(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

In MS Windows, the desktop has a folder that you can go to - and you can save files to that folder. Does Puppy/Linux have a similar folder or is the only way to get things to the desk to dragging it there?
Can anyone tell me where the desktop folder lives, if it does exist?
Thanks.

Please notice that the 'desktop' is not a property of the operating system but a property of the desktop manager.

Different desktop managers have different behaviour and functionality.

Puppy uses ROX pinboard by default. The icons that you see on the pinboard (desktop) are 'shortcuts' to the actual files that can reside anywhere in your disk. The same as if you had links to documents in your windows desktop.

There is a file that defines what icons you see on the desktop. The name of the file is indicated when the pinboard is started. For puppy, the pinboard file is /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin

If you open that file in a text editor you will see that it defines the position, label and file it is linked to.

Other desktop managers, like the one used by KDE, have a desktop folder that may contain actual files.

Remember that in Linux there are always alternatives. In this case the choice to keep puppy small was to use a very small desktop manager.

One of the challenges moving from Windows is to stop doing things the Windows way and start doing them the way you really want. If you want to work fast in a simple distro, work with puppy. If you want the 'desktop as a folder' functionality, use a distro that has KDE. (puppy will soon have it) or another desktop manager that does that.

I hope that the explanation was clear.

For more information or to look at some other window and desktop managers check
For the most common:
http://xwinman.org/
For other desktop managers
http://xwinman.org/otherdesktops.php
Those aren't the only ones, just the ones the owner of the page know about.

I for example use IDesk desktop with IceWM in another computer.

You also can drag the folder /root/my-documents to the Desktop.

When you save a file in Mozilla, you just have to click on this folder to see your downloaded file.

This is nearly the same as with XP, just one click more.
Advantage: your Desktop does not get messed up with dozens of downloaded files.

Mark

Thanks rarsa. Very well done. I've put it in the Beginners sticky index.

I hope this means it'll be a choice.

If you want the 'desktop as a folder' functionality, use a distro that has KDE. (puppy will soon have it) or another desktop manager that does that.

So often I see nice distros that offer quick responding desktop and windows mangers, surcum to the pressure of "Lets be more Like Windoz" and then there goes our quick respoding desktops.

So if puppy goes to KDE, I hope they continue to release the origanal version also with the updates.

Thanks I've been wondering this for a while...

Mebee one day there will be a section for other folks that may be at my level. Beginner is too advanced for me. Is there a kindergarden section so i kin understand something.

Flash wrote:Thanks rarsa. Very well done. I've put it in the Beginners sticky index.

hehe i feel the same way - a kindergarten section would be for me..
scrpting.. huh?
symlink? what the!
bash? yep that's how i feel
something like puppy for simpeltons hehe
cheers
martin
ps. hope peeps here dont mind tons of questions

don't change the jwm for the default. it's so small. if somebody need to modified the desktop let them to modified with their self.

I need something less demanding than the Beginners too.

And people tells me "You joined 2008 so why do you see yourself as a newbie?"

Kindergarten seems the wrong word though.

How do I ... section for the curious minded?

I have frugal install of several puppy and they fail to get bookmarked files on the windows folders so I wanted to ask a bit like the OP.

where should I save a file I want Seamonkey to be able to find it later?

To drag it to the desktop maybe works but will clutter it up.

where else shpuld such files go?

file:///tmp/bkmrk.html

But I have not tested if it survive a reboot.

Edit

I tried to save it in /tmp/bkmrk.html
but there it did not survive. It is a .html file with many links on so it is very practical to have.

Puppy save everthing else but I have not found any way to save this so it works. Should I save it on the root of the HDD or in the puppy folder which it boot up from?

This sucks, I cant place actual files on the desktop at all, only shortcuts to those files. And judging from the long first-reply in this thread, there is no way to get an actual file on the desktop, nor any actual folder in the file system that is the desktop.

for a custom remaster distribution of puppy, Im going to have to make a desktop short cut to a run-once file, then tell make a note to the user to delete both the shortcut and the actual file, and say where it is. Instead of the file just on the desktop with a "delete this after use" as part of its file name. Blah.

XFCE has the functionality you desire.

Take a look at X-Slacko and Carolina Vanguard.

I agree with some of the other comments, for someone who is new to puppy linux, the beginner forum is too complicated. Could it be that maybe puppy itself is not that user friendly? At least that has been my experience using puppy linux.

I noticed at times when people ask for help, they are told to add command lines and stuff like that, and that's just way over the head of a beginner like me.

I must confess, I'm quite curious here. In all the 35+ yrs I've spent using computers, I have never once saved a file to the desktop. Except for a single occasion, many years ago, when an acquaintance tried to show me, as part of a 'training' excercise...

It felt completely unnatural, and somehow 'wrong'. Needless to say, I didn't repeat the experience...


Regards,

Mike.