Can someone explain why you can't right click on the desktop and create a new shortcut.
I have been a windows user for over 25 years and it is easy to do there.
And I thought makulu was designed to be similar to windows.
But I think they have missed one important operation.

Hi Sparks79.

In Linux, distributions normally have a choice of desktop environments. Each of these works in different (although similar) ways, including how they allow you to create new shortcuts, so in order to help you we first have to find out which desktop environment you are using.

According to the DistroWatch Makulu page, Makulu comes with the Aero, KDE, LxFce, Unity or Xfce desktop environments. Which are you using?

I am sorry but I don't know what desktop environment was installed because I got so peed off with a lot things I switched back to windows.
At the age of 69 and as I said earlier being a windows user for over 25 years it's hard to understand linux.
There are a lot of things I like about Linux But there are a lot of things I just don't understand.
And could I Quote what you said here ( In Linux, distributions normally have a choice of desktop environments ), Well I did not see any Option During the Install Mentioning This.
Anyway I would simply not know which one I would need anyway.
Anyway at present My Main Dismay is Not being able to Use all my SSD's in Raid because I can't understand their Ridiculously Long set of of Procedures.
That's why I started another Topic on Raid which no one has commented on yet.

Linux uses .desktop files placed in the /home/user/Desktop directory. They are regular text files formatted like so:That one launches file-roller. It is called file-roller.desktop. So, you write a file like that and save it to your Desktop directory. Then it will appear on the desktop. When you click it it will launch the program.

There are other options for .desktop files also.

Normally the choice of desktop environment isn't made at the time of installation (although it can be). You download the initial Linux installer in the flavour that you want from the distribution website in question e.g. for Linux Mint, you can download the Linux Mint installer in Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce or KDE flavours.

Can you remember where you downloaded the installer from? If not, can you post the results of the following commands entered in the terminal:

echo $DESKTOP_SESSION

and

ls /usr/bin/*session

Replying to ( hydrurga ).
You Said ( In Linux, distributions normally have a choice of desktop environments. Each of these works in different (although similar) ways, including how they allow you to create new shortcuts, so in order to help you we first have to find out which desktop environment you are using.

According to the DistroWatch Makulu page, Makulu comes with the Aero, KDE, LxFce, Unity or Xfce desktop environments. Which are you using?).
I have no ides what it was and can't tell now because I have wiped Makulu and gone back to Windows 10.
And that's where I'll be Staying for a while.
So for Me End of Topic, Bye

Amazing isn't it........
..... a 'Windows' user expects a superior O/S to be like that bug infested, virus ridden, often hacked product!

There's no need to be so sarcastic! This wasn't some loser trying to get us to do his homework for him and he wasn't a troll either. He was a genuinely confused newbie and now we've frightened him away. Of course people are more comfortable with what they know, especially old people. I should know that; I'm over 70 myself. But I, like many women of my generation who worked in offices in the 60's, had met command line before and was familiar with some basic software concepts. It was Windows that was strange to me and I never really got the hang of it. For him and many others, Windows is familiar and Linux is strange. I'm not at all surprised at the way he reacted.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hazel is correct fatmac. Please offer help versus personal, negative opinions.

Genuine question Hazel. How do you think I should have handled it differently so that I didn't frighten him away?

I think it was probably a mistake to give him that list of desktops as a first response. Think how that looks to someone who is quite unfamiliar with the idea of interchangeable desktops, because Windows has never provided them. Perhaps just ask him if he knows which desktop he is using because they have different ways of creating shortcuts: some do it exactly like Windows (right-click and choose New/Shortcut) and some don't.

If he couldn't answer that, the next step would be to find out what the default desktop for Makulu is. I've never heard of this distro but I'm sure there is a Distrowatch review, a website, and probably a Wikipedia article. Then we could have told him what to do to get his icons and also how to get a more Windows-like desktop if that's what he prefers.

But hindsight is cheap. I can see in retrospect what went wrong with this thread, but that doesn't mean I could have given a better answer than yours at the time.

Fair enough. I did take a look at his previous post (http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ux-4175596494/) and assumed that he wasn't that much of a newbie to computing. The reason I gave him the list was to see if any of the names sparked recognition.

I have to say that I get a small impression that the OP was just in the mood for complaining in this thread rather than really wanting to be helped anyway. I hope you don't mind me saying so. I mean, he wrote at 07:40, I replied at 08:07 and then by 09:55 he said that he had wiped Makulu. But I gave it a go anyway.

Anyway, thanks for your feedback Hazel. Much appreciated.

Distrowatch says Makulu!

If I'd been answering this question, I would have gone down a screen on the Distrowatch entry and seen that the default is Cinnamon, regardless of what else is available. On the other hand, I'd have taken "shortcut" to refer to a key stroke, but I now realise he probably meant "how to I create a desktop icon". The answer would have been "drag the menu entry onto the desktop", rather than creating a file. The moral is that if it needs attention to ask the right question, it also needs attention to answer. But I probably have a head start in both arts from my youth as a college librarian!

I had gone to Makulu's web page last night when I first saw this, before that impression had struck me myself, or I'd have done the exact same as you did: ask for more information. However I gave his posts a second read to see if I had missed the information when I realized he didn't really seem to want the help (his final post on the topic confirms such).

I didn't think you were rude, nor did you get too technical (the OP did state he had 25 years in computing).

Honestly if he was serious, having such experience, he'd know solving such problems take time. Even in the user friendly Windows, solutions don't just present themselves.