The Enhanced Desktop

Desktop mode comes in two styles. The Basic Desktop is the Linux desktop described in The three modes, built on XFCE. The Enhanced Desktop is Breadstick's own desktop, drawn by the app: your Linux windows, with a dock, a launcher, quick settings, a notification center, widgets and desks around them. It runs fewer Linux processes than the Basic Desktop, which leaves more room for your apps under Android's process limit, and it brings your Android apps and widgets in beside Linux.

The Enhanced Desktop is part of Breadstick Pro, and in beta.

Turning it on

Settings > Display > Desktop style, then Enhanced. The next time Desktop mode starts, it starts as the Enhanced Desktop.

It works on any screen. On a phone, apps open maximized, as phone apps do. Floating mode and the Terminal are the same with either style.

Around the edges

• The status strip along the top shows the time, the network and which desk you are on. Tap the time for the notification center, and the status icons for quick settings.
• The dock holds the apps you pinned and the ones that are running, Linux and Android alike. Long-press or right-click an app for Pin to dock or Unpin from dock. All apps opens the launcher.
• The launcher finds apps, recent files and settings from one search box. It has your Linux apps by category, Recent files (files your Linux apps opened), Layouts, your Android apps, and Get more apps.

Quick settings

Quick settings has tiles for the network, sound, dark theme, the clipboard, the on-screen keyboard, screen sharing, SSH, a screenshot of the desktop, restarting audio, desks, and Quiet, which keeps Android notifications on Android. While GPU acceleration runs, a GPU tile chooses whether apps opened next draw with the graphics chip or the processor. A slider sets the Linux volume, and another the display scale for apps opened next.

Cards below the tiles show what is playing, the processes Linux uses where Android limits them, and Linux updates waiting. Edit quick settings hides tiles, shows them again and moves them up or down.

Notifications

The notification center holds notifications from Linux apps and, with Phone notifications on under Settings > Device access, your Android notifications, with their replies and actions.

Widgets

Right-click or long-press an empty part of the desktop and choose Edit widgets. Drag a widget to move it, use its pencil to change it and its cross to remove it, and Add widget opens the gallery, with two kinds:

• Breadstick's own: Agenda (the date and your next events, with Calendar on under Settings > Device access), Breadstick Linux (processor, memory and storage), Now playing (what a Linux music or video player is playing, with its controls), Note, App folder (a folder of apps, one tap each), Desks, and Room to run (how many more apps fit before Android closes Linux, on devices where Android enforces that limit).
• Android widgets: any widget your Android apps offer, such as your calendar, the weather, notes, music controls or a to-do list. They are live, the same widgets you would put on your home screen: tap and scroll them where they are. Tapping one that opens its app opens that app in its own Android window. The first time you add one, Android asks you to allow Breadstick to show widgets, and a widget that needs setting up shows its own setup screen.

If there is no room left for a widget, remove one or make one smaller.

Android apps

Your Android apps are in the launcher, under Android apps, and can be pinned to the dock. They open as their own Android windows, beside the Enhanced Desktop.

Desks

Desks are separate desktops, each with its own windows, up to four. Desks overview shows them all at once: tap one to go there, add one with New desk, or remove one. Desks in Desktop mode, under Settings > Display, sets how many there are, and the same keys and gestures as on the Basic Desktop move between them: see Desks.

The desktop's menu

Right-click or long-press an empty part of the desktop for Apps, Desks overview, Edit widgets and Settings. Settings, like the launcher's and quick settings' links to it, opens Breadstick Settings as a window on the desktop, so you can change Breadstick without leaving it. See Settings.