Which Gnome extensions do you use on Zorin OS?

Greetings,

Which extension do you use in Zorin OS besides the standard that comes with the system?

I only uses two extra extensions.

  1. Gamemode extension - It tells me when gamemode on Zorin is activated.
  2. Lock Keys extension - My keyboard have no light or other indicators to show me if caps lock or num Lock is on/off.

Gnome-Extension

Gnome Tweaks is the only Gnome addition I have installed on Z15.3 Core.
I use that for dark grey semi-transparent taskbar with an otherwise light theme.

I use a screenshoot tool because it letme use a keyboard shortcut and is always on. No like other screenshot tools that are so much more bloated with extra tools that i dont need

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None.
In fact, I am still looking for the extension, which let me compress files in password protected zip in Nautilus. Dose anyone know such thing exists? Bit tired of fire up Windows VM every time I need to created password protected zip files...

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You could do that with the default Archive manager app that comes with Zorin.

But I do use a handy and small addon for Nautlius which lets me open files and folders as Admin. It's quite handy. You can learn more about it here.

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With Archive Manager (scroll down):

With Engrampa:

You can also do so with xarchiver (XFCE), PeaZip, 7zip and Cryptkeeper.

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Thanks for those tips :slight_smile:

After reading those article, I realized that I could do the same using this freshly installed B1 Free Archiver. I was thinking of something like right click on the file(s) and create a password protected archive, which is what I usually do in Windows.

While we are at it, does anyone knows how to change the default archiver? I checked the Settings but did not see any option for default archiver.

Screenshot from 2021-06-24 13-02-16

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When you right-click an archived file, you should be able to seelct "Open With" then "Open with Other Application". This is for XFCE (Zorin Lite) but I believe that Gnome (Zorin Core) is similar.
A window will open where you can set an application as default, restore system defaults and add applications to the list.

This I could do.

But I am missing this window :frowning:
I can only click "select" which simply opens the selected archiver but there is no button to press to set it as a default.

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Which desktop are you using?

It is Zorin 16.
I am a proud user of Gnome desktop :wink:
Another Nautilus limitation?

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I just opened an instance of Nautilus and tried this out. I had the same result as you.
Try instead in Gnomes Nautilus; Right click >Properties > third tab over Open With - this should be the window that allows the setting of an app as default.

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It worked, thanks! :partying_face:
I hope I can give more than one heart :heart: :orange_heart: :yellow_heart: :green_heart: :blue_heart: for useful reply like this.

Come to think about of it, XFCE is way more intuitive than Gnome. Or should I say Gnome is very counter-intuitive.

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To me, Gnome is very counter-intuitive in some regards. I started out from switching away from Windows on Zorin Core- or Gnome. It was not until I switched to Zorin OS Lite (XFCE) that I really settled in. On Gnome I felt I always needed to hunt down what I was looking for and changing settings was like pulling teeth.
There are some things in Gnome that are far more intuitive than they are in Plasma, though.
I am not a Programmer, I am a mechanic. These are not so dissimilar, however. In mechanical, you need to know troubleshooting, diagnosing, programming and you need to know the Math.
As a mechanic, what you want is your Tools Organized and easy to reach. The worst thing you can have as a mechanic is searching for a tool. It stops work flow, breaks your concentration and adds to frustration. Having your tools available, within easy reach and easily identifiable is essential.
Gnome takes a wholly different approach - putting tools into hidden corners and tucking them away where you do not know where they are. Gnome-Devs like to talk about "precious screen real estate," but this is a fallacy. Having Clear Toolboxes is far more important than trying to stretch your work area by a few millimetres. It is also misleading: The Gnome Devs goal is to produce a distinct "Gnome look" as a Brand Image, then protect it at all costs, including breaking theming for years (Until the stakeholders forced them to sign a pledge to stop doing it). The Gnome Devs even penned "open Letters" demanding that other developers stop theming apps - only to learn it was the Gnome-devs making the claim years later.
And Canonical / Gnome Introduced the CSD's and the Gnome-Extensions that they refuse any responsibility for, advising that such can Break Gnome; Yet, in reality, they are required in order to make the desktop even usable. Gnome foisted its work onto Other Developers in order to decrease their workload, lay off employees and boost their profits - all while misleading users with irrelevant claims and leading statements.
I find it amazing how many "Tech-articles" are out there promoting Gnome Features as much as possiblel while neglecting or downplaying features lost... Yet, look to the users and forums and users only are concnered about Features Lost - and don't get me started on what Gnome 40 has done, with even more unnecessary removals and forcing the users to bend to Gnomes will. Even such very simple things like the removal of Scrollbar Steppers.

I find Canonical and Gnome to be intrusive and far more like the Microsoft-we-left-behind than any other environment. And their hold on the Tech-article writers disturbs me greatly.

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Oh you really think so? For me it's the other way around. I find XFCE unintuitive and slow... and Gnome Intuitive and beautiful. As a matter of fact, I want to write a full lengthy thread on this matter.

I completely agree with you but I don't blame it on Gnome's design approach. I put most of the blame on the poor UI design. A UI can simultaneously be very appealing and practical. When a UI can only do one of these things, to me, it is a poorly designed UI. Creating a good UI is difficult and these designers really don't want to change things up and experiment with actually new User Interfaces that are intuitive and appealing. I mean, Windows has looked the same since 22 years ago. It's just a slight reskinning... and I remember that Gnome has always looked the same as well. I don't know about XFCE but in my opinion none of these are 'Good'. They are just the least worst options that we have.

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I have to admit that the sample size is small, but if you ask my husband and my daughter-in-law, they share my opinion :slight_smile: My daughter-in-law is a former Windows user and my husband was a Mac user.

Oh, I'd love to read that.
It is always useful to hear the other peoples' opinion from a different perspective. Food for thought, as we say.

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Woa... I was mistaken. I take back everything that I said about XFCE and GNOME.
I was just trying the Live ISO of KDE Neon and oh my god it blew me away. I'm shocked how good everything was. And the customizability blew me away as well. Now that I've seen the truth, I don't want to use Gnome anymore :smiley:

In all fairness, I've given Z15 Lite a good try and XFCE left me unimpressed. KDE was just on a whole other level.

I'll be testing it more and I'll maybe even totally switch to KDE Neon. But this brings me to the question how different Ubuntu derivatives (Particularly Zorin) are different from each other. KDE Neon is also based on Ubuntu so both Zorin and Neon work similarly under the hood. But apart from couple of tweaks here and there is there any particular difference between these Ubuntu derivatives?

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That's very hard to say without a person testing both distros extensively.

I have installed plasma desktop on Zorin.

I have heard this a lot. I mean, a lot. Something must be wrong with me.
I cannot find this customizability on Plasma. I have tried, many times. I cannot find the settings to change the things I want to change (and easily change in XFCE). I cannot seem to use any theme or appearance other than that which KDE Locks Me Into.
I could not even change or move the panel. Or use many different App Menus like on XFCE.
The options lists were shorter; I could not use a preferred app.
I would bluntly say- without doubt - I find Plasma desktop to be non-intuitive entirely.
Seriously... On many KDE using Distros, I gave up on them when I could not update at all because no matter what I searched or tried, I could not find the Network manager to get it connected to the net!

I am not doubting you as I hear this a lot. From many people. And like here; I ask. How? No one ever answers.

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No, you are not alone.
During my distro hopping era, I checked out various desktops and KDE always made me scratch my head.

My husband (true blue French) shares my opinion and "KDE thinking (i.e., German thinking)" is now our household joke. While KDE is making many good applications such as K3B, Krita and KDE connect, we still cannot fathom the logic behind their desktop design :roll_eyes:

I still cannot forget my astonishment when I looked at the service guide of this hotel we were staying in Germany. Instead of listing their service for each category (restaurant, sports centre, room service, etc.), everything was listed in an alphabetical order. To add insult to injury, it was listed in the original German alphabetical order.

KED reminds me of this German hotel guide. It is designed in a very logical manner, but it is not the logic that makes sense for us.

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KDE? Been there, done that.