KDE, Unity, Gnome .... all wrong for me ...

[Waystorome]

Hi,
today I installed for the first time Mageia (3 Beta 2 KDE).

I thought I would be happy but didn't expect this: The preview of Documents you work on (and I do work often on five, six documents with Writer and Okular and Firefox) is just too small. It's as useless as in Unity. And the preview and the title only shows up when you already clicked on it. That leads to - compared to Mate, Gnome 2.3 and Microsoft 95 - W8 - a few thousands additional clicks within a month of work.

The new Gnome has this ugly fixed top menue bar which makes my huge screens became small ones ... .

Any idea? Can you really use Mate with Mageia?

[doktor5000]

Which preview of documents do you mean, and what do you want exactly?
Mate has been packaged, but it may not be fully working yet ...

[Waystorome]

If you are working with ten documents open, like 3 with writer, 3 with Ocular and 4 Firefox-Windows: You could see and read all the documents names in the taskpanel on the bottom of your screen and open them with one click.

Nowadays with Unity, KDE - you can no more. KDE, Unity therefore disqualify themselves for serious office working, from my point of view. They offer a preview of documents and even a documenttitle - but only after one click, whereas I have the full view without click in Microsoft 95 until W8, Mate and Gnome. I can tell you if you have to work with a lot of documents and often switch between them, you go crazy if there is always and again and again an additional click needed only to get orientated.

(Gnome/Unity are no alternative for me because of the concrete fixed top panel and the windows buttons on the left side - both from stupid Apple copying - my humble guess. I know you can change that in Unity but I want to stay in the "main distribution".)

Maybe I can befriend myself again with Gnome. Biting my teeth. Is it possible to "add it" to a running Mageia KDE and go into it after logout from KDE? (Works with Fedora this way).

[pete910]

You've kind of confused me on this as all you do in KDE is mouse-over them then click on the window you want. Or move mouse to top right and the desktop zooms out showing all windows.

The thing is, you can set the behaviour you want in systemsettings of KDE.

[pete910]

Think i get what you mean.. You mean you have a separate icon in the task bar per open copy of okular/firefox etc

[Waystorome]

Ok, thanx - I will try soon again with KDE (momentarily on Fedora Mate) ...

[doktor5000]

Well, it's not that there are several, well-configurable window list AND separate task switching applets for KDE, that can be configured like you want.
Also, at least for KDE, a sane configuration shows the complete window title on mouseover WITHOUT an additional click.
But go on complaining, as you seem to like that ... FWIW, also i don't understand why you go on and on about Unity, as we don't even have that packaged at all.

For a classical KDE configuration, you could take a look at the second bullet point in Errata section: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_2_Err ... ace_Issues
Or ask how you could change/improve that, not complain only ...

[martinw]

Also, if you select "GNOME Classic" (a.k.a fallback mode) as your session type, GNOME 3 will look and feel very much like GNOME 2, like this:

gnome-desktop.png (188.82 KiB) Viewed 1368 times

The main thing you need to know if you are used to GNOME 2 is that to edit the panel, you need to hold down the Alt key when right clicking on the panel.

It works better in Mageia 2, but is still mostly usable in Mageia 3.

[Waystorome]

Well, it's not that there are several, well-configurable window list AND separate task switching applets for KDE, that can be configured like you want.

Thank you for your answer.
Where is this configurable window list?
How to activate/use the task switching applets?
(I am quite a KDE-noob. In fact the Plasma-KDE of Suse was one of the reasons I went to Ubuntu in .... 2004? So I never got into it. Found it all overcomplicated. And only because of the fact that Mageia prefers it I give it a new try.)

Also, at least for KDE, a sane configuration shows the complete window title on mouseover WITHOUT an additional click.

Yes, you are absolutely right. I am sorry.
What I more precisely meant is that you have to push your mouse somewhere and focus with it on the symbol every time again.
Please compare it with a taskpanel like with Gnome 2.3, Microsoft etc.: Here you have a steady list of open documents. And one clicks activates them.

With KDE you have to

- find the correct program: Writer, Ocular, Firefox, Calc?
- focus on it
- check all the files and then
- click to activate

With Gnome 2.3/Microsoft you have to

- look/read Doc-Titel
- and click

Thats a huge difference if you constantly work with a lot of docs from different programs at a time.

But go on complaining, as you seem to like that ... FWIW, also i don't understand why you go on and on about Unity, as we don't even have that packaged at all.

I only mention it to show my dilemma and to avoid the impression that I only critisize Mageia or KDE.

For a classical KDE configuration, you could take a look at the second bullet point in Errata section: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_2_Err ... ace_Issues
Or ask how you could change/improve that, not complain only ...

Thanks - could be important for me at a later stage of proficiency with KDE.

[Waystorome]

You've kind of confused me on this as all you do in KDE is mouse-over them then click on the window you want. Or move mouse to top right and the desktop zooms out showing all windows.

The thing is, you can set the behaviour you want in systemsettings of KDE.

Yeah, this function is quite good ... mouse to top right!

[Waystorome]

Also, if you select "GNOME Classic" (a.k.a fallback mode) as your session type, GNOME 3 will look and feel very much like GNOME 2, like this:
.......
The main thing you need to know if you are used to GNOME 2 is that to edit the panel, you need to hold down the Alt key when right clicking on the panel.

It works better in Mageia 2, but is still mostly usable in Mageia 3.

I obviously destroyed my graphic settings or with trying to switch to Gnome (which is not in the menue).

All I can get to now is a linux prompt to login.
If I login and type "KDE4" I get a huge Error message ending with "fatal server error. No screens found. (EE).

Any help available?

[doktor5000]

Where is this configurable window list?
How to activate/use the task switching applets?

It's a plasmoid/applet as everything on your panel and on your KDE desktop. You might need to unlock plasmoids,
and then just add a new one to your panel, window list or task-switcher or whatever you like, you might need to try some one.

I'm using window list (in german Fensterleiste, be aware there are two really similar plamoids next to each other, Fensterleiste and Fensterliste), which can be set to not allow grouping of multiple windows of the same application, which seems to be what you want. Then set it to multiple rows and whatever else you prefer.
Also i'm not using icontasks task manager, which is explained in Errata which i've linked to earlier.

For the task switcher, you may either need to enable desktop effects, or install additional plasmoids ...