this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2024
460 points (97.3% liked)

Technology

35125 readers
323 users here now

This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.


Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.


Rules:

1: All Lemmy rules apply

2: Do not post low effort posts

3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff

4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.

5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)

6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist

7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 47 points 8 months ago (4 children)

KDE Plasma 6, and their distro KDE Neon, are both really good.

There are many very friendly Linux communities on Lemmy who can help you get set up.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Windows 11 looks like a crappy knockoff of KDE with all the good bits removed and replaced with spyware and adware.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It looks much better actually, with the fancy blur and transparency effects. Not to say it works better than Linux, and I'm sure it must be possible to customise KDE to look better.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Yeah, if there is one thing that windows 11 does well is looks. I think its fancy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Yeah there are plenty of kwin effect you can install that would make it as pretty as windows 11 if that's important to you. Just like there are plenty of themes you can install if you want a macOS experience instead

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I had the same issue holding me back from giving up Windows, until I discovered the Python keyboard module.

How to bind key presses to it varies, but here's a recipe for Ubuntu, as an example:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/525482/how-can-i-assign-a-keyboard-shortcut-for-the-script-that-i-have-created#525495

Overall, it's not quite as elegant, as AutoHotKey, but it's ultimately a more powerful, since there's so much else I can also do from the same Python script.

Edit: Most notably, I don't recall AutoHotKey having any nice way to tell which apps are open, and Python can quickly call out to ps. It's been on my to-do list to leverage this to let me map keybindings according to what is open (i.e. a favorite game, or a move player.)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

KDE can do that without third party software I believe.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Fedora+KDE ftw. I switched my un upgradeable windows PC to fedora and I couldn't be happier.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

@tsonfeir But Linux does not have AutoHotkey. This is the biggest deal-breaker for me by far. AutoKey seems be the closest thing, but it's such a massive pain to even try to use by comparison.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Depending on your usage, perhaps this re-implementation of AHK for Linux might be of use to you.

https://github.com/phil294/AHK_X11

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Interesting, thanks. I think ultimately, seeing this port's adherence to AHK v1 syntax, I'd just have to bite the bullet and learn Python or something, though...

Never mind, I've since stumbled across xdotool!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I doesn't have auto hotkey because for the most part, you can control Linux from the command-line without someone having to invent a new scripting language from scratch to control it.

I heavily recommend you familiarize yourself with bash and the system commands you'll need to send key presses, move windows, spawn and kill programs, etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Hmm, thanks. Can it simulate mouse-clicks?

Apparently, xdotool can! I guess the next thing would be generating GUIs. I think the final issue is that this would cause quite the fragmentation given how I use the same scripts on my Windows-only work laptop... but I'll think about this more...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

An alternative is python, it can do GUIs easily, and it does have mouse-control facilités as well and it is cross plaform. That being said generally on Linux you don't even need to automate mouse click, as almost all of it can be controllers with straight up commands.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Fuck me, there is no worse way automating things

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Do you have any as-convenient alternative? It's way easier to use than Python or anything else, and it's sped up some of my work procedures by, like, 7x. I use it for dozens of text expansion strings, autocorrect, address typers, mouse-clickers, etc.

Never mind, I've since stumbled across xdotool! I suppose this may be doable after all...