On 2009-10-01, Mike Jones <Not at (no spam) Arizona.Bay> wrote:

I take your point, but I'm not sure I understand what your problem was
with Xfce? I've found it to be a steady and rational improvement
through its development. No dramatic changes, a few tweaks here and
there, as you'd expect when a better way of doing something is sorted
out, but no real upheavals.

Like I stated, I don't recall exactly which uprev it was, only that it
changed icons, menus, and function locations within menus. IOW, just a
cosmetic thing. This is the same crap M$ has been pulling for years and
I'm sick of it. It didn't slow xfce down at all, but I still had to
relearn what I'd already known previously. I'm not the fastest dog on
the track, so knowledge I acquire is hard won both in time and effort.
I have no tolerance for programs that force me to cover old ground just
to prove what clever programmers they have. Easier to jes toss 'em out
the door and look for a more practical approach to change.

Also, I've found Xfce to be seductively easy to flick around and get
how I want it on a fresh install. To me it just keeps getting better.

I've never stuck with fluxbox long enough to see its evolution across
slack uprevs. It still looks pretty much like it did the last time I
tried it, but seems to have matured in config flexibility, somewhat.
We'll see. Right now, it appeals to me in sheer speed. Nothing even
comes close.

Mind you, there is no substitute for just dropping your backed up
configs into IceWM and it all just working (maybe with a quick live
restart).

I'm hoping it will be equally easy to do the same in fluxbox.

My only reservation about FB is it lacks many wm level abilities. I got
a bit spoiled with kde3's auto detection and mounting of usb and CDs and
such. I've been doing manual mounting for years, so it's no big deal,
and preferring slack, I'm not afraid to dig in and get my hands dirty.
I don't mind learning what I NEVER knew, before.

I heard ya, but sometimes there is something that ripples through
everything and we just have to update ourselves accordingly.

it's development, rather than skipping from one thing to another each
time an upgrade doesn't fit with how you'd have liked things to go.

Go find out, and feedback for those who are watching with interest.

On 2009-10-01, Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide at (no spam) sacrideo.us> wrote:

the Kickoff menu on KDE, the Kickoff menu has the nice search bar at the
top, which I like

I'm so glad someone likes it. I think it's utter crap. Whyingodsname
should I even need a search function to find applications I've been
using for several years, other than the fact they moved everything
from where I knew it to be, before? After that, why would I need it
more than once, having then learned an app's new location? Crap for
crap's sake.

notbob wrote:

On 2009-10-01, Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide at (no spam) sacrideo.us> wrote:

the Kickoff menu on KDE, the Kickoff menu has the nice search bar at
the top, which I like

I'm so glad someone likes it. I think it's utter crap. Whyingodsname
should I even need a search function to find applications I've been
using for several years, other than the fact they moved everything from
where I knew it to be, before? After that, why would I need it more
than once, having then learned an app's new location? Crap for crap's
sake.

But, if like most people you have a gazillion aps installed, in case one
might be useful, it is excellent. It even picks up apps that arn't on
the menu system.

Pete

Go find out, and feedback for those who are watching with interest. :)

Yeah. I try and get my discoveries back to aols, no matter how
amateurish. Some other newb may find them handy.

Right now I'm trying to learn more about automounting usb stuff, as
that's one of the things I lost with fb. No problem. I can still
manually mount till I figure it out and it's a good brain exercise. I
started trying to figure out hal/udev, before, but kde 3.5 came along
with automount and I said, why bother. Sometimes, someone else's
progress can kill your own progress.

notbob wrote:

On 2009-10-01, Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide at (no spam) sacrideo.us> wrote:

the Kickoff menu on KDE, the Kickoff menu has the nice search bar at
the top, which I like

I'm so glad someone likes it. I think it's utter crap. Whyingodsname
should I even need a search function to find applications I've been
using for several years, other than the fact they moved everything from
where I knew it to be, before? After that, why would I need it more
than once, having then learned an app's new location? Crap for crap's
sake.

But, if like most people you have a gazillion aps installed,

in case one
might be useful,

it is excellent. It even picks up apps that arn't on
the menu system.

Jeezuz, I'm starting to agree more and more with Loki. Am I losing my
mind?

On 2009-10-02, Dan C <youmustbejoking at (no spam) lan.invalid> wrote:

Jeezuz, I'm starting to agree more and more with Loki. Am I losing my
mind?

I guess it jes depends on how you feel about trombones and fluffy
spaniels. Makes sense to me.

cordially, as always,

rm

There can be no doubt KDE has some very good programs. I live in
konsole and consider k3b brilliant. The desktop, OTOH, is quite another
thing. I'll definitely be looking for app replacements if I have to
suffer that trainwreck.

I've got to figure out how to run both XFCE and KDE I reckon.

I've got to figure out how to run both XFCE and KDE I reckon.

Just run Xfce, and all (most, anyway) of the KDE apps should be in the
menus.

man xwmconfig

technical sense, flawed? You could argue that the new system is
fundamentally less efficient, but I don't think you can, since the new
system is more efficient in cases, and also tracks better with current
Desktop practices on other systems. Whether you consider this a good thing
or something that you like is up to you, but it doesn't mean that KDE is
somehow bad.

addressable merits in Desktop environments. I don't think people want a
Desktop that never changes. If that's what you want, you can always use
TWM. 3.5 is still there, too, if you really can't learn a new workflow.

So, try KDE again, but this time go into the Advanced Tab and select the
Desktop search icon. From there, uncheck the Desktop indexer, and you
should be alright.

On 2009-10-08, notbob <notbob at (no spam) nothome.com> wrote:
On 2009-10-08, Ron Gibson <rsgibson at (no spam) tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

Yeah, I know how to set it up. What I should have said is try to
remember what I did in the past to be able to select which desktop
from the CLI. I don't like using gdm or kdm or whatever those things
are.

After login:

$ startx /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.fluxbox

....or whatever desktops you have in installed in the above dir.

Hah!! I've wanted to do this forever.

Now that I've been studying some basic scripting, I've learned enough
to be dangerous. Steal a little here, copy a little there, snip, add,
subtract, bwahahahah....

Here is my bash menu script to choose a wm/desktop from the login
prompt for the default choices in a full slack install. Naturally, I
make no guarantees and am not responsible if your dell laptop melts
down to a puddle of day-glo pink. I will say it works fine on my
slack 13 desktop and only if you don't have an x session already
running. It could no doubt use some refinement and added
functionality (like a 2nd x session), but I'll do that when I get
there. Enjoy:

----------------------

#!/bin/bash

while :
....
done

It's much more sensible to simply share a tip if you have it rather
than to suggest reinventing the wheel. And BTW, I was using Slackware
before there even was a KDE desktop.

Like the fact Slackware doesn't even have Gnome? ;)

nb