Desktop environments

[bgast1]

First of all, I recognize that it's all personal choice. Can we discuss the merits of whether KDE, Gnome, or other is best?

Personally, I like the way KDE looks better. But I find that my machine seems to run better with Gnome. I like some KDE packages better than Gnome packages. An example would be Kb3 vs. Brasero or whatever seems to what Gnome is using for burning. Both work. Sometimes I like Amarok better, sometimes I like Rhythmbox better. Rhythmbox doesn't have an equalizer that I know of. Amarok does. Don't know about the virtues of any of the other apps for playing music.

Beyond that, I don't really know which is better. That's what's nice about Linux. You can choose which applications you like best.

[smartboyathome]

Theres XFCE, which is lighter(ish) than GNOME but still full featured, and LXDE which is lighter still. I use E17 which is more of a Window Manager, but has qualities of a desktop environment. They prefer the term "desktop shell" (which fits).

[billgoldberg]

For my main computer I don't like using DE's.

I prefer adding the packages I like myself (or remove the ones I don't need).

I also prefer fluxbox for my working station. It get things done much faster (thanks to the keys file) and is a lot faster.

On my laptop I run a regular unmodified version of Ubuntu with compiz fusion.

[akiratheoni]

I actually prefer Openbox with no desktop environment, so the problem of how programs look on the desktop and blend in with the environment is a non-issue for me since I don't use KDE or GNOME :)

[billgoldberg]

I actually prefer Openbox with no desktop environment, so the problem of how programs look on the desktop and blend in with the environment is a non-issue for me since I don't use KDE or GNOME :)

Still, you are going to theme your qt and gtk apps or else they won't look good.

[bgast1]

If I wanted to take a look at openbox, how would I do that. I took a look at Fluxbox and certainly understand why some of you would like it. It certainly is uncluttered. Those of you that use fluxbox do you set up any kind of background or just use a plain colored background and just go for the quickness and ease of use? Why would one chose fluxbox over say Gnome or Xfce?

Also, what is the difference between aptitude and apt-get?

I took a look at E17, man that looks pretty cool. I'm still fairly inexperienced with Linux, and by no means a geek (would like to become one, but I learn a lot slower than some people.

[smartboyathome]

To get openbox, sudo apt-get install openbox, then you can select it at the login screen, like Fluxbox. I don't use Fluxbox, but I can tell you people would use it because it has all the features they want and none they don't, or because it uses less resources (or both!).

The difference between aptitude and apt-get are that aptitude stores what dependancies are installed with a package, and removes those packages (as long as another package isn't dependant on it as well) when you remove the program.

E17 is my primary desktop. It can be customized easily, but you should check out OzOS's forum to get full use of it (see it here (http://cafelinux.org/forum/index.php?board=147.0)). It has a lot of useful tutorials for E17, some of which I used with my E17 install on Arch. You should use Rui's guide (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=546746) to install it if you haven't, though. It keeps you up to date with the CVS (the other repos don't).

[bgast1]

Off topic here sort of... The only time I have ever installed another operating system was when I had XP and I installed Linux and a seperate hard drive. I am not real comfortable yet messing with partitions, but I was wondering if I can install other distros on the same hard disk? What will GRUB do? Or can you direct me to a tutorial? I would like to take a look at Arch and Debian but I need one operating system that I can use and not break anything. I have 3 hard drives. Perhaps I could copy everything from my 2nd to my 3rd Hard drive because I don't want to lose it, and use my 2nd for playing around?

[smartboyathome]

I would recommend you use virtual machines to do testing. Just use Virtualbox (it is easy enough to use).

[hessiess]

currently using awesome, nice and simple, no useless fetures, dosent waste screen space.

[cardinals_fan]

I actually prefer Xfce to Openbox. It can be quite minimal if customized properly, and it's flawlessly stable.

[jittopjose]

in previous time i preferred XFCE as its light and also matured. its a project started at the early stages of linux development.
but in recent time, there seems to be no development is happening in XFCE project. no new releases for almost last 1yr.
Now am using LXDE. its faster than XFCE and also beautiful than XFCE. and also its in active development. i decided to stay with it even though its not matured and feature rich enough. i hope LXDE will hit the desktop environment market in the near future.
thanks,
jittos....

[RiceMonster]

Eck, I don't like LXDE at all. It's like Openbox gone bad (must have been hard work). Lxappearance is a really good gtk theme switcher/manager though. That's all I like from it.

Xfce is nice, but Openbox beats it by a small amount. Openbox is just perfect for me.

[jittopjose]

LXDE is a very young project. started just 2 yr back. but in active development only in last 7 or 8 months. but still it is counted as good as xfce which is almost 8 yrs old. thats the progress and popularity LXDE gets..

[bgast1]

I just took a look at LXDE. Seems pretty nice to me. Might even try it out for a while. Need to learn a bit about Open Box before I use it.

[doorknob60]

Yeah, LXDE is really nice, although I wouldn't consider it complete yet. It works wonderfully on my craptop, noticabely faster (and saved some valuable HD space) on my craptop compared to Xfce :) Also I tried Openbox on my desktop, and I woulda stuck with it if I found a good panel that I liked. Perlpanel came close, but the openboxmenu applet for it is incomplete, so I ditched the idea for now and I'm back with KDE. BTW if you end up trying Debian, make sure you try it with KDE, it's alot better than Kubuntu's KDE :)

[jimi_hendrix]

2 questions...with xfce do you still have compiz effects (i cant live without that cube)

and what does a desktop look like without DEs?

[bgast1]

Yeah, LXDE is really nice, although I wouldn't consider it complete yet. It works wonderfully on my craptop, noticabely faster (and saved some valuable HD space) on my craptop compared to Xfce :) Also I tried Openbox on my desktop, and I woulda stuck with it if I found a good panel that I liked. Perlpanel came close, but the openboxmenu applet for it is incomplete, so I ditched the idea for now and I'm back with KDE. BTW if you end up trying Debian, make sure you try it with KDE, it's alot better than Kubuntu's KDE :)

I would love to install and use Debian, but I can't seem to understand how to get my video card driver installed (ATI Radeon X1950 Pro PCIe). Don't know how to install KDE or any other desktop. I think those are the only 2 issues that would keep me from switching to Debian completely.

[bgast1]

2 questions...with xfce do you still have compiz effects (i cant live without that cube)

and what does a desktop look like without DEs?

I know that I got compiz effects working once before with xfce. I have several environments installed right now that I can switch with sessions but haven't even attempted compiz. I've found that my machine always runs faster and smoother without the compiz enabled. About the only time I ever play with the cube is when I have my 14 month old grand daughter on my lap. :lolflag: I only have it enabled with Gnome.

[cardinals_fan]

in previous time i preferred XFCE as its light and also matured. its a project started at the early stages of linux development.
but in recent time, there seems to be no development is happening in XFCE project. no new releases for almost last 1yr.
Now am using LXDE. its faster than XFCE and also beautiful than XFCE. and also its in active development. i decided to stay with it even though its not matured and feature rich enough. i hope LXDE will hit the desktop environment market in the near future.
thanks,
jittos....
Xfce is still in active development. It moves slowly - both because of an emphasis on stability and the inevitable delays. Check this (http://wiki.xfce.org/roadmap_to_46) out for info on the upcoming 4.6 release (hopefully by the end of this year, although it will probably be a bit delayed).

2 questions...with xfce do you still have compiz effects (i cant live without that cube)

and what does a desktop look like without DEs?
1. Yes, you can run Compiz with Xfce.

2. However you want it to look.

[RiceMonster]

2 questions...with xfce do you still have compiz effects (i cant live without that cube)

and what does a desktop look like without DEs?

1) Yup, I was just playing around with compiz fusion in Xfce.

2) It actually doesn't look that different. You can still have stuff like panels, desktop backgrounds, gtk themes, etc. It's just a lot more minimal. Some WMs come with panels, and others don't. However, non of them have their own file manager, or any other tools. If you want to use desktop icons, you'll have to add something like iDesk (who needs desktop icons when you have the right click menu in Xfce and *box though?)

[danbuter]

I'm a huge fan of xfce. To me, xubuntu is just ubuntu gnome without some of baggage (like compiz).