REQUEST? MX Tools - Control Panel - CP removal possible?

[linwinux]

My last comment was directed primarily at the replies which dealt with how good and great MX Linux is out of the box and how those responding people had no problems with the usage of Mx Linux, with reasons for things to either remain or change very little down the road. That made it pretty clear that those same people never took others into account, people who never even had any version of Linux installed before, those who may "shudder at the thought" of making such a scary, risky ??? switch into the unknown.

From my own personal point of view, for me personally, MX Linux is mind boggling and nothing short of awesome !!!

But since I would like to see MX Linux in the #1 spot on distrowatch, that also means people have to accept the fact, whether they like it or not, that eyecandy does indeed matter, and to some people it actually matters a whole lot. I'm willing to bet that most people, myself and the people here included, change their look & feel of the desktop as soon as they're done with an installation ... because it obviously matters how things look & feel. Sorry, I'm just tired of hearing about stability first, safety first, this or that first, because I'm actually one of those people who take that completely for granted from Linux and who expects nothing less out of Linux. If that wasn't the case, I would not have personally switched to Linux and nothing but Linux, since 2008.
I pride myself on being able to prove to general users that "the scary terminal" doesn't ever *NEED* to be used.
I pride myself on the fact that as a Graphic Artist, I've actually forced myself to learn how to do everything with GIMP.
(what a nightmare experience that was, during the first few years)

The thing about the control panel / mx tools simply had to do with the fact that there's no doubt in my mind that any inexperienced user would view both of these applications as a control panel. That is confusing! And it's even more confusing when some of those settings appear in both places, the actual XFCE settings as well as in MX tools. Huh? What's going on here? If a primary settings link to the MX tools isn't feasable at the top of the menu, then why not just dump the symbols that are specific to mx tools directly into the standard XFCE settings ... but within their own restricted category space, such as ... Personal ... Hardware ... MX Tools ... System ... Other?
All I'm trying to accomplish, is making things more streamlined and at the same time less confusing to inexperienced people.
I've been using computers almost 30 years, yet even I find those two "settings sections" somewhat confusing. Whatever ...

About my personal menu in that first image, from top to bottom:

Thunderbird
Firefox
Opera
Calculator
LibreOffice
LibreWriter
LibreCalc
Plain Text
KeepassX
Screenshots
GIMP
Mint Help
Terminal
Software Manager (Not Synaptic)

If you require anything specific beyond that, then you're not a new or inexperienced computer user. Due to privacy/data gathering issues, Chromium isn't installed by design. I would say at least 90% of all computer users would require nothing more than that first startup screen ... favorites ... with custom descriptions that make it easier to understand what the heck is being looked at and what an app is actually for. My order of preferences for new or inexperienced users is: Looks, followed by practicality, followed by ease of use. That's what works best for inexperienced or new computer users.
There, I promise, I'm done beating this horse ... Have an awesome day / morning / evening, wherever you may be.

[Richard]

apologies for the double post, slow internet...

[Richard]

Just my personal opinion:

I am not interested in a distro that caters to Windows newbies.
I was one many years ago and really had to read, try, fail, retry.
I am grateful that MX Linux exists and is almost perfect for me.
I still will changes things to my tastes, needs and desires.

Ubuntu has made great strides in claiming that they are for newbies.
Linux Mint tried to make Ubuntu even easier.
Now there is Elementary, Linux Lite and probably others.
They are good choices for Windows refugees, and
when they are ready they will find MX Linux.

MX Linux is not really for newbies, unless they are willing to read and learn
before they start asking for changes to suit Windows refugees.

If you are building an entry distro based on MX Linux, I think that is wonderful.
I'm sure you'll get lots of support from MX,
but if we took a vote, I think incremental improvement would win over newbie distro.

[azrielle]

Having discovered "right click add to desktop", and "right click add to panel", methinks whisker menu alteration suggestions to current MX are moot.

[linwinux]

Having discovered "right click add to desktop", and "right click add to panel", methinks whisker menu alteration suggestions to current MX are moot.

I know about a dozen average full-time computer users with 10+ years of experience, none of whom use or want anything to do with right click anything. My wife is one of them, with 30 years professional computer experience. *AVERAGE* users just want for stuff that works to be present on the screen and/or as soon as they click on their precious start button. Most computer users, average users that is, simply have no desire to expand their horizons beyond what they've learned already and what they've learned to be comfortable with. As a matter of fact, and this is sheer unbelievable to me at times, so far I know of only two people who have become comfortable with single clicks for activation. It really blows me away, because I can't even imagine working on a machine without single clicking and using a context menu which appears darn near everywhere.
There are those (of us) who love and embrace what computers can do, and evolve with them ...
and there are those (most people) who have no interest in ever learning more then what's needed.

[richb]

My advice to new users is click on it, and right click, and see what happens. We should help bring them along and learn. I believe they will embrace the results and be delighted at being able to do things they never thought possible.

[linwinux]

Absolutely! All of my setups include distro specific help files written by myself, as well as a "working faster file" which is strictly about the context menu and keyboard shortcuts.

[Richard]

I don't understand.
You want a distro that works as you wish it to work.
Why do you think the MX devs should share your vision?
Just because it might be easier for "professional computer" users
to get started? My experience is that most corporate systems are
configured by in house techs to provide the look and feel they
believe is correct.

I think you should build it as you wish. Configure, install, remove,
tweak & document to your heart's content. Then use MX-Snapshot to build an ISO.

Use this as a base, continue tweaking your vision of an ideal environment.
When you feel it is perfect, take another snapshot. Post a link to that snapshot
in a thread about your community build. Those interested can download
and see how it might work for them or for others. I would like to have
such a version on my Easy2Boot stick to use for anyone who wants to try
Linux. At present, I usually offer LinuxMint for learning.

[linwinux]

I have no idea what you think you just read, but that's exactly what I'm doing !!!!! My question is about something behaving quirky during my tweaking & customizing process. Since I'm using MX Linux with XFCE, this is the place to ask about that.

[Richard]

Ok. Apologies. I must have misread and misunderstood.