Suggestions for Linux system desktops

As a computer system, its desktop design is very important. Although the Linux desktop is generally good, there are still some areas that need improvement. The following small series will introduce you to several places where the Linux system needs improvement.

Over the past 15 years, Linux desktops from a fairly makeshift collection of marginalization solutions development as one of the sources of innovation and a unique selection. Many of its standard features are either not suitable for Windows systems or are only suitable as a proprietary extension software. Therefore, the use of Linux has become more and more a matter of principle and a preference.

However, despite the progress of the Linux desktop, there are still gaps. Some features are being lost, some are lost, and some amazing add-on features can easily enhance the desktop experience without challenging user tolerance.

For example, here are 7 suggestions for improving Linux desktop development:

1. Simple Email Encryption Technology

Today, various email readers from Alpine Go to Thunderbird and then to Kmail, all with Email encryption technology. However, the documentation manuals about them usually do not exist or are very crude.

However, even if you understand the theory of encryption, it is still very difficult to use. These controls are usually scattered across configuration menus and tabs, and you need to do a thorough search for all the settings you need and want. If you fail to make the appropriate encryption settings, you usually can't find any useful feedback.

The closest thing to usability is Enigmail, a Thunderbird extension with a setup wizard for beginners. But you must know how to use Enigmail, the new encryption settings menu is buried in the first window of the compose window, mixed with other options, which makes everyday users confused.

Regardless of the desktop environment, as you know, you should encrypt your emails. Today's media coverage of security and privacy keeps you informed of how important encryption is.

2. Virtual Workspace Thumbnails

No additional monitors are needed, and virtual workspaces provide more desktop space. However, despite their practicality, the management of virtual workspaces has not changed in the past decade. On most desktops, you can control them through the pager program in each workspace (a simple rectangular box that gives little indication of its name and number) -- or, in Ubuntu's Unity environment, you can point it out Which workspace is currently active.

Indeed, GNOME and Cinnamon provide a good view, but their usefulness is limited by the fact that they require a display size. KDE's content list is not in harmony with the mainstream graphics desktop.

A good solution would be to hover over a large enough thumbnail to get a normal view so that you can see exactly what's on each workspace.

3. A Useful Menu

The modern desktop has long since abandoned the classic menu of the cascading submenu that covers the entire desktop. Today, average computers have too many applications to adapt to this mode.

Unfortunately, there are no major alternatives that are as convenient as classic menus. Rooting the menu in a single window is not ideal, because you either have to cut off the submenu or use the mouse to constantly resize the window.

But the full-screen menu is even worse, which means you have to adjust the screen even before you start working, and which search box is only useful if you already know what application is available - - In this case, you might as well use the command line directly.

Frankly, I don't know what to do to solve this problem, spinner racks under OS X? I can say with certainty that it seems more reasonable that all modern menu products present carefully constructed icons on the desktop.

4. A professional, affordable video editor

Over the years, Linux has slowly filled the gap in software productivity. Even so, it still lacks affordable video editing software.

The problem is not that there is no such free software. Maya is one of the standards in the animation industry, but the problem is that such software sells for thousands of dollars.

On the other side, free software such as Pitivi or Blender, their functionality -- despite their developers' hard work -- can only guarantee basic functionality. Although progress has been made, it is still far from what users expect.

Although I have heard that some non-mainstream manufacturers use the original Linux video editor, the reason is usually because they complain that other editors are not good, but the rest are more willing to reduce the trouble and thus other operations. The video is edited on the system.

5. A document processor

At one extreme, Google Docs is a satisfying user who needs word processing; the other extreme is for those typographic design experts. Scribus is the only viable application.

There is another layer between these two extremes, publishers and writers of documents such as those that write long texts. Some of these users are served by Windows-based Adobe FrameMaker, and some are served by Linux-based LibreOffice Writer.

Unfortunately, these users obviously don't prioritize LibreOffice, Calligra Words, AbiWord or any other office suite. Features that should be provided to the user's office suite include:

Create a bibliographic database for each file. The style of the table can be consistent with paragraphs and characters. Except for headers and footers, page styles with persistent content are the same every time you use a style. Cross-reference storage formats so you don't have to create them manually each time.

Whether it's LibreOffice or other similar applications, providing these features is irrelevant to their availability. But without them, the Linux desktop is an imperfect thing for a group of potential users.

6.Color Title Bar

The browser extension software shows us how color-coded tags work for the workspace. After opening eight or nine labels, its title bar is not complete, so color is usually the fastest way to distinguish label relationships.

The same system can be used on the desktop. Even better, color coding may be saved in a session, allowing the user to open all the applications needed for a task at the same time. So far, I know that no desktop has this feature.

7. Icon Bar

For many years, Stardock has been selling an extension called Fences, which is used to categorize and organize icons on the desktop. You can use it for each The group is named and each icon can be put together. In addition, you can specify different file types to be automatically added to a group and hidden and organized according to your personal needs.

In other words, the fences allow users to sort things automatically and orderly on the desktop all day. However, in addition to one or two small features similar to KDE's folder view, the functionality of the fences still does not appear on the Linux desktop. This may be because developers are focusing on mobile devices as a source of inspiration, and the use of fences is undoubtedly a feature of traditional workstation desktops.

My Personal List

After I made this list, I was shocked that these few improvements were universal, and several of them would attract a lot of specific Only one of the users is from a proprietary software port, one of which is at least cosmetic rather than functional.

This observation shows that for ordinary users, Linux has few features left. As a general-purpose desktop, Linux has been diversified from a few years ago, and today, users can choose one of the more than half a dozen mainstream desktops to use.

Of course, this does not mean that some experts will not have other opinions. In addition, no one will care about changing needs that will make the improvement satisfactory. But it means that many of the items on the list that are full of suggestions for improvement will be highly personal.

The above is the introduction of the Linux system desktop improvement. A system should attract users and grasp the user's eye. It is necessary to do a lot of work from the desktop. This article is only a personal point of view, just for reference.