ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Old-school Linux had a lot of cool tricks up its sleeves.
- Some of the long-gone features made the OS really special.
- With these features, you could eke out serious cool factor and efficiency.
Linux has always been ahead of its time. Even during its teething period, the open-source operating system showed great potential to those who hadn’t been blinded by looking at Windows for too long.
And there were features! It seemed every time someone said or thought “Linux,” a new Linux feature was born. Some of those features came and went quickly because they simply had little value or popularity. Some, on the other hand, went to the great Matrix in the sky way ahead of their time.
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I think about some of those features every time I sit in front of a Linux-based computer (which is every day), and I thought I’d share with you those that I wish were still around.
Understand, this isn’t just in the name of nostalgia; some of these features were actually handy and even made using the OS more efficient.
Without further ado, let’s get to the features.
1. Transparency everywhere
I remember the first time I discovered transparency on AfterStep. I’d spend hours at a time customizing the desktop to add transparency everywhere: desktop menu, window bars, windows, applets… You name it, and I added transparency to it.
No, this did not directly affect Linux’s usability, but it certainly made it look really cool. In fact, I often had people ask me how they could get the same desktop.
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This feature came by way of transparent window compositing that actually worked effectively. You didn’t need beefed-up hardware to add transparency to every aspect of the desktop, because it ran with extreme efficiency. Think about the power available to a PC from, say, 2003, and imagine running a modern OS with a modern interpretation of transparency. You know exactly what happens: the computer comes to a slow, grinding halt.
That was not the case back in the early days; transparency ran quickly and didn’t bog down the system, nor did it require special hardware to make it happen.
2. Ctrl+Alt+backspace
This really should come back. If something happened to lock up your desktop (more common in the early days of KDE 1.0 and Helix GNOME, especially if you’d spent hours tinkering with your desktop), simply hitting Ctrl+Alt+Backspace would automatically send you back to the desktop login screen.
I used this keyboard shortcut a lot, and I remember the first time it was removed. I was shocked at the decision, because Ctrl+Alt+Delete was like having a failsafe that could get you out of a jam and to a place where you could fix the issue.
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To replace that, I now have to SSH into the problematic machine (which is rare, by the way), locate the app causing the issue, and kill the offending software. Either that or I kill the desktop session or reboot the computer. I’d love to have Ctrl+Alt+Backspace again.
3. Middle mouse button copy/paste
OK, let’s first get this out of the way: I know some distributions still include middle-mouse-button copy/paste.
That said, when I first started using Linux, I discovered I could easily select a section of text with the mouse and paste it wherever needed by using the middle mouse button instead of Ctrl+v. It was such an easy and efficient way to copy and paste text.
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Even though some distributions still include the feature, in many cases, you have to enable it for it to work. This is a shame because it should be enabled by default on every distribution, and every app should honor the feature. The middle-mouse-button copy/paste option is something the Linux distro invented and should retain until time immemorial.
4. Crazy Enlightenment themes
For a long time, Enlightenment was my window manager of choice. One of the reasons for that was the amazing number of available themes, some of which were crazy. I remember one theme that turned app window borders into an H.R. Giger-esque sci-fi hellscape, and I was all over it. The coolest thing about these themes? They didn’t just add a splash of color to desktop elements; they often totally reshaped them.
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I remember one theme that miniaturized the window bar to just large enough to hold the three window buttons (close, minimize, maximize), and not much more. In conjunction with another feature below (#5), you could reclaim all the window space you needed, while still having easy access to your desktop. Here’s a sample gallery of the themes you could add. It truly was an age of enlightenment.
5. Vertical window bars
Next to the transparency, this was one of my favorite features. Instead of the usual horizontal window bars, you could configure them vertically. Yes, it took a minute to get used to the different location, but once you were accustomed to it, you’d find it incredibly intuitive and wonder why more desktops didn’t opt for that route.
When you combine vertical window bars with full transparency, you’d end up with a desktop look and feel that was the envy of everyone around you. There are still ways to get vertical title bars, but it involves using a desktop such as Fluxbox or one of the many tiling window managers and configuring it via text files, which is something you’d only want to do if you’re comfortable with the command line and possibly breaking things.
6. Shadable windows
This is another feature that a handful of distributions claim to have retained, but it’s rarely (if ever) enabled by default and only available with the likes of Enlightenment (Elive) or Moksha (Bodhi). This feature used to be found in GNOME, Xfce, and Cinnamon, but was removed some time ago. There is a GNOME Extension for this feature, but there’s no indication as to whether it still works or how to install it.
If you’ve never experienced shadable windows, it means that if you double-click on the window bar, the app will roll up into the “shade,” leaving nothing behind but the bar. Combine this with vertical task bars, and you have an entirely new look and feel for your desktop, without having to even consider retheming.
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Some distributions still use shading windows, while others make the claim but do not deliver. If I had to select a single feature on this list to bring back, it would be this.
7. Compiz
Compiz was what all the cool Linux kiddies were using back in the day. Compiz brought special effects to the desktop, the likes of which Windows and MacOS had never dreamed of. There was the 3D cube workspace/app switcher, wobbly windows, various window animations, flash close/open window effects, and more.
Compiz was all about window decorations, desktop effects, and animations, and was a tinkerer’s dream come true.
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When Wayland came into play, it merged the functionality of the window compositor and graphics server into a single program, making Compiz no longer necessary.
Installing and using Compiz was like a rite of passage and a means to much gloating. Once you had Compiz up and running, you felt like the apex creator in the Linux (and open-source) communities.
