Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon

July 04, 2018

xfce4 problems

I had some problems with xfce4 that eventually made it untenable.

No way to make ctrl-w always close browser tab instead of being an emacs kill word keybinding
xfwm4 would occassionally lock up and prevent me from dragging windows around. I had to run xfwm4 --replace to fix it. This is kind of a deal breaker for a window manager.
Reordering window buttons in the window list by drag and drop didn't work
I couldn't find good keyboard shortcuts to switch tabs in xfce4-terminal
Sometimes on resume, wifi wouldn't work
Laptop would not suspend properly if screensaver was active (so ridiculous)
Keyboard shortcuts and other keyboard settings scattered around like 4 different settings apps
- There's even 2 different apps for "Window Manager Settings" and "Window Manager Tweaks" FFS. Let's just send users on scavenger hunts recreationally.

Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon

After experimenting with the live USB image in beta, Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon went full release recently and I installed that same day. Even though I've run linux on and off since ~1999, this was the first time I kept my home directory on a separate partition and could reinstall the OS without wiping my home directory. This has turned out to be awesome because linux does a pretty good job of keeping most personal settings in your home directory, so even after the reinstall, a lot of things continued to have my customizations. For example the actions assigned to my extra mouse buttons are configured in ~/.xbindkeysrc and that survives the reinstall just fine.

So now I've got lots of nice things working in Cinnamon.

ctrl+a does select all properly
- I just use home/end instead of emacs keybindings as needed
ctrl+w closes a chrome tab properly
I can close the laptop lid and know the OS will actually suspend
pomodoro applet in my panel
super+right, super+left to switch tabs in gnome-terminal
can reorder window buttons in the window list
gpaste clipboard history and panel applet
System Settings GUI is more clearly organized and usable

I also tweaked my ergodox layout to give me F11 and F12 keys which I use to switch to adjacent workspaces, and I also needed a more accessiblyALT modifier, which generally I try to avoid but it's useful for some things. I really wish I could make super+right/supert+left switch tabs in chrome.