Bug#1099579: gnome-shell: re-evaluate initial apps to show in the Dash for trixie

[Simon McVittie]

On Thu, 06 Mar 2025 at 08:58:54 -0500, Jeremy Bícha wrote:
>I like the aesthetics of having only a single page of apps in our
>default install. It helps to highlight how we have trimmed the list of
>default apps for trixie compared to bookworm. But this new app folder
>now pushes one app to the second page.

As of today, this is no longer the case, at least in a VM:
https://people.debian.org/~smcv/temp/2025/1099579/before.png
(but if any single app gets added to a default installation, it will tip
us over the edge into having a second page again).

I continue to be baffled by the logic of Shell's sorting order for apps,
but if we're emphasizing the search-based UI then the order hardly
matters anyway.

>Personally, I would rather not have Calendar pinned. There is already
>a quick shortcut (although I guess it's a hidden feature) by opening
>the GNOME Shell calendar menu and clicking Today. Having email as a
>pinned app was something that Windows XP did and I think it makes a
>lot of sense. I think it is also nice how the Evolution shortcut
>disappears if you don't have Evolution installed (it's part of gnome,
>not gnome-core).

Yeah, that seems reasonable. Kept Evolution as our replacement for
Calendar.

>I agree on removing Rhythmbox

Done

>and LibreOffice Writer. I have
>previously been confused looking around for Writer in the app grid
>because pinned apps don't show in the app grid.

A good point! Done

>I suggest we patch GNOME Shell to move Input Method (from im-config)
>to the System folder. It's a utility that many people won't need to
>use or only need to use once.

I did this in experimental to see what it looks like, but I'm a little
bit conflicted about it: for users of locales that are not
comprehensively supported by libgnome-desktop, this is going to make it
harder to discover a tool that they need to run as early as possible
after installing.

On the other hand, this is a rather technical and confusing tool which
I'd hope we don't usually have to inflict on new users anyway, so...

>I guess having Text Editor and Calculator pinned is ok.
>
>I believe that would leave us with one empty spot in our app grid which is nice.

Actually we now have two spots free:
https://people.debian.org/~smcv/temp/2025/1099579/after.png
(this is with 48.2-2)

This reduces to one spot free if we don't divert im-config into System.

     smcv