A panel task switcher for XFCE on Debian

In Gnome of course you can see all your open windows and switch between tasks with Alt+Tab. In Windows you can do this with a panel button - something which I wondered a decade ago whether might be possible in Linux. Always prompt to find and answer to issues, I offer you, ten years later, Skippy-XD, full screen task switcher for X11.

Skippy-XD is not available from the Debian repositories. You can compile it from source, or cheat like me and get it from MX Linux as a Debian package. I tested the MX 19 package on Debian Testing. It works, but may not necessarily be as stable as something from the Debian repository.

To add Skippy to the XFCE panel, add a launcher to the panel with the command

skippy-xd –activate-window-picker

The screenshot above is not the default appearance. By default, the uppermost window on the desktop is tinted and the lower windows are slightly transparent,  windows are without icons, and windows appear on the screen as is when Skippy is activated, so if you have multiple windows visible on the desktop, Skippy will display the same windows on top of themselves, but transparent, which can be a bit difficult to view. I have edited the configuration file to remove transparency and tint, have an icon on the windows, and use the desktop wallpaper as a background.

To change settings, copy the configuration file from /etc/xdg/skippy-xd.rc to ~/.config/skippy-xd/skippy-xd.rc 

I edited these lines of the configuration file:

clientDisplayModes = thumbnail-icon icon filled none 

[Displays an image of open windows with the icon of the application superimposed, and falls back to just an icon when an image is not available - if the window is minimised or on another workspace.]

background = tile /home/<user>/homeworld.png 

[.svg wallpaper files don't work.]

[normal] 

# tint = black 

tintOpacity = 0 

opacity = 255 

[highlight] 

#tint = #101020 

tintOpacity = 0 

opacity = 255 

[No transparency, no tint.]

[tooltip]

border = #404040 

background = #404040

[No white border.]

For anyone curious, the dock in the screenshot and video above is the XFCE docklike plugin, also available for Debian from MX Linux.