Emoji Picker (and FancyZones alternative?)

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I am migrating from Windows and used to press Win+. (dot) to get an emoji picker. This is now unavailable in Budgie. Goolging found “smile” (GitHub - mijorus/smile: An emoji picker for linux, with custom tags support and localization. I'll also put some random emojis here 🦁🐾🦔🦇), but I could not find it in NixOS package search. Do I really need to use flatpack?

Is there any other emoji picker build in?

Some related question, but not urgent. I am still searching and trying out things…

I am open to switch my desktop environment. I chose Budgie because of the promises of “window shuffler”. However, the first impression is not good. Even Win+right does not move a Window to another screen.

Thus, I am searching for an alternative. Are there recommendations for a desktop environment?

I am used of the concept of FancyZones, where “dropzones” are shown while dragging a window. One can even drop to multiple zones using the Shift Key.

A working terminal would be nice.

  • No light-gray font on white background (the contrast is too low)
  • Alt+F should work (to move cursor forward one word) - and not open the File menu
  • Copy and paste should work. I am used to mark text and press Enter to copy, but marking alone is also OK for me. (Mate Term supports that, but it has issues with Alt+F and color contrast)
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You can use IBus input method, it has emoji input built-in. Just add the following NixOS option and the default shortcut Super-. will work. (Well, there is an issue with GTK 4 apps Super+. does not open emoji chooser in GTK 4 apps on Wayland · Issue #2607 · ibus/ibus · GitHub).

i18n.inputMethod.enabled = "ibus";

GTK 4 has built in emoji picker with Ctrl-. shortcut, so you will need to use that in GTK 4 apps instead.

GNOME Shell has had that forever but it is not as advanced (only left/right/maximize out of the box). There is a third-party extension gnomeExtensions.tiling-assistant that adds more advanced tiling support including multiple layouts.

Most terminal emulator apps will have configurable colours but I would expect contrast to be acceptable out of the box. Maybe open an issue in Nixpkgs.

I do not think most apps support customization of keyboard shortcuts so either you will need to find one that does or learn your app’s shortcut (e.g. Ctrl-Shift-g in GNOME Terminal).

Selecting text to copy it will work in most programs on “Linux” (without needing to press Enter) but it will be “copied” into a PRIMARY selection, not the CLIPBOARD selection used for Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V. PRIMARY most commonly uses a middle mouse button to paste (also Shift-Insert in some apps, but in others, it will paste from CLIPBOARD). I love having two separate “clipboards” since I can use PRIMARY as a temporary buffer, while keeping CLIPBOARD unchanged. I also use a clipboard manager in case I need more than two values at a time.