Come over to the anti-desktop side. Ratpoison or i3 master race. I used to install Slackware with kde for computation-retarded-family members when it was usable because you could make it look like windblows if they were familiar or use "netbook mode" to make it utterly simple... They ditched that and went all flat and gay with the interface and added a ton of bloat.
-posted from my netbsd p4 running ratpoison.
I have been doing some reading and watching video's and I think a reasonable first step might be Enlightenment since it's super minimal and has some stuff already installed to make setup a lot easier and the only thing I don't like is that it doesn't automount usb drives during installation.
It has some of the most advanced multi-monitor virtual desktop switching out of anything I have ever played with. You can target individual displays for virt-desktop switching. If I was in network operations or something like that I would use it as you can keep log windows and status monitors visible while changing a single monitor for things you are doing for fun. Really complex to get your desired workflow and keyboard bindings but once you do it is fast.
I just checked out ratpoison. I'm not a keyboard shortcut kind of guy since I have trouble remembering them. I'm still learning the programs and where they are located in the filesystem so it would be a bitch for me and I'd be lost using this when I forgot crucial keyboard combinations. I also sometimes want to do something and can't remember what the program is named. I also "A lot of excuses" like to move multiple files highlighting and cut and paste into programs like if I want to convert a lot of video's to mp3 format and just highlighting and dragging into the program and clicking convert now is pretty nice. I do like that function of I3 of getting all the program windows on the screen so you don't have anything in the background and I'm pretty sure MX with open box on xfce might have a shortcut for that which I just haven't gotten around to looking up. Hell I'll check that out right after I post this comment.
Yeah, ratpoison is advanced. Try i3 for a bit and here is the cheat sheet. (i3wm.org) after a day you will be elite hacker in a movie fast at workflow management. Fun thing about *nix is you can switch out easy.
Hell I installed openbox and was totally lost so I'm far from using I3 still. I still try to use it once in a while and end up uninstalling it.
that's a lot of shit to memorize. I got just a few down for a regular gui ctrl c ctrl v ctrl alt del alt tab alt space alt enter ctrl esc and that is it after years of using computers.
I like xfce, I just wanted to experiment with the kwin cube just to see for myself what it was all about. I'll likely just reinstall namib xfce over it tommorrow. I also just needed to bitch and let the newbs realize this is not a simple desktop environment like xfce or cinnamon or even mate. This is not a Desktop for a new windows switchers to try and use since they'll likely fail unless they are lucky or are a great computer user all around and can make an educated guess about shit.
I hear you there. You can get lost for days in the far from obvious interface features and actually break things that take research to get back. For starting I would for sure go with XFCE with a little bit of tweaking. All of the tools that come with it are great and have no LIB depends. I actually use thunar and screenshooter on my tiled WM boxes just for that fact.
I love thunar but I would love it more with dual or quad pane. My favorite file browser was a windows program that didn't even install, you put it in a folder and made a shortcut. It's named Qdir and its a 4 pane file manager that remembers your last directory and setting for each pane when you restart. I back then had my porn directory on one pane "just being honest here", my music folder in another, downloads, and anime video's on the 4th so there was no clicking to get them open and the best part that tabbed sucks for is that you could cut move your cursor a foot and paste, no clicking the wrong tab or any extra bullshit.
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