For those coming from a Windows background, Manjaro Xfce (MXfce) very much looks like windows but you cant really tell which one - a cross between Windows7 and Windows10.
So, what is Linux ? Linux is a operating system different to MS-Windows.
MS-Windows is a paid for product whereas Linux is free.
What is Xfce ? Xfce is a DE (Desktop Environment) similar to Windows, it is an area on your screen consisting of other (smaller) apps where you can point-click and invoke actions such as opening the browser to surf the web.
What can linux be used for ?
- Web browsing
- Office applications
- PDF document viewing and editing
- Multimedia
- Photo management
Are just some of the every days uses of Linux. Therefore, Linux is an operating system just as Microsoft Windows is.
No Printer
However, installing a Printer in Manjaro Xfee is extremely diffucult. There is no function in the OS and you have to go through several command lines to get the printer installed. In MXfce is you have to go through the CUPS 2.3.1 command line.
There is no gui or click and add method that exists in xfce and downloading printer a driver for Epson does not even work on linux MXfce. Unlike Windows7 you have to do so much work to even find out how to open a package. In windows a simple .exe file would download and you would just double click on that. In MXfce you have to google search: 'How do I open an RPM file in Linux?' why ???!!!
The results are just daunting and of a dated system:
How do I open an RPM file in Linux?
Open/Extract RPM File with Freeware on Windows/Mac/Linux
RPM originally stands for Red Hat Package Manager. Nnow, RPM is a package management system. ...
Easy 7-Zip Download Links:
To extract a RPM package files without installing it, you need to install rpm2cpio. ...
Install rpm2cpio on CentOS and Fedora.
Install rpm2cpio on Debian and Ubuntu.
Extract RPM file on Linux.
why ???!!! why do i have to go through all this ?! I dont want to know about it, i dont want to tinker with the system, i just want a printer installed and done with.
MXfce has all detailed software but no print functionality. I had to reboot and print stuff using a different distro. Deepin comes with everything installed out of the box/CD, no mess, no worries, no CLI or no cryptic outdated commands to learn.
Most things in some distros for instance here on MXfce need some sort of making or compilation and some other special effort, or technical skill for installation. Coming from a Windows7 background with everything always preped for the end user, i am very dissappointed by MXfce's lack of print capablities. Deepin is much better comes with everything out of box. With Linux there is a learning curve.
MXfce is nice, good and customisable to detail but there is no print capability.
To install a clock widget, rather than just point, click, drag and drop, you have to go through another cryptic learning cruve
Step 1: Install conky
Step 2: Edit the .conkyrc file in your home directory, and paste this in it:
Step 2: Edit the .conkyrc file in your home directory, and paste this in it:
# set to yes if you want Conky to be forked in the background
background yes
# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window 1
own_window_type override
own_window_transparent 1
# Use Xft?
use_xft no
# Set conky on the bottom of all other applications
on_bottom yes
# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 2
# This is the number of times Conky will update before quitting.
# Set to zero to run forever.
total_run_times 0
# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes
# Default colors and also border colors
default_color white
default_shade_color black
default_outline_color black
# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
#alignment top_left
#alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
alignment bottom_right
#alignment none
# Gap between borders of screen and text
# same thing as passing -x at command line
gap_x 12
gap_y 40
# Subtract file system buffers from used memory?
no_buffers yes
# set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
uppercase no
# number of cpu samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
cpu_avg_samples 2
# number of net samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
net_avg_samples 2
# Force UTF8? note that UTF8 support required XFT
override_utf8_locale no
# Add spaces to keep things from moving about? This only affects certain objects.
use_spacer none
# stuff after 'TEXT' will be formatted on screen
TEXT
${color #F6F9F9}${alignc}December $color
${color #FFFFFF}${execi 300 ~/.calendar.sh}
whatta load of crap!
The conky file does not even exist on the system so you cant edit or paste this
With too much customisation you can break thinngs and I broke the taskbar and can't restore it to its orginal format. The linux community told me to issue the following command to restore the taskbar
sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies
joke! does not even work. No error messages returned and even rebooted the system but it does not work, does not restore and there does not seem to be any other way other than to maybe reinstall part of the OS ?!!
Customisation
Themes / Changing the looks
How to install software on MXfce
Although a lot of software was already installed on the system by default, one piece of software wasn't. I need a screen recording software and it wasn't in the software repository. To install the software I had open a terminal window (similar to a dos window) and had to type in commands which I didnt even know what I was typing:
sudo pacman -S snapd
sudo systemctl enable --now snapd.socket
sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap
sudo snap install simplescreenrecorder-brlin
Conclusion
Finally on day 7, I broke the taskbar and no matter what, it couldn't be fixed. I been to so many forums and they gave the same piece of code which placed the whole taskbar on top of the screen and removed the whisker menu. There is no way to fix this apart from reinstalling MXfce again.
I would give MXfce 6/10 because it is a learning curve. Finding things in the start menu is not easy to find. Its has also started behaving badly. Although power features are turned off MXfce has a mind of its own. When I'm away from machine for a few minutes it turns the screen off and then goes to sleep, not very happy with that.
MXfce is better than MKDE but I dont like the cluttered start/application menu, the filemanager but above all there is no printer function and lately what is really annoying is the power management which has developed a brain of its own. For these reasons I will not stick with MXfce for longer.
Customisation
 | |
| Wallpaper change customisation |
 | |
| Creative customisation |
Themes / Changing the looks
How to install software on MXfce
Although a lot of software was already installed on the system by default, one piece of software wasn't. I need a screen recording software and it wasn't in the software repository. To install the software I had open a terminal window (similar to a dos window) and had to type in commands which I didnt even know what I was typing:
sudo pacman -S snapd
sudo systemctl enable --now snapd.socket
sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap
sudo snap install simplescreenrecorder-brlin
Conclusion
Finally on day 7, I broke the taskbar and no matter what, it couldn't be fixed. I been to so many forums and they gave the same piece of code which placed the whole taskbar on top of the screen and removed the whisker menu. There is no way to fix this apart from reinstalling MXfce again.
I would give MXfce 6/10 because it is a learning curve. Finding things in the start menu is not easy to find. Its has also started behaving badly. Although power features are turned off MXfce has a mind of its own. When I'm away from machine for a few minutes it turns the screen off and then goes to sleep, not very happy with that.
MXfce is better than MKDE but I dont like the cluttered start/application menu, the filemanager but above all there is no printer function and lately what is really annoying is the power management which has developed a brain of its own. For these reasons I will not stick with MXfce for longer.
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