Going deep into offtopic.
Probably, but I think ED has already answered the topic. Special repository of Debian Stable + whatever is needed to make it work right on our hardware. Perfect.
We can still cuss and discuss what the DE is going to be.
I don't -want- a categorization sub-menu for each different topic that I have to hunt through a 3 page list to find out what they mapped to a key.
Well, I do. Guess that's a matter of taste.
It depends on which direction you're approaching it. If your objective is to bind something to a key, the categorized basis probably works fine for you. Flip that around though and it becomes a POS. If you need to find out the answer to: "WTF? Why doesn't Ctrl-F11 work in this application?" it can be an intense source of frustration. First you'll wind up trying to figure out what broke in the application. Then you'll search online for the application help to see if anyone's encountered the issue. Then you may or may not stumble on someone else with another application noting how the OS has taken over that key-mapping. Then you have 20+ minutes of scrolling through those categories, list by list, line by line, to figure out what the OS designers decided to map that key to.
How it should be done:
1. An OS UI should NEVER take precedence over the foreground running program.
Don't most DE/WM do this, unless the application explicitly consumes the keypress? I may be completely off here, as I haven't really paid attention to this in the past.
The DEs started to default to over mapping applications and defaulting to massive 'hot key' mapps right after Unity hit the scene. Prior versions of Ubuntu with Gnome didn't have the issue. Current versions of Gnome are nearly as bad as KDE in this respect, but the existing mappings are easier to find.
2. An OS should NEVER take control over 'normal', 'control' or 'shift' + function key. Those have historically been reserved for -program- use.
Is there some standard or guideline about this? Or is it just "at least environment XYZ did it"? Not saying it would be a bad thing if the default keybindings didn't use those, but if it's just word of mouth information it's kinda hard for everyone developing interfaces to know. I know I didn't have any knowledge of such a convention, but that may be just me.
Prior to about 2 years ago, this was an unwritten convention. Most desktop word processors were based on WordPerfect & MS Word, both of which make extensive use of the function keys. Most spreadsheets were based on Lotus 123 and Excel, both of which make extensive use of the function keys. Many of the adventure and FPS games prior to WoW used the function keys and alt,shift,ctrl combinations with them for different in-game features.
Having the DE steal the function keys from the application is a relatively new trend.
For mapping, I should be able to go into that configuration menu, select a button to activate a search of the piles of configuration pages, enter the key I want to see the binding for - and have it go there. Not search through one page at a time - through all of the pages - to find what the OS has mapped to shift-F11 so I can de-bind it so it doesn't override my foreground running programs.
Well, it does have per-module search you can enter the key combination or a part of it into, but I agree a global search for them would be nice.
Per-module search. If you have gone far enough down the rabbit hole to figure out it is the OS and not your application that is breaking the application, AND if you know the function key that's frotzed by the OS but don't know what function it got mapped to or how that would be classified, you still have to find and go through each and every module to figure out what's eating your app.
It bugs the hell out of me when OS UI designers assume that the OS interface is the end product. Keep the OS out of my applications.
This is by all accounts a valid point of view.
I'm not trying to antagonize you here, just learn why you don't like the DE I use daily at work and at home. For each their own, I guess.
When I last tried KDE, the above drove me nuts. I encountered a function key combination not working in my app (Neverwinter Nights for Linux in this case). I spent -hours- trying to debug the application and searching for application specific solutions. Finally I figured out that the OS was trying to create a new desktop every time I hit the key combination. Then it was a long search online to figure out where and how KDE configured desktop shortcuts - because there wasn't anything intuitive to that in the menus. Then it was a long slog through different configuration lists, line by line, to find that ONE line in that whole mess to change that ONE setting.
Then I found the next combination that didn't work.
I was able to eventually de-map the OS from the function keys, but wow was it a pain in the ass. It certainly disinclined me from making KDE my default desktop for my installs to the 15 or so machines that I maintain for myself and family members - and took it off of my 'recommend' list to others.
