Debian Wheezy May Ship With XFCE As The Default Desktop Environment

[Bigtime_Scrub]

Who says Fedora is even considering switching to MATE as the default? By the way, I've been using GNOME Shell in Fedora 16, and it's great.

I've been using Fedora with Cinnamon since its been available.

Fedora is shipping Mate in the repositories for Fedora 18 if it is fully available by the time the release rolls around. It may or may not be the default but at least a spin is probable.

For sure getting in the repos if it is ready by F18
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MATE-Desktop
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/07...ome2-fork-mate

Don't know if this story is true or not...
http://digitizor.com/2012/07/31/fedora-mate-gnome/

Still the question remains, will Red Hat use Gnome Shell? I doubt it. And if Red Hat doesn't use it, then why would Fedora?

[malspa]

Don't know if this story is true or not...
http://digitizor.com/2012/07/31/fedora-mate-gnome/

Well, check out the comments following the article.

I haven't seen anything from Fedora other than that MATE will be included; check out the Fedora 18 feature list: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Relea...edora_18_Spins

Fedora being a kinda bleeding-edge distro, I can't see them wanting to go back in time with MATE as the default.

[forrestcupp]

This is an interesting move. Personally, I like Gnome 3 with Gnome Shell a lot. I don't prefer the new Nautilus, though.

I never reckoned much to Xubuntu. I know XFCE is very much like Gnome 2; but if a light-weight DE is really what they're after, why not try LXDE? I have lubuntu on my ancient Asus EeePC 701 (still alive after 5 years of abuse!) and I find its LXDE to be very nice. It's unobtrusive, and it's easy to add bigger-style apps (eg vlc, gimp) if you want. Is XFCE truly light-weight any more? Stuff I've read here and there lead me to believe it's rather bloated these days.

I think a growing number of Xfce users are starting to care more about having a Gnome replacement than having a lightweight OS. I never understood the people who have a terabyte of RAM and they stress over keeping their OS down to using a few megabytes.

[Smilax]

XFCE, works the way u want to



not the way some UI geek decided you should

[cariboo]

Unity is also available in Fedora, so it could ship with it as a DE:

http://spins.fedoraunity.org/

[drawkcab]

Xfce will seem bloated if you're running xubuntu. Xfce on Debian flies. I'm not in a position to speculate on what accounts for the difference but it is certainly noticeable.

Xfce 4.8 and 4.10 show a trajectory towards Gnome 2.x which seems to be what a large number of users are wanting. It's not surprising that many distros are shifting their default DE to xfce. I personally prefer Gnome 2.x but XFCE 4.8 fits the bill well enough at this point.

LXDE is a solid DE, and a spectacular lightweight DE. It is improving but it does not have the functionality of xfce yet. What I mean is that those Gnome 2.x refugees will find LXDE too sparse and xfce, by comparison, more like what they are used to.

I use Gnome shell on my HTPC and I've used it on my primary laptop. I think there are some reasons why it wouldn't appeal to the average desktop user but I also think it has a lot of potential in the long run if things were to move in the right direction. Sadly Gnome shell seems to be moving in the wrong direction.

[Hylas de Niall]

It "ensures that the desktop will fit on CD#1, which gnome currently does not."

My last two Squeeze installations, I went with Xfce, anyway. Seems to me that Debian is one distro where "default desktop environment" is almost meaningless.

I downloaded beta 1 (gnome) disc1 and that fit on a cd just fine?

[Primefalcon]

if you want a gnome 2.x esque feel, go xfce

if you need lightweight go either lxde or jwm

[Linuxratty]

Does this move reflect less trust in Gnome 3?

Could be.

[neu5eeCh]

Who says Fedora is even considering switching to MATE as the default? By the way, I've been using GNOME Shell in Fedora 16, and it's great.

Reading the tea leaves, but I strongly suspect that Red Hat is having serious qualms about switching to Gnome Shell. And no, I don't care what they say publicly. The availability of MATE in Fedora tells me that somebody at Red Hat is quietly considering MATE as their default desktop - though probably not Unity. I have a hard time imagining a business adopting G3S (or Windows 8 for that matter). Time will tell...