What Tweak, Program, ... changes a Desktop Environment from unusable to great for you?

b9chomps@beehaw.org to Linux@lemmy.ml – 21 points –

I have used Linux on and off for 15 years. I consider myself a casual user and stuck to the mainstream DEs (mostly KDE, XFCE and some Cinnamon). Gnome has been a hurdle for me before and after the big version 40 changes, I couldn't get my head around how they handled the workspaces and workflow. At some point I I tried out an extension hat changed all of it.

Material Shell

It moves the workspaces to a vertical panel and the programs onto a horizontal panel. In a workspace you can view the programs full screen or tile them.

Several Programs inside a Workspace. It's basically they same way Gnome works. However for some reason it just makes sense in my brain. No idea why. (I'm looking at WMs that work in a similar way atm. Maybe I'll take the plunge away from DEs at some point)

Has such a small change ever saved a Desktop Environment for you and is essential if you ever install it?

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On Gnome,

  • Workspace Matrix: provides a customizable n x m workspace grid, and a customizable pop-up that shows live preview of all workspaces and their windows (incl. e.g. video playing).
  • Forge: windows tiling

(screenshot from Workspace Matrix extension site, not mine)

In combination, these two features allow me very quick overview of everything I have open, presented in an ordered fashion, allowing quick, keyboard-driven application change.

I'm not aware that the exact features of Workspace Matrix are reproduced by anything in any other DE.

KDE plasma has it natively.

I don't think it does. It didn't when I checked a year ago, at least. You couldn't get live previews on the workspace pop-up.

Can you point me to the feature you refer to? If it really does this, it would be a major game changer for me.