Friday 27 March 2020

Theming XFCE - Plasma Apps and Transparency (Dolphin Background) etc

I'm still playing with Theming XFCE and using Plasma Apps and Transparent Dolphin Background

I was trying to get a much faster uniformly themed XFCE that gave me most of the things I missed when I made the move back from Plasma.  I've said often that my biggest gripe with Plasma was that it is so much slower across the board than even KDE4, and the difference is ridiculous between Plasma and XFCE.  But I loved some of the little things KDE and Plasma did with theming.


In the screenshot above I have Mint 19.3 XFCE, with VLC themed to match Kcalc and K partitionmanager.
I dislike the current craze of 'flat' themes.  I also don't mind when some programs themes don't actually match each other - even within qt programs, (all Plasma apps use qt widgets).


With that in mind, when I wanted Dolphin File Manager to have a completely translucent view pane, and opaque files and folders, I had to use a different version of the theme I used for VLC and the others, because I changed a setting and forgot what it is !

Ok, after a little thought I have Dolphin themed with the buttons to match the apps above and a 50^ transparency in the panes.

Transparent Dolphin File Manager Background

The next thing is what I want the rest of my XFCE desktop to look like.  I already like the modified Azenis-One theme I am using.  And it gives a nice patterned background to text input fields like this one on LibreOffice.


Included in that is a very distinct 3D curved effect on the buttons which, while it is very different from the KvCurves3D I use in my KDE Apps, follows the general 3D and curved idea.
Here's an example:


my LibreOffice Writer looks like this now, with lots of bumpy bits


I guess I was just so sick of something as customizable as Linux, starting to look the same on every distro.
And, I was missing the little things I had going in Plasma, but lost because I hated being able to take a shower while I waited for it to load or shut down.

Of course, in all this, I still have my video wallpaper happening, but this time I am restricted to using a oval viewport so I can access the icons on the Desktop.


I almost forgot - the Azenis-One theme also has a nice flashy Shutdown Dialog:

Dolphin File Manager scrolls too fast.  This is a bug that has been around for ages.  And I could not find a solution when I was using Plasma.  I searched forums and all I found was bug reports and confirmations that there is still a problem.  And lots of discussions about how the coding is too complex to fix it.  But if you have access to mouse configuration that lets you set the scroll speed, you can do something.  Unfortunately, I don;t seem to have that in XFCE.

Also it may have been fixed already in the latest Dolphin or Plasma, but it was still a problem using Dolphin in XFCE.  However, somewhere along the line I installed a couple of Qt configuration editors.  I accidentally found a fix after installing Qt5 Settings.

So if Dolphin scrolls too quickly.

Open Settings > Qt5 Settings
Open the Interface Tab
Look at the Bottom and change Mouse wheel scroll lines
From 3 To 1

It won;t give 'smooth scrolling', but one line at a time is a huge improvement !!


Monday 16 March 2020

Linux Mint XFCE vs Plasma 5 again

I was switching back and forth between Xfce and Plasma 5 on the M93p today, just out of curiosity to see which one I REALLY like most.  As I probably mentioned many times, the Plasma 5 is left over on my original 500GB drive from the BRIX after I replaced it with an SSD.  Because it had a lot of useful stuff on it, I plugged it into a spare USB 3 port.  It also has KDE 4 .12 on it, and since they both showed up automagically in GRUB I thought I may as well see if they would boot.

So, my preferemces.
For real day to day use, I like KDE 4.12 BEST.  It was the peak of KDE development and does everything more or less perfectly.  Other than the eventual progression path to Wayland, I think that KDE 4.x should have been continued.  Fast to boot, fast to shut down and snappy performance, with features that never made it into Plasma 5.

If it wasn't that I can cook a bacon and egg breakfast while Plasma 5 is booting, and make coffee while I wait for it to shut down, I'd class Plasma 5 as 'almost as good as KDE 4.  It can;t do all the things that KDE 4 can do, but it will be able to do Wayland.

XFCE can't compete with KDE or Plasma for 'Desktop Appeal'.  It does almost nothing in as polished and polite a way.  It is like living aboard a yacht, compared to living in an apartment.  I think that is why I like it though.  It isn;t as cosy and warm feeling.  It is functional in a spartan sort of way.  But if I have to turn the computer on just because I have one thing I forgot to do before I head away for the day - XFCE is what I boot.  I turn on the monitor (a 55 inch screen TV), switch on the wireless keyboard and hit Alt P (turns the m93p lenovo ON), switch on the wireless mouse and take them to my seat. By the time I sit, the screen is on and a print test has been sent to the wireless printer.

It is just that good.  If I know I will not be rebooting the computer during the day I sometimes like the 'plush feeling' of Plasma 5.  Sometimes I'll use it just for the plush feeling and stuff the long boot time.  But the 20 to 30 second boot time of XFCE just feels slick, despite people saying startup time means nothing.

Saturday 7 March 2020

Linux Mint - XFCE Theme Mods updated

I had the chance to do some more work on my window decorations for XFCE today.  In addition to the Wide Borders around the windows and the other things I mentioned yesterday, see the cursor at bottom left below:


I changed the Title bar buttons so that the Maximise / Restore button is small when the window is Maximised, but normal large size when the window is not Maximised.  And I mage it glow when the mouse moves over it.


The whole thing is looking quite nice now, and I like having Squared Buttons.  For some reason it looks better to me than the round ones.

I also added a custom action in Thunar file manager to give me a Right Click menu option to Toggle hidden file visibility.  That saves going to the menu or doing CTRL - h.


Friday 6 March 2020

Linux Mint XFCE on the Lenovo m93p Tiny - Themes

So the second hand Lenovo Tiny is still chugging along nicely, and so far worth every bit of the $200 it cost me.  It looked like replacing the BRIX would cost me an arm and a leg - if I could get a decent replacement with the specs I like.  This m93p is exactly what I needed for now.

I am not missing KDE / Plasma as much as I thought I might, and I have themed Mint XFCE using a combination of stock or downloaded themes, and my own mods.


My overall theme in Settings > Appearance > Style is called Pop-slim-dark.
My Window Decorations are in Settings > Window Manager > Style and called WM-RAD-OS
My Icon Theme at present in Settings > Appearance > Icons is 'learning-to-fly'


I modified a couple of themes to combine the Wide (grab-able) Borders I like, with the translucent and slightly 3D Titie bar.  Then I modded some buttons from Aeonflux to get some big squared buttons for Minimize-Max/Restore-Close.  Perhaps a bit rough and ready, but it works for me.


The rest of the theme provides a nice translucent panel in the Mint Menu, and with XFCE ticking along nicely, all is good with the world.