On 3/13/25 2:59 PM, WraithGlade via tde-users wrote:
Well, I don't know about TDE menu favorites as you describe, but here are some workaround ideas that may fill a similar need well enough:
3. Figure out how to edit the menus in TDE. In Xfce there is an XML based syntax you can use to create your own menu systems and it even includes both statically and/or dynamically filled menu items (whichever you prefer for each sub-menu) if you set it up right. Perhaps TDE has something similar. I am new to it though, so I don't know.
I've already implemented option 3. For years I have had a collection of
custom menus: 1) Lists, 2) Projects, 3) Virtual Machines, 4) Super User
(yes, I launch Konqueror and Konsole as root -- take your meds and leave
an old guy alone. :) ). This effort required a custom TDE menu and
respective desktop files. Since I prefer to avoid desktop icon clutter
this has worked well for me for, oh, I don't know -- close to 20 years?
I hadn't thought about that at all. Probably because I have used my
custom menus for so many years I had completely forgotten I did that.
Not as simple as the KDE feature or the Kickoff menu, but doable.
Won't take much to create my own custom Favorites menu. Good suggestion! :)
I probably should submit a feature request to add the Kickoff Favorites
feature to the Classic menu.
TDE is awesome and I really love the 1990s to 2000s era freedom-respecting (and not overly minimalistic) nature of it! It is the best-feeling overall Linux desktop environment I've encountered.
Odd you mention that. :) I was part of the original development crew
after Timothy forked KDE 3.5. Stuck around for several years. Job
requirements (admin) required me to eat some different dog food for some
years, primarily MATE. I changed course at home too to be better
equipped and more knowledgeable about what coworkers needed.
Then the GTK 3 shift began. I got mad the way the MATE developers did
not fight the upstream folks who controlled GTK. So I bought myself a
few years more by moving to Xfce, where the developers had not moved to
GTK 3. Then GTK 3 got sucked into Xfce too.
I've been a long time Slackware user. When 15.0 was released with Xfce
based on GTK3 along with KDE 5, I decided not to play the GTK game any
longer. I started pruning GTK out of my life. That left me with KDE 5,
which I think is an improvement over the KDE 4 that caused a rift among
KDE 3 users.
I spent many weeks tweaking KDE 5 to my liking. Stripped out packages,
removed fluff and bloat, and learned to tweak the bejeebers out of the
environment. I ended up with a nice no frills KDE desktop. The effort
involved was pretty much, "Kids don't do this at home -- you'll break
things."
The effort reminded me of my KDE 3 and TDE days.
While I am mostly content with KDE 5, there are a few things that
irritate me. One is this activity manager thingie likes to run my laptop
fans at high speed every now and then. I never can figure out why.
Another example is I need a four-core system to use KDE (KDE is not a
memory hog, just needs muscle). I have some dual core computers still
running. KDE is painful on those systems. Even with four-core muscle,
KDE is nowhere near as snappy as TDE. Launching KDE Dolphin always takes
a "long second or so." No preloading. Dolphin is a fine file manager,
really, no significant complaints. Just not as fast as TDE Konqueror and
not as flexible.
Likewise with launching KDE Kate. I never understood why launching
native apps in a desktop environment are not lightning fast. You know,
like TDE. With TDE I barely press my keyboard shortcuts and before I can
look at the monitor the tool is on screen.
And I don't know what original wizardry was put in Konqueror as a file
manager or what the current wave of devs have done, but Konqueror is the
only file manager I have seen that can traverse deep directories
instantly. Remarkable.
I am exaggerating a bit, but not overly.
About the time I polished KDE to my liking, I found a way to install TDE
in Slackware. I had long forgotten much of what I built locally and my
retired aging brain needs all of the daily exercising I can muster to
not wither away. The oddity is that through those years of being away
from TDE I never wiped my $TDEHOME profile. Much reduced time trying to
refresh the old noggin.
But I have been slow to move away from KDE to TDE. I'm no different than
most folks. When something mostly "just works," I tend to avoid sweat
equity to move to something different. Every couple of months or so I
would tinker with TDE trying to get everything working the way I like
and want. Takes time and my old brain is not as sharp anymore. But after
a few sessions I'd be back to KDE. Familiarity breeds contempt?
TDE mostly works the way I want, but like any DE, has its share of paper
cuts and nit picks. I have ever so slowly been picking at that list and
of late, with more determination. I don't know exactly what triggered my
motivation some days ago, but I decided to just hammer down and iron out
the wrinkles in TDE that annoy me. At least most of them and find ways
to live with the remaining nominal irritations.
For me the main attraction of TDE is speed and overall simplicity. I am
awestruck how fast TDE is. No other DE like this. I cut my teeth on
computers in the 1980s and I am definitely an old curmudgeon about how I
want my desktop to behave. KDE does let me do this but is still designed
by folks who think everything should look and behave like a smart phone.
TDE hangs back and says, yeah, we still like the 1990s too.
I also refuse to use KDE PIM tools because of that akonadi thingie. That
leaves me using TDE PIM tools, which by golly gee willikers Mr. Wilson,
still work the same way as 15 years ago. And why not? POP3 hasn't changed.
I fudge a little with cosmetics. I find the Oxygen icons more palatable
than the historic crystal svg. I like the KDE mouse pointer collection.
For some time I thought I liked KDE Kate better than the TDE Kate,
mostly because the KDE version has built-in word counts and sorting
tools. The TDE version does not and the sort plugin is broken. OTOH, my
professional tech writing days are long behind me. Word counts are not
as critical anymore. I can do them with the wc command. Likewise with
sorting lists -- just use the command line.
I do have to establish some new habits and exercise some new muscle
memory to break away from KDE. But part of my quest is I remember enough
of the old days that when I can't do something in the way this old fart
likes to use computers, I get frustrated and grab my proverbial hammer.
No software is perfect and my old rule is find the software that bites
the least. Find work-arounds and live with remaining irritants. I keep
reflecting that TDE might be the least irritating -- best -- DE for a
cranky old man like me. When I tell software to get off my lawn I expect
to see some feet moving.
Anyway, I hope that explains the flurry of list questions of late.
Probably more to come too!
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