What motivates you to choose a DE/WM?

[anticapitalista]

Compared to the different DE/WMs, there is one WM that can do things of what they can do. This is FVWM because many of them originated from this WM. There are functions that FVWM can do that I have not come across in others, such as using the left-click mouse cursor for 4 different purposes. For example, having one push button that can do four different actions depending on the mouse left-click. The common single or double click is quite limited compared to this feature. Would be nice, if this could be adopted by other DEs and WMs.

Code: Select all

#####
#
# DestroyFunc FuncName
# AddToFunc   FuncName
# + I (Action to happen immediately)
# + C (Action to happen on a mouse 'click)
# + D (Action to happen on a mouse 'double click')
# + H (Action to happen on a mouse 'hold')
# + M (Action to happen on a mouse 'motion')
#
###########

Interesting.
Why do you have it disabled though if it is so useful?

[rasat]

Why do you have it disabled though if it is so useful?

I forgot to add the link where the code sample was copied.
https://www.fvwm.org/Wiki/Config/Functions

Also, this is new for me, I am doing some testing. The C and D work fine. H and M may need a mouse timing setting.

Code: Select all

DestroyFunc Mtest
AddToFunc   Mtest
+ C Exec exec thunar
+ D Exec exec featherpad
+ H Exec exec xfce4-terminal
+ M Exec exec xfce4-screenshooter

[Mjaakko]

It was mentioned by someone, that an efficient file manager is still missing in Linux.
For example, a few days ago a friend of mine asked to send one document that I wrote 10 years ago. Vaguely I remembered the file name. Luckily, found it with Thunar file search through different hdd partitions. It searches as per each letter entered. What if the name is forgotten? Use Kfind to search for a specific word in the file content??? TagSpace is interesting but it renames the files (ugly). Are there any other tools? Or does a DE or WM have an inbuilt system managing files?..... DEF or WMF

[KoreKosa]

For me, two things:

1. Ease of use
2. Flexibility

If I can start using it right away, with little modification, that's a good sign. Something I can install and get to work on is terrific!
That said, once I've settled in and want to start making changes here and there, a DE that can be nipped and tucked where I want it so things look and function a certain way is a big plus.

For me, KDE fits the bill. That's no slight against Gnome, XFCE, or any other DE, each one of those has their positives, but for me it's KDE all the way.

[FinalFox420]

Are there any other tools? Or does a DE or WM have an inbuilt system managing files?..... DEF or WMF

I find Thunar to be pretty awesome (like sshfs integration through gvfs)
BUT searching is not its strong suit, it can but XFCE has a dedicated tool for searching called "Catfish" and it is incredibly fast (uses mlocate.db for search indexing) and simple interface as well as bonus points for allowing to enable/disable CSD in the titlebar (buttons in the top)

Searching inside files can be enabled as well as searching in compressed files (.zip, .docx, .odt)

Give it a shot you might like it and if you're on MX XFCE it is preinstalled!

[rasat]

XFCE has a dedicated tool for searching called "Catfish" and it is incredibly fast...

Does Catfish have a preview pane? This is another missing part in Linux file managers. Listing files is nice but which one to choose? To open each file is annoying. A content mini preview window in a side panel, when scrolling the files, is ideal. Nautilus has a preview but requires clicking the space bar.

[richb]

KDE's Dolphin shows the image for jog and png files in the main window. A sidebar is available that shows previews for other files.

[FinalFox420]

XFCE has a dedicated tool for searching called "Catfish" and it is incredibly fast...

Does Catfish have a preview pane? This is another missing part in Linux file managers. Listing files is nice but which one to choose? To open each file is annoying. A content mini preview window in a side panel, when scrolling the files, is ideal. Nautilus has a preview but requires clicking the space bar.

It does have an image preview! top bar->View->Side Pane->Check "Image Preview".

There's two different modes as well in top bar->Edit->Preferences->Side Pane (tab)->Image Preview (can be set to "standalone" or "embedded")

I prefer embedded as standalone wont hide itself if its not an image which seems very silly to me but could probably be fixed with an easy patch to thunar.
Give it a shot, it might be good enough so you dont have to get a bunch of gnome stuff with nautilus.

[rasat]

It does have an image preview! top bar->View->Side Pane->Check "Image Preview".

In Catfish I don't find a top bar only a search field and related preferences. Where to configure it?

[davidy]

KISS is a way of life. For that reason xfce is what I choose because I didn't even have to make a choice at all. Lightweight, simple, stable? check. The best part is it's preinstalled so the devs made that choice not me. nuff said. I'm more interested in the wallpaper in the background than I am of any de/wm. When one can speak commands to one's pc the gui/iconification of your pc will get the backseat. The way I see it the de/wm is just in the way of what you are actually doing. I love some of the feature sets of kde and all of them really but again, most of it is window dressing and that's simply not what I seek. There are some absolutely fanstastic configurations I saw just yesterday with the guy who had 6 panels configured but the days of constantly tweaking how stuff looks is a waste of time imo. Really, any de/wm is just the facade to the actual work being done. I prefer to look beyond that. I would pay someone to make mine look better though. Doing it myself I prefer to leave that to xfce devs. God Bless Em.