Gnome 40
Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 4:06 pm
Gnome is not too popular on this forum, but since around 3.28 I have liked using it. I have been itching to try Gnome 40 and I finally got a chance to use it on the Pinebook Pro. Overall I really like the UI and find it a very nice update.
The workspace have gone from being arranged verticle to a horizontal layout. Three finger swipe gestures have been very smoothly laid out so changing workspaces is a simple swipe away. MacOS implemented this layout and gestures about a decade ago. If you use a tablet and are accustomed to have full screen applications and easy switching between them, Gnome 40 is a very easy to understand interface and very easy to work with. I like PopOS's and found application switching fairly easy, but for me Gnome 40 takes that to a whole new level.
Gnome 40 has also addressed overall resource usage. When first booted I am showing ~750MB RAM usage. Gnome seems to also have done alot of work on resource usage for background processes. For instance it Evolution data server (Gnome equivalent of Akonadi services on KDE) have dropped from ~7% processor usage to negligible.
GTK4 has been moving toward creating applications windows that morph into layouts that fit well with screen size and orientation. Geary the email application enables this very well. In full screen it provides a typical 3 column view, but when window size is much smaller the view becomes more phone like. I notice that Win11 is also implementing this.
Gnome has to some measure alway had mechinisms to change the size of UI elements without needed to use a fixed scaling. This has been brought forward much more in Gnome 40. The file manager has a slider to change the size of icons. For image previews this almost makes the file manager useful as a photo manager.
I use a tablet a lot and my vision is not good and getting worse. I also find that I do much more content consumption that content creating. I do more editing than creating. Overall Gnome 40 has a very nice workflow for that manner of usage.
The workspace have gone from being arranged verticle to a horizontal layout. Three finger swipe gestures have been very smoothly laid out so changing workspaces is a simple swipe away. MacOS implemented this layout and gestures about a decade ago. If you use a tablet and are accustomed to have full screen applications and easy switching between them, Gnome 40 is a very easy to understand interface and very easy to work with. I like PopOS's and found application switching fairly easy, but for me Gnome 40 takes that to a whole new level.
Gnome 40 has also addressed overall resource usage. When first booted I am showing ~750MB RAM usage. Gnome seems to also have done alot of work on resource usage for background processes. For instance it Evolution data server (Gnome equivalent of Akonadi services on KDE) have dropped from ~7% processor usage to negligible.
GTK4 has been moving toward creating applications windows that morph into layouts that fit well with screen size and orientation. Geary the email application enables this very well. In full screen it provides a typical 3 column view, but when window size is much smaller the view becomes more phone like. I notice that Win11 is also implementing this.
Gnome has to some measure alway had mechinisms to change the size of UI elements without needed to use a fixed scaling. This has been brought forward much more in Gnome 40. The file manager has a slider to change the size of icons. For image previews this almost makes the file manager useful as a photo manager.
I use a tablet a lot and my vision is not good and getting worse. I also find that I do much more content consumption that content creating. I do more editing than creating. Overall Gnome 40 has a very nice workflow for that manner of usage.