mintMenu availability on LM 16 Petra XFCE

[creed]

I haven't decided between XFCE or MATE when it comes time to upgrade to LM 17 LTS. I prefer mintMenu regardless of either DE.
Can anyone confirm that a working mintMenu is available for Petra XFCE via xfapplet? If not, will it be available for LM 17 XFCE LTS?
It appears that it stopped working in LM 15 RC, but I don't see any notes that say it got fixed. Please see http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2380#comment-96814 and http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2380#comment-96856

[Monsta]

No.

Unless someone adapts xfapplet for supporting MATE 1.6 applets, you won't be able to use the latest versions of mintMenu. You can still get the older version, like Clem suggested in that blog comment. But it will probably require the installation of some libraries from MATE 1.4 because of the dependencies.

[karlchen]

Hello, creed.

The new Mint Menu for xfce editions of Linux Mint is called Whisker Menu. It has been introduced in Linux Mint 15 xfce. And I guess it is there to stay.
I have started using it when the Petra backports had broken the old Mate Mint Menu on my Mint 13 xfce. I followed the instructions given here, in particular those referring to xfce 4.10: Install Whisker Menu in Xubuntu.
Whisker Menu works perfectly. Ever since it has made its way onto my Mint13 xfce I have not missed the old Mate Mint Menu for half a minute.
So my piece of advice:
Take a closer look at Whisker Menu. It looks great. It works great. Time to let the old Mint Menu go and say hello to the Whisker Menu.

Mint 16 xfce comes with the Whisker Menu pre-installed like Mint 15 xfce. Yet, as the Whisker Menu version that ships with Mint 16 seems to be v1.2, whereas the current version has advanced to v1.3.1, I would suggest to add the ppa:landronimirc/xfce and use the most recent version instead.

Cheers,
Karl

[creed]

Thanks for the info guys! I booted to Petra with the live install ISO and verified the missing xfapplet. Whisker it shall be. Thanks for the links Karl, I will give it Whisker a whirl.

[karlchen]

Hi, creed.

Together with the Mate powered Mint Menu, the xfce editions of Mint lost their menu editor.
Yet, there is a solution: Menu Libre
(I think it has been recommended before in this forum by other forum users, too.)

Cheers,
Karl

[Monsta]

Together with the Mate powered Mint Menu, the xfce editions of Mint lost their menu editor.

Isn't menu editor a separate MATE application called mozo? I think you can still run it in Xfce. It doesn't look related to xfapplet or mintMenu.

[karlchen]

Hi, Monsta.

I admit, as the Mate powered Mint Menu does no longer work in Mint 16 xfce and in Mint 13 xfce with backports from Petra, I decided to uninstall all Mate related software packages because they had only been installed in order to provide the Mint Menu. So there is no mozo left on my Mint 13 xfce with Petra backports.
(The (backported) Mate software packages have been removed from my Mint 13 xfce 4.10., whole story starts here: Mint 13 LTS xfce - mintMenu vs. WhiskerMenu, explains, too, why there is no point in keeping the Mate packages on Mint 13 xfce once the Petra backports have been installed.)

I am not sure whether Mint 16 xfce ships any Mate packages at all after a default installation.

Cheers,
Karl

[creed]

Hi Karl,

Thanks for the info on MenuLibre. Looks like a nice option. However, Whisker Menu is pretty sweet. I'll probably stick with Whisker if I go with XFCE on LM 17 LTS.

Thanks again for all the info,
-Creed

[karlchen]

Hi, Creed.

Misunderstanding:
Whisker Menu will display the menu on Linux Mint xfce.
Menu Libre is not meant to display the menu, but to allow editing the menu items like cinnamon-menu-editor does on Cinnamon desktops.

Cheers,
Karl

[creed]

Ahh, got it Karl. I just quickly browsed the screenshots and it seemed like a menu app with an alacarte configurator. I summed it up as a possible alternative to Whisker. So I see now that is a one-stop menu "editor" for Whisker, mintMenu and the others for XFCE, LXDE, GNOME and Unity. Very slick.

Thanks for the clarification and all your help. I really appreciate it.
-Creed