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

[Jeremy Bícha]

Thank you for opening this discussion.

GNOME Shell 48 RC (will be uploaded to Unstable after GNOME Shell 48
Beta reaches Testing) added an additional app folder named System. It
looks like it does not show for existing users as sort of an upgrade
bug. One way to see it is to run
gsettings reset org.gnome.shell app-picker-layout

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.

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).

I agree on removing Rhythmbox 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.

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 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.

'firefox-esr.desktop',
'org.gnome.Evolution.desktop',
'org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop',
'org.gnome.Software.desktop.
'org.gnome.TextEditor.desktop,
'org.gnome.Calculator.desktop,
'yelp.desktop'

This is one more pinned app than upstream (yelp) and one more than we
shipped in Bookworm (but that's because Rhythmbox's .desktop was
renamed but we didn't update our list to match).

I can open a Salsa merge request if this seems a reasonable enough start.

Thank you,
Jeremy Bícha