[LAU] Desktop replacements for ROX applications

[Will Godfrey]

On Sun, 14 Nov 2021 12:43:13 -1000
"David W. Jones" <gnome at hawaii.rr.com> wrote:

>I use XFCE. I have Trinity running on a VM. XFCE is better and lighter.
>
>On November 14, 2021 10:27:48 AM HST, Brandon Hale <bthaleproductions at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I've never run Rox, but I just took a look at it. Maybe some 
>> alternatives that could be very similar in functionality are:
>> 
>> GNUStep
>> 
>> LXDE
>> 
>> Trinity Desktop (KDE3 Revived)
>> 
>> Mate Desktop (Gnome 2 Revived)
>> 
>> 
>> These all have their own applications I do believe and have a retro and 
>> lightweight feel to them. I know for a fact that LXDE will run on a 
>> potato. I use it on an old Acer Aspire One netbook. I run mate on my 
>> main machine and it uses modern gtk3 and is fast and featureful (just 
>> like I remember it back in 2009)!
>> 
>> I hope this helps. You can also pick and choose which applications you 
>> like best from all of these and run the ones that you like.
>> 
>> Brandon Hale
>> 
>> On 11/14/21 14:58, Will Godfrey wrote:  
>> > On Sun, 14 Nov 2021 10:37:25 -0700
>> > Bob van der Poel <bob at mellowood.ca> wrote:
>> >  
>> >> Not to state the obvious ... but you could install Python2. 3 and 2 live
>> >> quite happily together.
>> >>
>> >> On Sun, Nov 14, 2021 at 8:27 AM Will Godfrey <willgodfrey at musically.me.uk>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>  
>> >>> For very many years I've been using the combination of OpenBox and ROX.
>> >>> This
>> >>> has provided a very lightweight and user-friendly interface. It's also
>> >>> a good fit for the Raspberry Pi, and users unfamiliar with Linux seem to
>> >>> take
>> >>> to it quickly. However...
>> >>>
>> >>> ROX filer itself is still fine after all this time, but ROX-Lib relies on
>> >>> Python-2, so all apps using it are now dead - as is the rox -users list :(
>> >>>
>> >>> I can get round most of the ones I use but the two I need are desktop
>> >>> replacements for are the Archiving program (which handles a laundry list of
>> >>> formats) and screen resolution manager (based on XrandR).
>> >>>
>> >>> The usual web searches don't seem to show up anything useful.
>> >>>
>> >>> Any suggestions appreciated.
>> >>>  
>> > Well, that proved rather interesting. The upgrade (devuan chimaera to be
>> > precise) removed python2 and, critically, python-gtk2, but it left the old
>> > entries in apt/sources.list so I was able to reinstall them. That's a bit more
>> > breathing space, but the axe is bound to fall at some point, so I'd still like
>> > to find alternatives.
>> >
>> > The archiver is particularly good for newbies. It's drag-and-drop. Drop a
>> > compressed file on it and it will decompress it, drop a plain file on it and it
>> > will put up a menu of compression types. In both cases it *doesn't* delete the
>> > source.

While I appreciate the suggestions for LXDE or XFCE, while both are
indeed lightweight, are a good fit for the overall setup, which is quite
deliberately RISCOS-like (which makes rather a good environment for an R-Pi).
I've been able to find a screen resolution program that works well, and is
indeed better than the original! That leaves just the archiver. This is a
hard nut to crack. I can't find anything that is simply drag and drop.

Possibly I could code this myself, but I've got quite enough on my plate as it
is :(

-- 
Will J Godfrey
https://willgodfrey.bandcamp.com/
http://yoshimi.github.io
Say you have a poem and I have a tune.
Exchange them and we can both have a poem, a tune, and a song.