I bought one of these cheap Motile laptops (actually is pretty good) with the idea on installing #Linux, but my wife stopped me because my mother in law doesn't know anything about Linux and she stays at home during the virtual class of the kid (fucking #coronavirus)...

Now a 6 years old kid with Win10 is a pain in the heck! I tried to remove, block everything as much as I could, but without a M$ account you have a lot of limitations (and I am not going to create a new one). Since the situation gets quickly out of control my wife is now asking me to put Linux again. We were using another laptop with Linux before the Motile...

I told her that with #Windows10 things won't improve at all. One of the things that most impressed me negatively is the amount of useless crap enable by default. All those options available aren't necessary for using a computer productively, is really pure garbage. And as much as I can I really want keep this trash os far away from my children.

I look forward to install Debian, I dealt with my wife a temporarily dual boot, and I will create a distractive-free environment for the virtual class along his personal user.

#freesoftware #Windows nightmares #virtual class #gnu #foss #floss

Hi folks,

those are my thoughts, and you can follow and participate to this discussion also here: https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=13813

I really like XFCE, is totally awesome, and is awesome that has very few devs but so talented, but unfortunately this is not enough to push XFCE toward new tops.

As for now XFCE is probably the more consistent and the more commitment DE toward end users, however this is not enough as well, I mean end users are vital but aren't effective in terms of developing. And XFCE needs developers to improve its developing pace.

One of the biggest strength of XFCE is the highly customization but the result came out with an ugly and generic default set up that no one really use. But you can see how those distributions that adopt XFCE as main DE, like Manjaro or MX, have a nice and beautiful customization and this is one of the keys of their success. However this is not enough too, because those distribution are built toward generic end users rather than devs.

Which DE has been designed (in my opinion) toward devs then? The ugliest DE (personal opinion) of the entire Linux realm, Gnome 3! I really can't stand it, however it gained tremendous traction toward devs in each salsa (Ubuntu, POP!, Fedora, Arch...), and for the same reason, since the moment I am not a devs, I find it really uncomfortable. But (incredibly) I collected a lot of opinions from devs & coders (pros and amatorials), that really find it comfortable and useful.

What achieved Gnome 3 was already available on XFCE years and years before Gnome 3 made it first apparition, but this was never advertise at all. I heard a lot of devs talking well about vanilla Gnome 3, they don't even use one extension! While this doesn't make sense for me, that should make sense to shape XFCE for a broader adoption toward developers.

I am not a coder, but I have been working in marketing and communication for a very long time, I can't help with code, but along being a patron (through Bountysource), I can share my analysis on how advertising better XFCE.

Dear XFCE devs, you always shaped XFCE toward us, but it is time for me to shape XFCE toward you. It is time to stop to underestimate the default setup. Sit around a table, talk between you, and redesign a default set up that really makes sense for a developer needs:

- desktop disabled
- workflow keyboard driven
- minimalistic environment
- workflows based on activities rather than tasks

Take inspiration from Gnome 3 without shame, as a matter of fact by default XFCE 4 has more features than Gnome 3, included: lighter and richest environment, better performance, better dual screen support, customizable windows, better tiling, and much more.

This is our description:

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.

But you should advertise as, for example, the best environment for coders with highly customization for any taste and workflow. Who care about being lightweight today? People tend to associate lightweight with lack of functionality, I suggest to push the richness of features available rather than the lightweight.

Check the Gnome definition out:

An easy and elegant way to use your computer, GNOME is designed to put you in control and get things done.

Smooth and focused on "get things done", I mean this is not a competition but learning from the others when they succeed. Indisputably if one of yours goals is to increase the devs that contributes on this amazing project you must focus on them primarily with a better communication and with a desktop ready to use for that scope without any customization.

If you do that and advertise this shift, you gain also the momentum with a spontaneous diffusion on the principal channels like podcasts, blogs, social media etc.

Please reflect on that, being lightweight was fine ten years ago when Linux was the main method to revive an old computer, but today people, especially devs, want and buy new computers and expect to find or use Linux; this is only the beginning and there is still plenty of space also for XFCE to find a new and better dimension!

@Sean Davis :xfce: :xubuntu: #XFCE #xfce4 #LinuxDesktop

Today I had been playing around with #EndeavourOS, I was doing #virtualdistrohopping, and even if I had some initial quirks I found the experience pleasant.

I mean the only reason why #archlinux hasn't a normal installer it is just arbitrary and it is a strategy to avoid to have too many people requesting assistance for nothing. It is a good strategy indeed, I did a full installation once, made a ton of disasters and never played with it anymore.

But this is a friendly way to install Arch... I am not sure I will install EndeavorOS on a real machine, I am not interested in Arch since I do not share the same vision, I prefer the way how #Debian handles technology and informatics.

I already use Debian as rolling distro, but if I would like to install a bleeding edge distro I would like to try #gentoo plus #flatpak to handle all desktop application I need and use the former only for having a system with a very minimum surface of attack.

Kudos to select #xfce as main DE for the offline option. It is still my favorite DE ever. However if I should do a constructive criticism I would say that I look forward for terminal installer like the one available on Debian or Ubuntu in order to avoid to run into the OS to perform the installation. That's it!

#linux #opensource #foss #floss #freesoftware

Hi there,

I have been using #Devuan on #Virtualbox for while when I decided to change distro because Devuan is stuck in the transition of #Xfce4 to the newer version.

Hence I decided to to some (virtual) #distrohopping, to find a replacement, mainly #rollingdistro but I started with #Fedora.

With Fedora the installation was fine just a small issue to make the shared folders working. But afterward I decided to move on rolling system and I selected #Manjaro!

What unpleasant experience with #Manjaro, to much bloated, the shared folders didn't work out of the box neither following the Majaro wiki nor the Arch Linux wiki. Hence I decided to move on #Arch Linux.

The experience with #Arch was quite short didn't have time to make a manual installation, it was a shame but I couldn't. So I tried with #clearlinux.

Clear Linux worked fine with #Gnome3 was but it was to heavy hence I tried to install Xfce4 but I was unable to find a bundle to make working the shared folders hence I moved over.

#Opensuse #Tumbleweed and #SolusOS were unconsidered because not really suitable for a virtual machine with few resources available, and then I returned to the origin and I installed #Debian.

With #Debian I opted for a minimal installation, preferring Slim over Lightdm, and deactivating the suggested packages, the result is a very responsive system way more faster than Devuan. Shared folders worked out-of-the-box, just adding the user to the right group.

Thanks Debian!

#linux #opensource #floss #foss #freesoftware