Artix (XFCE) personal use app list
Last updated : 12/1/2023 (incomplete, will require additions)
Introduction
This article is to list out the apps that I use in Artix, with XFCE DE.
General things that are considered important for the apps I use :
- Available in Artix repos (world / galaxy / universe) preferred, though Arch repos (extra / community; no core) is a fine minimum, as long as the app isn't dependent on systemd.
- A balance of having lots of features & having some that work well; as well as being usable in GUI. As much as I love simplicity, there are times where an app can be too "simple" for my personal usage... such as terminal apps (which I never got the hang of at the time of writing).
- GTK(2/3)-only (GTK3 preferred as XFCE dependency), no Qt dependencies whatsoever (unless I have no choice but to use Qt-dependent apps).
- Having a consistent & reliable maintenance, both from upstream & repos' maintainers / packagers.
- Libre software - arguably the least important point as every apps in Artix repo are open source (but not necessarily libre).
Some nice to haves for the apps I use :
- Does not access the internet without proper reason & documentation. This is not exactly easy to find out considering GTK3 has no decent network monitoring apps that I know.
Gallery
XFCE's default image viewer.
Video
Honorable mentions :
- Parole : XFCE's default media player. Seems to be a GTK clone of VLC from the short hands-on time I had with it.
A simple (and extremely minimalist) video player that can also play music if the files are opened in the file manager. Not to be confused with monkeypox, despite what some search engines would claim in 2022. Available in galaxy, although the link directs to perl for some reason at the time of writing (26/1/2023).
Music
Currently looking for another music app aside from Quod Libet.
Not available in world / galaxy Artix repositories.
Text / source code editor
Currently stuck between waiting for Geany / Mousepad to have tab scrolling (which may depend on it getting re-added by upstream GTK - alternatively I could just ctrl+pgup / ctrl+pgdn to switch tabs), or waiting for xed / Gedit / Pluma to have inbuilt option for restoring tabs between sessions (or even wait for SciTE to have both & also be present in world / galaxy).
Mentions :
- Geany : Fast, lightweight, and restores tabs between sessions; but doesn't have any form of tab scrolling whatsoever (nor a toggle to add it). Available in galaxy.
- Gedit : GNOME text editor, available in world (gedit-plugins are not available in either world / galaxy). Supports tab scrolling (where scrolling changes the active tab instead of browsing through visible tabs) but not tab restoration.
- Pantheon Code : Text / source code editor from elementary OS. Supports tab scrolling (where scrolling changes the active tab instead of browsing through visible tabs), automatically restores tabs between sessions (and automatically saves them after a single change), and also comes with a sidebar that eases workflow by displaying project folder contents (Geany comes with one as well, but only shows currently opened files). However, it is not available in world / galaxy yet, has limited customizability, and lacks support for some GTK keybindings.
- Pluma : MATE DE default text editor, available in galaxy. Similar to Gedit & xed, it supports tab scrolling (where scrolling changes the active tab instead of browsing through visible tabs) & lacks tab restoration.
- SciTE : SCIntilla-based text editor. With the same base component as Notepad++ & Geany; I expected tab restoration and/or tab scrolling, but unfortunately SciTE lacks both. Not available in world / galaxy either, so SciTE could be considered the worst in this list.
XFCE's default text (and code) editor. Restores tabs between sessions (might require setting session restore to always in Preferences > File), but lacks tab scrolling. Mousepad also keeps unsaved buffers, which can be neat. Available in world.
A lightweight text editor made by Linux Mint developers, as the default for their Cinnamon DE.
As a source code editor, it supports tab scrolling (where scrolling changes the active tab instead of browsing through visible tabs), but does not restore open tabs between sessions. For the latter, there is a separate plugin to fix that, though as of 3/10/2022, it needs to be compiled (just like pretty much all of xed's plugins, which is absent on both Arch & Artix, despite apparently appearing in the plugins options). Available in galaxy.
Nano
A text editor for the terminal. As someone who primarily uses the GUI, I won't be using this all that often (aside from some one-time configurations on installing Artix). But then again, I'm not the general audience for terminal-only apps... including Vim (but then again that one is a lifestyle).
Document reader
1st-party JS & XHR required to view site.
Browser
Honorable mentions :
- Ungoogled Chromium : Chromium, without Google integration. Mainly a one-dev-show, with separate contributors compiling the binaries. A precompiled build is available in the Universe repository.
Requires usage of AUR (but not any other optional repositories), as seen on AUR-based installation guide.
File manager
XFCE's default file manager. Requires gvfs to automatically deal with removeable storages.
Other stuff
- Theme : materia-dark-compact from materia-gtk-theme; available only in Arch Community repo. Probably the darkest GTK theme around, though still not dark enough for me (I prefer full black theme).
- Sound server : PulseAudio. I would switch to either sndio / pipewire (the latter is now a dependency for mpv), but I don't have time to set either up.
- Firewall : (g)ufw - no experience on others for now (or any personal experience regarding ufw usage aside from defaults).
- Terminal emulator : XFCE Terminal or ctrl+alt+f1, depending on my need for root account.
- Drawing : Pinta - Inkscape is too complex (for first-time users like me at least). As for GIMP, I haven't fully adapted to it yet (it also uses GTK2, but I don't really care about it if I use Pale Moon GTK2 build).
Back to top
Index - computers
Main Page