Revisiting icon-free desktop mode

EasyOS can switch between having icons on the desktop or all in the tray. This is chosen via the menu "Desktop -> MoveIcons tray or desktop", or via the "setup" desktop icon. Here is an early blog post introducing the icon-free desktop:

• Experimental icon-free desktop — February 09, 2022

It hasn't been a popular option; just about everyone, myself included, have preferred to stay with the traditional desktop icons. As far as I'm aware anyway.

Here is an example of icon-free, from Easy 3.4:

Due to limited space, there are no labels shown in the tray, only icons. The tray width is also less than screen width, as determined by file /usr/local/ui/jwm/tray_dims. I think it would be more usable if running apps showed in the tray with labels, as is done with icons-on-desktop mode. So, I have changed the tray to full-width, and running apps now have labels:

...much more "normal" looking! Here is the github commit:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit/bd65b39cf8f1423aae46391540856a4e620f88aa  

Tags: easy