MX-14 Review

[joany]

The search feature is also standard with the Plasma/Kickoff application launcher in MEPIS, but only with the default menu style. Since MEPIS ships with the classic menu style, and many here prefer that style and stick with it, they may not have noticed the search feature exists.

[richb]

The search feature is also standard with the Plasma/Kickoff application launcher in MEPIS, but only with the default menu style. Since MEPIS ships with the classic menu style, and many here prefer that style and stick with it, they may not have noticed the search feature exists.

I do not remember, does it work the same way? That is, if you hit the first letter and then the second it recognizes both. As opposed to some search fields that only use the first letter. So, if you are looking for meta installer in MX you get first all the apps starting with m than all starting wit me. The other if you type m you get all apps starting with m, then if you type e you get all starting with e. As I say I do not recall how it works in KDE.

[joany]

I do not remember, does it work the same way? That is, if you hit the first letter and then the second it recognizes both. As opposed to some search fields that only use the first letter. So, if you are looking for meta installer in MX you get first all the apps starting with m than all starting wit me. The other if you type m you get all apps starting with m, then if you type e you get all starting with e. As I say I do not recall how it works in KDE.

No, it works the same as Whisker. At least in KDE 4.8.4 it does.

[uncle mark]

The search feature is also standard with the Plasma/Kickoff application launcher in MEPIS, but only with the default menu style. Since MEPIS ships with the classic menu style, and many here prefer that style and stick with it, they may not have noticed the search feature exists.

I wouldn't have known that, as the very first thing I do on a KDE install is switch to Classic Menu.

In my case, I have the Recently Used listing enabled in Kmenu and set to show the last 10, so that covers me about 95% of the time.

[lucky9]

I'm a child of the mouse. Search requires me to use the keyboard for something besides writing text or entering Command Line entries. I assume I'll get used to the menu system. I'm certainly not going to change my work flow and habits to use search for a program available in the menu.

[richb]

I'm a child of the mouse. Search requires me to use the keyboard for something besides writing text or entering Command Line entries. I assume I'll get used to the menu system. I'm certainly not going to change my work flow and habits to use search for a program available in the menu.

Me too but when I don't know whether what I want is in Settings, System or Accessories, 10 mouse clicks before I find it is unacceptable. With the search field it is one click, one keystroke or two and I have it. To me that was worth changing my habits.

[Adrian]

I'm a child of the mouse. Search requires me to use the keyboard for something besides writing text or entering Command Line entries. I assume I'll get used to the menu system. I'm certainly not going to change my work flow and habits to use search for a program available in the menu.

Me too but when I don't know whether what I want is in Settings, System or Accessories, 10 mouse clicks before I find it is unacceptable. With the search field it is one click, one keystroke or two and I have it. To me that was worth changing my habits.

I don't know, my menu changes without clicking... I need only one click to open Whisker then hover with the mouse on the category and then at most use the scroll wheel and then finally click to open the app. So, it's 2 mouse clicks, I don't know how you can reduce that to less...

[richb]

I'm a child of the mouse. Search requires me to use the keyboard for something besides writing text or entering Command Line entries. I assume I'll get used to the menu system. I'm certainly not going to change my work flow and habits to use search for a program available in the menu.

Me too but when I don't know whether what I want is in Settings, System or Accessories, 10 mouse clicks before I find it is unacceptable. With the search field it is one click, one keystroke or two and I have it. To me that was worth changing my habits.

I don't know, my menu changes without clicking... I need only one click to open Whisker then hover with the mouse on the category and then at most use the scroll wheel and then finally click to open the app. So, it's 2 mouse clicks, I don't know how you can reduce that to less...

Ok, so it is mouse moving back and forth. Sometimes several times when I miss it in the menu. I still maintain the search field is more efficient. But not worth "arguing" about.

[Gaer Boy]

I like the win7 setup of hitting the "windows" key to get the menu (something icewm does in antix by default as well) so I set up my whisker menu to pop up when I hit the "windows" keys, goes right to the search bar, no mouse, no fuss.

I did this quite early and also found it a good option, particularly combined with the search box. I removed the setup later - it screwed up my way of working in VBox XP, where the whisker menu isn't very useful.

[Stevo]

I'm curious as to how MX 14 ends up using less RAM then every other XFCE desktop that reviewer tested. We didn't use any magic pixie dust when compiling the desktop. I can see we have a newer kernel than those other distros, maybe that's it, but it's amazing how some of them use 2.5 times as much to just run the desktop. I don't believe MX is running any fewer services at startup than the others, and our compiler supposedly doesn't have the optimization features that gcc 4.8 advertises.