My Linux Mint XFCE 22.1 desktop

At home Xubuntu 24.04 is the main Linux distribution I use. And while I have a Xubuntu 24.04 workstation at work, the main Linux desktop I’ve been using lately runs Linux Mint XFCE version 22.1.

With the Computer Recycling Project’s switch to Linux Mint XFCE late last year I set up a workstation so I could fully experience all the handy features, and issues people might run into using Linux Mint XFCE on the desktop.

Why Linux Mint XFCE, why not Linux Mint Cinnamon?

While the Computer Recycling Project has been getting computers where the Linux Mint Cinnamon experience would be nice and smooth, we still refurbish a lot of hardware that doesn’t perform as well with the Cinnamon desktop environment.

There’s also the consideration that the project previously used and promoted Xubuntu, which uses the XFCE desktop environment, for more than 14 years. XFCE is familiar, and if you’ve gotten used to many of the hot keys, they mostly work the same across different distributions (I still prefer the hot keys in Xubuntu, which is one of the reasons I stick with it at home).

Desktop directories/folders and applications

I’ve recently re-orgaanized my desktop around different tasks/programs. Much of what I do at work is development, either BASH scripts, checklists (documents), organiztional tasks, or other documentation.

For my own documentation, documents I use to keep myself informed/organized, I’ve started using Obsidian. Obsidian is a nice graphical markdown editor that makes it easy to organize documentation into trees. Because it’s markdown, it can later be converted to other formats (if I ever want it to be converted).

For documentation I create for volunteers and others, I mostly use LibreOffice Writer. I don’t keep LibreOffice Writer in my Development folder as it’s more of a documentation thing, than a development thing. I normally keep any documentation in the Documentation directory/folder of my “Home” directory.

The development directory/folder

In my development folder I have the following applications:

  • Aseprite - an animated pixel art/sprite editor (commercial)
  • Audacity (floss)
  • BlastFX - a particle fx creation program (commercial)
  • VSCodium - a floss port of VSCode (floss)
  • GameMaker Beta - a commercial game engine (commercial)
  • GIMP - a bitmap editor (floss)
  • Godot - a floss game engine (floss)
  • Inkscape - a vector graphics program (floss)
  • Krita - a paint program (floss)
  • LM Studio - a graphical user environment for running LLMs (commercial - I think)
  • Obsidian - a markdown editor (commercial, but available at no cost)
  • Pico-8 - a small game development environment for creating tiny games (commercial)
  • SXFR (the Qt port) - a sound effect generation program (floss)
  • Upscayl - an AI program to “upscale” images (floss)

I should mention that I don’t regularly use all these applications.

I’ve yet to use LM-Studio, but I saw a presentation of it at KWLUG, and installed it in order to check it out. I’m generally not a big fan of AI, but I recognize a lot of people are interested in AI, and getting to know some of the tools is important to helping people in the future.

At home, the tools I use most when creating “sprites” for the games I make are: Aseprite, GIMP, and Inkscape. I’ve installed Krita, but because I’m already tackling learning the ins-and-outs of Aseprite and Inkscape, I’m less keen on learning another tool. But I recognize that many people like Krita for the paint-brushes, and features GIMP does not have.

I’ve used GIMP for a very long time. I find it’s really handy for quick edits of bitmap graphics. I’m used to it’s interface, and find it does things that I can’t do with Aseprite.

While I haven’t used Audacity much at work, there’s potential in the future if we end up creating some video tutorials for the project. At home I’ve used Audacity for some of the sound effects I’ve created in my games.

GameMaker game engine for LinuxGameMaker game engine with actual GML code for Sumash

Many years ago I bought the commercial GameMaker game engine on a “Humble Bundle.” Thanks to the brilliant tutorials by SaraJS I grew to really enjoy writing GML (GameMaker Language) code. I stopped building games for a couple of years when I stopped using Windows (around 2019) completely. Then I happened to see that Yoyo Games/Opera, the company behind GameMaker, had released a beta client for Linux. I gave it a try, and started making games again, this time entirely under Linux, using Linux tools.

Godot is the game engine I should be promoting, but in all honesty my head is full already with BASH scripting, GML, trying to learn dozens of other things that picking up C# or GDScript isn’t high on my todo list right now…. plus, I’ve tackled a new programming task (which eventually will lead to Godot), and that is learning Pico-8.

Pico-8 costs money (I paid $14.899 USD), but I kept hearing it get mentioned over and over again as a nice tiny game development environment, so I bought it. Pico-8 is my next forray into game development, at least for the next few months.

SFXR is a sound effect generator. I’ve used it occassionally in games, but I tend to find recording in Audacity makes for more interesting/unique effects. But for very brief effects/explosions, SXFR is pretty neat.

I’ve tried Upscayl, an AI driver image upscaling program, but in my experience it doesn’t live up to the hype it’s gotten in different videos. I found that on all but the most blurry of images it didn’t really do a lot to fix blurred images.

The gaming directory/folder

This folder is mostly empty, with a single entry for Sky Force Anniversary (a game on Steam). At some point I’m going to drag a few more Steam games to this directory to show off some of the gaming capabilities under Linux.

My latest game project, Crypt SurvivorsMy latest gamejam game, Crypt Survivors

The my games directory/folder

The My Games folder features AttackMan, Crypt Survivors, Fasteroids, and Sumash, all games I’ve developed using GameMaker. With the exception of Fasteroids, the rest of the games were developed entirely under Linux. And while I’ve developed more games than are in this folder, many of those games are a bit less developed than the ones in the folder.

All of my games (including unfinished/in progress) can be found on itch.io at: https://chaslinux.itch.io/

When people come in asking about Linux, one of the things I sometimes mention is that it is possible to do a lot more than they might have imagined with a little bit of ingenuity. This folder is really to showcase the fact that it’s possible to create artwork, make sounds, and do game development, and other related tasks under Linux.

The website folder

A backup of this site. Occasionally if I run across something that’s important to the development of Computer Recycling, or I solve a long-standing issue, you might see a post about it here.

Why not a fancy theme?

The XFCE desktop environment is amazingly customizable. There are about half-a-dozen different ways to customize XFCE, and more than 20 years of themes/customizations around.

When I first started using XFCE back around 2009 I’m sure In customized the heck out of XFCE, but now I like to keep my XFCE customization mostly “stock.” Part of the reason for this is that when showing Linux Mint XFCE / Xubuntu I prefer people see what a “stock” desktop mostly looks like. If they ask about customization then I can talk a bit about possibilities.

What’s not mentioned

Not mentioned here is the fact that I probably use xed, vi and the terminal a lot more than vscodium. Xed is not in my development folder/directory because most of the time I just hit the super/windows key and type xed. Xed is a simple text editor in Linux Mint XFCE. I think I prefer mousepad in Xubuntu, but Xed gets the job done too.

I run/test a lot of shell scripts, so I’m often opening the terminal, but I use CTRL + ALT + T to do this, so no need to create an icon in one of the directories.

I’m tempted to bind other programs to hot keys, but for now… this is my Linux Mint XFCE desktop environment that I use most at work.