Introducing
The Slant team built an AI & it’s awesome
Find the best product instantly
Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to Safari
Try it now
4.7 star rating
0
What is the best alternative to JWM?
Ad
Ad
GNOME
All
63
Experiences
Pros
30
Cons
32
Specs
Top
Pro
Clean UI
Every aspect of GNOME has been crafted to fit together as a harmonious whole, so that it offers a consistent and integrated experience.
See More
Top
Con
Longtime support is hard since every few years GNOME changes its own standards
Everytime something is complete GNOME breaks itself: Icon naming changes almost every 3 years : once gtk icons were named stock_edit then gtk-edit then edit-edit and currently edit-edit-symbolic App icons change also every few years currently they get renamed to an android like scheme eg: org.gnome.Photos.svg instead of gnome-photos.svg however this breaks all common standards esp. since filenames on linux are case sensitive. GNOMEShell extension also break on almost every release. Currently Gtk3 has been stabilized however they are already working on GTK4 and 5 so in the worst case your desktop will need to run and support 4 GTK-toolkits at the same time.
See More
Top
Pro
Online account management
GNOME integrates with your online accounts, so that all your data can be accessed from the same place.
See More
Top
Con
Slow
GNOME desktop environment is kinda slow on some Linux distributions.
See More
Top
Pro
Wayland support
Gnome is the first desktop environment that uses Wayland as default instead of X server. X server is only optional currently.
See More
Top
Con
Full screen start menu
This may be fine if your screen is really small, but on modern fullHD desktop it looks ugly and distracting. In addition to very ineffective display of items on screen - much more could be placed on one screen if there were less empty space around and between icons.
See More
Top
Pro
Keyboard friendly
It's (mostly) usable without touching a mouse, so you can keep your hands on the keyboard. Shortcuts can be defined in the gnome setting. There are even more shortcuts available when using the gesetting or dconf tool, e.g. switch to desktop 5 to 9.
See More
Top
Con
Extensions can break whole Gnome desktop
Gnome extensions have a lot of freedom to customize the desktop, and it means that extensions can break your desktop leaving you unable to use your computer. Also extensions can significantly slow down whole desktop.
See More
Top
Pro
Highly stable
Gnome isn't obviously devoid of flaws, but it's pretty stable - especially in comparison with the KDE Plasma Desktop, which can literally fall apart after installing upgrades (and show a considerable number of error messages) or for whatever reasons - after turning on the computer you can end up without (Plasma) desktop altogether, which is quite unproductive. It is also noteworthy that many other major desktop environments are based on Gnome, and among these are: Cinnamon, Pantheon and (now dead) Unity.
See More
Top
Con
You can't put icons on the desktop
You have to enable the ability to add icons and files onto the desktop with Tweaks that you have to install.
See More
Top
Pro
Great for high dpi displays
Adjustable scaling factor makes it great for high-resolution laptops and far away TVs.
See More
Top
Con
Continuous customization and extension issues
They need to sort out their continuous customization and extension issues, which are why many people still prefer KDE or other Desktop environments.
See More
Top
Pro
It just works
You don't ever "need" tweaks. Unless your device is too outdated, it just works out of the box. Touchscreen, 4k TV, anything just works.
See More
Top
Con
Poor 'drag and drop into application' capability
Difficult to drag and drop a file into an open application.
See More
Top
Pro
Simple and easy to use
GNOME has been designed to make it simple and easy to use. Press a button to view your open windows, launch applications or check if you have new messages.
See More
Top
Con
You can't put icons on the desktop
See More
Top
Pro
Powerful search
A powerful search feature lets you access all your work from one place.
See More
Top
Con
Some settings are not where the user would expect it
E.g. it is not possible to change the keyboard auto-repeat delay or rate from the usual All Setting > Keyboard like, for example, in Unity. Many settings are considered "tweaks" and require installing a separate utility to adjust. Further still, some settings are buried in a dconf database.
See More
Top
Pro
Touchscreen friendly
It works well with any touchscreen-enabled system, including newer laptops, even to the point of including a well-designed on-screen keyboard.
See More
Top
Con
Made for touchscreens
It's very uncomfortable to use with a mouse and a keyboard.
See More
Top
Pro
Does not get in the way
GNOME lets you do the things you want without getting in the way. It won't bother you or badger you with demands, and it has been designed to help you comfortably deal with notifications.
See More
Top
Con
Some GUI controls are much larger than on other desktops
This is wasting screen space on non-HiDPI monitors.
See More
Top
Pro
Very productive
With a clean layout and well-thought keyboard shortcuts, Gnome is simply the best for people looking to be productive with their computer.
See More
Top
Con
Default alt-tab behaviour is cute but extremely annoying for fast keyboard users
See More
Top
Pro
Easy theming
Changing the look (and feel) of Gnome Shell is easy, shell theme, icon, windows and graphical elements (gtk) individually for each user. Mostly it's installing some packages or unpacking some archive to a themes folder and using selecting the new theme in e.g. gnome-tweak-tool. There are a lot of really good themes on DeviantArt.
See More
Top
Con
Native Gnome dock isn't scalable
The native Gnome dock isn't scalable, which means if you want to change its size you have to download a customized theme for the shell and hope it has the appearance you want. Honestly again just like the icon issue it wastes way too much of the screen on high resolution monitors.
See More
Top
Pro
Gnome-Tweak-Tool is great
Gnome may seem bland out of the box but, the Gnome-Tweak-Tool is awesome. The Gnome-Tweak-Tool allows for easy desktop tweaks and other control functionality, and that these features can be activated with just a click.
See More
Top
Con
Tightly coupled to its window manager
If you're looking to run an alternative window manager, like XMonad, you're pretty much out of luck.
See More
Top
Pro
Adheres to standards
Allowing for interoperability and shared technology for X Window System desktops.
See More
Top
Con
Not truly tunable
Customization is very limited.
See More
Top
Pro
Highly customisable
Gnome Extensions offers an easy way to extend the built-in functionality.
See More
Top
Con
Removes more features than it adds
See More
Top
Pro
Beautiful interface
Very, very beautiful interface.
See More
Top
Con
Extension system is weakly integrated into the environment
Backward compatibility is not guaranteed and extensions seems like second class citizens in the GNOME environment.
See More
Top
Pro
Great task manager
The GNOME Task Manager is great, showing all open processes with every needed detail. For each process you can see the amount of memory and processing power that it's using, along with the process priority.
See More
Top
Con
Terrible UX
It's like on macOS, you get stuck at every corner....
See More
Top
Pro
Graphic apps 'feel smoother' on gnome than on KDE plasma
Graphics apps 'feel smoother' on gnome than on KDE plasma. Example: Gimp and inkscape, probably because they are developed in gtk+.
See More
Top
Con
Rather insane method of wallpaper slideshows
Most DEs and WMs allow the user to simply point to a directory, and use pictures from there. Gnome 3 requires the rather asinine idea of building an XML file to accomplish the same thing.
See More
Top
Pro
Integrates with most Google Services
You can use your calendar, drive, contacts and most of Google services with Online Account option. You can show your Google Calendar events on the Gnome's default calendar app, Nautilus (Default file manager of GNOME) almost fully integrated with Google Drive and even you can read your PDF's with Evince (the default built-in PDF reader in GNOME).
See More
Top
Con
No support for fractional scaling
Unlike Qt, GTK has no support for it.
See More
Top
Pro
Effective default workflow
Gnome is not very tweakable but its defaults are sane enough that you it is very usable out of the box. Especially if you like a keyboard driven workflow and an uncluttered interface. The lack of options and features makes it a distraction free and clean UI to focus on what matters.
See More
Top
Con
Depends too much on extensions to customize basic settings
See More
Top
Pro
Great for minimalists
It may only do several things, but it's very good at each one of those things. You won't get lost in customization menus, and you certainly won't have an stability issues as long as your hardware is made within the last 10 years.
See More
Top
Con
Depends on systemd
Some people don't like systemd but it is part of most modern distros anyway.
See More
Top
Pro
High resolution screens, multi monitor, content creation
If you depend on high resolution screens, multi monitor, or content creation programs you want Gnome.
See More
Top
Con
Has several dead userspace features that are supplemented by community supported extensions
Has several dead projects that are supplemented by community supported extensions. Unfortunately, the gnome updates often break these extensions. Example: GSConnect.
See More
Top
Pro
All the major players in the Linux ecosystem have finally collated on Gnome
Red Hat default = Gnome Fedora default = Gnome Debian default = Gnome Ubuntu default = Gnome Opensuse default = Gnome This doesn't mean the others go away, it just means there is a colossal community and industry backing behind Gnome. The point whether or not it being technically the best option is now off table and irrelevant. It is now the de facto standard. Like it or not.
See More
Top
Con
Heavy-weight, PC unfriendly desktop
Heavy-weight on disk space, on package number, on dependencies, on CPU resources, on RAM, on GPU, with a style better tailored to mobiles.
See More
Top
Pro
Hamburger Menus
If you use a Mouse you fell like a second class user.
See More
Top
Con
Sacrifices usability for one style
There's one style (adwaita) and that's the one supported style.
See More
Top
Pro
Tons of extensions at extensions.gnome.org
You can add infinite customizations with extensions
See More
Top
Con
Bloated and energy-intensive
See More
Top
Pro
Original idea
It's not another desktop experience based on "windows experience" . It's original. The creativity of developers is great.
See More
Top
Con
Icon scalability and sorting
The icons in the "apps view" area don't have any additional sizes, the current ones are much too large to be effective for the screen space they use. Also, there is no native way to sort them in Gnome, only a very limited extension. Which means you're pretty much always better off using the search bar if you can.
See More
Top
Pro
Extensive
Can be customized by lots of add-ons and themes for gnome-shell.
See More
Top
Con
Deprecated
Is replaced by Gnome 40.
See More
Top
Pro
Reall the only original and complete Desktop Environment
The Gnome-Shell paradigm is wildly different from Windows, and isn't all that much like OSX either - it's a different workflow that, if it appeals to you, is a dream to use. Every other DE is either like Windows, like OSX, or like OpenBox.
See More
Top
Con
Out of Date
Gnome 3 is out of date now that Gnome 40 exists. It's still great, but the new version's switch to GTK4 and improved (IMHO) UX make 3 feel obsolete.
See More
Top
Pro
Now lighter than xfce
Gnome by default is slow. But after some tweaks, gnome becomes lightweight and also much faster than xfce. It is also more user-friendly.
See More
Top
Con
Shell-Style ≠ Widget-Style
The GNOME-shell is unable to use the current GTK style for its interface thus making it hard to get a consistent user interface.
See More
Top
Con
Inconsistent desktop
As of GNOME3, some applications have ClientSideDecorations while other use normal Titlebars, this also affects usablity since both Decorations do different things if you left, right, or double click it. Same goes for Menubars. Some Apps follow the GlobalMenu in the GNOMEShell while others don't.
See More
Top
Con
Non-intuitive use paradigm
It doesn't feature an always-on dock and fixed amount of usable desktops, doesn't support tray icons for background programs. The main interaction with running programs bases on clicking and dragging (to a desktop) preview thumbnails.
See More
Specs
License:
GPL
Type:
stacking
Default Desktop Environment:
Gnome 43
Programming Language:
C
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
FREE
741
292
Built By the Slant team
Find the best product instantly.
4.7 star rating
Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to Safari
Try it now - it's free
{}
undefined
url next
price drop