I personally use Blur my Shell and Ubuntu AppIndicator, I use BmS mostly for asthetics, and Ubuntu AppIndicator because `pkill`ing Discord has the tendency to not start at all.
- Disable the fedora's "Background Logo" extension.
- Install the "AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support" extension.
And that's it. No fancy things. Avoiding the weird way to install a shell extension, the browser extension - which won't work for me because I use Firefox from flatpak.
There's likely a delay so that you can use Alt-Tab to quickly go back to your last window without the pop-up showing. I use AltTab on macOS like this, which has a configurable delay.
system-monitor (https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/120/system-monitor/). It is nice to see my CPU and memory usage at a glance with some history. I don't look too often but it can be good for understanding how builds are progressing, check that my software is utilizing parallelism well and see when things are in an infinite loop gobbling RAM.
Clipboard history, Pop! Shell, and workspace scroller (scroll across the top bar to quickly go through workspaces), on NixOS.
I also set up dconf options so I always have 10 workspaces, not just one more than the number currently being used, which is a pretty bad default imo. Muscle memory works much better when you can quickly go to the workspace you associate with some program of your workflow, say, Win+8 for a music player, rather than having to adapt to whatever order you happen to open programs in on this reboot.
One extension that I find really clever is Tactile [0], but unfortunately it doesn't synergize very well with Pop shell. One day I'll switch to qtile and build a custom everything with both those ideas.
I worked this way for many years, having 8 workspaces in a 2x4 grid for a long time where each workspace was "dedicated" to something. However, I have grown to really like gnome shell's dynamic workspaces.
I find that I have to multi-task on a lot of different things throughout the day, and often am getting interrupted before completing tasks. Each task gets its own workspace, and everything tied to that task (terminal, emacs, browser window with task specific tabs) is isolated there. When I complete the task, all windows are closed and that workspace goes away.
If I realize I need to work on another task, I create a new workspace, and drag the email message or a terminal with a short description of what I need to do. I go back and finish my other task first, but now there is a whole workspace set up for my next task. I find this can be a useful reminder of what tasks I am currently working on and what I still need to do.
Currently on my personal laptop, I have a workspace open with an email that I need to respond to. Another open with a browser window to the Google Play store since I need to update my personal apps before the targetSdk deadline on the 31st. Another open with emacs + a few browser tabs with documentation for a personal project. Another with a browser window for the county business license website, since I need to renew that this weekend.
I usually end up with 4-12 workspaces at any given time.
I really like this way of working, I have a hard limit of workspaces of 1, mainly because I want all of my stuff in one place. I should really try having multiple workspaces for tasks one day...
I disabled all my extensions while trying to debug random logouts while I was away from the computer, and realized I didn't miss them. (Turns out the issue was a faulty hard drive)
The only one I use is a system tray because some applications, like Steam, stick an icon in it to manage them.
When you have an application upgrade in the background, you can no longer access by launching the icon since it doesn't relate to the running application anymore.
If it's not a laptop that would have Steam then I don't need any extensions either.
Caffine (disable sleep),
Clipboard Indicator,
Night Theme Switcher (I like manually controlling dark/light theme),
Open Weather,
Window Is Ready Notification Remover,
Launch New Instance,
Window List (gnome2 style bottom bar)
to be honest, I'm not even sure where I'd get a shell extension, or what I'd want out of one. I tend to run apps in full screen and switch between virtual desktops.
What you can get out of one: e.g. caffeine, without it the "screensaver" will blacken the window, which I do not want..... You cannot disable soem features in window manager or apps. The workaour ist to use a shell extensions or sometimes called applet.
Just to balance the narrative, I think Gnome is the best DE. It does the best job staying out of the way and letting me focus on my work. Most Linux users I know (maybe 20 or so SEs I work with) use Gnome (or maybe the slightly modified ones by Pop/Ubuntu). I don't really see this widespread antipathy you speak of.
e.g. NixOS survey from last year.
https://discourse.nixos.org/t/2022-nix-survey-results/18983
has Gnome as highest with 259, followed by Plasma at 201. Though, prob'ly NixOS survey population isn't a good representation of wider Linux users. (xmonad got 108 on the same poll).
I like XFCE a lot. It's really great especially if you're one who uses the browser for a lot of stuff, and don't care about Wayland.
I install arch from scratch.
Arc dark gtk theme.
XFCE.
I just delete the dock and make the menu the inbuilt whisker menu so it looks like the windows ui which I am comfy with.
Add key bindings for win+numpad for window snapping, add super key binding for start menu.
Looks nice, very very fast.
None of it's inbuilt apps tho. I use the browser to open basically every file. The Google docs extension handles office files. Pdf, images, are opened natively obviously. VLC for media.
- flatpak install com.mattjakeman.ExtensionManager
- Disable the fedora's "Background Logo" extension.
- Install the "AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support" extension.
And that's it. No fancy things. Avoiding the weird way to install a shell extension, the browser extension - which won't work for me because I use Firefox from flatpak.