Why XFCE?

[manyroads]

This thread is convoluted enough that it hurts my old brain... I don't think I can help. Sorry.

[Cavsfan]

II you use MX Tweak, Display panel horizontally and choose top the orientation of the icons will be as you prefer. As far as where the panel should be, MX chooses to put the panel on the left edge. Who is to say it should not be there. It was the choice of the developers and is easily changed with MX Tweak.

"on the top where they should be" -- in MX the single panel is on the left edge by default. Did you move it? If yes, how?

Sorry, I didn't notice your question!
I believe I right clicked on it and then clicked on horizontal. If it didn't automatically go to the top, I hold the left mouse button down while "grabbing" the panel and putting it on the top and then let go of the mouse.

As far as the items, you can right click on most things and then click on move. Because when you add something it defaults to the left and you have to move it to where you actually want it.
The exception is the grouped icons, Fusion Icon, Network Icon, Volume, Power, etc.

That's why the items on it are reversed. If you used MX Tweak to move the vertical panel up, the items are all arranged the "normal" way for a horizontal panel, from left to right.

I am not aware of the full capabilities of MX Linux, MX Tweak and the whole gamut. But, I am used to improvising, which I did.
I right clicked on the panel, moved the mouse down to panel and then clicked on Panel preferences and changed Mode to Horizontal. I'm not saying the default MX Panel is wrong and that may be their standard, I'm saying it is not the standard for Xfce.

I've been around Linux for 10-11 years, installed most distros that are available to install. Started out with Ubuntu of course and then when Unity, etc. came around I found Xubuntu (Ubuntu + Xfce).
I've installed Arch Linux several times and that system is only what you install yourself, zero bloatware,etc. Of course I went with Xfce and don't even use a DM, I just login to TTY1 and it starts X and Xfce.
I have openSUSE TW Xfce, Fedora 30 Xfce, Debian Testing Xfce (which has a working Fusion Icon BTW). That is 6 Linux systems plus Windows 10 on this 1TB SSD.

But, I've had CentOS Xfce, which is not really cut out to be used like I use an operating system. I think it had conky version 1.9...
I had Sabayon Linux on here for a while, Mageia 6.1 for awhile but, could not install Conkywx so got rid of it.

I would install Gentoo, except who wants to have to compile every single package on your machine before you install it.

Arch Linux is my favorite, it's bleeding edge but, also very stable with pacman as it's package management system.
I've occasionally encountered problems and been able to roll back a package, packages or everything on the system to a certain date.
Then don't upgrade the system (CLI is the only way to update) or put a package on Ignore status and it will not update.

I'm not trying to claim I am the expert; I've just got a lot of experience and can figure stuff out or improvise if need be.

But, I sure am glad my friends got me to try out MX Linux! At first I thought nope just another Debian based distro but, once I installed it I seen I was wrong.

It's a great system.

[Cavsfan]

This thread is convoluted enough that it hurts my old brain... I don't think I can help. Sorry.

I know what you mean but, everything I've mentioned is about systems with Xfce, so I may have strayed a tad, I still kept it on Xfce.

As a matter of fact, Xfce is the reason I like any of this stuff.

[richb]

It would be useful to explore the MX Tools. They are designed to make things easier for XFCE and the system in general. They are frequently praised by reviewers fir this reason. I understand that when one is very familiar with a system and have done things a certain way that is the go to method.
In any case glad to have you here and I hope you enjoy MX.

[davemx]

Why XFCE?

.....

Why not?

.....

Too many desktops have gone off the rails. KDE since version 4, and now Plasma 5, is full of features that I really don't use and get in the way. And yet it does not have ability to add drop-down menus to Panel Launchers. But with XFCE, entries on a panel launcher can make use of desktop files, but are not dependent on them. I'll give you an example of how useful this is:

My computer has a "Line In" input, fed by the RIAA pre-amp on my record turntable. The output is fed into a switch that selects between my amplifier and the cable to the computer's Line In input. I want to use this input to capture sound into Audacity. But I also want to monitor the input. so I can hear what's going on.

The main command on the panel launcher is, of course, Audacity. The second and third commands are Enable Loopback and Disable Loopback.

The command to Enable Loopback is:
pacmd load-module module-loopback latency_msec=5

The command to Disable Loopback is:
pacmd unload-module module-loopback

I was able to type these commands in, using the "Add new empty item" button on the Launcher Properties menu. I didn't need a pre-existing desktop file anywhere. Now that is the sort of power you need in a desktop, not loads of fancy stuff.

And that is why XFCE.

[DracoSentien]

You don't need low end specs to embrace more of a minimalist zen philosophy. For instance, the desktop is for people who don't understand what is going on under the hood so it is useless bloat to people like me. The good thing is MXLinux makes it easy to install alternative window managers and switch to them unlike the current Debian desktop. I swear Debian froze on me when trying to switch to my non-default desktop. Three minimalist window managers I like are CWM, ratpoison, and i3wm. XFCE, KDE and Gnome are just useless bloat to me. It's funny that people claim to like Gnome 3 because it gets out of their way and lets them focus on coding more but that is more true of the window managers I just posted.

A simple 'man -k cwm' shows an openbsd-cwm manpage as it does not just go by 'cwm'.

Not my screenshot :

http://i.imgur.com/4kWz7jX.png

P.S. I don't even use my mouse in CWM.



Mod note: please be mindful of image sizes, see viewtopic.php?f=133&t=48374

image changed to link

[DracoSentien]

Why XFCE?

.....

Why not?

.....

Too many desktops have gone off the rails. KDE since version 4, and now Plasma 5, is full of features that I really don't use and get in the way. And yet it does not have ability to add drop-down menus to Panel Launchers. But with XFCE, entries on a panel launcher can make use of desktop files, but are not dependent on them. I'll give you an example of how useful this is:

My computer has a "Line In" input, fed by the RIAA pre-amp on my record turntable. The output is fed into a switch that selects between my amplifier and the cable to the computer's Line In input. I want to use this input to capture sound into Audacity. But I also want to monitor the input. so I can hear what's going on.

The main command on the panel launcher is, of course, Audacity. The second and third commands are Enable Loopback and Disable Loopback.

The command to Enable Loopback is:
pacmd load-module module-loopback latency_msec=5

The command to Disable Loopback is:
pacmd unload-module module-loopback

I was able to type these commands in, using the "Add new empty item" button on the Launcher Properties menu. I didn't need a pre-existing desktop file anywhere. Now that is the sort of power you need in a desktop, not loads of fancy stuff.

And that is why XFCE.

For what is worth KDE is super fast on slackware because slackware is just superfast in general because it lacks all the hand holding bloat spaghetti code of Ubuntu. Only reason I am not using slackware right now is its last release was in 2016 and -current is not stable.

[Richard]

Probably because Patrick needs monetary support.

[DracoSentien]

Probably because Patrick needs monetary support.

I heard the slackware store was ripping him off plus they don't have anything I like such as slackware stickers for my laptop unless the DVD bundle comes with them. I think donated straight with paypal is the best option.

As far as I know the slackware store is currently down probably because they were ripping Pat off.

[DracoSentien]

Probably because Patrick needs monetary support.

I heard the slackware store was ripping him off plus they don't have anything I like such as slackware stickers for my laptop unless the DVD bundle comes with them. I think donated straight with paypal is the best option. DVD is so oldschool I don't even have a cd/dvd drive on my laptop.

As far as I know the slackware store is currently down probably because they were ripping Pat off.