Hi. I've been using Linux for over a dozen years. When the graphic user interface versions started I used Fedora. Switched to Ubuntu about 3-4 years ago. Then the Unity thing struck, had to quit Ubuntu, and I tried Mint but it's not really for me.

Here's my problem: I'm a heavy keyboard user, prefer to avoid the mouse, and I'm looking for a distro that caters to keyboard users like myself. Any ideas?

- I'm not looking for a command-line only version. I know one is out there because I searched this topic first before I posted here.
- Unlike some I'm not anti-mouse. I do desktop publishing for example so I mouse plenty.
- I've been tagged as a newbie here at your forum. Although I've gotten answers from this forum for several years, this is my first login and post.

Really all I need is consistency. For example there's keystrokes that drill down through directories and if they work consistently every release I'm happy. Otherwise I need a typical full-featured distro. I do a little programming, I'm an instructor/counselor in Chicago, have a small business too. I'm not a gamer, obviously. I do write HTML+CSS from scratch. You get the idea...

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Try ratpoison window manager, probably available in repositories for any distro.

1 members found this post helpful.

Ratpoison is available on a Salix installation disk, but it's a very acquired taste:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/review...p?product=1946

I wouldn't think that this is distro specific. While some distros come with tiling WMs (which are aimed at "keyboard users") by default, basically any distro can be set up the way you want it. So if you are, besides Unity, happy wit Ubuntu there is no need to switch. Just switch your desktop environment to something that better fits your needs. It doesn't even have to be a tiling WM, almost any WM can be set up to work with keyboard shortcuts.

Was there ever a good window manager that you liked that did what you wanted?

I could survive on MC midnight commander.

Salix Ratpoison is excellent, the applications (browser, file manager, etc) are carefully chosen to be keyboard-driven. In particular if you like the 'vi' editor then you will love Salix Ratpoison.

http://people.salixos.org/tsuren/doc...Ratpoison.html

Got ratpoison up and running. Next got to learn it.

In my Linuxmint I had to
install X11
install ratpoison
edit .xinitrc with one command ratpoison
startx -- :2

The option to the startx command is because another xserver is already running.

As regards the various posts, I was probably happiest with the early Linux distros. Nowadays in both Linux and (at work) MS Windows I spend up to 15% of my time fussing with the bizarre clutter and inconsistencies the developers are implementing.

TobiSGD is right also and it's something I was unaware of. The problem I face is not distro-specific. If I can install something like ratpoison anywhere then I can stop being bothered with inconsistent keyboard commands and gimmick-ridden mouse commands.


Regards,
Charles Williams
www.trialwebsite.biz