I really like gnome and how it looks. However every time I try it I find myself in need of more functionality and so I install a bunch of extensions. For example I can’t live without a dock and some sort of system tray that shows which apps are running in background.
Sometimes the extensions have small UI inconsistencies or use more memory than usual. That’s why I totally ditched gnome and switch to KDE.
Also I tend to think it’s been designed for people who are more comfortable using a keyboard. I’m mostly a mouse person.
Do any of you run pure gnome with no extensions? How do you cope with the lack of a dock and system tray?
I use mostly pure GNOME on my PC. The missing system tray is very annoying, though I really don’t care about the missing dock or desktop icons. I start programs by searching for them, not by clicking on a desktop icon or in a dock. That’s my preferred method. And the alt+tab menu of GNOME is nice enough to find anything when I need it, together with having workspaces to organize everything.
I tried KDE, but it just felt more messy to me. For instance, I tried to move the bottom bar to the side of my screen, accidentally moved something on the bar itself, and then everything looked off and I couldn’t figure out how to get it back. It all felt a bit janky and unrefined. On some systems I also use i3, but that’s only for productivity. For daily use I prefer GNOME, where everything just seems to work.