Switching back to MATE

A crashed disk and its replacement gave me the opportunity to do a fresh install of Fedora 28.  As I am usually wont to do, I tried to incorporate the default options for most things, and some changes (at least for me) I wanted to try included the following:

  1. Trying out GNOME again
  2. No password for root user (like Ubuntu)
  3. Default partitioning using LVM
  4. Fresh installs of all apps and their own configuration

Now, there are usually some things that I change almost as soon as I get on a new system.  Amongst those are my preferences for Bash, including an “unlimited” Bash history (e.g., HISTSIZE=HISTFILESIZE=1000000), etckeeper for managing my /etc, and several other things I don’t intend to go into.

The biggest change, as usual, was giving GNOME one more chance.  I loved GNOME 2.x and its interface, and I was amongst those that grumbled when GNOME Shell was introduced with version 3.  However, I always felt I should give it a fair shake, but unfortunately, it always convinces me to return back to its spiritual successor, MATE (which is a fork of GNOME 2).

In this case, the turning point for me was the fact that within the first couple of days I experienced several crashes to the login screen and progressively slowing performance as I got the system configured the way I like.  Yes, I have some extensions installed, but I had my first crash before any of them were there.

Long story short, I don’t remember the last time MATE crashed on me, and given that it’s relatively lightweight, it never felt so sluggish for me.  I am back at that point once again, but it’s not for trying.

Will I never try GNOME again?  Probably not.  But right now, I want to know that just invoking the overview mode or unlocking my screen isn’t going to crash my environment and lose my running state.  I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

P.S.  If this sounds overly negative, I understand.  I had a rough day and came home kind of frustrated, to being greeted by a non-cooperative DE probably pushed me over the line and drove me back into the comfort of the familiar.  Please take this all in that context.

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