Linux Lite 4.0 Suggestions welcomed

[firenice03]

This came up in another thread.. Adding Cloud Drives to Linux Lite. Thread here: https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/installing-software/install-google-drive/msg39264/#msg39264


Specifically the OP asked for Google drive after looking bit further after installing "Gnome-Online-Accounts"  there were other options available as well.

The upside it that once enabled the drive is accessible without needing to reconfigure after sequential reboots as opposed to another option tested.
The online accounts feature appears to be native in Ubuntu and not a PPA although additional commands are necessary to complete the set up. If the additional commands keep from being in the base, perhaps something for "Lite Software". 


Read a bit more - only downside is that it may be still too new, as support is for 16.10 and beyond (although it does work in 16.04)

[newtusmaximus]

Re MX17.  This might be the only option for LL 32 bit members of LL after 2021 - Three years is not time at all.

[Jerry]

I believe Ubuntu is doing that in 18.04
In my install trials, I wasn't asked to create a swap partition.

Sent from my Mobile phone using Tapatalk

[Ottawagrant]

This may end up being a Linux Lite series 5 Vs. series 4. I would like to see the swap partition replaced with a swap file. Solid state hard drives are becoming more common. If you have a 64gb. SSD and 16gb of RAM a Linux Lite installation will install a 16gb swap partition. Unless you edit 1080p blu-ray videos all day you don't need it. Ubuntu, Xubuntu, etc. distro's already use the swap file. A computer with 8gb of RAM usually gets a 2gb swap file. That's good enough.

[Coastie]

Rubbish! Tried MX-17 only the other day and found it annoying at the least. It doesn't come even close to Linux Lite for aesthetics or usability, that task bar monstrosity is horrible! Each to their own though, not everyone likes the same things. I really hope Linux Lite doesn't become more like MX!

We are getting off topic here but in defense of my second favorite distro, MX-17, these complaints are easily modified in the settings. I do wonder why the default setting for the panel is Deskbar instead of horizontal on the bottom as most XFCE DE distros. Apparently they have complaints about the panel orientation enough the have a tweak tool in addition to XFCE setting to easily change it.

Of course Linux Lite is my favorite distro but I still customize the appearance to my taste rather than the way it comes out of the box. One of the advantages of the XFCE DE. 

[Oobuntus]

Regarding the image viewer suggestion, I have reviewed all four alternatives to gThumb and agree with Vera that Mirage best satisfies the suggestion for inclusion in LL4. It does have one minor flaw, however. Although 'Use last chosen directory' is the default, the user must still click the 'Open Image' icon to open and display the last chosen directory. Perhaps the dev will do something about that before LL4 is released.
For non-Gimp activity, I shall continue to use gThumb or FastStone Image Viewer according to whim.

[ptyerman]

Rubbish! Tried MX-17 only the other day and found it annoying at the least. It doesn't come even close to Linux Lite for aesthetics or usability, that task bar monstrosity is horrible! Each to their own though, not everyone likes the same things. I really hope Linux Lite doesn't become more like MX!

[napsix65]

MX Linux, and it's all said. do not look for more suggestions, check MX Linux and you will have millions of things to improve.

[Vera]

About image viewer, I have 3 suggestions below. I had to look up CSD which apparently is something about the program not honoring the native window settings? That was a little beyond me as I wouldn't know how to tell just by looking if something has CSD or not, sorry for my lack of knowledge. Anyway though, I have been doing research on pic viewers that can handle very basic edits, and I do have suggestions below, along with my screenshots so that people can see them.

Like @Oobuntus I also use gThumb (I set my images to default to open with it) but from what @Jerry said I completely understand it's not a viable option for LL 4.0.
 
I also tried GPicView that Jerry suggested, but I couldn't find a way to do crop or resize with it, although it can do rotation.

Here are the 3 options (one of these is Nomacs, which others have also suggested). I've included 2 pics for each: 1 pic showing the application "as is" and the other pic showing what users would click on to crop or resize. Please correct me if any have CSD; I don't know how to tell by looking.

My opinion: of these 3, I like Mirage by far the best, mainly because it's just what's needed from a simple viewer that can handle minor edits. I wasn't as keen on Nomacs or on Phototonic because a) the menus look old-style and b) they're able to do "too much" and then not only is it a slightly more confusing UX for new Windows users, but also then it gets closer into Pinta and Krita.  I feel that would be steering further away from minor edits and getting into something a little bit more complicated and closer to Gimp, which is not necessary. That was just my personal opinion though; I realize that this is subjective. Phototonic's crop tool is not very intuitive, so although it can technically crop, it's not as easy to use as the other two for that.

I also tried out Viewnior, but it can't handle resizing (or at least I couldn't figure out how to get it to do that).

The following are available in Synaptic (or at least, that's where I got them from):
1. Mirage:





2. Nomacs:





3. Phototonic:





The black box on the top of the window is just me obscuring the full path of the image.

[Jerry]

Suggestion: move ~/.conky folder as conky (non hidden) to ~/.config/
for the sake of keeping home clean and structured.


Thanks for your consideration

Conky is being moved to the system directories and will have it's own package:)

[LL-user]

Suggestion: move ~/.conky folder as conky (non hidden) to ~/.config/
for the sake of keeping home clean and structured.


Thanks for your consideration

[LL-user]

+1 for nomacs

So far I had installed gthumb on all machines I set up. Will replace it with nomacs. It's more user friendly and some features a lot better. Would be great to have it as default.


Thanks for the tip, Jerry

[Oobuntus]

Nomacs functionality is good. It may serve some folks better than gThumb. Unfortunately, nomacs does not honor Appearance settings. Gpicview does, but it is not the equal to either nomacs or gThumb. These are subjective observations.
It would be interesting to hear Vera's comments on the three.

[TheDead]

Something that is super light that I've just tried is Gpicview:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install gpicview
Nomacs is quite good too:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install nomacs
in a test machine.

I don't have my Linux tonight .. but GPicView seems like what I was looking for and looks so... "Windowsesque"
nomacs seems more professional but seems to be in two parts? a paint and a viewer/quick edit programs?
Pinta looks more like a paint program than a quick-edit program I was looking for. I don't really like Gimp, I a graphics designer and use PhotoShop but can never get the grips on Gimpl Adobe Photoshop is not user-friendly and Gimp is worse.

Krita seems like a reaaally cool paint/illustration program, I haven't tried it yet. But, I'm guessing it's too heavy on resources.

Cheers!

[Jerry]

Something that is super light that I've just tried is Gpicview:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install gpicview
Nomacs is quite good too:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install nomacs
in a test machine.