Strictly traditional

Story: Do you prefer a modern or traditional desktop environment?Total Replies: 12
Author Content
Ridcully

Jul 05, 2015
6:03 PM EDT
I always have been, and always will be, an advocate and user of the traditional desktop. Xfce and WinXP are traditional; to me Win8 displays the worst possible outcome of the "trendy desktop". My current desktop is KDE in folder view - traditional. It allows me to get serious work done......and of course, I know my way around it. If you are trying to do a job, "pretty-pretty" and hunting for things you need are simply not in the race. But that's me....others may differ and so we should - it'd be an awful old world if we were all the same.

One last thing - because of a project I am involved in, I have been forced against all wishes, to use Win8.1. The only reason I am not becoming insane is that the project leader, bless him, installed a bit of software that makes Win8.1 operate with a traditional menu system. With that in place, I can get the work done.
albinard

Jul 06, 2015
12:00 PM EDT
There was a really insightful remark by John Bargman in the Comments section:

"But most Linux users ARENT most users, and there in lies the problem - the year of Linux will not come from some mythical "everyday users on everyday computers". If it ever comes, it will come from "everyday tech-heads, doing abnormal work". In that regard, in my opinion, Linux needs to be smarted-up, not dumbed-down."

Wish I'd said that!
the_doctor

Jul 06, 2015
1:10 PM EDT
Quoting:The only reason I am not becoming insane is that the project leader, bless him, installed a bit of software that makes Win8.1 operate with a traditional menu system. With that in place, I can get the work done.


Hang on to that software. You'll need it if they decide to upgrade your machine to Windows 10. The Win 10 start menu is nothing more than a poorly disguised version of the Metro UI.
JaseP

Jul 06, 2015
1:53 PM EDT
Not surprising,... Windows 10 is nothing more than a re-skinned version of Windows 8.1...
the_doctor

Jul 06, 2015
4:30 PM EDT
Quoting:Serious Windows 7 fan? Then try this instead. If you really can’t live without the Windows 7 Start menu, consider Stardock’s Start10 utility. It costs just $5 and will give you back a nearly identical Start menu.

--Paul Thurrott


I recommend Classic Shell. It's free and now supports Win 10.

I've been running the builds in VirtualBox for several months now. The current build 10162 is getting better, but it's still not ready for prime time.
penguinist

Jul 06, 2015
4:44 PM EDT
... yawn ...
gus3

Jul 06, 2015
5:28 PM EDT
So, in the "classic" GUI desktop, is the trash can on the left, the right, or in a window?

/me ducks and runs
the_doctor

Jul 06, 2015
5:47 PM EDT
Bottom. ;)

Ridcully

Jul 06, 2015
5:59 PM EDT
Hi gus3....I just KNOW that's a serious question....has to be; you wouldn't be having a rinse of me would you ? Naah. So, yes, taking out the garbage is always very important and you must be specific in order to get a really, really traditional work area. I dunno where others put it, but mine's always in the bottom right corner. It's where I can hide it behind a trellis of roses. The pit-toilet is down the same path just a little way further and right next to the woodheap. I have that setup on the firm authority of Chic Sale and his Specialist.

And for the_doctor, this is what he used:

https://www.pokki.com/windows-8-start-menu

It's not bad; at least it makes Win8 behave reasonably instead of the muck it normally is. I'd forgotten the endless routines of having to say NO to blasted popups and reports that try to get you to buy......It's going to be wonderful to put the whole thing into a trash can when this project is finished.
the_doctor

Jul 06, 2015
7:16 PM EDT
@ Ridcully:

Awesome. Many thanks for the link. I may give that a try as well.

Update:

Well, it kind of worked in Win 10 and it kind of didn't. It's probably not fully compatible with Win 10. I'll stick with Classic Shell for now.

But I prefer a classic MATE desktop.
skelband

Jul 07, 2015
12:30 PM EDT
Work laptop is running Linux Mint 17.1 with MATE and my main dev environment for Windows and Linux is Eclipse. In Windows, I use Eclipse mainly as a fancy editor because we have a command-line based build system anyway. Eclipse has its flaws and is a brutal memory hog but it just really works for me. Visual Studio debugger is without doubt the best around though. I use a number of different tools depending what I'm doing at the time.
750

Jul 08, 2015
2:10 PM EDT
Traditional.

Got XFCE as my main goto, LXDE sitting in the wings, and lately i have been poking at Openbox with Fbpanel and Spacefm.
seatex

Jul 08, 2015
4:36 PM EDT
Cinnamon, MATE & XFCE - all work for me.

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