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Comment by 6c696e7578 | Hacker News Reader

Probably seems weird to you, but I've never got on with the Windows UI. There's too many things that steal focus. I've been XFCE for too many years now, but it doesn't change significantly that I find I have to invest time learning what's changed.

There used to be a 'tile windows' since windows 2.0 or something like that, but it did just that, splatted the windows to take up all the space.

One thing I like about X11 and Windows doesn't do it, is alt-dragging from anywhere in the window, last time I used Windows you couldn't move things around by holding alt and left clicking anywhere, you could only do that from the title bar, which means you can't slide the top of the window off the screen.

The other major thing for me is selection copy, if you highlight text, you can't middle mouse button to paste it, you have to ctrl-c first, which is just more steps.

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Yeah ... As an exclusive Linux user for almost 20 years being forced to work in Windows for the first time is super weird.

The two things that trip me up are that you able to move windows to a position that you can't move them away anymore.

And that apparently maximized windows sometimes leave a 10px gap at the top so that you click on the window behind :-/

I rarely get focus stolen on Windows 10. They now make it very difficult for applications to do this (see the allowed conditions here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winuser/... ). In contrast, focus stealing is a way of life on XFCE, and I just have to put up with it. The settings they recommend to fix it don't actually help.

Really? There's two programs I know of that will take focus and they're both authentication prompts. The sort of thing that cranks my handle on Windows were mostly from the browser and almost anything else.

With XFCE though, I'm quite happy with the level of focus stealing, things that seem to be justifiable are at the right level, like authentication prompts.

Out of interest, what are the things that take focus for you? Maybe we're running totally different sets of programs which might give me an impression that isn't warranted.

Long time XFCE user here. Steam will absolutely steal focus. I usually start Steam and then move over to something else like the terminal or web browser and multiple times during Steam's startup it will steal focus. I just want it to start up in the background. Aside from that, I agree focus stealing isn't a huge deal in XFCE. (XFCE 4.18, Debian trixie/testing)

Now you mention it, my kid has sometimes had problems with Steam where it has started a game and we can't easily leave the game. I presumed though that was a deliberate design so that your game has focus as that's the thing that's most interactive. Usually a pkill -f <game> is needed.

I've not noticed focus stealing outside of Steam. What is steam made from, it seems very browserish.

This topic is causing some self-reflection and wonder if I am the peculiar one who does different things and just not bumping into it, I mainly work from xterm, screen, mutt, vim and a lot of time in firefox. Perhaps this combination just doesn't start things that request focus, but when in MS Windows I noticed it a lot.

You're right about steam, but now I'm on a path of wondering...

This topic confirms that focus stealing is a thing in XFCE, I have some research to do!

https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=14461

The Office 365 message that it is unable to log into a resource (usually because your VPN has dropped, not unusual for home workers nowadays) doesn't even go into focus when it's supposed to be at this point.

I am baffled as to how that has been allowed to go on so long. It makes Office a trainwreck usability wise.

> alt-dragging

In case you hadn't come across it yet, there's a third-party piece of software called AltDrag [0] that lets you do it. It's kind of a must have for me whenever I have to use windows. Yes this should just be builtin

[0] https://stefansundin.github.io/altdrag/

There is also https://github.com/RamonUnch/AltSnap which is a fork of AltDrag.

you can't slide the top of the window off the screen

You can use "move" in the system menu. Once activated, the arrow keys in the keyboard will move the window outside the desktop window, not sure if you can do it using the mouse somehow.

Interesting, I didn't know that, I think I'll stick to alt-moving, it's been very convenient so far!

You can also use Win+Up arrow key to maximize the window, from there you can grab the title bar to drag it somewhere (preferably inside the desktop this time).

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