not set the GNOME keybindings at work to match your at-home i3 config? I have to do similar stuff for windoze to match my Gentoo setup (well, as much as it can). I would also shit the bed if I couldn’t get VSVim at work.

P.S. I also haven’t used GNOME in while, but I still like it

Powershell feels way more Linux-y than cmd. Am a fan

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No, I cannot, and I’ve tried i3 and I’ve found it to be… “meh”, but to each their own!

At work, aka Vocational School (I am a student) we cannot customize our computers and whatnot, at all. You’re just allowed to run the programs you need for homework and that’s it.

That is a big bummer.

Then I guess your best bet really would be to stay consistent, using GNOME everywhere.

Idk if you can have applications always open on the same virtual desktop, but at the very least I would get familiar with moving applications between the desktops and switching to exactly the one you need.

Other thoughts:

  • Can you write a script to open applications on certain desktops? I’m thinking of how you can script tmux to certain programs on certain panes
  • Do you have multiple monitors? I remember something being weird about multiple monitors/desktops when I used GNOME last. It could’ve just been me though

Indeed. That’s the conclusion I’ve come to, and that’s one of the reasons I’ve created this thread in the first place.

You’re right. I’m gonna try to familiarize myself more with this.

I’ve never written a Script before, to be completely honest. So I do not know how much I could do with Scripting with Bash and what’s the level of what you can do without having to have sudo rights.

At home, yes, I have a Desktop PC with Multiple Monitors. And yes, Gnome feels a little bit out of place with them, but it runs just fine.

Did you say you can or cannot use GNOME Extensions?

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No I cannot at work, but I can at home. And yes, I’ve customized the heck out of my Personal Gnome Install with Extensions.

Never heard of that one before, thanks for the link, will give it a look!

While I will admit that gestures are quite handy, whether on GNOME or on KDE, they are only natively available on Wayland (I don’t really like that gestures extension for GNOME on X). That should be fine for you though, since you are not going to be recording the screen. If you were on KDE, well, you would probably be horrified at first, since some things end up taking the entire screen up, like the WiFi menu from the system tray, when opened. GNOME’s implementation of Wayland is pretty much perfect, so you need not worry.

Even without a touchpad (or clickpad in my case), I don’t mind the keyboard shortcuts that much. If I am limited to a mouse though, I will definitely be turning the left hot corner on.
If I recall correctly, the settings should have a list of all of the shortcuts somewhere. I am unable to check due to currently being on KDE (not a short story).

Side note

Weird though, they let us customize the computers in small ways, though we have to undo that at the end of the class, so only I really end up customizing anything (Windows, but still…). Oh, also, the professor let me use my Kubuntu LiveUSB during computer science class. A shame that it ends in second grade (engineering secondary school, Sarajevo, so computer science is not exactly our primary focus).

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