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--- linux_desktop_setup [2025/03/17 17:41] – tkbletsc
+++ linux_desktop_setup [2026/04/21 21:04] (current) – [Distro and desktop environment] tkbletsc
@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
   - **i3**: Insufferable nerd shit by people that never learned what UI discoverability is. The vim of desktops.
   - **GNOME**: See "Ubuntu" above – this UI needs to be put out of its misery. I would rather learn i3 than put up with this shit.
-  - **Enlightenment**: This is it, the most jibbering batshit insane environment tested. On first boot, a sequence of incredibly neurotic warnings pop up for things ranging from ACPI stepping revision of your motherboard to the notification that ethernet, in fact, still exists. The launcher icons violently explode continuously at you if you so much as hover over them. Right click menu includes an option ominously labeled "Run everything". I mentioned using it to a friend, and he replied "Oh, you don't know about the Enlightenment guy? He's nuts" and linked me [[https://discord.com/channels/@me/446467085317701662/1197371852696322078|this article]], which states, among many things, that every interaction is based on the casting of void* pointers. I never thought I could look at a GUI and //feel//  the pointer casting, but here, you can.
+  - **Enlightenment**: This is it, the most jibbering batshit insane environment tested. On first boot, a sequence of incredibly neurotic warnings pop up for things ranging from ACPI stepping revision of your motherboard to the notification that ethernet, in fact, still exists. The launcher icons violently explode continuously at you if you so much as hover over them. Right click menu includes an option ominously labeled "Run everything". I mentioned using it to a friend, and he replied "Oh, you don't know about the Enlightenment guy? He's nuts" and linked me [[https://web.archive.org/web/20250103001521/https://what.thedailywtf.com/topic/15001/enlightened|this article]], which states, among many things, that every interaction is based on the casting of void* pointers. I never thought I could look at a GUI and //feel//  the pointer casting, but here, you can.
 ====== Random setup tips ======
@@ Line 34: / Line 36: @@
 It's perfect for finding which cryptic tool will help you achieve a given basic thing. It's made a tremendous difference to the morale of attempting to survive a desktop Linux.
+===== Mint installer compatibility with modern nVidia cards =====
+If you have a recent nVidia card, the USB environment may fail to boot properly by default. To install in this case:
+  - From the Mint USB boot menu, choose compatibility mode
+  - Install as usual
+  - On reboot, on grub menu, edit the default entry by adding "nomodeset" to the "linux" line, then boot
+  - Once booted, use the driver install tool to get proper nVidia drivers.
+  - Reboot.
 ===== Mouse cursor offset bug =====
@@ Line 46: / Line 58: @@
   * Discord
+      * perhaps replace with Vesktop (appears to be standard client over web minus ads)
   * Spotify
   * Dropbox (use system package!)
@@ Line 61: / Line 74: @@
   * WinMerge → meld
   * VLC → VLC
-  * Notepad++ → xed? vscode? something else?
+  * XnView → XnView MP (commercial, [[https://www.xnview.com/en/xnview-mp/|available here]])
-  * Greenshot → ?
+  * Paint.NET → LazPaint
-  * WizTree → ?
+  * Notepad++ → See text editor shootout below. Answer: **xed**  (lightweight, included) or **kate**  (a bit thicker, nicer). \\ Note: //not//  "notepadqq", which crashes constantly.
+  * Greenshot → (nothing, just hit shift+printscrn)
+  * WizTree → QDirStat
+  * WinAmp → qmmp
+      * It doesn't do full width shade, but it does classic winamp shade with snap to edges.
+      * Enable the "global hotkey" and "gnome hotkey" plugins to make media keys and other shortcuts work
 Quick installation command:
 <code>
-sudo apt install meld vlc
+sudo apt install meld vlc qdirstat
 </code>
@@ Line 110: / Line 128: @@
 To ensure it starts on login, run the "Startup applications" program and verify it's in the list; add it if not.
+For everything else, just use the built-in keyboard shortcut editor.
 ===== Font rendering fix =====
@@ Line 169: / Line 189: @@
 </code>
-====== Fedora nVidia driver procedure ======
-(untested, from a random goon)
+===== NFS client info =====
-First:
+Pre-req: ''sudo apt install nfs-common''
-<code>''sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm''
+fstab: ''[IPADDR]:[EXPORT] [MOUNTPOINT] nfs4 rw,_netdev,x-systemd.mount-timeout=500 0 1''
-</code>
+====== Text editor shootout ======
+I needed a primary GUI text editor for Linux. I'm not a vim or emacs person, so those and their derivitives are out. On Windows, I find Notepad++ to be fine. Required features:
+  * Visual: Good color theming, including good dark modes, syntax highlighting, current line highlighting, paren match highlighting, and selected token match highlighting.
+  * Sane tab behavior (keep indent on newline, select+tab & shift+tab, home key toggles true home and indented home
+  * Tabbed documents with ease of making and closing a quick new file
+  * Editor tools for case conversion, EOL detect and change, full regex support with grouping and backrefs
+  * Ability to load/save files via SFTP (either natively or via common library support)
-Then go to [[https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/NVIDIA|https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/NVIDIA]] and copy/paste a few more commands.
+Findings, in descending order of quality:
+  - **Kate**: The IDE from KDE. Fairly lightweight despite its features. The Flatpak install is fine to dodge KDE dependencies. Has every desired feature. If you install Language Server Protocol tools (LSP), it can even understand code structure in various languages. Here are the LSPs for common languages:
+     * **C/C++**: ''clangd''
+     * **Python**: ''python3-pylsp''
+     * **Rust**: ''rust-analyzer''
+     * **Go**: ''gopls''
+     * **Java**: — ''jdtls''
+     * **Javascript, PHP, other web stuff**: various crap on npm, but npm is a dumpster
+  - **xed**: Comes with Mint. Fast and perfectly fine. Gaps: no matching symbol highlighting, and you can only set EOL during save with no facility to detect what EOL you've opened.
+  - **Pluma**: Clearly shares a common ancestor with xed, but it's more primitive. No reason for it to exist.
+  - **Sublime**: Fine, but commerical, and there's no need to be paying (or dodging paying) for an editor in current year.
+  - **Geany**: Dark mode is hilariously primitive – just an "invert colors" option. No SFTP support.
+  - **gedit**: Dogshit interface from the modern minimalist GNOME idiots. Enjoy guessing what the shapes mean.
+  - **Featherpad**: No themes, just manual selection of individual colors. Shameful.
+  - **SciTE**: No settings GUI at all, it will just open a mile-long config file for you to edit by hand. Super shameful.
+  - **VSCode**: Increasingly bloated, and here's the kicker: every time you use it to SSH into somewhere, it craps out a 150MB runtime without asking onto the server, and grows it by another 150MB with every update. Long-time deployments can lead to hidden server-side shitheaps of 1GB or more. Absolutely unconscionable.