Razor & LXDE-Qt Desktop Projects To Merge

[mrugiero]

I don't remember what can be wrong with pcmanfm but it has one killer feature, besides tabs and somewhat being a better nautilus than nautilus. That's the "semi-automatic" mount of USB drives, which just plain works and does not do things in your back. No shit like "umm, is it mounted or not? and is my drive that /media/1eeb7453-ffd0a thing?"

I had some problems when moving files. The way it handled it (last time I used it was over a year ago, so that might have changed, and it's likely to since I think this would make it a no-no for pretty much anyone) was actually MOVING the files to a buffer and then move it to the destination. This meant when the move operation failed (for example, if moving over a network and losing connection) I've losed my files, because PCManFM erased first, even when the copy was unsuccessful. I got sick of first copying and then erasing manually to workaround the bad design of that operation, so in the moment I found out Thunar started using tabs I ditched PCManFM.

[grok]

It simply used the little task bar thingy included in fluxbox (only one workspace configured), and the right-click menu. The menu was deficient for a while till I simply manually edited it to have the local language equivalent of "Audio Player" (simply Audacious in Winamp 2 mode), "File Manager", "Web Browser", "Terminal", "PC Shut Down" (had to give user read/execute rights to the halt command)

I guess that's "not LXDE" but it had pcmanfm, lxterminal and gpicview.
I don't remember what can be wrong with pcmanfm but it has one killer feature, besides tabs and somewhat being a better nautilus than nautilus. That's the "semi-automatic" mount of USB drives, which just plain works and does not do things in your back. No shit like "umm, is it mounted or not? and is my drive that /media/1eeb7453-ffd0a thing?"

[mrugiero]

Alright, I thought Mir was mostly about the same things as Wayland but it's more involved.
Didn't know the "compatibility layer" or whatever it is for Android drivers ran on Wayland too!

Well, the library was made by Jolla for Wayland, so that was expected.

And yes I guess you'll be able to run pcmanfm-Qt on Unity Qt, if only you find yourself on that machine and want to quickly install that file manager without messing anything up. Some people run pcmanfm GTK2 on heavy desktops.

I'm fully aware, I did that on Xubuntu before Thunar got tabs (I just waited to switch because there were some things I didn't like on PCManFM. Specifically, the way it handled file moving, I don't know if it got changed). But that wouldn't be "running LXDE" at all, it would just be changing your file manager.

I fondly remember a fluxbox + pcmanfm machine too (a public music player PC)

Yes, that's a common combination. Did it use lxpanel or fbpanel?

[grok]

Alright, I thought Mir was mostly about the same things as Wayland but it's more involved.
Didn't know the "compatibility layer" or whatever it is for Android drivers ran on Wayland too!

And yes I guess you'll be able to run pcmanfm-Qt on Unity Qt, if only you find yourself on that machine and want to quickly install that file manager without messing anything up. Some people run pcmanfm GTK2 on heavy desktops.
I fondly remember a fluxbox + pcmanfm machine too (a public music player PC)

Running LXDE with xfwm4 (Xfce's window manager) can be an option, for minor reasons.
LXDE's on-going GTK2 support can be good for stuff like that, or reversely using Xfce with LXDE's file manager.
Lots of freedom and.. everything plays nice!
I was fed up at Mate for ignoring my command to change the default file manager (despite finding what seemed to be the right thing in the "registry"), and then after settling on using a few shortcuts, being unable to remove "Places" in "Applications Places System".

[mrugiero]

I guess it will work on Mir by the way ; the rationale is Mir can use Android drivers. GNU/linux + Mir + LXDE-Qt seems like something you would want to run on those cheapo knock-off ersatz computers that look like a USB drive and come with Android.
I don't want to do a flamewar about Mir vs Wayland vs X11 ; maybe it can support everything? (it's not like it needs to implement animations and other useless features anyway)

Probably not, at least on the near future. Why? Because this projects don't work on the window manager/compositor/whatever Mir uses side, but simply attach anything you want to use. For it to be used on X, you usually use Openbox (though there are other lightweight WMs to use), for it to be used on Wayland, a compositor is needed, and one will probably appear at some point, but for Mir, well, I don't see much interest on making any desktop for Mir aside from Unity, and if you are going to use its compositor, there is no point on using LXDE, just go with full Unity, since it will not be really lightweight anyway.
As for the parts actually implemented by LXDE, yeah, they're likely to work, since Canonical said they'll port Qt.

[Awesomeness]

I thought that XFCE was the worst of both worlds.

While we're at spelling: It's Xfce :-p

I guess it will work on Mir by the way ; the rationale is Mir can use Android drivers.

Wayland can also use Android drivers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybris_%28software%29

As you can read, Canonical even uses the same library for Android compatibility in Mir.

[grok]

Now personally, I don't actually like the XFCE desktop much... it's never really suited me. But you've got to give them credit - they don't get the recognition of the bigger desktops, but they've endured and thrived over a long period of time...

I've found that perception of a DE can be different and change depending on circumstances and experiences.
I used to think XFCE was half-assed and redundant, because you can always use Gnome 2 instead - and when LXDE was available, it was (unscientific numbers) 2x smaller/faster than XFCE.

I thought that XFCE was the worst of both worlds. Then I ended up fed up with Mate (Gnome 2's new name), my top panel looked really ugly and a couple issues. LXDE has stagnated too much (some slight uglyness, still no right-clicking to create a shorcut instead a shortcut is a sysadmin task) though it gained more panel applets and the file manager got even better (while largely looking and acting the same)

Now I think XFCE is the best of both worlds (though tabs in the file manager are still in a future version, 4.12) with some qualities of LXDE (lack of a registry, similar way of working with the panels) and Gnome 2/Mate (like Alt-F9/Alt-F10 by default, ability to create shortcuts in panels and start menu, ability to edit the menu without additional software).
I miss LXDE's ctrl-esc to open the menu, and I still use lxterminal lol.

Happy with the LXDE/Razor/Qt move, the environment gets long term security (Qt 5.x will be a living thing for a decade I guess), differentiation and Qt is more present on mobile stuff.
I guess it will work on Mir by the way ; the rationale is Mir can use Android drivers. GNU/linux + Mir + LXDE-Qt seems like something you would want to run on those cheapo knock-off ersatz computers that look like a USB drive and come with Android.
I don't want to do a flamewar about Mir vs Wayland vs X11 ; maybe it can support everything? (it's not like it needs to implement animations and other useless features anyway)

[tuuker]

Lets hope they never plan to use PIM and Akonadi horrors fromKDE project.

World needs pure QT slim, fast, easy, full featured desktop.

[GreatEmerald]

Exactly, you can not tell someone what to work on.

But when they voluntarily join forces, good things usually result.

[Hamish Wilson]

People who care about one project, work on that project because they care about that project. If that project were to somehow disappear, it's not certain at all that the people would then contribute their time to the competing project. It doesn't really matter how many desktops there are, they wouldn't exist if there wasn't at least some kind of user base for them, a group of people who find it suitable for their needs.

Exactly, you can not tell someone what to work on.