Basic desktop?

[chuck5]

I thank all of you for your help. I am leaning toward the MATE DE. The only real problem I'm having with it is that it wants an admin password instead of my user password when I need root level access. And I don't have one. Any suggestions for that?

[Buntu Bunny]

Just one more to take a look at, Linux Lite.

[TheFu]

Does anyone have any suggestions?

There is no reason to change the entire install over a stupid DE. Seriously folks, you can swap DEs without reinstalling the entire OS. Takes 3 minutes then just logout, select the other DE, and login. Done.

1. Install 12.04.3 LTS - seem my sig for why
2. Disable 2D and 3D video acceleration - limit the Unity crap
3. Install XFCE and/or LXDE - these are both lightweight, popular, environments - there are others.
   

   sudo apt-get install xfce lxde

4. Logout
5. On the login screen, select a different DE (click the cog) - try LXDE first.
6. Login

Be happy. Hardly any time spent. After you are happy with any of the 20+ DEs, remove Unity (takes 3 minutes).
Be happy again.

THERE IS NO REASON TO REINSTALL A COMPLETE OS just for a new DE.

If you can't find the DE you want in synaptic, you might need to add a PPA for that DE. After that, the steps are the same.

If you want really minimal setups - don't use a DE at all - go for a pure WM environment. We can still load the window managers from history on our Ubuntu systems. twm, mwm, fvwm (my fav), plus many, many, others. Opaque/transparent screens are nothing new. FVWM had them in the 1990s along with multiple virtual desktops. I was running a 3x3 vdesktop in 1995.

[1clue]

But there IS a reason to not have all of them installed at the same time. Most of them tend to just add things to the menus they almost all use, and you wind up with 5 or 6 copies of something and a really confusing UI.

[kansasnoob]

I prefer just using the classic (no effects) DE:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1966370

That's written for Precise, but there are notes for Quantal and Raring here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...4#post12417104

[sudodus]

I prefer just using the classic (no effects) DE:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1966370

That's written for Precise, but there are notes for Quantal and Raring here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...4#post12417104

+1

I can really recommend kansasnoob's tweaks

And I suggest that you keep running 12.04 which has long time support and is better debugged and polished than the 'normal' release. Next long time support version is planned to be 14.04 to be released in April 2014. The only reason to try the newest version would be problems with new hardware, that is not supported by 12.04.

Unless of course, you like to try to 'latest and greatest' software.

[TheFu]

But there IS a reason to not have all of them installed at the same time. Most of them tend to just add things to the menus they almost all use, and you wind up with 5 or 6 copies of something and a really confusing UI.

You are correct - some DEs conflict, so use a different userid to test them and wipe everything from the test account between each different DE that you try. Having them installed at the same time is not an issue at all - it is just if you mix incompatible DEs under the same account where the issues happen.

The choice is easy:
* install a completely new OS for each DE you'd like to try
or
* install 10-20 diff DEs, and a few test userids

[dhunt84971]

Another +1 to Xubuntu. I have installed it on older netbooks that have difficulty with the graphic performance required by Unity. The xfce desktop is snappy and very similar to good old Gnome2. Couple this with some Synapse goodness and you can really increase your productivity.

[zencoder]

chuck5; Hi !

A minimal install and xfce4 as the desk top environment has my endorsement. Lean, mean, fast and no nonsense.
Requires some knowledge of what you want of an operating system.

beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Bashing-om, is there a guide to help new users (and us older, not so good with the 'memory' thing users) with details like 'how to launch the desktop UI once we've installed it' and similar?

- I installed 12.04.3 server amd64 as a vm (no packages selected, just a base install).
- I updated everything that was out-standing (apt-get upgrade)
- I installed xubuntu-desktop
- Reboot and I still have a CLI interface

I tried $ startx and was told it was not installed and to apt-get the xinit package...I assumed apt would get everything necessary for Xfce DE to launch.

Is there anyplace in particular I should go look for answers?

Thanks much!

[buzzingrobot]

I thank all of you for your help. I am leaning toward the MATE DE. The only real problem I'm having with it is that it wants an admin password instead of my user password when I need root level access. And I don't have one. Any suggestions for that?

Were you able to resolve that?

The best way to install MATE on Ubuntu is per the instructions at its home site, mate-desktop.org. It's simple. You need to add a repository for your Ubuntu release, and run a few "apt-get" commands. Log out, tell LightDM you want to use MATE, log in, and there you are. MATE will initially look less than ideal because, of course, it doesn't know about any appearance tweaks done in Unity.

I've never had MATE on Ubuntu ask for an actual root password. How authentication is configured is independent of a DE. Maybe it's just sloppy labeling by a developer and your user password would work as always.

I've installed MATE on 13.04 and 12.04 LTS. MATE looked and worked the same on both.

My only hesitation about MATE in the long term is that the developers need to migrate it to GTK3 and other current code packages so it doesn't age out and can use current apps. They're doing that. It's a resource issue, though.