For the past few days, for the first time, I’ve seriously tried MacOS and I became distinctly aware that anyone who calls Gnome similar to MacOS has never used MacOS.

If you’re just looking at screenshots, Gnome and MacOS do bear a resemblance. Gnome’s Dash looks similar to the Dock; Gnome’s app launcher looks similar to Launchpad; Gnome’s top panel looks similar to the menu bar.

But actually using each desktop, the UX, design philosophy, idealogy, and feel is miles apart. I think the four biggest differences are

  1. No menu bar
  2. Minimizing distractions, so no dock
  3. Interacting with windows is closer to Windows and KDE (fullscreening windows keeps them in same workspace, can interact with a window’s content without first clicking to focus it)
  4. Managing open apps is closer to Windows and KDE (apps actually close when you hit “x”, with few exceptions, only open apps and favorited apps are in the dash)
  • jonathan@lemmy.zipEnglish
    10·
    13 days ago

    No one is saying they’re identical.

    I mained MacOS for 10 years and Gnome for the past 5. Gnome is as similar to MacOS as KDE is to Windows.

  • petsoi@discuss.tchncs.deM
    2·
    13 days ago

    My suggestion, ignore those desktop fights. Just use what fits best to you. Save your energy for something useful, eg contributing.

  • tedzards509@discuss.tchncs.de
    2·
    11 days ago

    For me, the similarity is not primarily from the looks but from:

    1. The opinionated “GNOME”- or “Apple”-Way to do things
    2. The focus on using workspaces (Although Apple forces you more to use them than GNOME does)
    3. The focus on design before features (I feel like this is more of a GNOME thing but it aligns with the philosophy Apple tries to exhibit about itself)

    Then alongside that, I also get that MacOS vibes from more minor things, like GTK or Apple AppKit (?) providing one unified design language across almost all apps, as well as the touchpad gestures.

  • bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
    1·
    13 days ago

    I am addicted to the mouse gestures from years using OS X for work, and use Gnome despite kiiiind of hating it on anything I plan to code on. Trust me, it’s similar. And getting that same experience elsewhere is difficult and janky.

  • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    01·
    13 days ago

    Windows, macos and gnome all piss me off within 30 seconds of using them so I say they’re all exactly alike.