Show Us Your Linux Desktop

[Mr. Fox]

As many of you already know from past posts and comments on the old forum, I am working on the idea of becoming a Linux-only PC user because I hate what Windows has become. I prefer a Windows 7-like DE because it's familiar and just makes the most sense to my brain. This thread has a simple purpose (as the title implies).

 

Just did a clean install of ZorinOS 16 on my work desktop and switched it to Cinnamon DE. This system has three 1080p 144Hz displays. The toughest part of that is finding a wallpaper I like that looks good to me when spanning all three screens. (That is challenging no matter the OS.)

 

 

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[Ishayin]

Looks great! I only came across Zorin recently, and happy to see that someone is running Cinnamon on it. So I presume that you can therefore ungroup windows on the taskbar like in the Windows Vista style? That was a question I had in mind when I looked at their website. How are you finding it and any ideas on how it compares to Mint?

[serpro69]

You beat me to it @Mr. Fox, was thinking to make this same thread just the other day.

 

Here's my Ubuntu 20.04. Nothing special, I'm keeping it pretty much stock (except for the icons maybe) and minimalistic.

 

 

 

 

I've discovered ZorinOS not that long ago myself, but haven't tried it yet. For someone who prefers windows-like appearance or who is considering a move from Windows to Linux - this is probably the closest thing (UI wise of course).

[Mr. Fox]

I was finally able to install Linux on my MEG Z690 Unify-X setup. I has having difficulting with an error "AHCI Controller Unavailable" that was preventing me from booting any version of Linux I had tried to install. As it turns out, the issue was caused by my optical drive being connected to the ASMedia SATA controller, which is an incompatible configuration for Linux. More details on how I found out what was causing it is in this post.

 

I have installed POP_OS! with Cinnamon DE and it is working like a champ now.

[serpro69]

Looks neat.

What made you go with with Pop_OS? Does it have any benefits that you saw compared to other debian-like systems? I think I read somewhere that it's more gaming-oriented than say Debian or Ubuntu.

[Mr. Fox]

2 hours ago, serpro69 said:

Looks neat.

What made you go with with Pop_OS? Does it have any benefits that you saw compared to other debian-like systems? I think I read somewhere that it's more gaming-oriented than say Debian or Ubuntu.

I don't see a huge difference between the flavors of Debian and Ubuntu, but POP_OS! is developed and support by System76 for their pre-built performance-oriented /gaming systems. It is a better fit for my performance PC hobby. It is mostly configured and ready to use out of the box (with the exception of installing Cinnamon DE because I despise Unity DE).  I use their option that includes NVIDIA drivers so I don't have to fuss with that, and overall I have fewer packages to install than I would with another distro. Linux Mint is almost as good, but not quite. For example, I really like ZorinOS. It looks and feels great, but my CPU Turboboost clock speeds are never displayed correctly in any of the system monitoring programs and the power management of the OS is more aggressive. I have to do more work after installing the OS to get everything working to my satisfaction, and I don't like wasting time like that. I know that some people derive satisfaction from setting up a time consuming Linux distro from scratch (like Arch) but that is not me. Even though I am fairly competent and comfortable using a terminal, I do not enjoy spending my time that way with Linux or Windows.

[Aeny]

A pretty basic Arch install with Gnome that I moved over from my XPS15 9550 when I got my Thinkpad x390, it's my daily driver. Not much to see here besides that I need to fix Alacritty since it doesn't play nice with Wayland 🙂 

[Mr. Fox]

POP_OS! with Cinnamon DE, Windows 10 "StartIsBack" theme and manually edited cinnamon.css for panel and menu Windows 7 "AeroGlass" transparency. Yes @Papusan the Windows replacement is getting closer. 😀

 

[Mr. Fox]

[Mr. Fox]

[Katja]

Max file size doesn't like 1440p scaling; but I'm still doing some work on configuring it to be more.. personalized? Not used to using GNOME since I tend to use other DEs, but hey, I'm liking Fedora.

[serpro69]

Had to reinstall Linux OS so bumped to Ubuntu 22.04 while I was at it.

More or less same as before, just in different colors. And I must say, the Nord palette is kind of growing on me. I even ended up forking the icons and re-doing them using nord colors :D 

 

[drnoob13]

Here's mine. 🙂

 

[serpro69]

Nice to see more PopOS popping up :D is that a built-in dock at the bottom or a third party?

I also can't help but wonder, what was the reason behind blurring the username?

[drnoob13]

13 hours ago, serpro69 said:

Nice to see more PopOS popping up 😄 is that a built-in dock at the bottom or a third party?

I also can't help but wonder, what was the reason behind blurring the username?

That's actually the Floating Dock extension that also hides itself when there is a window that obstructs the dock, really helps when I need to focus to do some works such as coding or reading documents. I also find it ergonomically to have the dock centered in the bottom of the screen. If the dock is on the far left or on the far right, I find myself moving my neck quite often and easily losing focus. 🙂 Blurring the username because my username is my full name. 😛 

 

[Mr. Fox]

On 3/7/2022 at 9:56 AM, Ishatix said:

Looks great! I only came across Zorin recently, and happy to see that someone is running Cinnamon on it. So I presume that you can therefore ungroup windows on the taskbar like in the Windows Vista style? That was a question I had in mind when I looked at their website. How are you finding it and any ideas on how it compares to Mint?

Thank you. Sorry I never responded before. I somehow totally missed your post. With Cinnamon DE the GUI works basically the same as Linux Mint with Cinnamon. I haven't noticed any differences there. Overally, I really like ZorinOS. It has a very polished feel to it. Some things about it strike me as slightly less tweakable, which is another reason I switched to Cinnamon DE. The default ZorinOS DE has limited configuration options for the panel (taskbar) and "Start" menu.

[Mr. Fox]

New Linux install on my Precision 17 7720.

[Ishayin]

On 8/14/2022 at 5:23 PM, Mr. Fox said:

Thank you. Sorry I never responded before. I somehow totally missed your post. With Cinnamon DE the GUI works basically the same as Linux Mint with Cinnamon. I haven't noticed any differences there. Overally, I really like ZorinOS. It has a very polished feel to it. Some things about it strike me as slightly less tweakable, which is another reason I switched to Cinnamon DE. The default ZorinOS DE has limited configuration options for the panel (taskbar) and "Start" menu.

 

No worries, and thanks! I've been watching some Linux videos of late and that's the same impression I got from them. I would like to get a cheap second-hand lighter laptop / netbook sometime for shorter trips and then try out a few different distros on it, with Mint and Zorin being top of the list.

 

On 8/15/2022 at 6:14 AM, Mr. Fox said:

New Linux install on my Precision 17 7720.

 

Looks great! KDE Plasma was the biggest surprise to me on looking into Linux again since last trying out a few distributions 9 years ago now . Back then KDE was so ugly I dismissed it as an option immediately (and Mint was the only OS where everything worked right away, and Cinnamon the only DE I liked). But now Plasma looks really beautiful and highly configurable too. How do you find it compared to Cinnamon?

 

[Mr. Fox]

3 hours ago, Ishatix said:

Looks great! KDE Plasma was the biggest surprise to me on looking into Linux again since last trying out a few distributions 9 years ago now . Back then KDE was so ugly I dismissed it as an option immediately (and Mint was the only OS where everything worked right away, and Cinnamon the only DE I liked). But now Plasma looks really beautiful and highly configurable too. How do you find it compared to Cinnamon?

Thank you. Aesthetically, I think KDE Plasma is excellent overall. It has a very polished look and feel to it, but I still find a few things lacking in terms of customization. I still lean slightly towards Cinnamon DE. Probably because I have used it longer and it is more familiar to me.

 

For example, I know how to manually tweak the code to adjust the menu color and transparency to match the panel I use on Cinnamon. It bugs the crap out of me when they do not match. (That irks me to no end in Windows as well. I consider it tacky-looking and half-assed when they do not match.) I had to spend a lot of time searching for the info. I have not done that for Plasma, and may not do so because it is easier to do what I already know how to do with Cinnamon.

 

I like Cinnamon's window manager themes and add-on GUI customization extensions better as well. 

 

Out of the box and no tweaking of code to suit my personal preferences, Plasma is definitely elegant and more aesthetically pleasing overall. But, to a fault, I am very picky, OCD and unforgiving about my aesthetic preferences, and do not embrace change or variety in that area of my computing experience.

[Ishayin]

2 hours ago, Mr. Fox said:

...

 

Ha yeah, I am the same in that regard. I feel like I will probably still prefer Cinnamon too, but curious to try Plasma all the same. I find all those geeky arguments over GUI vs. CLI totally inane. The best UI is no UI at all*, and if it must exist then it should be as transparent and frictionless as possible. It's like the choice of font when reading a book, you know it's good when you don't notice it at all. It's only when you are forced to really "see" it that you know it's been poorly chosen, as with the little details you mention. They may seem small, but they are not if they distract from the task at hand.

 

A good example is the one post Windows 7(?) change I've never been able to undo or get used to which is the border spacing they added to the context menu that you get when you right-click on active programs in the task bar. In older Windows versions the "Close window" option at the bottom of this list would pop-up right under your mouse cursor as soon as you opened the menu. But with the added border now you have to move your mouse substantially upwards between the right click to open the menu, and the left click to close the window. It's makes the whole process so much more sluggish as to be almost impractical (never mind injurious to my wrist).

 

* I.e.  With digital systems, anything you do regularly should be done by simply pressing a button. There is nothing quicker and more efficient than that. Whether you are typing out commands in a CLI, or navigating through a GUI, if you ever find yourself carrying out a repeatable sequence regularly, then you have really missed out on the whole point of computer automation IMO.

[Mr. Fox]

@Ishatix you are spot on. Totally agree.

 

Also agree with your footnote on automation. I intentionally design things to be as easy as possible, and strive for single-click functionality. I get a chuckle out of people in my organization whining about change making their job more "difficult" and my response is usually something like, "Oh, you mean that extra mouse click that was introduced as a job performance requirement? Yeah, I know it's a tough job, but someone as smart as you will master than mouse click in no time. But, please let me know if you need any help with your mouse button."

[Ishayin]

20 minutes ago, Mr. Fox said:

 

 

Ha! Brings to mind a few too many stories like the below which are a good reminder that automation and "productivity" may not always be truly beneficial in the wider scheme of things. 😛

https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/32uzrk/my_first_day_on_the_job_and_i_accidentally_got/

https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/7tjdkr/that_time_i_helped_automate_20_people_out_of_a_job/
 

[TheDantee]

Old photo hasnt changed much though constant work in progress... Gentoo Linux running Sway with Waybar I use mako for notifications and wofi as an app launcher. Uses around 340MB Ram idle super lightweight better than windoze could ever offer me finally a true replacement for a lightweight OS like Windows 7 was... How is everyone? Been awhile did the forum get reset swore I had an account on this new one...

[TheDantee]

 

Swapped out waybar and using the default swaybar with i3blocks now also am trying out a tokyonight-day theme instead of a dark theme for once.

[Mr. Fox]

This is the system I am struggling to make viable on Linux. I think it may be something bugged in the ACPI implementation by the dumb-dumbs at ASUS on the Strix ZX690-E. I cannot get the CPU turbo clocks to display correctly in any desirable monitoring tools. CPU-X shows the 12900KS clocks to a fixed 5.4GHz (correct) under load, still not correct at idle, but all of the "normal" things I use show either a fixed 3.4GHz (c-states disabled) or a fixed 4.1GHz (c-states enabled). I have tried KDE, POP!_OS and ZorinOS and all have the same issue. I have tried passing a variety of kernel parameters in GRUB. I have installed different packages intended for monitoring clock speeds and it is hit or miss. The couple that actually work correctly are worthless to me because they are CLI stuff I can't use the way I want to. I also wonder if it is something with the 12900KS not being recognized properly like a 12900K and 13900K. At any rate, this is a classic example of a thing that make noobs  believe that Linux is not a viable replacement for Windows, and on this system it probably isn't solely for this reason. I would not embrace Linux if this were an example of normal, but I have used it enough to know it is an exception (albeit a more common problem than desired).

 

Banshee 

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The other two systems work exactly as they should... pleasure using Linux on both of them, in contrast. Unfortunate that the ASUS machine doesn't deliver the same quality of experience.

 

Wraith

 

Half-Breed