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by jeroenhd 655 days ago
> I love Gnome but I want (at least) quarter tiling

This is what I've used Pop!'s Gnome extension (https://github.com/pop-os/shell) for in the past. I don't think it'll receive much love after Cosmic is released (after all, Gnome itself is being dropped) but if it still works for whatever version of Gnome you use, it may be worth checking out.

After using FancyZones on Windows, Gnome's lack of tiling management on my ultrawide has become a bit of an annoyance for me. Unfortunately, my copy of Pop Shell broke at some point.

> no fragile plugin system

While I don't like Gnome's tendency to slow down or crash, I do very much like the plugin system. Things like GSConnect and various smaller tweaks improve my Gnome experience a lot.

I hope Cosmic does expose some kind of plugin system, though hopefully one that's not as prone to lag and crashes.
1 comments
panick21_ 655 days ago
The plugin system has many issue. A single failed plugin takes all of them down. And its not a stable interface, each version threatens to break many plugins.

Its absolutely annoying. You have configured something you like, next gnome version they are gone.

Cosmic plugins are their own processes (generally written in Rust) using very fast Wayland and be much more stable. In fact, a much larger amount of the functionality already lives in plugins. Its a game changer in the long term.

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tuna74 655 days ago
So you are claiming that Cosmic has a stable plugin API and ABI?
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WD-42 655 days ago
It's alpha. Of course not. But the fact that is has one at all, is an improvement over GNOME where the plugin "api" is just javascript injected into the main gnome shell process.
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tuna74 655 days ago
We'll see about that. If you need an api you will be pretty limited versus that you can do about anything for Gnome Shell Extensions.
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WD-42 655 days ago
The main reason why System76 decided to build Cosmic in the first place was to avoid having to spend an inordinate amount of time (I heard 50%) fixing their extensions any time Gnome made a new release.

The fact that they were able to release this alpha of Cosmic DE in one year just goes to show how much better a use of time it is.

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