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My problem is that I was pretty productive with Ubuntu + Unity, significantly more than with Windows or MacOS, or other Linux DEs. This was great because Unity
by blauditore 6y ago
My problem is that I was pretty productive with Ubuntu + Unity, significantly more than with Windows or MacOS, or other Linux DEs. This was great because Unity was the default DE for one of the most common Linux distros, so it was well-supported and easy to find information about tweaks and settings online.
But then it got killed off due to a vocal minority constantly complaining about it, and now I'm trying to find an alternative that uses similar UI principles but nothing actually seems to get it right. For example, I often hear people (computer power users) praise OS X. When I see them use it, they're mostly operating it in a "casual" point-and-click fashion like the average casual user. What made the difference for me in Ubuntu/Unity were power user features, like extensive keyboard navigation, or dragging/resizing a window with the middle/right mouse button while holding Alt, or searching the window menu simply by pressing Alt.
- ognarb 6y agoDisclaimer: KDE dev Did you try Plasma? You can drag a window while holding the Win key, there are tons of keyboard navigation, and your last point can be achieved by this extension: https://github.com/Zren/plasma-hud https://github.com/Zren/plasma-hud. There is even some global themes with the look of Unity.
- Avamander 6y agoI'm not the person you replied to, but yes, KDE seems to be the closest equivalent. However I still miss a nicely working global menu.
- heavyset_go 6y agoThere are several global menu options for Plasma, some of which I think are better than the global menu on macOS.
- blauditore 6y agoI tried KDE for a while a few years back and found its look quite pleasant. A problem for me was the often different paradigms from more common environments, e.g. that single-clicking a file in Dolphin opens it (as opposed to just selecting it). Another thing I remember was that just hitting the Meta/Win key did not open the launcher menu. Perhaps my expectations are a bit special since I often switch between Windows and Linux, so well-aligned usage patterns help me. FWIW, the drag while holding a key is actually quite common in Linux DEs, I just miss it in the Big Two.
- faizmokhtar 6y agoFor macOS, I've been using [Hammerspoon][1] to solve the extensive keyboard navigation and resizing windows. Try checking it out. You may find it interesting. [1]:https://www.hammerspoon.org/ https://www.hammerspoon.org/
- csb6 6y agoI second this. There is a really good Hammerspoon plugin called Miro Window Manager that lets you easily resize windows into halves, thirds, and quarters of the screen using simple keyboard shortcuts. It really should be a standard macOS feature. https://www.hammerspoon.org/Spoons/MiroWindowsManager.html https://www.hammerspoon.org/Spoons/MiroWindowsManager.html
- blauditore 6y agoThat's kind of what I mean, features like splitting the screen with two windows has been around in the Linux world for ages, and eventually made it to Windows too. MacOS only added something similar many years after that, I find this astonishing.