I gave it a fair shot for about a year, using vanilla GNOME with no extensions. While I eventually became somewhat proficient, it’s just not good.
Switching between a few workspaces looks cool, but once you have 10+ programs open, it becomes an unmanageable hell that requires memorizing which workspace each application is in and which hotkey you have each application set to.
How is this better than simply having icons on the taskbar? By the way, the taskbar still exists in GNOME! It’s just empty and seems to take up space at the top for no apparent reason other than displaying the time.
Did I do something wrong? Is it meant for you to only ever have a couple applications open?
I’d love to hear from people that use it and thrive in it.
I feel like vanilla GNOME is intentionally a barbones common workflow, and that extensions are how you customize to fit your needs.
For example, I often switch between desktop speakers and headphones (where the dongle is always connected), and sometimes other audio devices. I installed the sound input/output chooser so I don’t have to go into Settings every time I need to switch inputs. It saves me multiple clicks. But I get that not everyone needs immediate access to change audio devices, so why clutter the UI?
I’ve used both vanilla GNOME and the post-Unity Ubuntu spin on it. In either case I’ve grown accustomed to the Activities screen, quickly accessing it pressing the Super key, and using it to switch windows and manage full screen apps on different monitors.
What, is there no system tray? What was wrong with the system tray??
If I remember correctly, there’s already a system tray icon that lets you adjust volume on your current devices. The extension adds the ability to switch devices from that drop down instead of drilling into the settings app.
I feel that way about the default GNOME apps as well, they all provide the basic functionality that most users need, since specialist users would install specialist apps anyway.
One extension I won’t install is dash-to-dock or similar (I know some people like it and that’s fine), because being made to switch to the Activities view once you have too many windows to alt+tab between provides a useful psychological prompt to close unused windows or move stuff to other workspaces. That’s one of the things I most like about the GNOME workflow.