Which variant?

[MG&TL]

Hi everyone, upgrading pc to something that will actually GO! rather than wait...wait...get bored, come back in ten minutes, just starting to load...:evil:

Anyway, what desktop variation of Ubuntu would you guys recommend? I'm currently using ubuntu.

1. Xubuntu. Less cool, but hopefully should really move.

2. Keep using Ubuntu, but faster. Familiar.

3. Kubuntu. Slower, but it does look exceedingly suave.

I may start a bit of a 'my distro variant is better than yours' clan war, but never mind, I'll get good and bad points.:mrgreen:

Please move me if I'm in the wrong place, 'desktop environments' would be logical...

[haqking]

Hi everyone, upgrading pc to something that will actually GO! rather than wait...wait...get bored, come back in ten minutes, just starting to load...:evil:

Anyway, what desktop variation of Ubuntu would you guys recommend? I'm currently using ubuntu.

1. Xubuntu. Less cool, but hopefully should really move.

2. Keep using Ubuntu, but faster. Familiar.

3. Kubuntu. Slower, but it does look exceedingly suave.

I may start a bit of a 'my distro variant is better than yours' clan war, but never mind, I'll get good and bad points.:mrgreen:

Please move me if I'm in the wrong place, 'desktop environments' would be logical...


well if you are currently using Ubuntu and you are experiencing come back in ten minutes i would hazard a guess at deeper issues such as configuration or hardware ?

however lubuntu is often considered for speed. http://lubuntu.net/

what hardware do you have ?

[Ozymandias_117]

I will start the flame-war! ;P

Since Gnome 3 and Unity came out, I can't stand Gnome anymore. I've switched to KDE on my high powered desktop, XFCE on my mid powered laptop and Openbox on my 9 year old Laptop.

Honestly, I will tell you, KDE is AMAZING (Well, I'm using KDE 4.6.3-1 on Arch Linux, and I've heard Kubuntu isn't the greatest version of KDE, so your results may vary).

I've grown to like XFCE as a desktop, it's a bit harder to set up than Gnome, but not significantly. (Again, this is coming from Arch Linux, so maybe the *buntu version will auto-setup your keyboard shortcuts, gnome-keyring, etc.).

Openbox is great for old/slow hardware. It takes a while to get it set up, but you have complete control, and when you're finished, you won't get much faster while retaining a GUI.

As for the speed issue, at least for me, with the new releases of Gnome, KDE and Gnome use about the same resources. Xfce uses substantially less, without really detracting from the desktop (In comparison with Gnome 2). Openbox is insanely fast, period. (Currently running Chromium, VLC, Thunar, and Audacity I'm using 69 MB of RAM. - Using Tint2 for my Panel, Nitrogen for my Backgrounds, Conky and xscreensaver)

[MG&TL]

No, it's just a slow 'puter. Everything works ok, I know all about when it doesn't. :D

It depends on what I'm doing...maybe that's obvious. I know it's ok because it was running factory installed windows before hand, and it was even slower then. Main reason I switched to linux. :D It probably doesn't help that brother insists on running whatever rubbish he needs all the time, usually when I'm trying to do a distro upgrade, or compile a big program. :(

Oh, and thanks, hacqking, you must be in the right timezone or something, it's midnight where I am, and you're still coming up with reasonably well-formatted non-drivel. :D

Dell Dimension 2400, mucked about with by someone who didn't really know what they were doing, before I got it. Great computer, very resilient, just a loose wire somewhere, and a bit slow. Also has very limited room for upgrades.

[MG&TL]

I knew this would happen...ozy, that's helpful. Basically KDE's good if it will run, but xfce's boring but supercharged. Choices, choices.:)

[Ozymandias_117]

I think it depends some on your tastes; if you preferred Gnome 2 to Unity/3, XFCE is a lot like Gnome 2.

[MG&TL]

Having upgraded it once, my 'puter has 256mb RAM (wow!), so I'll try openbox on that. Is it relatively easy to use? I don't want a gui that has two buttons : 'terminal' and 'shut down' !

[MG&TL]

Never tried anything that's 3d. Graphics card is also upgraded, but also is covered in bugs on linux. :(
Have tried unity 2d and gnome2, both of which I liked, but preferred gnome to start with (only used linux for a month or so, and it's being working properly for about four days now. :)

[Ozymandias_117]

Well, no. To modify openbox requires messing with config files. You have:
~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh (Does what you'd think ;P)
~/.config/openbox/menu.xml (This is how you modify the right-click menu, which is how you open Apps/etc.)
~/.config/openbox/rc.xml (The rest of the settings. Including keyboard shortcuts appearance, etc.)

There is an application called obconf to help with editing the rc.xml (Although it can't do the keyboard shortcuts) and one called obmenu to help you set up your menu. You can also use a program called menumaker to scan your computer for installed programs and create a menu.xml that you can then work off of.

Edit: If you want to try out a decent, pre-setup Openbox, try out Crunchbang. (It's based off Debian)

[haqking]

No, it's just a slow 'puter. Everything works ok, I know all about when it doesn't. :D

It depends on what I'm doing...maybe that's obvious. I know it's ok because it was running factory installed windows before hand, and it was even slower then. Main reason I switched to linux. :D It probably doesn't help that brother insists on running whatever rubbish he needs all the time, usually when I'm trying to do a distro upgrade, or compile a big program. :(

Oh, and thanks, hacqking, you must be in the right timezone or something, it's midnight where I am, and you're still coming up with reasonably well-formatted non-drivel. :D

ha yeah same timezone, however dont know about the well formatted non-drivel, i think its cause i am on coffee number 35 of the day....but at least i can type 3000 WPM now with formatting...LOL ;-)

[MG&TL]

No, I'm fine with messing around in .conf files, I've had to do that with Ubuntu, just as long as it's not a command-line with pictures. :) Will have to try that, how difficult is it to install programs? Did try Lubuntu once, cd wouldn't boot and I'd run out of fresh cds...so that one hit a dead end.

Bet you feel VERY good this morning, haqking.:biggrin:

[dFlyer]

How about using whatever you want. That's the nice thing about linux. The choice is your. I use Unity but miss gnome, and is waiting for 11.10 when gnome 3 will be out.

[MG&TL]

It usually takes me about three attempts to burn a liveCD, even on minimum speed, and still get it right. Not having an infinite number of cds, just trying kubuntu, ubuntu, and xubuntu could easily take up 9cds. Hence why I'm asking for advice :D

And getting it , too. Thanks, guys.

Ozy, I looked at openbox, and it would seem to be a plugin-type thing for gnome or KDE? Have I got the right one? It's just that you gave the impression it was a standalone OS. Not being nasty, just curious, and I've appreciated the torrent of opinions and facts that rushed out as soon as I pressed the 'which distro' button. :D

[MG&TL]

Managed to install a graphics driver this morning, so my 'puter is running marginally faster for once. :)Canonical seem to have made an open-source alternative to the Nvidia proprietary(which doesn't work on my pc), so I'm a very happy penguin!

[d3v1150m471c]

running ubuntu 10.04 w/blackbox & lxpanel on a 1.6ghz 3mb ram laptop....running at about 2-3% cpu :)

[Ozymandias_117]

It usually takes me about three attempts to burn a liveCD, even on minimum speed, and still get it right. Not having an infinite number of cds, just trying kubuntu, ubuntu, and xubuntu could easily take up 9cds. Hence why I'm asking for advice :D

And getting it , too. Thanks, guys.

Ozy, I looked at openbox, and it would seem to be a plugin-type thing for gnome or KDE? Have I got the right one? It's just that you gave the impression it was a standalone OS. Not being nasty, just curious, and I've appreciated the torrent of opinions and facts that rushed out as soon as I pressed the 'which distro' button. :D

I use it on it's own. All it technically is is a window manager, so it can be run along with the rest of other desktop environments instead of their default window managers, or it can be run on it's own. And to the CD thing, if you have a flash drive you can empty, you can use it over and over. ;P


Managed to install a graphics driver this morning, so my 'puter is running marginally faster for once. :)Canonical seem to have made an open-source alternative to the Nvidia proprietary(which doesn't work on my pc), so I'm a very happy penguin!

Are you referring to nouveau? If so, it's not from Canonical, it's another project. :P http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/

[MG&TL]

Nope, I checked hardware drivers this morning and it just said 'experimental 3d driver'. I'll attach a picture.
Okay, I'll find some tutorials about Openbox/w/blackbox.

[MG&TL]

Computer does not support booting from usb or flash drive. :(

Had to reinstall 10.04 this morning, I tried to get rid of Unity 2d and killed something in the process. Never mind, but the 3d driver isn't available on 10.04. Strange, but idk, I'm re-upgrading. Soon as new box of cds come, Ubuntu 11.04 as a backup will be first on the 'burn-list', followed by lubuntu, openbox etc. Thanks guys/gals

PS, should I mark this as solved, it wasn't really a problem to start with?

[sgadecki]

From a "Look and Feel" perspective I definitely prefer KDE desktop, although my Kubuntu machine is currently having some video issues which I believe to be Nvidia related. Will have to try the Canonical experimental driver and the nouveau driver and see which works better for me.

From a performance perspective (on both an older AMD 1.4Ghz box and my Atom 1.6 Netbook), I tried both Xubuntu with XDE and Lubuntu with LXDE and I prefer Lubuntu. Lubuntu uses the OpenBox window manager with LXDE desktop.

So... KDE/Kubuntu on your new(er) machine and LXDE/Lubuntu for old systems.

My next experiment will be to install KDE over Lubuntu as I have heard that KDE performs better this way than with Kubuntu.

[sgadecki]

From a "Look and Feel" perspective I definitely prefer KDE desktop, although my Kubuntu machine is currently having some video issues which I believe to be Nvidia related. Will have to try the Canonical experimental driver and the nouveau driver and see which works better for me.

From a performance perspective (on both an older AMD 1.4Ghz box and my Atom 1.6 Netbook), I tried both Xubuntu with XDE and Lubuntu with LXDE and I prefer Lubuntu. Lubuntu uses the OpenBox window manager with LXDE desktop.

So... KDE/Kubuntu on your new(er) machine and LXDE/Lubuntu for old systems.

My next experiment will be to install KDE over Lubuntu as I have heard that KDE performs better this way than with Kubuntu.

[sgadecki]

As far as "Solved", that's more of an indicator that your question has been answered. it does not have to be a 'problem' to be solved. If you feel that you received an acceptable response to your question you can mark it "Solved" to indicate that the conversation/thread does not need any more replies.

[MG&TL]

thanks sgadecki, welcome to the forum. You first three posts ever were on an outdated thing that I'd forgotten to stamp [solved] on?

Yeah, thanks for advice, I was leaning that way too.