Teradesk

[skaftetryne]

Seen here freemint/freemint#371 (comment)

Yeah but many people (including myself) immediately replace TeraDesk with something else for their "productivity usage" (i.e. not just for some simple test).

Exactly why are people switching from Teradesk? Features, looks, bugs, stability...? It would be interesting to compile a list of why it's not the preferred desktop, it might inspire someone to improve it.

[mikrosk]

My case is totally unusual: I replace it only for the reason that I have a flexible bootable setup which dynamically assigns different desktops for testing purposes on the fly from a separate config file. So that's why I replace it when upgrading to a newer snapshot.

Apart from that, I have been happy with Teradesk for many years, mostly because it is the only desktop which properly handles long names in ARGV, AV and drag&drop because I had submitted multiple bug reports to Djordje back then.

One large non-Teradesk user base is certainly FireBee users, AFAIK they boot into Thing by default.

[GokMasE]

I realize these are things that will be subjective, everyone will have their own take on this. Personally, I too have a couple of things which makes me turn to alternatives like Thing rather than TeraDesk:
(I am basing this list of the last version of TeraDesk I am aware of, v4.08 which seems the last official release)

1. No support for desktop background images.
2. No support for background images in directory windows
3. Can't show files as mini icons (only icons/text)
4. When live moving Teradesk's windows they don't move smoothly but in awkward, jerky movements, like if they are "force snapped" to a rather dense grid
5. No way to scroll contents in dir windows by holding down right mouse button and move the mouse, like in Thing. I find this feature absolutely essential now that I grown used to it.
6. No right click menu to act as a shortcut for controlling contents in directory windows. (New/Show info/Delete/etc)
7. No support for copying and moving files through CTRL+X, CTRL+C, CTRL+V.
8. CLOSER widget of GEM-window is used to move up in dir structure rather than closing the window (until you have reached the root). Is is OK to honour the legacy way of original TOS desktop, but I also find it a serious let down that it can't even be configured (at least not that I could find) to use a dedicated "Dir up"-icon like Thing offers. For a stand alone desktop in 2024 I'd for sure expect that.

Some of these are not full on show stoppers, but 5), 6), 7) and 8) most definitely are indeed shortcomings of a much greater concern to me.

Some further observations made when revisiting the TeraDesk experience:

• Inconsistent branding - is the name TeraDesk or Tera Desktop? The program itself seems torn on that question.
  (In desk menu you can select "TeraDesk Info.." which opens a window/dialog where the program is refered to as "Tera Desktop")
• Icon in iconified window is not centered - ok, this is me being really picky, but it is a detail that adds to a wobbly feel.

[mikrosk]

Nice list, Joakim! Btw 8) is configurable, it's the first thing I change myself, too. View -> Set mask... -> Show Parent.

IIRC it was again me who convinced Djordje to add that option.

[mikrosk]

Btw TeraDesk has its own set of nice unique features: https://tho-otto.de/hypview/hypview.cgi?url=%2Fhyp%2Ftera408_en.hyp&charset=UTF-8&index=7 (personally I find the most interesting one the ability to call a fileselector from a input text field...)

[th-otto]

Since teradesk has its own repo, i moved that here.

[GokMasE]

Nice list, Joakim! Btw 8) is configurable, it's the first thing I change myself, too. View -> Set mask... -> Show Parent.

IIRC it was again me who convinced Djordje to add that option.

Good to know, that certainly makes things much more managable I think. I did not find that setting when poking around myself. The config is however not hinting to the resulting change in behaviour of the CLOSER widget, which in turn makes this setting less obvious IMO.

My take on the list I supplied earlier - I don't expect TeraDesk to turn into a fullblown Thing-replacement, I know it was made to be less resource hungry and easier on low spec systems. But maybe this kind of feedback could be a way to pinpoint minor things that would make sense to fix and/or add to make the program more appealing and efficient. Even if many eventually ends up replacing TeraDesk with something else, it is still nice if the pre-installed desk is offering an experience that suits as many ppl as possible.

[skaftetryne]

I use TeraDesk, it has some features that makes it very efficient for my use. The ability to farm out tasks to separate applications is one of my favourite features. But it do indeed lack some eye-candy, and the setup/configuration dialogs are not only ugly but sometimes confusing and hard to use. The built-in fontselector is a bonus, but there's a bug somewhere that causes the client application to crash when memory protection is enabled.