EDIT: As it turns out this is just how gnome is supposed to look and to get a permanently visible dock showing running apps and favorites I must install an extension like dash-to-dock
Thanks everyone to help me understand I was the problem here ๐
After using Ubuntu for years I thought it would be a good idea to try out plain old Debian for the first time.
So I downloaded the live-Image setup a VirtualBox and started installing it... installation ran trough without any problems. But I don't see any panel/taskbar anywhere.
I tried to google this and best guess was that gonme-panel was not installed (how?) after installation I tried to run it by the terminal but it only trows an error "(gnome-panel:3427): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: 20:24:58.712: invalid cast from 'GdkWaylandDisplay' to 'GdkX11Display'". So before I start digging into this I just wanted to confirm that I am on the right track and not just mixing stuff up. So does anyone have an idea what went wrong here?
Thanks for pointing this out. Yes, I can go to activity and that brings up a panel at the bottom screen and a search field from where I can start any app.
But I would have expected to have the panel there permanently showing all running apps and favorites or at least blender in when I hover with the cursor to the bottom of the screen. I also find nothing regarding a panel in the settings. In Ubuntu options for this is under the "appearance" Tap in the options.
Is gnome not supposed to work like this?
Yep, that's how plain vanilla Gnome is. You'd get pretty much the same experience if you installed Fedora or any other distro that just ships it as-is.
Ubuntu's version comes with a lot of patches and custom extensions to make it work similar to how Unity did, and give a reasonable desktop experience.
Plain Gnome as imagined by the developers:
In fact, according to the Gnome vision, you're not supposed to even theme your apps to your liking, you're supposed to stick with the default Adwaita theme. I think Ubuntu patches that too so their Yaru theme works properly.
That's why people make fun of Gnome.
I'm enjoying this interactive presentation of the fact that Gnome's default interaction design is so uh... "opinionated" it appears broken out of the box to anyone who has used a computer in the last 35+ years.
I think Debian's default gnome install includes the packages to give you a session option in your greeter (login screen) for "Gnome Classic" that will give you a configuration that is ...less... weird but still gnome.
You'll need to load a bunch of gnome extensions (the classic session basically does some of that automatically) to try to make gnome bend to your preferred workflow, try to contort yourself to whatever workflow the gnome folks have currently decided is the one true way, or pick a different desktop environment like KDE or xfce that is more conventional and/or less opinionated.
...Personally, I've mostly been using KDE lately, but I have an easier time with ricer tiling WMs than stock gnome these days, they've made some weird choices.
I thought about this now for a while and the only case in which I could imagine this "no-dock" Workflow beneficial is when just using one application (or more in split screen) and not switching around much between random applications.
However this is not my Workflow since in my daily business I often need to switch From Blender to Godot, maybe have to select single project files in different directories and edit them with gimp or plain Texteditor. Then realizing I have no idea what I'm doing and try to find a solution online I could copy and paste... And many times just with one screen available because of directly working on the notebook.
That is pretty entertaining to see, and also shows how many people doesn't know how plain the vanilla Gnome experience is. Most distros that care about UX end up shipping some amount of patched up Gnome stuff.
Gnome really wants to be like macOS, and I pretty much have all the same complaints about macOS as I do with Gnome. Same amount of reliance on overview mode and virtual desktops to organize and no way to bring up that one terminal window you want in a single click or key press.