MX Linux Forum

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:09 pm**

I'm writing this post before I forget about the question. 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.

So, my questions for you modders are:
1) What legitimate reason does someone use vertical mode? I remember a fascination with vertical mode launchers in the late 90s, but that was for dedicated desktops like POS or medical systems. They may still be in fashion, I wouldn't know.
2) Does anyone have a good looking vertical "panel", whether its XFCE default panel or some other type of launcher/application tracker?

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:22 pm**

I do.
I prefer to have my pages taller and narrower rather than shorter and wider. It means less eye-flicking and I feel I can speed-read the page better to find salient points. Also it's better for reading sheet music scores where all the parts are displayed at once in a vertical "stack".
I'm not sure of the difference between deskbar and vertical mode, but I have only been using MX for about 25 minutes (having tried many other distros to find something that I liked on a 3GHz P4) - so far I'm lovin' it!

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:27 pm**

@Okie, ridiculous & useless is in the eyes of the beholder.....

"Different strokes for different folks. "

FWIW: I don't use either a Desktop or Panel. And yes, I like it that way.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:28 pm**

I use the stock MX vertical panel, it can take a bit to get used to I suppose, but once you do it just seems natural.

I like using it because it does save a bit of desktop space rather than being horizontal.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:35 pm**

manyroads wrote: Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:27 pm @Okie, ridiculous & useless is in the eyes of the beholder.....

"Different strokes for different folks. "

FWIW: I don't use either a Desktop or Panel. And yes, I like it that way.

This is supposed to be a screenshots area. I was kind of hoping to see what I'm missing.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:38 pm**

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.

You should specifically ask for screenshots of vertical panels then.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:38 pm**

I use the default vertical LHS panel. It's by far the best fit on my 24" widescreen, where I very rarely use the full width of the desktop but frequently would like more height. Why waste precious height on a panel when there's plenty of room at the side?

As to a 'good looking vertical panel', that's very much personal opinion. I like the look of mine, with the exception of the Thunar icon, which is barely visible (but I know it's there ;)

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:51 pm**

SwampRabbit wrote: Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:38 pm
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.
You should specifically ask for screenshots of vertical panels then.

I'm kind of antagonistic towards vertical mode. When I'm working, I have a dual monitor setup with everything covered in windows. I can't see the desktop, so the only thing I can see is the panel. If I rotate the panel, the clock is unreadable (technically it just rotates 90 degress). Also, you can't span monitors, and everything crunches up into unreadable stuff, especially the desktop switcher. And the CPU & network monitors also don't look so good.

I know a lot of work has gone into making vertical modes possible, but I can't see how to make it work. I don't think i'm going to change my personal use, but I thought I should at least solicit opinions from people who are doing this sort of configuration.

Really, the question is, "Is vertical model something that looks good in a brochure but is impractical in real life?" I just saw Gaer Boy's screenshot, and it looks pretty cool, but my panel looks like a huge overload compared to his. I think it might be a choice in icons.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:53 pm**

I am agreeing with Gaer Boy. I have a wide screen monitor, so I have more space in the horizontal dimension, so better to use some of that for the panel. I make mine wide (64 pixels) and update the Orage clock to display seconds.

Certainly a matter of taste, but why waste precious vertical space?

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 12:54 pm**

Vertical AND horizontal here

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 1:01 pm**

Using an auto-hiding deskbar gives you access to your full screen. It displays only when you run the cursor to the left side of the screen.

XFCE_vert.jpg

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 1:12 pm**

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 browse the screenshots sub-boards for MX17, 18 and 19, you'll find some.

I use a vertical panel/dock in Neon (Plasma), Fedora (Gnome, Dash-to-Dock shell extension). And Solus (Budgie) on my laptop.

On the other hand, I use a horizontal panel/dock in Manjaro XFCE, MX-KDE, Sabayon (Plasma) and Solus (Budgie) on my PC.

In all my MX XFCE installs, I use a fixed vertical panel and a short horizontal panel that autohides (like a dock).

Here's one of my screenshots from the "MX19 screenshots" sub-forum.

viewtopic.php?p=536187#p536187

I just like to use different layouts and desktop environments.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 1:13 pm**

My panel is minimal, if you discount the 3 weather icons. Any additions would be redundant. I've deleted the default launchers - I launch almost everything using the keyboard. It's much faster for applications I use frequently - 3 or 4 keystrokes are usually enough. I could delete the Orage clock - I never look at it. I have the default conky top right of the desktop and it's almost always visible on all my desktops. I don't have anything on my desktops, except the Manual & FAQ icons - they are almost always visible, too.

It's in complete contrast to my physical desktop, which has heaps of paper, notebooks, ruler, stapler, calculator, an empty box, a set of Ernie Ball guitar strings and a calendar memo pad buried under it all, where it's absolutely useless and never used!

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 1:25 pm**

Wide screen monitor and I have two horizontal panels, bottom and top. It still gives me plenty of vertical space. I current am using MX KDE and have many widgets in the panels. A vertical panel would not hold all of them easily. Having said that it is a matter of how one uses their computer and visual taste. so I get the vertical panel as a choice for some users.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 1:34 pm**

I was expecting a response to this question in about a week.

I'll have to play around with the auto-hiding & number of rows for vertical. Maybe that makes it work.

After a quick search, I realized xfce-panel-profiles wasn't installed. Unfortunately, it looks like exporting panel configs is broken. It would make a great way of sharing setups, assuming it doesn't leak personal information.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 1:51 pm**

Is not xfce but Fluxbox, and also not the xfce panel, but Tint2 (which could also be installed under xfce) but with xfce it looked like this for me (although Tint2 can be configured in more ways)
For example, I don't like icons on the desktop :-)

desktop_986067191038594279_o_jiw.jpg

The picture was for a different problem/theme, the docks and taskbar are normally invisible and here only visible for demonstration purposes.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 1:53 pm**

Unfortunately, it looks like exporting panel configs is broken.

That app may be broken, but MX Tweak gives you the chance of backing up a panel config, so you can use Tweak to back up on one machine (to ~/restore/config/...), move the file and restore it on another.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 2:46 pm**

I use it in Deskbar mode. I also usually throw in a dock at the bottom, or another panel.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:17 pm**

I've been running a vertical standard XFCE panel for a while now, and like it quite a bit (especially on my widescreens). To get the placement I have, it's actually two panels. The top one is only for window buttons. The bottom panel is limited to the bottom 60% of the screeen or so, as a way to keep my date/time near the middle. I also have the panel backgrounds set to be transparent, so they're just floating icons and text.

Panel2.png

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:34 pm**

Hi!

As with most things in Linux we're spoiled for choices and there is really no right or wrong way...

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

Posted: **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?

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:48 pm**

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?

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:50 pm**

The panel/dock on your last post.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:58 pm**

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'..

Panelprefs.png

More info here: viewtopic.php?f=95&t=60836

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 4:01 pm**

It looks fantastic!

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 4:15 pm**

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.)

jeremiah_small.png

Larger image at the following address: https://2chronicles36.org/jeremiah.png

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 4:26 pm**

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

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 6:26 pm**

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

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 8:18 pm**

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.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 8:27 pm**

I always user the vertical deskbar mode.

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

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 10:10 pm**

Sparky wrote: Mon Nov 02, 2020 4:26 pm Andy, can you link to a bigger photo? From this size it looks like your dock panel is clashing in color with your wallpaper.

In case you mean this Andy (me), I posted a link to the full-size screen shot above, in my original post.

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 10:36 pm**

Coming from Mac before XP, and using a wide screen monitor (16x9) it makes sense to me to have a left vertical panel. I don't like my Panel to automatically hide because when I bring my mouse to the left to click on something near the edge of the window the Panel pops out and gets in the way. So I keep the Panel visible and use the Workspace Switcher settings to force all windows out of the Panel. You do that by right clicking on the Workspace Switcher and then: Workspace Switcher > Appearance > Workspace Settings > Margins tab > make the left margin 1 more than the width of the Panel. Set the top, bottom and right margins to 0. Your open windows with maximize to full screen minus the Panel real estate.

[Side note: If you have more than 1 workspace in a vertical panel then it looks better if you make the number of rows equal to the number of workspace you set up. That is, Workspace Switcher > Appearance > Number of rows = the number of work spaces you want. I also rename my workspaces to a short name (as you can see in the attachment) and set the desktop to a different background for each Workspace. By the way, as I understand, you can't do that in KDE.]

I like that the MX Devs default to a vertical panel, I just think they have the Panel upside down for efficient workflow. For example, most apps have the menu bar at the top (horizontal). Your cursor is often going to be at the top of the screen. It makes sense to me that the Panel should have the most clicked on icons at the top, too. See the attachment.

My Panel, below, is shown with the Menu open and no open apps, whose icons would show up under the Workspaces.

Screenshot.jpg

Posted: **Mon Nov 02, 2020 10:52 pm**

For me, it's always the vertical panel in deskbar mode. I've yet to see a single webpage, website or any other human produced document, excepting video and/or photos that look better proportioned on the display when using a horizontal panel.

Taking our default 35-pixel row size for the panel and comparing its screen real-estate usage on a 16:9 1366x768 display, the consumption is 1.78% greater when it is placed horizontally.

A vertical panel consumes 2.56% of usable pixels
A horizontal panel consumes 4.55% of usable pixels

To fill a screen with vertical panels, you would need roughly 39
To fill a screen with horizontal panels, you would need roughly 22 - That's gotta tell you something about efficiency.

The stats are different on higher resolution displays, but the evidence is clear, a horizontal panel is significantly less display friendly than a vertical panel when the same row size is used.

MX was originally produced for Netbooks with a pathetic display resolution of 1024x600, and the vertical panel was used to make the most of very limited screen real-estate. Despite the massive difference with modern systems, the screen real-estate usage is still in favour of a vertical panel no matter the screen resolution. Microsoft has done a serious dis-service to every user in the world by sticking with their space-hogging horizontal panel and they've doubled the encumbrance when a second display is added by smashing a second panel on the second screen.

Their folly has spilled over and infected users of greater systems! Shame on them!

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 12:44 am**

seaken64 wrote: Mon Nov 02, 2020 6:26 pm... I do actually hate the default Gnome setup when using Fedora. I never did get used to that paradigm. ....

Seaken64

That's why on my Fedora install, I have the Dash to Dock extension to make the hidden Favourites bar become a vertical dock. Once that's sorted, it becomes the normal vertical panel/dock paradigm, just like in MX.

In my MX installs, my top left corner calls up skippy-xd, while the top right calls up xfdashboard, so it's again similar to the Gnome top left corner calling up the windows overview. [OK, that's just for some of my MX installs. The rest use Compiz for the windows overview hot corners]

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 1:33 am**

I've used vertical layouts since LiteStep back in the 90s long before widescreens and have never looked back. My wife runs vertical on Win7. I love Deskbar mode in XFCE, running Adapta-Nokto.

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 4:35 am**

I personally do not like vertical bars. I am more than happy with a horizontal bar placed at the bottom of my XFCE desktops. I do have a 34" screen though and maybe that's why the relatively small HB doesn't intrude overly into my workspaces. That said, I also run XFCE on a separate machine which utilises just a 24" screen and again, no issues with the placement or sizing of the HB. It probably is another thing that personal preference really comes to the fore. For me, I just never warmed to having what I see as my main work area (even if that work area is mainly given over to a nice wallpaper and a conky) being cluttered up with a menu bar in the vertical orientation.

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 6:18 am**

JayM wrote: Mon Nov 02, 2020 8:18 pm 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.

That may be apocryphal.

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 7:29 am**

bwhawk wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 6:18 am
JayM wrote: Mon Nov 02, 2020 8:18 pm 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.
That may be apocryphal.

I'm sure it is. That's why I said it was a story.

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:04 am**

I posted a bug report with xfce-panel-profiles: https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-pane ... /issues/20 . It looks like a python/non-ascii character bug, if anyone here is a python programmer and has some time, it will probably yield to a few hours of work.

If you have any influence with the XFCE people, it would be nice to get this working. It "should" allow people to share their panel configurations, which would be much nicer than just sharing pictures.

Since people are now arguing "for" and "against", I would like to say that 35 years of having things at the bottom of terminals and windows (X, Mac (top mostly), and M$) have given me a sort of motor memory. The mouse flick to the bottom or top of a screen seems easier and more reliable than a flick to the far left. I've been taking full advantage of the XFCE auto-resizing option, and I regularly split my screen between two windows. So, I think the wasted space argument has less appeal.

I'm going to spend some time thinking about deskbar. It would be nice if you could pull them up and down with hotkeys.

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:24 am**

m_pav wrote: Mon Nov 02, 2020 10:52 pm For me, it's always the vertical panel in deskbar mode. I've yet to see a single webpage, website or any other human produced document, excepting video and/or photos that look better proportioned on the display when using a horizontal panel.

Taking our default 35-pixel row size for the panel and comparing its screen real-estate usage on a 16:9 1366x768 display, the consumption is 1.78% greater when it is placed horizontally.

A vertical panel consumes 2.56% of usable pixels
A horizontal panel consumes 4.55% of usable pixels

To fill a screen with vertical panels, you would need roughly 39
To fill a screen with horizontal panels, you would need roughly 22 - That's gotta tell you something about efficiency.

The stats are different on higher resolution displays, but the evidence is clear, a horizontal panel is significantly less display friendly than a vertical panel when the same row size is used.

MX was originally produced for Netbooks with a pathetic display resolution of 1024x600, and the vertical panel was used to make the most of very limited screen real-estate. Despite the massive difference with modern systems, the screen real-estate usage is still in favour of a vertical panel no matter the screen resolution. Microsoft has done a serious dis-service to every user in the world by sticking with their space-hogging horizontal panel and they've doubled the encumbrance when a second display is added by smashing a second panel on the second screen.

Their folly has spilled over and infected users of greater systems! Shame on them!

+1

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:28 am**

JayM wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 7:29 amsome behavioral scientists were doing an experiment ...

That's true. No matter apocryphal or not: a kind of "Pavlov's Dogs" study

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 11:07 am**

Their folly has spilled over and infected users of greater systems! Shame on them!

No need to become antagonistic about it. I like the horizontal panel. And can make up my own mind about it. Please do not flog me.

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 11:15 am**

Vertical is my preferred orientation.

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 11:38 am**

Horizontal top here. However, I also run Docky as a launcher horizontal on the bottom, and then a second Docky on the left for Folders and Documents / links I want to have quickly. (Top and left are hidden.)

In the early 90's NeXT came out with an AWESOME design, and for me it was an amazing perspective on how that 'bottom menu' was SO messed up. Then I found OS2 and I started trying to change my Windows menu's very soon after, kind of a hybrid of NeXT and Os2 ... anything *other* than how Windows did it, which I always hated but didnt really know why. And for me, the OSX UI did it properly.

UI dictates a 'top down' approach in all menus, reading, etc.. so top left is the #1 position... and followed by ... across as a natural reading and eye training. And yet, top left and down is the 'standard' menu and computer positioning.

And, what I find interesting... having worked with hundreds of people over the years, horizontal top seems to be a favorite. However, *all* windows peeps need to be introduced to it and get used to it as they indeed have motor memory on the bottom menu.

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 1:56 pm**

richb wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 11:07 amNo need to become antagonistic about it. I like the horizontal panel. And can make up my own mind about it. Please do not flog me.

Sorry you read that into my post RichB, that was never the intention towards you or any user. I just prefer to get the highest form of efficiency through their capabilities from anything and everything I work with. The fishslap was for Microsoft.

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 2:34 pm**

m_pav wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 1:56 pm
richb wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 11:07 amNo need to become antagonistic about it. I like the horizontal panel. And can make up my own mind about it. Please do not flog me.
Sorry you read that into my post RichB, that was never the intention towards you or any user. I just prefer to get the highest form of efficiency through their capabilities from anything and everything I work with. The fishslap was for Microsoft.

My response was meant to be tongue in cheek. I do have difficulty understanding how that very small loss in vertical real estate with a horizontal panel bothers people. But it is their preference so does not matter to me at all. That can be said about many choices users make; wallpaper, icon set, desktop environment, workspace theme, et al.

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 8:12 pm**

Yeah, I was using left-side, vertical panels in Xfce before MX Linux came into being. I also use them in KDE Plasma, LXQt, and Openbox and Fluxbox (with the tint2 panel). I thought it was great when MX came along with that setup being the default, although I configure things differently on the panel and end up having to re-do MX's panel anyway. I think the vertical orientation works out better for me on my laptops' wide screens.

Posted: **Wed Nov 04, 2020 1:16 am**

Hello OKie and Everyone
Poll with your browsing at what users choose do in screenshots at this forum.mxlinux, also at forum.xfce, Themes and Screenshots.

Reducing mouse travel.
A hidden panel can be raised with left-click in desktop.
Central vertical has room for text window identity.
Text label pagers can be enlarged by increasing font size.
One of my favorite xfce Panel set-ups to reduce mouse travel
to access Panel, manage windows.
mx15
download/file.php?id=8923&mode=view

viewtopic.php?p=391838#p391838

Once started using the central Workspace switcher of usable size I tried having the left toolbar plus a workspace switcher of size; eased habits okay, but the centered xfcePanel reduces mouse travel.
MX18
viewtopic.php?p=605813#p605813

Thanks for asking, OKie. Welcome.
I like seeing TTwrs' and entropyfoe' described 64 use.

Posted: **Wed Nov 04, 2020 3:03 am**

Hmmm, I know this is not really what you asked for .... viewtopic.php?f=55&t=60757&start=40

mymxdde.jpg

Posted: **Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:42 pm**

Well, Now this topic got me converted... I'm still getting used to it but me likey!

Vertical-Freddie.png

Posted: **Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:48 pm**

Well lets see. I like the CDE desktop which uses a centered bottom placed desk panel horizontal, I like the old GNOME desktop 1.0 with the nice thick fat 3D GTK horizontal panel at the bottom as well. Oh how I love the right hand side vertical NeXTSTEP,Windowmaker,litestep,OpenStep,Afterstep, tiles panel! Cause I love tiles.. And then there was MX LINUX!! The left hand side vertical panel that lets me know I am using MX Linux! So the takeaway from this is? It does not really matter, just so much you the user like what you got on your desktop. if not? Change it! Linux is lovely that way!

I use the old GNOME 1.0 bottom fat tall 3D dark tiled horizontal panel in my AVL-MXE custom spin. But I use the left hand vertical panel customized big, tiled, 3D dark theme on all my regular MX respins.

Posted: **Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:14 am**

richb wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 2:34 pm
m_pav wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 1:56 pm
richb wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 11:07 amNo need to become antagonistic about it. I like the horizontal panel. And can make up my own mind about it. Please do not flog me.
Sorry you read that into my post RichB, that was never the intention towards you or any user. I just prefer to get the highest form of efficiency through their capabilities from anything and everything I work with. The fishslap was for Microsoft.
My response was meant to be tongue in cheek. I do have difficulty understanding how that very small loss in vertical real estate with a horizontal panel bothers people. But it is their preference so does not matter to me at all. That can be said about many choices users make; wallpaper, icon set, desktop environment, workspace theme, et al.

Agreed Rich but of course whether anyone agrees is quite irrelevant isn't it because we all have our preferences as you have said. My thoughts on horizontal v vertical is that it is somewhat analogous to reading a book with footnotes (the footnotes generally are at the bottom of the page). Again, just my musings on this interesting discussion thread.

Posted: **Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:10 am**

Anyone using a 10" 1000x600 netbook appreciates having a vertical/deskbar panel over a horizontal one, believe you me.

Posted: **Fri Jan 08, 2021 8:43 am**

It seems easier to navigate...both the eyes AND the mouse horizontally to the vertical panel on the side.

AND perhaps a "longshot" kicker...they say horizontal eye movement can stimulate our Vagus nerve-which regulates our parasympathetic systems (heart rate,breathing, digestive).

Posted: **Fri Jan 08, 2021 11:05 am**

I'm quite in favor of the vertical (deskbar actually) mode panel.

Panels, panel displays, and screen real estate are important to lots of people. As a relatively old geezer with hobbled eyesight, I like to have as much screen real estate as possible to allow zooming/enlarging text for readability. That led me to having a 22" Dell monitor situated in portrait mode above my 17" Samsung laptop for reading long-scrolling text (news, tech articles and other content), and the 16:9 ratio of the laptop led me to using the deskbar mode panel. (I'd never used a vertical panel before and had to learn about the "deskbar" mode so the windows buttons text shows up properly!) It also lets me have the analog clock I like situated at the top. The journey to this has required me to open three panel-related issues so far (one due to a short-lived stint with Tint2). All that being said, I'm only a recent convert to the vertical taskbar and am only slowly getting used to where to move my cursor to fiddle with a hidden window. But so far, I like it a lot.

[I do have to say, if I DID add a panel to my portrait mode 22" monitor, it probably would be a horizontal panel situated at the top.]

Posted: **Fri Jan 08, 2021 11:40 am**

I normally do horizontal with auto-hide, but when I wanted an MX VM on this Mac to do actual work from, I appreciated that the MX stock vertical panel didn't conflict with the Mac's Dock or hot corners by default. So I kept it vertical this time.

Posted: **Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:02 pm**

I always thought the best thing about later versions of Windows was the option to use a vertical panel.

Posted: **Fri Jan 08, 2021 4:21 pm**

I use both but I mostly use the horizontal one in the dining room.
That way I can have the tea time icon in the lower right where it is closer to where I am sitting.
I meant horizontal. Edited.

MX Linux Forum

Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?

Re: Does anyone really use XFCE panel in vertical or deskbar mode?