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Windows needs to stop showing tabloid news

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1725 points taubek | 9 comments | 27 Mar 23 05:20 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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kstenerud ◴[27 Mar 23 06:10 UTC] No.35323424[source]▶
I finally made the switch to Ubuntu Mate on Friday and WOW, color me impressed!

The only reason I stuck with Windows on my desktop machine for so long was gaming, and the last time I tried switching over was 10 years ago. Spoiler: it was a shitshow.

This time, things are MUCH better! The Mate desktop environment is simple, stable, clean, does the job and gets out of your way (kinda reminds me of Windows 2000). Steam's Proton makes running games a breeze. All of my favorites just work. I could even run battle.net as a non-steam game, USING Steam's Proton!

And the kicker? Blizzard's recently opened beta of Diablo 4 just worked. As in, I clicked install, clicked play, and it just worked. Perfectly. As if I were still running under Windows. I've never before seen such sorcery.

So bye bye Windows, except when I'm running one as a VM.

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1. herbst ◴[27 Mar 23 07:55 UTC] No.35324044[source]▶
Wait until you give up on mate (kinda stuck approach to copy windows 95, just like modern windows or Mac mostly does) and try actual modern desktops like Gnome, KDE or if you want to go ultra productive something tiling like 3wm
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2. kstenerud ◴[27 Mar 23 07:58 UTC] No.35324068[source]▶
Nah, tried all of those and settled on Mate.

IMO the most important aspect of a desktop environment is that you never notice it. That's what I loved so much about Windows 2000 (and why I lamented every UI change they made since then).

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3. kioshix ◴[27 Mar 23 08:01 UTC] No.35324092[source]▶
MATE is a fork of Gnome 2. Not everyone likes Gnome 3 and newer versions.
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4. herbst ◴[27 Mar 23 08:16 UTC] No.35324176[source]▶
That's the exact reason I am stuck with Gnome. First it might be a bit strange, but then you realize it's there, everything is one tab away yet you never actually see it.

Giving maximal screen estate to whatever I focus on while being as distraction less as a WM just can be.

However anyway, glad you found something that works for you! That's what choice is for

5. herbst ◴[27 Mar 23 08:18 UTC] No.35324189[source]▶
Gnome 2 is just a windows 95 clone with Gimmics. Only from gnome shell on to gnome 3 the whole concept was brought to a new level.

However I understand if people don't like that, it's new and maybe won't last it sure is easier to stick to a taskbar, etc when you are used to it.

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6. kstenerud ◴[27 Mar 23 08:39 UTC] No.35324324{3}[source]▶
That's exactly what I like about it. Windows 3.x was terrible. Win95 looked pretty but was a garbage os. But windows NT with the win95 UI on it finally convinced me to ditch my Amiga (although I was VERY tempted by NeXT). And honestly, I haven't seen any UI enhancements since then that are useful to me.
7. lenkite ◴[27 Mar 23 14:41 UTC] No.35327270[source]▶
But does that mean they will be stuck forever to an ancient GTK version ?
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8. nvrspyx ◴[27 Mar 23 18:23 UTC] No.35330301{3}[source]▶
It has supported GTK3+ for years now. I'm not familiar with the specifics, but GTK3/4 applications run fine.
9. thomastjeffery ◴[27 Mar 23 18:52 UTC] No.35330730[source]▶
The beauty is that they can do that on their own time. Possibly even never.

I use i3wm and a split ergonomic keyboard. I use a shell instead of a file manager. I am fine with 99% of people never doing that, so long as I can.