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.
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?
You’re thinking of just one extension, one instance. Now repeat this for EVERY single Gnome release, for pretty much all extensions (not just this one), and you can understand my frustration. Which is why I’ve left the Gnome ecosystem.
Also, it’s not like v45 came out of the blue, the beta releases were available for quite a while prior to final release, and even before the final, the Gnome developers did warn that about the upcoming extension changes. So it’s not like the Material Shell devs were unaware.
Edit: Also, the PR may have been merged but the updated version hasn’t been released yet. Both the versions on Github and the Gnome extensions site are still the old release.
@d3Xt3r @princessnorah I only use 5 extensions, but I’ve always used those 5 and I’ve never had any break after an update. Maybe I’m just lucky?
Or maybe you’re using a distro that updates Gnome late, which may give extension makers enough time to update?
@d3Xt3r arch btw
Then you’re lucky I guess. I too was on Arch when I experienced the extensions breakage.