MX Linux Forum

AVLinux wrote: ↑Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:34 pm
I'm a dock person but I find XFCE4 more than able to do it adequately without any need for an external dock app, Deskbars seem awkward to me but that's just an opinion, if I were forced to use one for a day I'm sure I could adapt..
Dock.png

WOW! How did you get that?

Sparky wrote: ↑Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:36 pm

AVLinux wrote: ↑Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:34 pm
I'm a dock person but I find XFCE4 more than able to do it adequately without any need for an external dock app, Deskbars seem awkward to me but that's just an opinion, if I were forced to use one for a day I'm sure I could adapt..
Dock.png

WOW! How did you get that?

Hi Sparky!

How did I get which part?

The panel/dock on your last post.

It's just how I have arranged my xfce4 panel settings as well as a custom icon theme I've been working on based on 'DarK Icons'..
More info here: viewtopic.php?f=95&t=60836

It looks fantastic!

One of my favorite approaches is to use TWO panels. Sort of a task bar/system area at the top, and a short vertical panel on the left with a menu at the top, followed by selected applications, ending with an exit button. (These days, I just use a unified panel at the top.) Larger image at the following address: https://2chronicles36.org/jeremiah.png

Andy, can you link to a bigger photo? From this size it looks like your dock panel is clashing in color with your wallpaper.

It's such a personal taste. I've always liked the way MX defaults to the vertical panel on the left. But I know it really disturbs a lot of people. Personally, I don't really care, I just keep the default. Well, I mostly don't care - I do actually hate the default Gnome setup when using Fedora. I never did get used to that paradigm. Same as with Unity for many people, which didn't bother me at all.

But to answer the question, yes, I do use the vertical panel and I find myself always looking to the upper left corner for the time. I have to force myself to look at the lower right when in Windows or some other Windows-like interface.

Seaken64

OKie wrote: ↑Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:35 pm This is supposed to be a screenshots area. I was kind of hoping to see what I'm missing.

If you want to see screenshots of peoples' MX Linux desktops go look at them in the MX-19 screenshots thread: viewtopic.php?f=95&t=53270 You'll see lots of deskbar vertical panels. As you'll see in my post #220 there, I use my deskbar for the Whisker menu button, notification area and launchers for frequently-used apps and have a second, horizontal, panel for my Window buttons showing running apps, various system monitoring panel apps, the weather plugin, clock and Show Desktop over on the far right a la Windows 7. All of those things on one panel would make it too cluttered and I have never been a fan of top panels.

When I began using MX Linux I too thought that the panel on the side was pretty weird and one of my first actions was to move it to the bottom, but I got to thinking about it later and decided that having it on one side makes a lot of practical sense. Monitors are rectangular, wider than they are tall. A horizontal top or bottom panel eats up some of that already-scarcer height. Having it to the side uses some of the width but you have plenty of that and to spare. A side panel gives you more usable desktop space for running applications, doing work, watching videos and so on.

OKie wrote: ↑Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:09 pm I was going through panel configuration, and I switched my panel to the other modes (vertical & deskbar), and they look ridiculous and useless. Only the horizontal mode looks good.

That's only because we're used to Windows. If they'd used a vertical panel on one side from Windows 95 on we'd all think that horizontal panels look ugly. It reminds me of a story: some behavioral scientists were doing an experiment. They had a room with six gorillas in it. They lowered a bunch of bananas down and as soon as the gorillas tried to get the bananas the fire sprinklers were turned on. Pretty soon none of the gorillas would touch the bananas when they were lowered down. Then they removed one gorilla and replaced it with a new one. When the bananas were lowered the new gorilla tried to eat them and the other gorillas stopped him. This went on, replacing one gorilla at a time until none of the gorillas had ever had the sprinklers turned on on them yet none of them would ever touch the bananas. They didn't even know why, it was just the way they'd always done it.

I always user the vertical deskbar mode.

obsidian theme, obisidian icons. xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin.