Mint flavors
Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2016 10:43 pm
Hi to the community here !
As you can see, I am very new on this forum.
I have used the search function to get some answers. So trust me, if I post something here, that really because I have some questions left, and not because I am not looking for answers first, out of laziness... well actually, I'm lazy, it takes me far more energy to write something than to search and read (which I do 99% of the time)... #mylife#
So well, some questions left, some things to discuss, let get into it.
I am used to windows (company laptop), and love the way I can almost not use the mouse but just keyboard and use shortcuts all the way.
I went to linux some years ago (personal laptops), testing different distros to finally settle quite some time on Ubuntu.
I have been satisfied most of the time (Ubuntu is really close to your typical windows experience), but dissatisfied when I needed to go farther and tweak the OS to my needs. It's frustrating (I know it's for better stability) when the OS is built in a way to limit (or at least make painful) any change you want to make.
That's when I come to Mint recently, I hear it's more advanced user oriented, more open...
First try: XFCE, I like its lightness, responsiveness, ~tweakingness, but shortcuts wise... I set up my own shortcuts, but it is not stable, it doesn't work from time to time, like the Ctrl+F4 so usefull in Firefox, you have to deactivate the preset shortcut to get it working, but for some reasons, your shortcut stop working and you have to deactivate again the preset shortcut which is already deactivated... like sending a reminder to the system... is it just me? maybe I am too dumb but god, I am bored with that kind of stuff.
-Other example, because of windows pavlovian training and using asian language, I am used to shift from one language to the other with Shift+Alt, XFCE does not authorize this combination... really, or I am just too dumb again (or I should take more time looking for answers).
-Because of it's tweakiness I was able to set up the superbar function in XFCE panel that like to have on the right side, but at this time I realize that actually of the support I can find online was made for Cinnamon
That's how I went on to try Cinnamon.
OK it looks great, most of shortcuts similar to windows are available out of the box (Win+E, Ctrl+F4, ...) but... it's far less (easily) customizable than XFCE, I can feel some lack of responsiveness, and I realize... oh god this frackin panel can just be horizontal? no vertical ? really ? ok let's look for a tweak... additional docks & co, I don't like that, I just want my panel and all its content on my right shoulder, and no easy solution for that...that quickly got me back to the bored case again.
Looks like Mint Cinnamon is not much more open than Ubuntu actually
I have yet to try Mate and KDE and I am actually reluctant (and lazy) to do it after those little deceptions.
For now I am thinking of giving another chance to Mint XFCE (thumbs up for light, fast and agile system). I will have to find a way to stabilize my shortcuts modifications. I have read here and there that some users prefer to deactivate all preset shortcuts before setting up their own, this is probably the path I will follow...
Well this wasn't meant to be a shout out post, the idea was mainly to share my experience (I did not plan to write that much actually... sorry), and ask for recommendations on how I can finally get my interface to work the way I want.
Any comment is welcome (even bashing, come on let it all out).
As you can see, I am very new on this forum.
I have used the search function to get some answers. So trust me, if I post something here, that really because I have some questions left, and not because I am not looking for answers first, out of laziness... well actually, I'm lazy, it takes me far more energy to write something than to search and read (which I do 99% of the time)... #mylife#
So well, some questions left, some things to discuss, let get into it.
I am used to windows (company laptop), and love the way I can almost not use the mouse but just keyboard and use shortcuts all the way.
I went to linux some years ago (personal laptops), testing different distros to finally settle quite some time on Ubuntu.
I have been satisfied most of the time (Ubuntu is really close to your typical windows experience), but dissatisfied when I needed to go farther and tweak the OS to my needs. It's frustrating (I know it's for better stability) when the OS is built in a way to limit (or at least make painful) any change you want to make.
That's when I come to Mint recently, I hear it's more advanced user oriented, more open...
First try: XFCE, I like its lightness, responsiveness, ~tweakingness, but shortcuts wise... I set up my own shortcuts, but it is not stable, it doesn't work from time to time, like the Ctrl+F4 so usefull in Firefox, you have to deactivate the preset shortcut to get it working, but for some reasons, your shortcut stop working and you have to deactivate again the preset shortcut which is already deactivated... like sending a reminder to the system... is it just me? maybe I am too dumb but god, I am bored with that kind of stuff.
-Other example, because of windows pavlovian training and using asian language, I am used to shift from one language to the other with Shift+Alt, XFCE does not authorize this combination... really, or I am just too dumb again (or I should take more time looking for answers).
-Because of it's tweakiness I was able to set up the superbar function in XFCE panel that like to have on the right side, but at this time I realize that actually of the support I can find online was made for Cinnamon
That's how I went on to try Cinnamon.
OK it looks great, most of shortcuts similar to windows are available out of the box (Win+E, Ctrl+F4, ...) but... it's far less (easily) customizable than XFCE, I can feel some lack of responsiveness, and I realize... oh god this frackin panel can just be horizontal? no vertical ? really ? ok let's look for a tweak... additional docks & co, I don't like that, I just want my panel and all its content on my right shoulder, and no easy solution for that...that quickly got me back to the bored case again.
Looks like Mint Cinnamon is not much more open than Ubuntu actually
I have yet to try Mate and KDE and I am actually reluctant (and lazy) to do it after those little deceptions.
For now I am thinking of giving another chance to Mint XFCE (thumbs up for light, fast and agile system). I will have to find a way to stabilize my shortcuts modifications. I have read here and there that some users prefer to deactivate all preset shortcuts before setting up their own, this is probably the path I will follow...
Well this wasn't meant to be a shout out post, the idea was mainly to share my experience (I did not plan to write that much actually... sorry), and ask for recommendations on how I can finally get my interface to work the way I want.
Any comment is welcome (even bashing, come on let it all out).
