Can we talk about desktop concepts and why they're good

Just use OS X then... Besides the /g/ biased why don't you like apple?

>>51394880
I prefer no dock, no top bar, no panel or start menu. Just a blank screen with nothing on it, but I have all the commands memorized to do what I need. My monitor is basically a picture frame I can program on. Just without the pictures, that shit is for autist.

Is there a distro that has KDE properly set up? Every one i've used KDE looks like shit and I don't have time to go through 2000 options

>>51395048
kde is just a little visually bloated

dragbars and menus and widgetapplets everywhere

>>51395048
Probably because KDE looks like shit

>>51394939
i do have a hackintosh partition. i just don't like the image i guess, and some of the recent changes, but i think it's the best OS from a usability perspective

>>51395010
that makes sense. yeah i have a blank wallpaper as well. i like having a dock though, less typing

XFCE is the greatest DE ever made.
t.
anon

I don't even use most of it.

Starting applications, switching between windows and opening documents can all be done with KRunner.

I only ever use the start menu when I forget what something is called.

>>51394880
call me classic but I really like the Panel +Start approach.
I came from Windows (still using it tho) and tested gnome 2, gnome 3 is horrible and gnome shell its worse

>>51395103
>tearing, the DE

I'm stuck on Gnome.
I started to use it out of reluctance with Debian 7 and have been unable to switch since.

Although as much as it is slammed, it is actually pretty good to use with some things. Like adding Japanese input was as simple as installing a package and adding the input to the preferences.
Its sort of like that. If it does it, it does it well, but if it doesn't do it, it doesn't do it at all ever.

Gnome 3 werkflow is okay but it does require some getting used to.

Creating workspaces on the go is absolutely mint.

But gnome simply doesn't work on small res screen.
1080p is a bare minimum for it

>>51395147
just use compton as the compositor and the tearing is gone.

>>51395137
>gnome shell its worse
yeah it's like they ripped off the best features of all other OSes yet somehow it ended up a total clusterfuck

>>51395149
yeah i like how mature KDE and gnome 2 are

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>>51394880
>Using a DE

>>51395048
Kubuntu 15.10 looks fine to me, with the dark theme and a different wallpaper of your choice at least.

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is there a way to make the ubuntu global menu display the whole title of a program?

instead of it fading out

someone's gotta know this ffs

I like dmenu. I know what programs do, I don't need giant pictorial representations cluttering up my screen.

>>51395271
>dmenu
is that like spotlight?

>>51395271
This

I'll tell you what's necessary OP:
A launcher like dmenu
That's it

I also like to have a status bar for RAM usage, battery, time, what desktop I'm on, etc.

Anything else is just unneeded bloat

>>51395242
Yeah, you just remove unity and replace it with a functional DE.

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>>51395307
The bar on the top

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>>51395185
>>51395147
>not setting the vsync at xorg level

>>51395322
i get your point and it makes some sense for power users, but screens are so large nowadays i don't think a dock etc really hurts.

people talk about screen real estate but personally, i almost never run into situations where that tiny bit more space becomes a problem. and you can set it to autohide anyways

also a dock is actually a little faster, i'd assume. you can open five programs on a dock with five clicks, with dmenu you'll pretty much have to type a whole sentence

>>51395350
so yes, pretty much, except it includes terminal stuff by default

question, how do you see your open programs? in the window switcher?

and can you change the font?

>>51395433
I don't see my open programs. I know where I put things. With 5 different desktops and keyboard based window controls, it's easy to organize programs. It rarely takes me more than one keystroke to reach what I need.

I don't know if he's using i3 or another wm.
If that's the case, you don't have windows hidden behind, just one next to the other, or on different workspaces.
At most you can decide to tab a few in the same area of the monitor, but in that case you have a tab.

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xfce - whisker button + alt+f2 bringing up application finder

I made my laptop as unintuitive as possible while still remaining functional. When it starts, you have to type my 20 character password three times in order to get a gui and login. You have to know the password in order to shut it off by software. And unless you know the shortcuts I made, you won't be able to use it at all.

>>51395473
i see. i'm more of an expose guy, never could get used to the multiple desktop thing, though i loved fiddling around with the compiz cube thing

>>51395220
found the NEET

>>51394880
the one where i just open the program i want by typing its name

aka fluxbox

>>51395528
I use alt+f2 to bring up dmenu. I feel a sense of brotherhood toward you, hope you don't mind.

>>51395433
Most of the the things that I would have on a dock I've bound to mod+[key], so I'd say 5 key presses is a little faster than five clicks. dmenu is meant more to replace a normal gui menu, which is undoubtedly slower than dmenu.

As for a user friendly point of view, that's where my desktop fails. If someone needed to borrow my laptop they'd be fucked. Like this anon >>51395528 you need to know the shortcuts for it to be useable. But that's perfectly fine with me

>>51395528
>I made my laptop as unintuitive as possible while still remaining functional.
>linux users in a nutshell

honestly tho, why

>>51395528
>>51395590
And that's exactly what we call autism.

>>51395599
Not him, but it's a great way to scare off the normies from touching your stuff

>>51395590
ah that's neat

i switch programs a lot, so the dock makes more sense for me.

>>51395599
I'm still 18 and have family members running around using my shit. Can't have them finding all of my dank pepes, can we?

>>51395599
Not him, but I think that what he meant, and what applies to me as well, is that fro me is perfectly straightforward, tailored on my way of using it, but anybody else is fucked.
Well, maybe he took some pride in having something that is so complex if you don't know what you're doing.

>>51395626
That's what a simple password is for idiot.

>>51395626
ah, i c

>>51395649
but it isnt like it inconveniences the user

>>51395599
Because rather than sacrificing efficiency for intuitiveness like mainstream DE's have to do to appeal to the most amount of people, you can customize your desktop to work for you, and only specifically. This increases your efficiency while simultaneously making it unusable to anyone else

>>51395010
xmonad?

>>51395699
i doubt it's really that much more efficient. when i see those .webms in desktop threads where people use dmenu it always seems like just clicking an icon would be faster, unless you have the keybind thing, but you can only keybind so many programs before you start forgetting which is bound to what.

but it's nice from an aesthetic viewpoint, i guess, to each his own

>>51395649
When I made it like that. I was under the assumption that they're already logged in, because I was away for hours at a time when my laptop was left on.

Really, it isn't that bad.
Alt+f2 brings up the application finder.
ctrl+arrow keys tiles things
ctrl+alt+arrow keys moves around the 3x3 workspaces I have
ctrl+alt+shift moves the windows around the 3x3 workspaces
ctrl+t shows the terminal

All other shortcuts are disabled. You can't even alt+f4 on the desktop to bring up the power menu.
What I should have said was that I made it as intuitive as possible for me, and as unintuitive as possible for someone else. I really do have a good system in my mind.

>>51394939
Cinnamon can achieve a similar look. My desktop resembles OS X. Dock, top bar, no icons, etc.

I personally am in love with Linux Mint Cinnamon.

>>51395755
Trust me, dmenu is way faster. I use the terminal for a lot of things to rather than GUI programs.

Basically, I only need bindings for the terminal, web browser and file browser and dmenu, those are the programs I use the most.

I can type at about ~70 wpm, so when I need to open a program that I don't use often, it takes me ~1 second to open dmenu, type the program I want to run and press enter. That's not even taking into account that most of the time you don't need to type the full command into dmenu to launch the program.

Now compare that to the time it takes to navigate a menu with your mouse. The time it takes to open the menu and go through the various sub menus takes a lot longer.

But in the end yeah I agree, to each his own

I use cinnamon though I don't particularly like everything about it, it's just the least ugly and most functional DE I could be bothered trying.

>>51395854
it's less polished, and i use the global menu. i know there's applets but they never really work properly with a lot of programs

>>51395765
why not set it to automagically log out after a while

>>51395907
maybe it's a tiny bit faster, but i doubt it's "way" faster

browser and finder are open as soon as a i boot up, anyways

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>>51395765
don't use arrow keys

use hjkl

>>51395986
>while still being functional
I ain't gonna train myself to use hjkl. On my keyboard, the arrow keys can be felt obviously. I won't be able to figure out where hjkl is solely based on touch. I mean I can still type with eyes closed. But it'll feel weird.

>>51395967
too complicated desu m8.

Blankfag here, monitor is completely empty except for wifi, battery, and clock on the top right. Middle click gives me the current executables open and right click gives me a list of programs I can execute.

If this shit isn't simple and efficient while still being relatively normie, I don't know what is

>>51396019
>too complicated
what is?

>>51396019
>I won't be able to figure out where hjkl is solely based on touch
Good god
>these people post on /g/

>>51394880
I just use bspwm.

Super + D = dmenu
Super + Enter = terminal
Super + hjkl = moving through open tiles
Super + Shift + hjkl = reordering tiles
Super + 1-9 = workspaces
Super + q = close

No status bar, no menus nothing. Just wallpaper and open programs. Works for me. I am on a laptop if that makes more sense, no mouse and using the keyboard is simpler.

>>51396114
what are current executables in this context?

>>51395103
You have to invest in ricing so much just to make it look like your desktop isn't from 1998

>>51396411
idk it doesnt even look so bad

unity, for example, may look more "modern" but it looks modern in a clunky, bloated way

>>51396411
Spending 10 minutes configuring the panel with a gui tool and installing a gtk theme sure is difficult.

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nothing better than gnome shell

>>51395185
On Nvidia/Intel maybe. On my AMD machine no compton setting saves me from horrendous screen tearing.

>>51395048
Kubuntu looks good, except for the default fonts imo.

The bigger problem with it is that KDE is a bloated unstable mess.

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nothing wrong with windows
it just werks

>>51396521
I dunno I guess I'm just disabled since I had trouble making it not look like doo doo.

Despite all the meme hatred for gnome 3 i dig it and its what I use with arch

>>51396761
monochrome icons seem retarded to me. an icon should communicate quickly what the program / app is about. when you restrict the colors to monochrome that's a lot harder. with like half the icons in the screenshot i have no idea what they're supposed to be (revit? archicad?)

>>51395048
Literally Fedora

>>51397156
I find monochrome icons more aesthetically pleasing (just my personal opinion obviously) but I've always been a sucker for flat design so my point might not be valid
I'm really familiar with all the programs I use and I do not share this particular PC with anyone else so I can afford setting things up my way, the most important part is I can easily tell what is where; I've also made sure my phone's icon pack matches this theme because I'm crazy like that
I guess you can't please everybody but I think getting rid of gradients and colors helps witch windows 10 consistency that is honestly pretty terrible

I'm old fashioned. I like the taskbar + start menu. Windows 2000 more or less perfected it for me.

Windows 7 had the nice aesthetics, and I think Aero Glass could be modernized a little. Instead Windows 10 took the Windows 8 approach and ran with it.

I also really like Windows 7's win+tab application flipping.

I don't use Windows much anymore, so on Linux I just use MATE.

>>51397318
yeh i didnt mean to offend you i just think it's a shitty design decision by microshaft

>>51397381
>I also really like Windows 7's win+tab application flipping.
desu every OS has that now, no? difference is just the keybind

>>51396572
Does Gnome eradicate your battery?

>>51395765
Have you not used a text editor before?