If the dash/overview was the default view Gnome 3 would be much better!

[x-shaney-x]

If the dash/overview was the default view.

Does anyone know of any way to make this possible?

By default, one has to perform an action (moving the pointer to the top left corner or maybe a hotkey) before they can do anything.

Open the overview THEN search for an app.
Open the overview THEN click on a launcher in the favourites bar.

This has always been an issue for me with Gnome 3 and the main reason I have avoided it in the past.

It would be better if the desktop loaded up and the overview was there, ready and waiting.
You could just start typing straight away to search for an app or just go straight to your web browser or whatever instead of having to go up and left then down to the favourites bar.

When apps are open you would still go top left to go to overview and when all apps are closed, you would be back at the overview ready to do more work.

Why oh why isn't it like this by default and how can I make it so?

[cecilpierce]

I agree, and every time of an update all the extensions stop working...

[@nne]

If you mean that the dash should show permanently, Unity does that, doesn't it?

[x-shaney-x]

Partially but I can no longer use unity (for reasons I won't go into here) so will be switching to Gnome 3 in some form (ubuntu or otherwise) and I don't really understand the point of having an empty desktop when they could have the overview there all the time.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

I agree, and I'm curious why it is the way it is. There might be a clever reason. Maybe you could ask on the gnome-design IRC channel?

[x-shaney-x]

I agree, and I'm curious why it is the way it is. There might be a clever reason. Maybe you could ask on the gnome-design IRC channel?

Well I gave it a go (haven't used IRC in years and got a bit confused).
Apparently, it is mainly down to technical reasons, such as keybindings not working in overview mode, which is being worked on.
So it could become a reality in time, hopefully not too much time though.

[alexfish]

Not sure if 3's load has been lightened to good effect.

IE:

can it bridge the gap between Desktop 32 and 64 bit to arm ,
is nautilus as much dependent on gnome , as gnome is to nautilus , is there an alternate compatible lightweight file browser ???

I had a quick look at the Wiki ,no mention to these pointers

If can't bridge the gaps then as far as everyday users are concerned then Gnome 3 has no meaning , except for a development platform. That could be it's + side.

If passed history serves me correct , do they still listen to suggestion. Simple things have often gone straight into deep thought , as in Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy .

[Mr. Picklesworth]

Well I gave it a go (haven't used IRC in years and got a bit confused).
Apparently, it is mainly down to technical reasons, such as keybindings not working in overview mode, which is being worked on.
So it could become a reality in time, hopefully not too much time though.

Neat! Thanks for passing that on.

Not sure if 3's load has been lightened to good effect.

IE:

can it bridge the gap between Desktop 32 and 64 bit to arm ,
is nautilus as much dependent on gnome , as gnome is to nautilus , is there an alternate compatible lightweight file browser ???

As far as I have noticed, GNOME 3 — especially with GNOME Shell — has a vastly improved start time. Quite a lot of work has contributed to this, actually. One thing that helps is the move from gconf to gsettings with the dconf storage backend. dconf is very good at reading a whole lot of config keys, for example at startup. In addition, the dependency on Nautilus is quite minimal. There is no desktop icon thing (by default), so Nautilus is really just an application you use to look at files and folders. There is also much improved autorun (where gnome-session knows which programs can wait for a while before being started, as well as which programs don't need to be started at all), and of course there are far fewer unique processes trying to talk to each other in order to create your desktop shell, which should help a little with overhead.

[critin]

I don't really understand the point of having an empty desktop when they could have the overview there all the time.

I'm so grateful it isn't open all the time. I'd much rather see my desktop change backgrounds while I'm working.

[@nne]

Partially but I can no longer use unity (for reasons I won't go into here) so will be switching to Gnome 3 in some form (ubuntu or otherwise) and I don't really understand the point of having an empty desktop when they could have the overview there all the time.

I do see the point and I'm glad they did it that way. Anyway, if you want all sort of icons on your desktop, you can do it by turning "Have file manager handle the desktop" on in the Tweaks tool, "Desktop" tab.