Artix (XFCE) personal use app list
Last updated : 7/11/2023 (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) preferred, though Arch repos (extra / community; no core) is a fine minimum, as long as the app isn't dependent on systemd (not that I can install systemd on Artix anyway, so ignore that).
- 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).
- GTK3-only since it's a XFCE dependency, no Qt dependencies whatsoever (unless I have no choice but to use Qt-dependent apps). Also no GTK2/GTK4... unless XFCE switches to either.
- 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 still directs to perl for some reason at the time of writing (15/12/2023).
Music
Currently looking for another music app aside from Quod Libet, even though I couldn't care less.
Not available in world / galaxy Artix repositories.
Text / source code editor
Mentions :
- Gedit : GNOME's default text editor, before gnome-text-editor. Supports restoring tabs between sessions with Ex-Mortis (not included in gedit-plugins), but doesn't support tab scrolling & keyboard tab switching is ctrl-alt-(pgup/pgdn) without control-your-tabs plugin.
- Lapce : A code editor written in Rust. Supports restoring tabs between sessions & tab scrolling (where it browses through visible tabs instead of switching them, just like good ol' Notepad++)... though the oversized interface (which feels somewhat alien in materia-dark) & how it opens new tabs (it simply overwrites whatever's there - if you want multitab maybe open multiple screens & drag them?) ruined it for me.
- 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, which probably qualifies SciTE as the worst in this list.
- xed : A text editor made by Linux Mint developers, as the default for their Cinnamon DE. Supports tab scrolling (where scrolling changes the active tab instead of browsing through visible tabs), but does not restore open tabs between sessions.
A fast & lightweight integrated development environment. Restores tabs between sessions & supports tab scrolling (where scrolling changes the active tab instead of browsing through visible tabs - browsing through visible tab is better but at least here's better than nothing). Comes only with bright theme by default, though you can always try to copy/paste alternate themes to /home/username/.config/geany/colorschemes (or even make your own... which makes Geany's color customization basically unlimited). Both geany & geany-plugins are available in world repo, so you don't have to add Arch repos for this.
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.
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 : ...drawing. Pinta requires adding dotnet dependencies, GIMP & Inkscape probably too complex for casual use.)
- Portable installations (AppImage / Flatpak) : Self-contained apps that should run on any Linux distros.
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