[GTALUG] desktop comfort [was Re: Upgraded to Beaver and Command Line Says 'command not found']

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Lennart Sorensen via talk <talk at gtalug.org>

| Problem is I don't remember anymore.

I understand that well.  It is muscle memory and it is hard to recall
to reason about.

| I learned long ago that the gnome terminal is too buggy to use so I
| don't use it.  It had terminal emulation bugs which I can't accept from
| a terminal.

What bugs are you thinking of?

Things that iritate me are few -- I'm a stoic.
Currently, it can show emojis but they take two character spaces so
they screw up programs that try to manage the screen (like Alpine).

xterm lets the program control things to do with mouse interaction.
Few programs used some of those features and not all were implemented
in Gnome Terminal.  I know, because Jove does use them (optionally).

I switched to gnome terminal for font scaling.  I understand xterm can do 
it now but I haven't cared enough to switch back and figure out the 
scaling.

| I don't expect much from my desktop:
| 
| - alt+f2 must give me a run box to start a program of my choice

I'm a touch typist so no function key is in my vocabulary.

If a function key thing were useful enough (ctrl-alt-del), and I knew of 
it, I would learn it.  I'm just ignorant and lazy.

| - There must be minimize, maximize/restore and close buttons on the
|   windows.  Double click title bar for maximize/restore is a bonus.

Those are optional (gnome-tweak-tool).  I only use close and the
double-click-on-title-bar thing.  So the loss of buttons on the title
bar is fine with me.

|   Supporting alt+space shortcuts are appreciated too.

I don't know what those are.  On KDE (what I'm using this instant, it
gives me some kind of search bar.  It seems to search for something
amongst the windows.

| - I must be able to resize the window by the border of the window

Sure.

| - alt+tab must cycle through the windows in order of use

Addressed by Stewart's fine message.


| - There must be a place for programs to show their status (like pidgin,
|   wifi, etc).

That exists in Gnome (top right corner).

| I currently use xfce which does the job well.

Out of the box?  Or with configuration?  Extensive configuration?

Gnome seems to want to minimize configuration options.  To that I say:
as simple as possible but no simpler.  Many feel they've gone to far.