How to add minimize button in gnome | howto

[computersavvy (Jeff V)]

@lendenu

That is the reason why the “full screen” application is quite wrong on the “desktop” like in reality you don’t cover your whole table with the thing you are using, just an area and other things aren’t “under” it, they are placed around.

Exactly why I have a fairly large resolution screen (4k) and almost never use full screen. My windows are placed where it is convenient to access them and can be moved as I choose. No one is forcing you to run applications as full screen.

@lendenu

Now the real question is about “multitasking” or if we need to do/view more than one thing a time.

Yes. Copy & paste is used regularly between different windows/apps

@lendenu

Same goes for icons, it is an old bad habit of Windows users to fill the desktop with icons they don’t even remind what are linked to.

agreed

@lendenu

Probably if my workflow required multiple windows side by side i would not use Gnome because it lacks the proper functions for that.

100% incorrect.

Gnome allows windowing with multiple apps and moving them on the desktop as the user chooses. Only if one chooses to use full screen does that become an issue – but even then the super key or super + A key combo allows choosing the workspace or window or app of choice almost instantly.

This image is a small portion of the display on my 4k monitor

@lendenu

Just a little addition: there isn’t any “desktop” in Gnome.

Traditionally the “desktop” is like a table where you place things, like icons or application windows or “panels/bars”(including widgets, applets, etc).

The windows “deskop” is where you place icons (shortcuts) to launch apps. Those icons are in the “activities” menu in fedora with the most used added to the “favorites” taskbar at the bottom of the screen by user choice.
Gnome on Fedora uses the desktop to display the windows in use (open) (seen as the background image there) and allows moving them around as you would documents or folders on a physical desktop.

You are beating a dead horse here since what you claim to be “standard” is only applicable to the “standard” as defined by windows. Linux is not windows (and never will be IMHO).

Configure it as you see fit – or don’t. Complaining about a perceived weakness gets you nowhere. Making suggestions to improve things in a specific manner with a reasoned argument as to why it is better may gain brownie points.

As we used to say when I was in the military –
“kudos” gain awards.
but one “Aw S**t” wipes out 10 “kudos”

[lendenu (Lorenzo Celsi)]

Gnome can “tile” application windows but then it misses all the other tools, like the said “minimize button” that is related to the taskbar and in the taskbar you have other (possibly) useful things.

Besides, the fact that people insist in using “extensions” to recreate a sort of “desktop” pretty much demonstrates the point. Ask guys at Ubuntu about the “desktop icons”.

I would also say that “resizing” application windows in Gnome is strange, for example it happens to me all the time that it retains the windows size only when it stays at some distance from the left and right, otherwise it gets auto-maximized upon next opening.

Of course I am not a super-professional user of anything, including Gnome, for example I have already forgotten all the keys for using the keyboard.

You are beating a dead horse here since what you claim to be “standard” is only applicable to the “standard” as defined by windows. Linux is not windows (and never will be IMHO).

Well you are confusing Gnome with “linux”.
I have been using “linux” for some time and it was pretty much the same as Windows. Including I would say ALL the “spins” of Fedora. I bet most people couldn’t tell “linux” from “Windows” if they had the same theme. XFCE is more like Windows 98 and KDE more like a “modern” Windows (can’t say which then). Once upon a time I played with some of those “light DE/WM” included in Antix and alike and most had a theme that looked like some version of Windows. Who knows why, since “linux” is different.

[computersavvy (Jeff V)]

@lendenu

Gnome can “tile” application windows but then it misses all the other tools, like the said “minimize button” that is related to the taskbar and in the taskbar you have other (possibly) useful things.

You have repeatedly been given the fix for that and still are determined to beat that horse.

@lendenu

it happens to me all the time that it retains the windows size only when it stays at some distance from the left and right, otherwise it gets auto-maximized upon next opening.

That was feature of gnome where pushing a window against the edge of the screen triggers it to maximize – either vertically or full screen. That does not happen to me and may be a lingering from earlier installs. To try and get that changed simply file a bug or change request with the gnome developers.

Best suggestion –
Ask specifically about that issue on “ask fedora”

It seems quite obvious that for every answer you receive you are likely to attack at a different tangent and with a different perceived problem.

I will no longer participate in your arguments. Only actual problem solutions.
Note that this thread was also moved from ask to the water cooler for the lack of a specific problem to solve.

[casey128 (Casey)]

Minimize in a Windows or Mac OS context has one advantage: economy of motion. A single click reduces the window to an icon on the dock or task bar. Bringing the window back into focus also takes one click. It takes more mouse motions to achieve the same outcomes using workspaces:

1. Drag the cursor to the top left corner to activate the window overview
2. Find your window among the sea of white rectangles, which can take some effort when many windows are open.
3. Click and drag the window to the next workspace
4. Click again to exit the window overview.

Of course, if you’re a keyboard warrior you can use some keyboard shortcuts to move around workspaces. But non-computer savvy people will likely rely quite heavily on the mouse.

[computersavvy (Jeff V)]

Even simpler with gnome.
Use the gnome-extensions-app and have the windows list appear across the bottom of your screen. Then a click on the icon for the minimized window will open it back up.

[anon91881872]

you basically just need gnome extenssion manager well that is laready included on chrome browser extenssion and then just install dash to dock and all done with 2 extenssions

[mblasko (Mike B.)]

@casey128

Minimize in a Windows or Mac OS context has one advantage: economy of motion.

I am also a long-time Mac user, including work environments, and basically never minimise windows, as I am using workspaces, just as GNOME proposes this use case, too.

Then there is the trackpad. I know lots of users rely on mouse for certain tasks, but a well built trackpad can do magic around workspaces. Swiping between windows and workspaces feels so natural, one just forgets about the mouse. I am “mouse-less” for over a decade now. Obviously not a gamer.

[job79]

Just want to add to this that switching workspaces with a mouse is also very easy:

1. Scroll the mouse wheel on the top left activities button
2. Press the windows key and scroll the mouse wheel

That being said, I also prefer using a trackpad.

[badshah]

Things like this can be easily fixed with Extension Manager. Extension Manager should be shipped with Fedora.

[barryascott]

@mblasko

I am also a long-time Mac user, including work environments, and basically never minimise windows, as I am using workspaces, just as GNOME proposes this use case, too.

Agreed its rarely that I use minimize on macOS.

But I do use the hide app feature a lot, which hides all the windows of an App with one key press. Cmd-H

With KDE I use minimise regularly.

[lendenu (Lorenzo Celsi)]

Sweeping is a concept that comes from touchscreens and specifically smartphones, because, again, the screen is so small you can’t have multiple application windows.

It can be good with laptops when you can use the one-two-three fingers functions. It is not much useful on desktops, in fact I am using Gnome on both only because it is annoying to move within two totally different DEs.

Speaking of Gnome, maybe somebody here believes it is the best thing ever invented. Well, I don’t think so. Starting from the fact that today’s Gnome with “stacked” elements is quite different from the original with dock and working spaces on the left and right and coming to the fact that the top bar is almost useless, unless you populate it with extension which are doomed to fail and the circle closes.

Personally I use Gnome because I have to use Fedora since it gives the best hardware support for my own computers. Best Fedora is “Workstation” because more resources are spent there.
Then there isn’t much of a choice if you want to be on Wayland and if you prefer GTK applications. “Legacy” DEs/WMs can be a temporary solution but I am not going to spend time over them, given that soon or later I would have to move on.

It would be good if some distro with enough resources choses KDE as primary desktop, so that it can be polished and refined in order to be actually competitive.

[lendenu (Lorenzo Celsi)]

Extension manager can be shipped, problem is extensions are a wrong concept. If a feature is really useful it must be provided by default by the DE, that is the only way to be sure it works reliably and across upgrades. The fact that “addons” or “extensions” are named that way is because the idea is somebody else would make them and this means extensions cannot follow the DE development and you cannot actually trust them for performance and security.

I think we all follow the same path, at first we play with all extensions because they look like the coolest thing ever then we realize it becomes a burden and we reduce extensions to the bare minimum and then again we stop using them alltogether.

[jakfrost (Stephen Douglas Snow)]

So you can’t just use [Super][h] the standard keyboard shortcut …

or right click on the window and select “hide”

[7h35un (hat red)]

@lendenu

extensions are a wrong concept. If a feature is really useful it must be provided by default by the DE

i could be wrong but i think ubuntu does incorporate that to some extent.

@lendenu

at first we play with all extensions because they look like the coolest thing ever then we realize it becomes a burden and we reduce extensions to the bare minimum and then again we stop using them alltogether.

couldn’t agree more. as of now i do not have a single extension on my system & i do not miss nothing.

[7h35un (hat red)]

@computersavvy

Linux is not windows (and never will be IMHO).

nor will it look like windows provided you are on gnome.

@lendenu

most people couldn’t tell “linux” from “Windows”

because you are with 1 of the wannabe windows de & not gnome.

metaphorically speaking, you get divorced & then get remarried but you want your new wife to please you like the old one did.
if you are so in love with windows stick with it, linux ain’t windows so why should it be like windows even cosmetically?