Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

news.ycombinator.com

151–160 of 246 posts

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#151

Whatever file browser is chosen, please include the damn up button, and please no buttons replacing the address bar. Also, PLEASE 'open terminal here' as a default option on right click.

Nemo has those. (At least i think the right click is possible with plugins.)

Nemo did that out of the box on my Debian Stretch/Buster with Cinnamon setup. I assume it's not a plugin.

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#152
post #29

I have but one humble wish: when I want to start the calculator app I open the Dash and type "calc". However for some reason LibreOffice Calc has higher priority than the Calculator app, so I always have to select it specifically (instead of just pressing Enter) - even though I might have never used the LibreOffice Calc on this computer. Can you make the LibreOffice Calc app lower priority in the Dash please. Thank y…

I just type "calcu" instead. It's only one extra letter.

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#154

Another humble wish: a subl/vscode like ctrl+shift+p multifunctional menu, where you can write commands, launch things, etc.

The Gnome runner and Krunner from KDE both do this. I'm not sure if the Gnome variant supports arbitrary commands like Krunner does, but they at least have opening applications, unit conversion, and web search.

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#155
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I downvoted because I don't think it's constructive to force Emacs on everyone. In my post, I thought of including vim as the default text editor (I have set it as default on my work and home computers, also when opening a text/code file from a browser or file manager) and definitely as the default terminal editor (instead of nano), but many people are just not going to make use of it. If you want something specific,…

Hey, I'm not forcing Emacs on anyone! The poster asked to "submit the apps you find most useful in Linux", so I listed what I use, honest-to-God. I don't see how a legit datapoint deserves a downvote, but whatevs.

Hmm, I'm inclined to undown. I think the intention of this question is "what should the defaults be", not strictly "what do you use". I don't mean to offend, though. Undowned.

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#156
Web Browser: firefox

Email Client: dont include one

Terminal: stable one with wayland support

IDE: vs code

File manager: mate's

Basic Text Editor: no gedit for sure

IRC/Messaging Client: dont bother to include one

PDF Reader: smallest and stable one

Office Suite: dont include

Calendar: no good apps are there

Video Player: vlc

Music Player: Clementine

Photo Viewer: include only one, no need to photo manager

Screen recording: include the stable

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#157
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird File manager: Nemo Basic Text Editor: Geany Messaging Client: Telegram, Pidgin IRC client: Hexchat PDF Reader: Evince Calendar: Thunderbird's built-in Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify non-free, VLC Screen recording: SSR (ppa:maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder) System monitor: htop, gnome-system-monitor Calculator: apcalc

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#159

If I may make a suggestion: I'd rather have a quizz at first install and user account creation that would ask what users want with sane defaults hiding behind an `I don't know` checkbox (ie: don't configure any mail client if people just use GMail). It would definitely ease the adoption from first users instead of throwing a huge pile of shortcuts to their face when they click the apps menu for the first time. I woul…

Awesome idea! Let me make a shameless plug for my web app that does something like this for ubuntu LTS distros:

https://www.lilite.co/

I'd love for it to be made obsolete though :)

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#160
Meta-observation: There are three primary applications everyone wants fairly uniformly. Firefox, LO, and VLC.

It is really interesting from an integration perspective to consider all three:

* Firefox pulls in gtk3 and gtk2 dependencies.

* VLC pulls in Qt and sdl1.

* LO pulls in Python.

Of note, both Firefox and VLC use ffmpeg, which is nice.

But my macro point - the most popular applications for Linux right now all use pretty much entirely different infrastructure. All three pull in at least a dozen library or package dependencies each, there is little overlap, and between them you have the entirety of GTK and Qt. On top of that, they are about 130MB, 50MB, and 400MB installed respectively.

I'm not going to make conclusions about how this relates to the desire to write composable software, or how these various monolith projects are also the most desired. It is just interesting that just from the big three staples you are looking at more space used on installation media than a CD just from them and their immediate dependencies. Qt alone is around 400MB including webengine. Gtk is another 90MB. So you are looking at over 1GB of binaries, libraries, and art assets to run 3 programs, and at runtime they will all be pulling these respective libraries into resident memory with almost no overlap.

Post reply on HN