I found this one yesterday. Kind of interesting. Still not sure if I will use it.
Orbitiny Desktop presents a compelling alternative for Linux users seeking a portable, modular, and feature-rich desktop environment. Portable because you can run it on any distro and on any live CD ...
Orbitiny Desktop runs on X11 (Mint) but not Wayland (Zorin).
You can switch to Xorg in Zorin.
What has happened at ItsFOSS? The popup ads with the X buttons that don't work made me think I was transported back to the year 2001.
Confusing descriptions on the D.E. One says it utilizes GTK and the other says it is built in Qt.
The installation guides are very chaotic. Some say only download the release file, others say you have to install many qt packages first. I don't know what is true.
I tried to follow this guide (the download link didn't work, so I used source forge to download)
https://ostechnix.com/orbitiny-linux-desktop-environment/
In the following guide the pre-install seems not to be necessary
Here is a good description:
Installing all the qt dev packages is not mentioned here.
Edit: Today I installed orbitiny desktop again (portable version), only by downloading the release file from source forge and running start-orbitiny and it worked.
Yesterday I also tried to install the desktop as standalone desktop but always got errors "no supported window manager" found.
Maybe because it isn't itsfoss.com? When You use the Link it show itsfoss.gitlab.io
Don't You use an AddBlocker like uBlock?
No, it is a matter of pro's and cons.
Ad Blockers can cause problems, too - extensions can...
I am not spouting facts, here. Just personal opinion.
By far the vast majority of pages I visit do not engage in this type of popup spam - thus my surprise to see this one doing it.
Hey all,
So, I was recently made aware of this thread and after reading it, I'd like to clarify some things.
The OSTechnix instructions are completely wrong and I did not provide those.
You don't need to download any additional files because the downloaded package includes all the required files. Just CD to the extracted directory and execute the ./start-orbitiny script and the desktop starts. This is portable mode and all the files will be saved inside that directory. Then you can copy/paste that directory onto a USB flash drive, take it to another Linux system and do the same thing and everything would look the same.
About installation, to install the desktop system-wide, instead of running the ./start-orbitiny script, you need to run ./install-orbitiny as sudo.
About the [no_supported_window_manager_found] message, that should not worry you. All you need to do is click the "..." button on the right of the Window Manager field, and locate your window manager's executable such as xfwm4, mutter etc. Based on my research, Zorin OS uses mutter, is that correct? If so, just click the "..." and navigate to /usr/bin and select the mutter file.
Having said that, I am somewhat surprised you got that error as mutter is supported, but for some reason, it failed to detect it. I do have an idea why this would happen but to help me confirm it, would you please run 'which mutter' and whereis mutter on the terminal and copy/paste the output? That will give me an idea of what's happening.
About Wayland, unfortunately, I cannot support Wayland right now (too much work and effort for a donation-less project) but if donations start coming in (and they don't) and there is enough demand for Wayland, then I will make every effort to resolve all the show stopping issues related to Wayland so my priority right now is X11 as that's what I use and will continue to use. Moreover, all my configurations work perfectly on X11/Xorg/XLibre.
Feel free to ask any questions about the project, I will respond to them.
You can keep track on the status of the project by visiting Orbitiny's website: https://orbitiny.com/ but I also have a subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Orbitiny/. Mind you, the primary source of information is https://orbitiny.com/.
I also have a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Orbitiny-Linux.
Thanks
Yes, Zorin core/pro uses mutter, Zorin lite xfwm4. I tried to find mutter today to select it in the file chooser but didn't found it (which of the files related to mutter is needed). I'll try later with the commands you have given. Thank you very much for your reply!
I didn't find out how to enable different backgrounds and icons for each virtual desktop. I read that it should be possible by saving the settings in different files. Would you please explain how to do this?
The command "which mutter" didn't give a terminal output and "whereis mutter" showed
'mutter: /usr/share/man/man1/mutter.1.gz'
(in Zorin 18 live session)
Edit: Probably this is a problem because of the live session. I installed mutter now with 'sudo apt install mutter' and got no error because of non supported window manager and as path is shown automatically /usr/bin/mutter. I'll test if it works now.
Edit 2: The installation of the standalone desktop of orbitiny worked now.
Can the build text on the right side of the background be disabled?
Awesome, thanks for testing that, much appreciated. Yes, the backend API does the same thing, it runs "which xyz" where xyz is the name of the window manager and if it returns an error, you'll get that message and in your case, the error is valid because it really did not find it. If the which command fails, it literally checks some common locations such as as /usr/bin", "/usr/local/bin" (hard coded) etc just in case there is a problem with the user's PATH variable/configuration.
About different backgrounds and icons for each virtual desktop, you need to right click a Virtual Desktop button and select "Change / Set Directory" (see the screenshot below).
You need to select the correct desktop ID.
The Desktop ID is displayed in the bottom right corner of the desktop watermark but also in the title bar of Control Panel: Right-click the desktop and select Environment and Workspace Settings.
Once the a desktop directory is set, just click a different virtual desktop button and go back to old one and you can start switching between desktop directories.
Right now, you can set a different wallpaper background per monitor but not per virtual desktop. Setting a different wallpaper per virtual desktop will be implemented very soon as it's been on my mind for a while now, it's just that I am not up to it yet.
Ah, I just read the last sentences. I tried everything to get different backgrounds for the virtual desktops, but didn't work. Now it is clear. I only have a laptop and no external monitor, so it is not possible yet.
I won't use my browser without UBlock. The internet has gone off the deep end trying to market and track everything.
No worries, if anyone else has any additional questions, feel free to ask, I will respond to each of them. Right now, I am in process of fixing some errors I have found.
Can the information text on the background be hidden or disabled?
Edit: I found it at the Environment & Workspace settings panel at general configuration ("Show Debug Watermark"). Although it was set to 'off', the watermark was shown on all backgrounds, even custom ones. I turned it on and off again, then it disappeared.
Yep, and what you have found is a bug and I am aware of it. I was planning to fix it last time but it stayed unfixed and correct, toggling the switch on/off fixes it. I will fix it in the upcoming release. I think the same thing happens with another option, if I am not mistaken, "Animate Icons when Pointer Hovers Over" and "Use Drop Shadow Effect" (both in Appearance) and if you toggle the switch, it fixes it.
The desktop is packed with features, my favorite ones are the icon emblems for empty files and directories, cut, copy + modified files as well as Paste Image and Paste Text and check out the file preview pane inside the file manager as well as searching for text content inside text files (it highlights matches).
