this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
9 points (100.0% liked)

Linux

17363 readers
98 users here now

Welcome to c/linux!

Welcome to our thriving Linux community! Whether you're a seasoned Linux enthusiast or just starting your journey, we're excited to have you here. Explore, learn, and collaborate with like-minded individuals who share a passion for open-source software and the endless possibilities it offers. Together, let's dive into the world of Linux and embrace the power of freedom, customization, and innovation. Enjoy your stay and feel free to join the vibrant discussions that await you!

Rules:

  1. Stay on topic: Posts and discussions should be related to Linux, open source software, and related technologies.

  2. Be respectful: Treat fellow community members with respect and courtesy.

  3. Quality over quantity: Share informative and thought-provoking content.

  4. No spam or self-promotion: Avoid excessive self-promotion or spamming.

  5. No NSFW adult content

  6. Follow general lemmy guidelines.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

By Bertel King - Published Apr 22, 2026

From the moment GNOME 3 launched back in 2011, I felt like it was perfect for a touchscreen, and I’m happy to say that it absolutely is. I’d even go so far as to say that the GNOME interface is a better way to navigate a touchscreen than that of Android or iOS. I’ve said before that I would love to see an official GNOME-only OS, and this experience has only strengthened that desire.

Every aspect of GNOME is easy to tap with a finger. Opening the app drawer and swiping between workspaces feels completely natural with three-finger gestures. Windows are easy to drag around, maximize, or pin to the side. The virtual keyboard that pops up when I tap an input field is the only visual distinction from desktop GNOME. (...)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've been using Fedora GNOME on a Lenovo Ideapad Duet 3i for awhile. It's one of those Surface-alikes, it's electrically an x86 laptop with a wacom touch screen and the keyboard is on a floppy rubber flap hinge that can magnetically detach to give you a tablet.

Gnome itself is better than un-fucking-usable. It doesn't really make any intuitive sense, because Gnome is developed by Species 8472. There's a gesture to open the onscreen keyboard. Because Gnome is designed primarily for use with the keyboard, they figure you need constant access to it even if there's no text field available on the screen. Because you're definitely pressing Ctrl+Alt+Meta+Alt-Gr+Shift+Super+T to launch the web browser or whatever makes sense in Fluidic Space on a touch keyboard. It's a similar gesture to the one for opening the app drawer.

All onscreen keyboards available in Linux are quarter-baked. They barely function to enter text. They're so poorly featured they're more of a burden than waiting until you're back at your desk.

There are no apps in the Linux ecosystem designed for tablet use. Nothing is touch-screen friendly and it never will be. Even the wacom tablet...

So here's another issue, the little laptop I have has a wacom tablet feature so it's stylus compatible. Badly. Part of the issue is it's a weird, low-volume computer. Part of the issue is it's a 1080x1920 resolution display. Yeah, it's native portrait mode. Everything in Linux seems to assume a native landscape mode. So you can feel the little fuckist having an argument with itself. "You mean 1920x1080." "No, I mean 1080x1920." So you'll get bizarre things like the touch screen or digitizer being rotated 90 degrees from what the display is showing. Getting second or third buttons on a stylus working is a lol no, pressure sensitivity comes and goes...we're in the land of "we made whatever the fuck we wanted to this week and we'll give Microsoft a special shim to make it work in Windows." and Linux never gets the equivalent of that shim, so it'll never work right.

Back to the apps, everything is tiny and assumes you have a three button mouse and full QWERTY keyboard. Reading a PDF document sucks on a Fedora Gnome tablet. Zooming in and out and scrolling around just...sucks. Because it's not a touch screen app reading touch inputs, it's a desktop app reading mouse inputs that were translated from touch inputs by a zoomer freshman equipped with "Jeff Foxworthy's touch interface to mouse interface phrasebook v0.0.6".

[–] paper_moon@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Well, whatever this.. Is.. I'll still offer maybe try gnome-mobile if you can, and see if thats any better on the touch interface. Also, check out flatpaks for apps, as there's a decent amount of them that support responsive design, so they at least scale in tablets and phones.

There's also a gnome extension that can manually rotate the screen instead of relying on the sensors.

I've been messing around with postmarketOS and gnome-mobile, flatpak apps, and waydroid for android apps, are the 3 things that make it sorts usable. Now if only we could get VoLTE, working cameras, and bluetooth passthrough to waydroid container, that would make me a very happy linux fan.