new linux mint, behind in xfce compared to MX

[skidoo]

For example, context menu functions for Thunar, such as image resize, rotate, on the fly would be awesome.

So, be awesome ~~ install imagemagick and assign your own Thunar custom actions, e.g.:
convert % F - rotate 90 % F
convert % F - resize 450 ` basename %F .jpg` -resize450. png (ref: page30 http://pclosmag.com/download.php?f=XfceTipsTricksSE.pdf )

docs, along with 12+ samples/exampples:
https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/custom-actions

30 Thunar custom actions here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ThunarCustomActions and https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=435800

14 custom actions here:
https://github.com/cytopia/thunar-custom-actions
convert-to-jpg
convert-to-png
gpg-decrypt
gpg-encrypt
gpg-info
gpg-sign
gpg-verify-signature
media-info
openssl-encrypt-decrypt
paste-to-gist
paste-to-pastebin
upload-to-imgur
upload-to-postimage
video-to-gif

20+ custom actions here:
https://gitlab.com/nobodyinperson/thuna ... system-uca
including
image: rotate clockwise
image: rotate anti-clockwise
image: convert to another format
image: convert to grayscale
image: fill transparency
image: shrink (rescale smaller by xx%)

10 custom actions here:
http://duncanlock.net/blog/2013/06/28/u ... m-actions/
and
https://askubuntu.com/questions/tagged/ ... om-actions

20 ideas for custom action execstrings here:
http://vsido.org/index.php?topic=838.0

[skidoo]

MX Tools & MX Tweak contain duplicates of items that are already in the control panel. Personally, I think that's silly & confusing.

(already in xfce control panel AND in whiskermenu)

Yep, this is a sticking point across distros, across various desktop environments. On one hand, need to consider "discoverability" ~~ if items are omitted from bone stock settings//controlcenter GUI provided by the desktop environment, many folks will struggle to find 'em. On the other hand, for items presented in multiple places, it can be a challenge to remember "how do reach that suchandsuch settings page/dialogbox"... and if the labeling for an item isn't consistent, er, identical each place an item is exposed, we're left wondering whether one vs another will lead to the "same thing" when clicked.

[asqwerth]

MX Tools & MX Tweak contain duplicates of items that are already in the control panel. Personally, I think that's silly & confusing.

(already in xfce control panel AND in whiskermenu)

Yep, this is a sticking point across distros, across various desktop environments. On one hand, need to consider "discoverability" ~~ if items are omitted from bone stock settings//controlcenter GUI provided by the desktop environment, many folks will struggle to find 'em. On the other hand, for items presented in multiple places, it can be a challenge to remember "how do reach that suchandsuch settings page/dialogbox"... and if the labeling for an item isn't consistent, er, identical each place an item is exposed, we're left wondering whether one vs another will lead to the "same thing" when clicked.

I like having all the individual MX tools in whisker menu. I note that all the individual XFCE settings apps are also listed separately in whisker menu, so in that respect, the treatment of the MX apps is quite consistent with XFCE's own settings tools/apps.

My usage: I add an MX-Tweak launcher on my bottom panel. I'm glad it's not found only in the MX Tools box.

As for whether the main MX Tools window should or should not be found in the XFCE settings manager (ie, control panel), I barely notice it there.


With regard to whether Caja is better or more usable than Thunar, a lot depends on what your own use case is. When I use MATE in my PCLinuxOS partition, sure, I use Caja and it's fine for me. But when I'm in MX, I don't find myself hankering after Caja or missing those functionalities that colin_b likes. Similarly, when I use Cinnamon, I use Nemo and it's great, and I use dolphin in Plasma.

The only time I find myself really wanting to install an additional file manager, is when I use Gnome 3. Then I always install Nemo as well.

But Caja's found in the repos, so anyone who wants to use it in MX can just install it. No problem.

[oops]

...
But Caja's found in the repos, so anyone who wants to use it in MX can just install it. No problem.

Right, or Nemo, a clone of Caja ... I also prefer Nemo/Caja as Thunar or PCmanfm ... mostly for the ability to use my old Nautilus scripts.

[Stevo]

Mint 18 was based on Ubuntu 16.04, which had xfce4 4.12.2, so not that much of a difference.

MX went from 4.10 to xfce4 4.12 waaaaay back with the 14.4 release, though, so we did have it earlier than Mint.

[fehlix]

I also don't care for the fact that MX Tools & MX Tweak contain duplicates of items that are already in the control panel. Personally, I think that's silly & confusing. Keep strictly MX stuff in strictly MX related sections, and everything else in their respective sections.

@HessenZone, not sure what you are talking about.
See both picture below from vanilla installed MX17.1-June showing Settings and MX-Tools.
I cant see any dublicates of items, so you are confusing me a bit with your comment quoted above.

Settings.png

Mx-Tools.png

[masinick]

Out of all of the distributions that either offer or feature the Xfce desktop environment, I like this one best. (That's natural because it's very similar to the custom Xfce distributions I've been creating from MEPIS or antiX tools for at least a decade; only the artwork and the latest tools differ). Those differences add value nicely from my perspective, so MX remains one of my favorite distributions, particularly when time is of the essence; I can drop a new version in place quickly and easily. Nice work!

[HessenZone]

@Fehlix

Except for the default open Window size, both of these are identical. XFCE control panel already has these, and so does MX Tweak.

I believe things like this are mostly confusing to new users who then might become uncertain if both functions are actually identical. This could also hold true for anyone who's used XFCE for awhile, someone who is already familiar with the CP, but then at a later time stumbles upon these items with MX Tweak. That's how I messed up my own theme, the first time that I installed MX, since I'd been using XFCE for years already.

It's not a suggestion, just a thought, but if I was an MX developer, I'd probably have an icon for "MX Goodies" within the XFCE control panel. When the user clicks on MX Goodies, they get all of the extra functionality from both, MX Tweak and MX Tools, without any of the stuff that's already in the default XFCE control panel. To me that makes more sense, but hey, we all have our own thoughts & preferences. What can I say?

settings_mxtweak02.jpg

settings_mxtweak01.jpg

[HessenZone]

For example, context menu functions for Thunar, such as image resize, rotate, on the fly would be awesome.

So, be awesome ~~ install imagemagick and assign your own Thunar custom actions, e.g.:
convert % F - rotate 90 % F
convert % F - resize 450 ` basename %F .jpg` -resize450. png (ref: page30 http://pclosmag.com/download.php?f=XfceTipsTricksSE.pdf )

docs, along with 12+ samples/exampples:
https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/custom-actions

30 Thunar custom actions here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ThunarCustomActions and https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=435800

14 custom actions here:
https://github.com/cytopia/thunar-custom-actions
convert-to-jpg
convert-to-png
gpg-decrypt
gpg-encrypt
gpg-info
gpg-sign
gpg-verify-signature
media-info
openssl-encrypt-decrypt
paste-to-gist
paste-to-pastebin
upload-to-imgur
upload-to-postimage
video-to-gif

20+ custom actions here:
https://gitlab.com/nobodyinperson/thuna ... system-uca
including
image: rotate clockwise
image: rotate anti-clockwise
image: convert to another format
image: convert to grayscale
image: fill transparency
image: shrink (rescale smaller by xx%)

10 custom actions here:
http://duncanlock.net/blog/2013/06/28/u ... m-actions/
and
https://askubuntu.com/questions/tagged/ ... om-actions

20 ideas for custom action execstrings here:
http://vsido.org/index.php?topic=838.0

Thanks. Does that include mass-resize as well? I noticed that Nomacs also has batch processing for image files. I've been using that in lieu of not having those Thunar context items installed by default.

[fehlix]

Except for the default open Window size, both of these are identical. XFCE control panel already has these, and so does MX Tweak.

TL;DR: MX-Tweak was introduced to bring availabe settings together in one spot and provide additional settings avalable only otherwise from the CLI.