Desktop Environment Features Compared: window placement on startup
Gnome seems to be canceling ever more functionality with every release. Used to be, when my system came up from a cold start or a reboot, all the windows were in the same place as when the system was shut down. Now gnome just puts all the windows in a senseless pile on the left side of of the screen. How do other desktop environments-- e.g., Mate, Enlighten, KDE-- handle this? Thanks.
On 4/6/21 12:46 PM, kf wrote:
Gnome seems to be canceling ever more functionality with every release. Used to be, when my system came up from a cold start or a reboot, all the windows were in the same place as when the system was shut down. Now gnome just puts all the windows in a senseless pile on the left side of of the screen.
How do other desktop environments-- e.g., Mate, Enlighten, KDE-- handle this?
Thanks.
I should correct myself a little bit... gkrellm has a configuration item which allows it to placed in the same location onscreeen each time it's invoked... but AKAIK it's the only app that does/has this.
On 4/6/21 11:50 AM, kf wrote:
On 4/6/21 12:46 PM, kf wrote:
Gnome seems to be canceling ever more functionality with every release. Used to be, when my system came up from a cold start or a reboot, all the windows were in the same place as when the system was shut down. Now gnome just puts all the windows in a senseless pile on the left side of of the screen.
How do other desktop environments-- e.g., Mate, Enlighten, KDE-- handle this?
Thanks.
I should correct myself a little bit... gkrellm has a configuration item which allows it to placed in the same location onscreeen each time it's invoked... but AKAIK it's the only app that does/has this.
In Gtk+2, it was trivial to save window position to persistently to a keyfile and restore the window position when the application was started again. (now that was subject to the window manager you were using providing the ability to restore and place windows, most save that information instead of the app itself, but for the most part, gtk_window_get_position() and gtk_window_set_position() worked on gnome and KDE as both WMs respected the placement hints) Beginning with Gtk+3, much of the actual desktop programming was replaced by Gtkbuilder, a scripted automation of C (huh?). Unlike glade, builder no longer simply generated proposed C code for the programmer to implement, but compiled the builder script into the final executable (more or less) obscuring much of the finer grained control programmer used to have over Gtk. (the finer control was, for the most part, still available but often not implemented in builder or were not documented and changed often between Gtk+3.x and Gtk+3.x+1) So the long and short of it was that many Gtk developers in porting from Gtk+2 to Gtk+3 never implemented many of the old standard features that were present for just above every Gtk+2 app. Further, the Gnome library still provided a way for storing window positions, but for many apps, that ability what one of the first things dropped in the port from Gtk+2 to 3. KDE generally does a good job saving the session information, including window position for non-KDE apps. Firefox itself has now implemented restore window position and it works fine on any desktop from Fluxbox, to KDE3 and on and on. For Gnome3 the recommended way is to ensure you have a session manager installed to let it interact with gnome lib to do this for you. There is even a nice new "javascript" session manager extension for the gnome shell (whee javascript instead of C, nothing to see here... move along...) More detail on this "new way" of doing things discussed at: Gnome: Save And Restore Running Applications And Window Positions With Window Session Manager https://www.linuxuprising.com/2018/04/gnome-save-and-restore-running.html Good luck with that, I'll stick to Gtk+2... -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
kf wrote:
On 4/6/21 12:46 PM, kf wrote:
Gnome seems to be canceling ever more functionality with every release. Used to be, when my system came up from a cold start or a reboot, all the windows were in the same place as when the system was shut down. Now gnome just puts all the windows in a senseless pile on the left side of of the screen.
How do other desktop environments-- e.g., Mate, Enlighten, KDE-- handle this?
Thanks.
I should correct myself a little bit... gkrellm has a configuration item which allows it to placed in the same location onscreeen each time it's invoked... but AKAIK it's the only app that does/has this.
Geeqie has it, too. But AFAICT it's messed up at the moment :(
Op dinsdag 6 april 2021 18:46:42 CEST schreef kf: > Gnome seems to be canceling ever more functionality with every release. > Used to be, when my system came up from a cold start or a reboot, all > the windows were in the same place as when the system was shut down. > Now gnome just puts all the windows in a senseless pile on the left side > of of the screen. > > How do other desktop environments-- e.g., Mate, Enlighten, KDE-- handle > this? > > Thanks. In KDE you have three options: - Restore previous session - Start "clean" - Start a Saved session IIRC one can save multiple sessions. -- Gertjan Lettink a.k.a. Knurpht openSUSE Board openSUSE Forums Team
Am 06.04.21 um 18:51 schrieb Knurpht-openSUSE: > Op dinsdag 6 april 2021 18:46:42 CEST schreef kf: >> Gnome seems to be canceling ever more functionality with every release. >> Used to be, when my system came up from a cold start or a reboot, all >> the windows were in the same place as when the system was shut down. >> Now gnome just puts all the windows in a senseless pile on the left side >> of of the screen. >> >> How do other desktop environments-- e.g., Mate, Enlighten, KDE-- handle >> this? >> >> Thanks. > In KDE you have three options: > - Restore previous session > - Start "clean" > - Start a Saved session > IIRC one can save multiple sessions. > And in kde you are able to tell a special window, or a special programm to open always when started at a specific position and size. simoN -- www.becherer.de
On 2021-04-06 10:58 a.m., Simon Becherer wrote: > > > Am 06.04.21 um 18:51 schrieb Knurpht-openSUSE: >> Op dinsdag 6 april 2021 18:46:42 CEST schreef kf: >>> Gnome seems to be canceling ever more functionality with every release. >>> Used to be, when my system came up from a cold start or a reboot, all >>> the windows were in the same place as when the system was shut down. >>> Now gnome just puts all the windows in a senseless pile on the left side >>> of of the screen. >>> >>> How do other desktop environments-- e.g., Mate, Enlighten, KDE-- handle >>> this? >>> >>> Thanks. >> In KDE you have three options: >> - Restore previous session >> - Start "clean" >> - Start a Saved session >> IIRC one can save multiple sessions. >> > > And in kde you are able to tell a special window, or a special > programm to open always when started at a specific position and size. > > simoN > And also KDE allows you to specify which desktop to put any program on.
On 4/6/21 12:51 PM, Knurpht-openSUSE wrote: > Op dinsdag 6 april 2021 18:46:42 CEST schreef kf: >> Gnome seems to be canceling ever more functionality with every release. >> Used to be, when my system came up from a cold start or a reboot, all >> the windows were in the same place as when the system was shut down. >> Now gnome just puts all the windows in a senseless pile on the left side >> of of the screen. >> >> How do other desktop environments-- e.g., Mate, Enlighten, KDE-- handle >> this? >> >> Thanks. > In KDE you have three options: > - Restore previous session > - Start "clean" > - Start a Saved session > IIRC one can save multiple sessions. > Wow! Fantastic!! Can you switch to a different session after you're already working in one...? or do you make a choice of a session only as part of the boot process?
kf composed on 2021-04-06 18:41 (UTC-0400):
Knurpht-openSUSE wrote:
In KDE you have three options: - Restore previous session - Start "clean" - Start a Saved session IIRC one can save multiple sessions.
Wow! Fantastic!!
Can you switch to a different session after you're already working in one...? or do you make a choice of a session only as part of the boot process?
If you have automatic login enabled, you must logout to the login greeter in order to select a different desktop session type. Otherwise, find the selector for the DE you wish in the greeter before submitting your password and proceeding. It has nothing to do with the "boot" process itself as I sense your meaning of the word to be. The keyword is login, not boot. TDE and KDE3 have the (all?) same options as Plasma. I always use restore previous, so am unfamiliar with other options and how they work in practice. -- Evolution as taught in public schools, like religion, is based on faith, not on science. Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/
On 06/04/2021 18.46, kf wrote:
Gnome seems to be canceling ever more functionality with every release. Used to be, when my system came up from a cold start or a reboot, all the windows were in the same place as when the system was shut down. Now gnome just puts all the windows in a senseless pile on the left side of of the screen.
How do other desktop environments-- e.g., Mate, Enlighten, KDE-- handle this?
On XFCE it mostly works, but not all apps the same (and it is based on GTK libraries). For example, Firefox positions each of its multiple windows to the correct workspace. It even works for each FF profile. With YaST, it doesn't work at all. It is possible I activated some preference or option that now I don't remember. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from openSUSE 15.2 (Legolas))
On 2021-04-08 10:31:06 Carlos E. R. wrote:
|On 06/04/2021 18.46, kf wrote: |> Gnome seems to be canceling ever more functionality with every release. |> Used to be, when my system came up from a cold start or a reboot, all |> the windows were in the same place as when the system was shut down. Now |> gnome just puts all the windows in a senseless pile on the left side of |> of the screen. |> |> How do other desktop environments-- e.g., Mate, Enlighten, KDE-- handle |> this? | |On XFCE it mostly works, but not all apps the same (and it is based on |GTK libraries). | |For example, Firefox positions each of its multiple windows to the |correct workspace. It even works for each FF profile. | |With YaST, it doesn't work at all. | |It is possible I activated some preference or option that now I don't |remember.
Interestingly, on one account on my machine, Firefox does as you say, while on a different account it does not remember the positions. (?) Since there are several different GTK settings (GTK2, GTK3, gnome-tweaks gnome-config), that might interfere with Firefox's own settings, it's hard to determine where the problem is. Recently, on multiple accounts, the KDE mouse double-click interval has also changed from what Control Center is set to (it works properly in Control Center itself), and I wonder if GTK is interfering there as well. This started happening after I updated all of my packages. Leslie -- openSUSE Leap 15.2 x86_64
participants (9)
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Carlos E. R. -
Darryl Gregorash -
David C. Rankin -
Felix Miata -
J Leslie Turriff -
kf -
Knurpht-openSUSE -
Peter Suetterlin -
Simon Becherer