What motivates you to choose a DE/WM?

[Laurentius]

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?

FinalFox meant Thunar, the file manager. It's Thunar that has an image preview. it has improved its searching feature. You can search for filename on folder and subfolder. and use image preview feature with the resulting list.
Catfish is the standalone search tool and does not have image preview. Catfish is very powerful and fast, but not very configurable.

[amlug]

Many people like the old Window Managers' large push buttons and window move, maximize, and resize made anywhere on window. For elderly people, this is handy without pointing the mouse cursor on small icons or a narrow title bar or window frame edge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AfterStep ... erStep.png

Today I tested AfterStep. It has dynamic menu system (see above screenshot) that fills the menu list as per usage. Menus are filled with all-installed packages making it a messy place. When listed only with items that are used, is another nice feature in old WMs. What I liked most, one push button or title bar button has three actions (mouse left-click, mid-click and right-click).

This is copied from one old fvwm2rc config file.

Code: Select all

 *BarButtons: (1x2, Title Gimp, Icon gimp.xpm,   Action 'Exec exec gimp', \
    Action(Mouse 2) 'Exec exec xpaint', \
    Action(Mouse 3) 'Exec exec kiconedit')

[FinalFox420]

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?

Whoops! my bad! You asked about Catfish, my instructions were for Thunar, apologies.

In CATFISH click the three dots in the top right, then at the top of the menu that appears there are TWO buttons the one on the RIGHT is a thumbnail icon and clicking it enables a "preview" column in the search results.

[amlug]

In the late 80s, there was one type of file manager not based on folders but on label boxes. Easy to find files from familiar box names. This file feature I am missing. The current vertical directories are often confusing.

Found what I remembered, it was not a "file manager" but categorized icon boxes. Could have been AfterStep WM. It resembles what @rasat made recently within Fvwm, which rolls the icon box down/up and right/left. Apps added as per category: Internet, Emal, Graphic, Office, Audio, and Misc. Instant access to users' own selected applications. When unrolled only the penguin icon appears. I like those old classic icons at the left side.

[BitterTruth]

I've been using XFCE exclusively for the last 7/8 years. Recently I've moved to awesomewm and have been dabbling with openbox.

Things i look for:

1) Responsiveness
2) resource use
3) ease of configurability
4) tools
5) eye candy (minimal)

[Mjaakko]

I like those old classic icons at the left side.

Old school with modern is great. Icons today are just symbols one has to memorize instead of a real image of their purpose. I am adding meaningful icons to my motivating list which is similar to @BitterTruth list. Includes also workspace allowing to work on different tasks in its own area. I am not in favor of Taskbar but iconified apps as thumbnails.

[BitterTruth]

I think Windows and Mac shaped our psyches. It's only now with Linux & FOSS that we're realising the true potential of what can be done and how differently it can be done

[j2mcgreg]

I think Windows and Mac shaped our psyches. It's only now with Linux & FOSS that we're realising the true potential of what can be done and how differently it can be done

+1

[siamhie]

I like those old classic icons at the left side.

@amlug Same here. A couple of weeks ago I went searching for 3D icons and found a set I really liked called L.T.F.2 on gnome-look.org. (https://www.gnome-look.org/p/2039492)

What surprised me was the inclusion of MX specific icons (love the mx-cleanup icon).

mx_icons.jpg

[rasat]

What surprised me was the inclusion of MX specific icons (love the mx-cleanup icon).
mx_icons.jpg

Fantastic icons.... mx-cleanup really does the cleaning. Where to download?

@Mjaakko: Icons today are just symbols one has to memorize instead of a real image of their purpose. +1
@BitterTruth: It's only now with Linux & FOSS that we're realising the true potential of what can be done and how differently it can be done. +1