Tumbleweed July13 network install version has been slimmed down too lean

English Programming/Scripting
1

I installed the Gnome version and went to my home directory
the only visible file present was **bin
**
/etc/Skel did not have the usual Documents, Downloads, Music etc.

Was that an oversight or the new way diet slimming Tumbleweed?

I manually added the missing directories.

2

It has always been that way.

/etc/Skel did not have the usual Documents, Downloads, Music etc.

No change that I can see. Usually, those are added by your desktop environment on first login. The files from “/etc/skel” are added when the home directory is created in the standard way.

3

Is as @nrickert says, if you don’t install a full Desktop, those directories aren’t created.
So, I doubt as you described that you installed a Gnome Desktop.

I’m guessing you installed checking the Generic Desktop option,
Which would by default result in installing only IceWM (A Windows Manager) as your graphical environment.

I’ve posted how this would be confusing to new, less experienced openSUSE Users because this results in a very minimal graphical environment and not what most people want.

Two ways to get a proper Desktop,

  • During the Install, when you see the Install Summary you have to click on “Software” and then select the pattern for your Graphical Environment. You should see a large number to choose from that weren’t offered earlier including XFCE, LXDE, LXQt, Enlightenment, Mate.
    If you want the Cinnamon Desktop or a WM only that’s not IceWM, you have to click on “Details” and then either search or find what you want in RPM Groups.

or

  • After install and you’ve boot up for the first time, you can open YaST Software Manager and add your Desktop as described above.

During early changes, the path for choosing alternate Desktops didn’t require special knowledge, but somehow that got changed and despite my complaints both to these Forums and as a bug to the bugzilla, nothing was fixed so this is what we have.

Much of the above is described in my openSUSE presentation for new openSUSE Users, I’d recommend you take a look at the slides which describe most things you will want to know from before installation, through the install and your first tasks and how to do things after install

https://slides.com/tonysu/opensuse

TSU

4

That is NOT what @nrickert said.

These used by the desktop directories/files, are created when a user logs in in a GUI and they do not exist, not when that GUI, or several GUIs is/are installed.

So he may have installed Gnome, but on creation of a user (using YaST > Users and Security > Users and Goups, or useradd), /etc/skel is used and the result will be a user environment that is then ready for a CLI login. There is no check if any DE is installed and thus nothing is created that belongs to a DE.

When a user then logs in in a DE for the first time, the DE detects that things are missing and creates them: directories for folders, configuration files with default configurations for all those things you can configure in a DE, etc.

When the user after this logs in in another DE, there may be additional creations, specific for that DE.

Of course any of the DEs used must be installed, but that the fact of installing them has no influence on existing user files, nor on future user creations.

And that is as it should be. What do you think what a strict CLI user would say when the system manager would install Gnome and after that the CLI user would find a lot of rubbish in his home directory? Or even a KDE user, that will find Gnome oriented configuration files after Gnome was installed as an adition to KDE? I assume his/her wording would be rejected by the forum rules. >:(