this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
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Linux

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About a month ago I switched to Linux mint from windows 11.

The first thing I noticed was mint being faster and less bloated than windows 11.

I also liked having actual control over my settings without a corporation being able to undo them at will.

Another thing I noticed was not having to add extensions to text files to run as a program instead having the option in properties.

For certain windows programs and games I was able to use wine which was great because I like to use gamemaker 8.1 which was made before they added linux support.

I tried different wine environments starting with bottles then trying Steam proton and Lutris. With Lutris being the one I ended up using due to it being the only one that I could get to run every program I needed.

The ms paint alternative called drawing took some use to due to it automatically cropping out parts of the image outside of the line when pasting in a screenshot from the clipboard.

Although I do still miss ms paint but that is mostly nostalgia.

Fortunately there is an option to save the screenshot after taking it.

Migrating from windows I appreciate the SUPER key bringing up a menu on the bottom left which brings up some apps and the search bar. Which always searches on the OS unlike windows 11 which sometimes searches the internet instead.

Another detail I noticed is if you type paint or notepad in the search it brings up drawing and the text editor which is nice for people transitioning to Linux.

Being able to move the panel or add new ones was also a breath of fresh air from windows 11 making the task bar more restrictive.

Having the option of deb packages and flatpacks is really useful as well.

I also no longer have to worry about telemetry or microsoft trying to show me ads or pop ups.

TL:DR Mint is a way better experience than windows 11.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I have been meaning to create a mspaint for Linux. I typically try to copy the layout and features almost exactly so people can enjoy free and open source versions of software they may miss.

I'll get right on to it as soon as I can, but I have been having trouble with drawing programs in Godot.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

On of my favorite small Linux things is you have a second text buffer other then the ctl+c ctl+v. Middle click pastes whatever text was last selected.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Ooooh I though middle click is just a shortcut for Ctrl+c or Ctrl+v, depending on the context. Good to know it's a separate buffer!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Another detail I noticed is if you type paint or notepad in the search it brings up drawing and the text editor which is nice for people transitioning to Linux.

These are the sort of details that make me happy. Similar thing with the Spotlight menu on MacOS.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

run text files as a program?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Change permissions and it will try to execute. If you have a valid script then you are good to go

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

yeah just sounded like a file with actual.txt which I would change to .run or something else if I was going to make it an executable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Convention is to use the language extension (eg. .py, .sh, .rb, etc.), but I just put my scripts into my '$HOME/bin' directory without. Chmod 700 them and they can be used in my terminal.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

No .exe, just run scripts that you don't need to make .bat or anything like that. That's what I assume they mean.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Another detail I noticed is if you type paint or notepad in the search it brings up drawing and the text editor which is nice for people transitioning to Linux.

That feature is actually implemented on a per-application basis. Each application has a .desktop file in /usr/share/applications/ or possibly in ~/.local/share/applications/ which includes a lot of the stuff you see in the Menu, including the application's name, the comment it displays when you hover over it, etc.

Check this out: In the Nemo file manager, go to /usr/share/applications/, then scroll down until you see Text Editor. If you double click this, it will launch Xed, Cinnamon's text editor. But if you right click, Open With...and choose Text Editor, you'll see a text file named xed.desktop with a bunch of stuff like Name{en_GB]=Text Editor so that it displays the name correctly in a bunch of languages. Scroll down near the bottom and you'll see an entry that says "Keywords=text;editor;tabs;highlighting;code;multiple;files;pluggable;notepad;" or something similar. If you type any of those words in the Menu's search bar, it'll come up with Text Editor. You'll need root permissions, but you can even add your own here if you want.

On the same note, if you type "letter" or "document" it will find LibreOffice Writer.


I never did like the idea of trying to make the search bar in the Start menu an omnifunctional thing, because all it does is make it useless. The Menu's search bar should be for finding and launching applications. Searching a couple directories full of .desktop files for names and keywords is very fast and responsive, which is what I want for launching programs. Recursive file searches through the entire file system take longer, as do web searches. Those functions should be separate.

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