Flutterby™! : Stepped in something GUI

Stepped in something GUI

2006-02-22 18:52:24.650101+00 by Dan Lyke 7 comments

So I'm now a few weeks into using Ubuntu with the default Gnome desktop, using Opera as my email client. And I completely understand how one feature can be a deal-breaker on switching platforms. Whining continues in comments...

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2006-02-22 19:07:26.045376+00 by: Dan Lyke

Things that are driving me back to more complex configurations.

Metacity doesn't have:

a "send to back" feature for windows.
an option to let me mouse on a window without bringing it to the fore.
reasonable (yes, it as some) multiple desktop facilities.

I'm liking Opera's email client, except:

Filters don't work on the Spam folder, because the Spam folder excludes from filters. The Spam folder has filters, but what I really want is filters which preclude me from ever seeing anything from certain senders or with certain subject lines.
Filters and Mailing Lists are ordered alphabetically, and grouped independently. Since most filters are defining mailing lists...
Mailing List filtering isn't customizeable. Which, I guess, is the above problem restated.
I'm fine with just sending text mail. Actually, I prefer it. But I'd like a block indent and a wrap at 72 characters so that I can do things like manual list formatting.

Overall issues:

No APM in the default kernel. Fine, I compiled my own kernel, but now I fight minor upgrade wars with the package manager over whose kernel we have at the top of the boot list. I should figure out how to fix this.
Since something's doing all of the re-initialization to bring back the network interfaces after suspend, why doesn't DHCP re-initialize on the interface too? This is probably related to my bastard APM/ACPI issue and isn't a problem on more modern hardware.

So it seems like I'll be adding Dovecot, Exim, Fetchmail and Procmail anyway to deal with some of the missing issues in Opera's mailer. I'll probably be replacing Metacity with FVWM and trying to work in the nice application menu integration with that.

#Comment Re: made: 2006-02-22 20:34:37.007143+00 by: Mark A. Hershberger

Screen actions: try brightside. I don't know what you want, but that may help. After installing it, look for "Screen Actions" under the "System -> Preferences" menu.

first kernel at boot: edit /boot/grub/menu.lst. There is a bit about "static boot stanzas" and after that a line that reads "BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST". If you cut-n-paste the kernel stanza you want from the "automagic" list to above that line, it'll be the first to boot and kernel upgrades shouldn't touch it.

#Comment Re: made: 2006-02-22 21:54:17.094604+00 by: BenWilliams

I think metacity has all those features. Middle-clicking on the title bar sends a window to the back. By mousing on a window, do you mean "focus follows mouse" but the window isn't raised when you mouse over it? You should be able to get that by opening "System->Preferences->Windows" and checking the focus follows mouse option but not the auto-raise option.

#Comment Re: made: 2006-02-22 23:24:35.685636+00 by: Dan Lyke

Mark, brightside looks like it does one of the things I want (dragging off the side), but the system in question uses a mouse nipple (and I'm not even that fond of using Exposé on the Mac). And the workspaces are side by side, which I don't find nearly as useful as arranged in a square.

Ben: Cool! I've been trying everything but middle button. The problem with setting focus follows mouse but not autoraise is that the window still raises when you click on it. I want it to only change depth when I click on a decoration, not on the window itself. There's lots of times on the small laptop screen when I want, for instance, a reference material in front of whatever form I'm mousing into.

#Comment Re: [Entry #8688] Re: made: 2006-02-23 20:51:02.828101+00 by: Unknown, from NNTP

Dan Lyke <danlyke@flutterby.com> writes:

> Metacity doesn't have: [ snip ]

I've given up on Gnome. (Or, rather, Gnome's developers have given up on me, by choosing to target simplicity at the expense of ability.)

> * No APM in the default kernel.

No ACPI, or it just doesn't work for you? I think ACPI is The Future.

#Comment Re: made: 2006-02-23 21:03:49.255223+00 by: Dan Lyke

Hmmm... maybe I need to put a KDE desktop on something and play with that for a bit.

ACPI doesn't work on this hardware, and the portions that do work are far more complex and require much more tweaking than APM. APM just works. And my gut feel from reading developer's notes right now is that while ACPI is the future, in most cases it is, alas, the future.

#Comment Re: made: 2006-02-24 19:56:11.98674+00 by: baylink

FWIW, I've been living with pretty much the default install of KDE3 on SuSE 9.3 on my work desktop for about 6 months now. With the sole exception of weak PPTP client side support, there's almost nothing it's pissed me off with. Course I read my mail in mutt via ssh...