My feedback on XFCE in general and its native apps

Krezzin · Yesterday 14:14:14

As a Windows user for nearly 3 decades, I've took the step only last year to close the... window, ditching Windows entirely for Linux. I'm currently using MX Linux with XFCE 4.20.1 as my OS/DE combo.

Already half a month on it, have noticed some missing features in terms of convenience of use, in comparison to other desktop environments.

XFCE

- no way to pin running apps straight from the task manager, you can only do it with the Docklike plugin but then you're missing 50% of the features of the features you have on the panel itself
- no way to have icon instead of text/title on the Actions Button for cleaner aesthetic looks across the whole panel
- no way to add apps to the panel straight from the Panel Preferences/Items page, you can only do it from the Whisker menu

Thunar

- no way to have individual "Bookmarks" panel to the left side so you can combine using it with Tree view, and also be able to manually sort the bookmarks to your liking
- no way to rename a file by clicking on it the way it happens on Windows & previous Mac versions - currently Thunar opens a new dialogue window where you perform the rename, this is ancient design already
- no way to see media files information - currently Thunar only has "Image preview" panel that sits on the left side which is left as it eats the space you'd need if you have more than 1 SSD
- no way to display columns for either audio/video files - especially useful for people who work with tons of audio or video files, having the ability to show the bitrate of audio files within the file manager, without the need to use 3rd party apps, is a huge time saver.
- no way to add "Create a new folder" button in the toolbar - something this simpler missing is beyond scientifical research

On another hand,

Search feature is not conventional at all

Say, for example, you attempt searching a file and then look for another one, you have to either manually select the text of the first search and type the new word instead or close and reopen search to clear the field: you can't press Ctrl+A to select all the text to overwrite with the new as the "Search:" text is actually the command and it's part of the editable text (wtf?). This command should have been put as a separate non-editable string on the left so you can Ctrl+A > type new text > find what you're looking for. See how Nemo has it.

Last edited by Krezzin (Today 09:24:29)

ToZ · Yesterday 19:31:35

Alot of this functionality may depend on the version of Xfce you are using - you don't mention that in your initial post.

- no way to pin running apps straight from the task manager

Have a look at https://docs.xfce.org/panel-plugins/xfc … ugin/start - this might be what you are looking for.

- no way to have icon instead of text/title on the Actions Button for cleaner aesthetic looks across the whole panel

Use the docklike plugin mentioned above, or in the Window Buttons properties, uncheck "Show button labels"

Thunar...

Many of these would need enhancement requests and developers willing to implement them. The "Create a new Folder" toolbar button doesn't make much sense to me since the option is available on the right-click context menu - closer to where the clicking action is. However, you could create a custom action to create a new folder and then add that custom action to the toolbar.

Xfce is very modular. If you prefer nemo (or another file manager), you can use it instead of thunar.

Krezzin · Yesterday 21:00:32

On the Docklike Taskbar plugin

You caught me off-guard, haven't tried it until now. Now I did, pinning works when an app is open, except some don't allow for that, such as Geany.

On the Actions Button plugin

Seems either I explained it poorly or you didn't figure it out. Here's a screenshot of what I mean.

As you can see, I'm using an emoji to replace the text that is usually the user account name so the aesthetic of the menu isn't ruined slapping text where you don't need any. Unfortunately this way you can't control the size of the icon as in reality it isn't an icon so to make it look right you have to play with the icon size of the whole panel to make it matching.

About Thunar...

Its cool and works but its way too limited in some aspects and its kinda strange if you try most of the other file managers, some of which are long abandoned and old as hell, yet have some of the features I listed. Hopefully one day someone reworks Thunar to be up to par with other lightweight file managers like XFE SpaceFM, etc...

And no, I don't prefer Nemo, but there's no other alternative right now. Dolphin is much more convenient to work with with loads of files, however it comes with a lot of dependencies so I avoid that.

ToZ · Yesterday 22:09:54

Sorry if I was unclear. Its not the Actions Plugin button that has that option, its the Window Buttons (aka tasklist) plugin. Depending on the version you are running, you can either: 1) Ctrl+Right-Click on the tasklist button and choose Properties, or 2) right-click the panel and select Panel > Panel Preferences, then on the Items tab, double-click the Windows Buttons entry to see the preferences dialog.

Krezzin · Today 08:38:40

Yeah but that controls the behavior for how things appear on the task list (opened applications). I think you misunderstood what I mean. Actions Buttons plugin should have an option to display an icon next to the existing options (Full Name, Username, User ID, Custom).

Normally I would throw a suggestion to the devs themselves on the right page, however with XFCE being in maintenance mode, I doubt any plugins or apps will be updated beyond the security hotfixes.

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#1 Yesterday 14:14:14

My feedback on XFCE in general and its native apps

#2 Yesterday 19:31:35

Re: My feedback on XFCE in general and its native apps

#3 Yesterday 21:00:32

Re: My feedback on XFCE in general and its native apps

#4 Yesterday 22:09:54

Re: My feedback on XFCE in general and its native apps

#5 Today 08:38:40

Re: My feedback on XFCE in general and its native apps

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