this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2024
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There's always some post in here saying for people to use Linux. I find an admonishment to be pretty hollow, so I'll share my recent experience installing a Linux distribution rather than simply saying it's something people should do.
I installed one of the many Debian variants. Getting the installation media is certainly going to be a challenge for casual users. Otherwise, it was easy. It walked through the steps. It was different from installing windows, but I felt it was no more difficult. I am well versed in this stuff, but I feel like nothing in the installation process would be a problem for a casual computer user.
It offered several desktops programs at the login screen. This could likely throw off a lot of people. However, if you just logged in and ignored that you might never even know there were different options. The default was KDE. Everything worked. Nothing needed to be tweaked. This is in starck contrast to Windows, where once you get past installation, you need to get rid of a ton of crap it throws at you. The Windows 10 start menu is an unbelievable collection of weird boxes and shit and the task bar is similarly full of junk. The KDE start menu is just a menu. The task bar has your tasks. There's nothing to do.
I did try Cinnamon too. I prefer the simplicity. I don't think casual users are going to care.
Overall, I think for casual users, it's actually easier to set up and use than Windows. Getting installation media prepared is not something most people are going to readily do, but I think it's the same with Windows. They have the advantage there of having manufacturors install it. Otherwise, whatever issues there have been installing Linux distributions in the past aren't there now. Conversely, installing and especially the configuration after installation is much harder on Windows than it used to be. If you're slightly tech savvy, give Linux a try.
Any recommendations on a window manager in Linux that behaves the same as FancyZones in Windows?
It's like...the one thing (other than visual studio and teams) that I can't seem to find a solid alternative for. I've tried a number of things I found online but they aren't the same, they're more like tiling systems.
KDE has very basic FancyZone inspired functionality that is very sub par (doesn't let you have different layouts on different virtual desktops for example). There's a KDE addon (I think) called Polonium that is a bit more capable I think but I haven't tried it. Other than that there's the desktop environment COSMIC that's in the works that's supposed to be a very tile/zone friendly regular desktop environment.
I'll check it out! Thank you.
Perhaps more complex then what you're hoping for.
But consider taking a look at hyprland. I've been very impressed with how modular and smooth this window manager is
I'll check it out, thanks! Hadn't seen that one in my searches.
If you use a KDE desktop
https://github.com/Bismuth-Forge/bismuth
Many tutorials available for this
Sweet, I'll take a look.
There are a lot of things that try to replace FancyZones but I don't know that any do well. There are gTiles and Linux PowerToys if you haven't seem those already. I've never searched for alternatives to VS or Teams.
One thing you'll have to learn to deal with is that it isn't Windows. Some things will work differently, or the specific tool or functionality you're used to might not exist. There are probably different solutions to the same problem that might do the job, but may be different than what you had before. It's the same with everything. There's tradeoffs, and you have to come to terms with and get used to the differences. You can fight it and try to force it to be what you are used to, or you can get used to what it is.
This isn't to say to give up on your search. I don't know what FancyZones is or what it does. I'm just saying be open to learning a new way to do something. I've seen a lot of people struggle trying to make their system into a Windows clone, and it ends up being more trouble than just coming to terms with it being different.
I get that, FancyZones let's you use keyboard shortcuts to move windows into custom configured zones. Typically I split my screen into a 2 up on the left, single in the middle, and 2 up on the right and I can move apps into those zones with just the arrow keys.
The annoying part of any current Linux solution for me is I have to use the mouse and resize a window and move it into what would normally be a zone. I'd prefer to be able to never use a mouse and be able to move a window with shortcut keys into a predefined zone and size.
Ah, OK. Yeah. So probably what you're looking for is a "tiling window manager". I've never used one so I can't help, but that's the thing you probably want to search for. I've been tempted to try one because using just the keyboard to move windows where I want them seems very useful, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.