GNOME has a lot of features that macOS is missing by default, like dragging wind...

kitsunesoba · on June 19, 2023

There’s a ton of little power user affordances sprinkled through macOS that aren’t present in GNOME, and some not in any other desktop environment.

Here’s just a few shortcomings compared to macOS pulled from memory and from playing with my GNOME install for a few minutes just now:

- No built in UI to remap modifier keys

- Disinclination towards menubars, with any functions that don’t fit on the toolbar or in the hamburger menu getting trimmed

- No ability to search menu items for an app-agnostic command palette

- No ability to assign/remap key shortcut for any menu item, including in third party apps

- No desktop icons without extension

- No per-virtual-desktop wallpapers

- Dash can’t be pinned to left or right edges

- Files and folders can’t be pinned to the Dash

- Overview can’t group windows by application, making it impossible to move all window of an app between desktops at once

- Minimize and zoom/maximize buttons are hidden without GNOME Tweaks

- All windows for an app can’t be closed, minimized, restored, or zoomed all at the same time

- No option in settings to change UI accent color

- Frequently accessed control center sections can’t be dragged out and made top-level items

- File manager obscures root filesystem and other partitions

- GNOME apps don’t allow user to customize toolbars unlike native Mac apps

If I really drilled there’d probably be enough to fill a blog post.

pxc · on June 19, 2023

This is a good reply. I say you should write the blog post!

It's been some time since I used vanilla GNOME, so I don't know how much of what I recall about GNOME applies to the latest vanilla experience.

The main one of those I'd miss or reach for is menu bar searching. That's probably my favorite feature of macOS!

> No ability to assign/remap key shortcut for any menu item, including in third party apps

I suspect there's not a good way for GNOME to offer this, unfortunately. Menu bar implementations are multiple on Linux, not singular like on macOS.

> Minimize and zoom/maximize buttons are hidden without GNOME Tweaks

That is absolutely wild. All the time? Until mouseover?

Sorry for neglecting other items! They do sound potentially annoying, but don't stick out to me as much as the things I replied about.

kitsunesoba · on June 20, 2023

> That is absolutely wild. All the time? Until mouseover?

All the time, normally only the close button is visible. I can kinda see the reasoning for hiding minimize since GNOME lacks a representation of minimized windows (except in overview), but I can’t figure out a good reason to hide maximize.