Icons on Desktop
 

Hi, new here, so please be patient with my 'dumb questions' :o
I have just installed Debian 8 on my computer. I've used other Linux OS's in the past, but after being away from Linux for quite a while, I thought I'd get back into it with Debian.
3 things -
1. I've tried to drag and drop the Firefox icon onto my desktop and it doesn't drag! How do I get it onto my desktop.
2. My toolbar at the bottom of the desktop (launch menu) is so small that I can hardly read it. The Desktop print (Debian 8) is large enough, but the toolbar is about 1/8" tall! How do I make it larger for reading the icons?
3. How do I put a picture of my own onto the desktop? I can do it in Windows, but it seems that things have changed in Linux in the past few years that I've been away from it, OR, Debian isn't as user friendly as some of the other distros were.

What Desktop Environment or Window Manager?

So did you install Debian 8 with xfce desktop environment?

If you installed gnome 3, putting .desktop files in the directory: will make icons appear on the desktop. Try Changing the desktop picture you right click on it and select "change backround".

Cinnamon

Right-click on the panel and it should offer 'panel preferences' to increase font size and panel size.

Got that from here

http://superuser.com/questions/72671...on-in-cinnamon

Another way to do get the icon on your desktop is to open the Menu, then go to Internet, then when you see Firefox, right-click on it and choose Add to Desktop.


Right-click on the panel (taskbar) and choose Panel Settings. Check the first box under "Size Options" that says "Use customized panel size" and move the "Bottom panel height" slider to the right to make the panel larger in height.


Click on Menu on the panel, and to System Settings, click on Backgrounds, click on +Add, and choose picture in your files.

Done. :hattip:

That didn't work for me, so I just gave up on it ...... increasing the size (another post, by eric2282) did help, so I just went with it! That's what I use now, just a matter of getting used to doing things differently, I guess ;).

Sorry I haven't got back to you folks for thank you's , Thanks!

I'm not really too fond of Debian 8. In the past, I usually used derivatives like Mepis and others - they seemed much more user friendly, but even the smaller ones like antiX, DSL, etc., aren't as user friendly as they once were. It's probably me, not the distro, or maybe all these new DE's! Perhaps I should look around and maybe go back to something like XFCE again. I did like that in a couple of distros.

Anyways, thanks again for the help!
MJ73

If you say so. My Autistic grandson may disagree with you though.

I'm sorry, I~ don't understand this: Why do you think Debian is unfriendly when you're using the non-default Cinnamon DE? Is Cinnamon under Debian more restrictive than it is under other distributions?

If you would like a desktop from the old days that's user friendly, I'd reccomend MATE. Debian isn't a compile everything yourself distro nor a manually edit 2002-bootloaders (Slackware), but it's not the most user friendly.

I would say openSUSE if a step better if you want to mess with deep settings with a GUI, and Ubuntu or Mint are even more friendly.

I would recommend MATE if you like the desktops of the golden days of drag/drop 50-panel stuff.

No offense to your grandson, but this old man is/has always been a computer-illiterate, so I have a hard time adjusting to new DE's,apps, etc. I'd be happy if Libranet or Beatrix were still available.

I didn't know that Cinnamon was non-default, I thought it was a choice - something to choose from when installing. I'm sorry if I've offended you, it just doesn't do for me what some of the others did in other earlier times. I'll probably end up removing it if I find something more user friendly - BTW, that won't be one of the many flavors of *Buntu's as they have never been friendly to me.