Do we know what the status of some of those visual changes are they look amazing and I don’t see them in Qubes 4.1. Considering they slower pace of Qubes OS releases I’d hate to wait years for such promising improvements to UX.
it will be available in qubes … 4.2
not a year, but 3 year (qubes often release new ver in 2 year)
that because the slow development of qubes os
Unfortunately, Qubes OS has very few developers and even many of those have a day job simultaneously. Please join the development or donate if you can, if you want faster improvements.
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You have to install them. See
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This is cool. What’s the easiest way to go about it? Is it similar to Arch where I download the repo and do a make build?
Btw, I posted the wrong link. This is the right one: GitHub - QubesOS/qubes-desktop-linux-menu (has some instruction).
It’s already in the qubes-testing repositories for Qubes 4.1. Read about how to install that here: How to install software in dom0 | Qubes OS (assuming you are on Qubes 4.1 which is currently in beta).
Testing it out now. It looks great!
(my display is only 1280x800, and it’s bigger than the entire display, but it still looks awesome).
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What’s the package name in the repo?
Edit: Requires the ‘unstable’ repo in R4.1
Package named ‘qubes-desktop-linux-menu’
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Great! I was wondering why it didn’t work… But if it’s in unstable I’d rather wait a few more weeks 
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You can have both the original menu and the unstable menu side-by-side.
sudo qubes-dom0-update --enablerepo=qubes-dom0-unstable qubes-desktop-linux-menu will install the package. The git readme will explain what you need to do next to get it working.
…and you can always uninstall it if you don’t end up liking it…
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First do this:
Then do this:
Everything you need is contained in this beautifully-written documentation. Took me 3 minutes to install, and didn’t have to do anything complicated. Enjoy your Valentina menu!
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While visually undoubtedly appealing, me being old school have to admit that all we essentially get is more clicks to get to the point we want comparing to the current app menu. But, I am also aware that this is not built for us, but for the new generations coming ahead, and that it will be normal for them until in 20 years they “invent” simpler menu - the current one…
Not a single moment ungrateful for the great work and contribution, of course!
more clicks to get to the point we want comparing to the current app menu
Are you sure? I was under the impression that this was one of the core design principles: to make it less clicks.
In any case, user like you an me are able to configure their own solution (dmenu, whiskermenu … whatever).
I find myself not using the menu as a menu (for discovery) anyways. It’s just a search field to launch whatever I know is there. No mouse involved.
I guess it’s a matter of a routine. I do use mouse and in my routine it is more clicks. On the other hand my starting point is Qube Manager, and if someone would ask me, I’d like to see there in qubes’ context menus cascading entry “applications”, just like in dom0’s desktop context menu. But again I also remember a few (4?) years ago rebels against QM dropping off from the first releases of Qubes 4, so I am grateful to have it even like this, haha.
Please apologize for spinning off the topic.
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“Fewer clicks” is not a design principle, unfortunately. It is a goal that many non-designers cite as desirable, because it’s the end result of many other actual design principles in action. The design principles for this project were laid-out in a GDoc and PDF, linked-to from the project’s issue.
Requiring the wrist and finger movements (with a mouse or pad) that today’s menu does, is problematic for accessibility. For users with dexterity issues, the drawer is a preferred approach. Likewise, for users wanting to use Qubes on small screens, they want to be able to “contain” the menu; and resizing this is a feature that I think has yet to be built in.
Also: this menu is our FIRST BEST GUESS. We need to do real testing with folks, an solicit real world feedback to then itterate upon. We’re not expecting this to be perfect. 
I can’t get a machine to run 4.1 on just yet, so unfortunately even I have yet to play with the menu. Which sucks pretty hard.
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What your describing has been sketched! However, with the extremely limited resources the project has, we had to prioritize re-doing the primary App Menu ahead of all else.
@quququbebebe You get a graphic wireframe tool and draw a desktop to look like that—no code involved, so all you get is pretty pictures. That’s how! Sorry, I don’t code. I just make things like that screenshot… so Marta can then sit and explain to me how hard XFCE’s toolbar is to make look like that, for reasons that would not be so hard if Qubes had a well staffed full-time dev team to make their own toolbar from scratch.
Namely, 1. Icons on the desktop cannot be transparent. They all have to have those dumb white boxes around them, for Reasons™. 2. The outline around the icons is part of the settings—and, yes, we can make it a default to not show the outline and to give more padding between all the icons (part of why my mockup looks so fabulous). All of that takes time, though—and even if it might only take a little time, with a single-digit number of developers on the entire project… that’s just not a priority.
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Sorry, ninavizz. Thank you very much for all of your efforts.
Nothing to be sorry for—at all! Qubes exists and is amazing. For that, and for the rest of the core team and the contributor community also being amazing, I’m immensely grateful for.
It’s on all of us to get more funding secured, so we can do releases more quickly and invest more in the UI. Yes, that would be easy if folks were kosher with the VC route—but the fact that we aren’t and that preserving the project’s integrity is a priority, is much of why I love the project and the community so much.
Qube Manager […] remember a few (4?) years ago rebels against QM dropping off from the first releases of Qubes 4
lol I remember that. I think I was very concerned about it too at the time.
Now, I couldn’t tell you the last time I launched Qubes Manager… or what I would use it for. It seems fully redundant and a very slow way to get anything done. Funny how time changes perspective.
It’s kind of cool though that the project allows so much freedom for different people to have very different workflows. Great job!
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