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Finally, a replacement for the Windows Explorer desktop

computerfreaker's picture
Submitted by computerfreaker on May 7, 2011 - 11:20am

Judging from how often users request custom shells (SharpEnviro, bbLean, and LiteStep are just a few of the requests/test builds I've seen), this is something people really want. And now, I'm pretty sure it's here.

About a month ago, I ran across emergeDesktop, which seems to be almost custom-made for a portable desktop environment. It's very stable, has a solid development record (the earliest release I found was from 2006, and there have been frequent releases since then) and feature-rich. The one thing it's missing is desktop icons, which the emergeDesktop developer is working on. (I suggest using Appetizer or a similar toolbox-style application until then.)
emergeDesktop is written in C++, which has no portability issues (I'm looking at your .NET requirement, SharpEnviro). It's as customizable as bbLean, but with a GUI - there's no need to edit settings files manually unless you really want to get under the hood, and then editing those files is easy because they're in XML format. It's very light-weight: my copy weighs in at 3.69 MB, and that's with settings files and some development files added in. And last but definitely not least, the project's main developer, ironhead, is very responsive to user input and very willing to accept patches.

During the past month or so, ironhead and I have worked together to make emergeDesktop more portable. We've added built-in support for the PortableApps Format and a couple of features to make running on top of Explorer (or any other shell) easier. Once we finish testing the latest of these features - a working system tray, even when running on top of Explorer - I'll post the first Development Test of emergeDesktop Portable.

Are you as excited about this as I am? Biggrin

Update (2011-06-02): ironhead and I have agreed to stage a joint release, and ironhead's release is up. Look for a matching PortableApps dev test in a few days.

Update (2011-06-09): It's here!

Comments

Gord Caswell's picture

Looking at the website, there is mention of having to stop and restart explorer.exe by logging off or restarting the pc. I trust you've been able to work around this?

computerfreaker's picture

The logoff/restart is only necessary if you're setting emergeDesktop as the default shell, essentially replacing Explorer. Simply downloading and running emergeDesktop lets it run right on top of Explorer, with no logoff/restart/any other inconvenient operation required.

"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."

Gord Caswell's picture

Is there an exit switch of some sort? If so, this could very easily join my auto-start and close list of necessary apps. Smile

computerfreaker's picture

Running emerge.exe Quit (no slash or dash is necessary before the Quit parameter) will partially do what you want; it will display a confirmation dialog, though. Do you want me to add a new command-line switch that will close eD without that confirmation dialog? (If you do, suggestions on what switch to use would be welcome)

"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."

Chris Morgan's picture

emerge quit /silent

I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1

computerfreaker's picture

That works. I'll add the extra switch (should I make emerge.exe quit -silent work too?) and send ironhead the patch. The change should reach the eD repository within a day or two.

"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."

Chris Morgan's picture

If you're going to use minuses, when it's more than one character you should follow the established standard and use two of 'em - --silent. I'd recommend using just one or the other - you decide which, won't bother almost anyone.

I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1

computerfreaker's picture

/silent it is, then, since a slash seems to be what the other command-line parts of eD use.

"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."

Did you consider quit-silent since /silent being alone (due to the space before it) seems (at least to me) like it would be an entirely separate parameter?

What would it do if someone thought /silent was it's own parameter and ran "emerge /silent" ?

~3D1T0R

Chris Morgan's picture

Subcommands are quite common in some sorts of applications - svn ci, hg push, git pull, apt-get install, django-admin startproject - which can all then have arguments, some of which will apply to all or many of the subcommands, some of which are subcommand-specific. I would thus expect emerge quit /silent to quit emerge silently. It's doing just the same as emerge quit, but silently. Thus emerge quit /silent makes sense.

I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1

computerfreaker's picture

eD's command-line parser is reasonably robust; if someone was to run "emerge /silent", they would get an error message: Failed to execute "/silent". Nothing else would happen.

"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."

As long as 1: it won't confuse the program if somebody misunderstands it, and 2: you're confident that the end-users are linux geeks smart enough to understand the intricacies of subcommands, then I guess "quit /silent" should be fine.
It's up to you and IronHead.;)

~3D1T0R

computerfreaker's picture

emergeDesktop won't be confused by the extra switch or a misuse of the extra switch; both ironhead and I took a careful look at the patch before it reached the repository, and neither of us found any problems with it.

Users shouldn't be confused by the new switch, either, since it's not quit-exclusive. I added support for the /silent switch to other eD options which usually show a prompt (reboot, suspend, etc.) Adding a /silent switch to something that usually displays a prompt is pretty intuitive, IMHO. Wink

"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."

Making it semi-universal is a good idea, that really straightens out the previously possible confusion.
Good thinking.
Can't wait to see your first DevTest. Wink

~3D1T0R

Gord Caswell's picture

quit /silent is perfect, that'll go nicely into OliverK's AutoClose.

computerfreaker's picture

After a little more discussion and a lot more coding, ironhead and I agreed to stage a joint release. ironhead's release is up; assuming the reception on emergedesktop.org is favorable (in other words, nobody finds a major bug), I'll post the first dev test here in a few days.

"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."