I would rather rephrase this to “Does not expose many knobs for customization by default.”. Because -frankly- between dconf, extensions and CSS; the possibilities are actually quite expansive. So much so, even, that a KDE dev said regarding GNOME: “sometimes it (read: GNOME) can be customized better than KDE”. (They say this literally in the first 10 seconds or so.)
Another striking example of the breadth of GNOME’s customization would be how Niri was heavily inspired by GNOME’s PaperWM extension. (Source) So, GNOME’s customizability has allowed the creation of a new workflow that eventually served as a direct inspiration for one of the most exciting WMs we’ve got.
Well, yes; after all, I have been able to modify even proprietary software to fit my own preferences; but it’s clear (and also explicitly stated) that it’s supposed to be used mostly as-it-comes.
I can’t say I’ve tried Niri or PaperWM before, but if they’re based on GNOME then maybe I’m being a little harsh.
Great write-up! Thank you for the effort!
Though, if I may: Regarding GNOME, you said:
I would rather rephrase this to “Does not expose many knobs for customization by default.”. Because -frankly- between dconf, extensions and CSS; the possibilities are actually quite expansive. So much so, even, that a KDE dev said regarding GNOME: “sometimes it (read: GNOME) can be customized better than KDE”. (They say this literally in the first 10 seconds or so.)
Another striking example of the breadth of GNOME’s customization would be how Niri was heavily inspired by GNOME’s PaperWM extension. (Source) So, GNOME’s customizability has allowed the creation of a new workflow that eventually served as a direct inspiration for one of the most exciting WMs we’ve got.
Well, yes; after all, I have been able to modify even proprietary software to fit my own preferences; but it’s clear (and also explicitly stated) that it’s supposed to be used mostly as-it-comes.
I can’t say I’ve tried Niri or PaperWM before, but if they’re based on GNOME then maybe I’m being a little harsh.
Thanks for the complements!