Hi. I'm using Linux for years. Years back, I had a little netbook with 10'' screen from Asus, which running Ubuntu Netbook Remix. That Gnome 2 fork was awesome on a small screen, because, unlike modern Gnome, it did not waste screen space for empty space and gigantic icons.
Nowadays, when devices like Steam Deck become slightly more popular, maybe it will be worthy to look back and recreate that style with Mate? Possibly with some tweaks for better support of touch it will be successful?
I'm not proposing to focusing entirely on that and dropping classical mouse and keyboard experience, but on Mint and Ubuntu we have so many extra styles for desktop, like Redmond, Cupertino, Traditional… Maybe, just maybe, adding one extra, focused more on smaller screens will be not a bad idea?
I proposed a design based on old “Netbook” style, because that look was proved to be very comfortable.
Of course, old Ubuntu Netbook distros were not perfect and had many flaws, but mostly related to technical aspect (all that gnome-netbook thing was dirty hack and not always playing nice), but general idea around look and placing elements was gorgeous.
