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Dragonbite
June 14th, 2012, 02:34 PM
Recently there has been a lot of talk about changing Desktop Environments from "this" to "that" back to "this other one" and so on; The "Desktop Two-Step"?

Since Gnome and Unity have started changing things around I've been dancing between

Gnome2 > KDE > Unity > Gnome 3 > KDE > Xfce > Unity

and will see how long I stay here (though 12.04 is a much better implementation of Unity and becoming more configurable)

Are you still doing the Two-Step, or are you on the dance floor?

If you have settled with a partner (for now at least :lolflag:), what did you end up with?

I don't care about whether it is in one distribution or another, rather just the desktop environments.

Roasted
June 14th, 2012, 03:29 PM
I look at Gnome Shell and Unity like having two really awesome sports cars, however I can only drive one at a time. Lately I've been spending a lot of time exclusively in Unity, mostly because I feel as though I owe it to Unity to give it a solid shot since I was an extremely vocal hater of Unity when it came out, likewise, I was an extremely vocal activist of Gnome Shell.

As time has passed and I gave Unity a solid shot in 12.04, it began to draw me back. There were shortcomings in Gnome Shell I didn't even realize I was dealing with until I went to Unity. Now that I've given Unity a solid shot, I'm not entirely sure I'd part ways with it without being noisy about it. I actually... like Unity... and I actually prefer it...

Is that to say Gnome Shell isn't a top contender in my books? Absolutely not, I have a ton of respect for Gnome Shell and I love the work they do. But in a world of free choices littering the software arena, I ended up (right now) with Unity, and I'm quite content with that. I guess that means I was a one time two-stepper that has "settled down" for right now. Give it another 2 weeks and I may be singing a different tune. :P

BigSilly
June 14th, 2012, 03:43 PM
Recently there has been a lot of talk about changing Desktop Environments from "this" to "that" back to "this other one" and so on; The "Desktop Two-Step"?

Since Gnome and Unity have started changing things around I've been dancing between

Gnome2 > KDE > Unity > Gnome 3 > KDE > Xfce > Unity

and will see how long I stay here (though 12.04 is a much better implementation of Unity and becoming more configurable)

Are you still doing the Two-Step, or are you on the dance floor?

If you have settled with a partner (for now at least :lolflag:), what did you end up with?

I don't care about whether it is in one distribution or another, rather just the desktop environments.

Thank God for Clonezilla is all I can say. At least I can switch about the place and back again with minimum fuss. :D

I'm back on Unity again. I've heard all the hate and absorbed all the anger, but I still like it a great deal. They're all great options though, which is what makes it harder for the more bipolar Linux users among us. :D

BrokenKingpin
June 14th, 2012, 03:51 PM
I went from Gnome2 to Xfce. I did try Unity, Gnome3, and KDE, but not on my main rig (I have a test box).

I am still using Xfce and really like it, but KDE is very close to winning me over. I find I can use Xfce out of the box with almost no tweaking, where KDE takes me about a day to get to a state where I am comfortable using it. But once I do, I like it quite a bit, mainly for it's flexibility.

The only thing keeping me from switching to KDE full time is it is just too buggy still. They fixed the performance issues for the most part, but I still get crashes and bugs all over the place. I will try again next release.

steviejay
June 14th, 2012, 03:53 PM
I had a go at Unity when 11.04 was realeased...didn't like it so went to Mint 11 (Gnome 2), had issues with that so switched to Kubuntu 11.04 (KDE) and was very happy with it. But then Christmas came along and 'er indoors bought the kids some electronic toys which required ******* so I had to dig around in the Man Drawer (amongst all the old batteries, foreign currency, screwdrivers, old mobile phones etc.) to find the disc to reinstall it.

Got the itch again when Mint 12 came out (Gnome 3) dual booting with *******...serious issues there so thought I'd give Unity another chance with 11.10...still didn't like it. Went back to Ubuntu 10.04. Gave Unity yet another try with 12.04...you guessed it! Moved over to Mint again with 13 Cinnamon...issues, issues. So I'm now using xfce with Xubuntu 12.04, still dual-ling with Win 7 and I'm really very happy with it so I guess my 'Two-Stepping' days are over (at least for the time being).

http://cswright93.webspace.virginmedia.com/smilies/008.gif

Dragonbite
June 14th, 2012, 04:09 PM
I didn't like Unity until I tried Ubuntu 12.04. Currently I find Unity more usable that I can customize some aspects such as resizing the dock (small screen) and auto-rotating wallpapers (I have "wallpaper packs" of a subject I like to rotate though). I haven't even installed the MyUnity(?) tweaking application yet either.

Gnome shell I didn't like how even the side dock of icons had to come up with that whole overlay so that it takes at least a couple of clicks more than a Unity application on the dock. I do like the Online Account and messaging in Gnome-shell more than Unity.

KDE worked great for me, but getting Windows 7 I find using KDE less palatable because I like the systems to be different. When I am on Linux, I want to know I am on Linux without having to click a thing, and the same with Windows (7).

Xfce is my current "fallback".

It's just been annoying not feeling "at home" in ANY of the desktop environments. I feel like I am in apartment... livable for a short or long term if necessary, but still not a house I can call "home".

stalkingwolf
June 14th, 2012, 04:12 PM
presently i have 3 that i use.
Mint 12 with both cinnamon and mate
Zorin with the gnome desk top
UE3.0 with gnome.

I have 2 applets in the panel that i have come to think of as necessary, the force quit and the power inhibitor.

craig10x
June 14th, 2012, 04:14 PM
I didn't like unity at first because i had read all the negative comments about it, but once i gave it a fair chance, got to like it a lot...

Recently though, i decided to give Cairo Dock a chance and found i also like it very much too...So, currently i am using it in the Cairo Dock session with unity panel (global menu) which i like, so it gives me the best of both....

Also, i find i am able to move around a bit quicker with the Cairo Dock (more like a panel)... so that aspect of it is very nice also...

I may stay with cairo dock because although i like unity now, i'd prefer to have it on the bottom, and the cairo dock gives me that opportunity... :)

I also went back to mint for awhile but decided i would prefer to be on ubuntu 12.04 directly, so i am back...hopefully for good. :lolflag:

I also have played with Zorin (my 2nd favorite to direct ubuntu) but will likely just stay put this time with 12.04...I have always wanted to like KDE and played with kubuntu several times, but find that as nice as it looks, i still prefer gnome...
So, it looks like i will remain on ubuntu 12.04 and either use unity or cairo dock (more likely the later)...but there has been plenty of "two-stepping" here, for sure...

lento_
June 14th, 2012, 05:11 PM
At work I've been pretty stable on Ubuntu 10.04. At home I've been distro hopping a lot on my laptop though.

I started off on Ubuntu, moved over to Mint, and then tried out Unity when it first came out. Hated it.

Then I moved over to Xubuntu, which was nice, but a bit ugly and (this was quite unexpected) I came across quite a few glitches when running my favourite programmes.

Next I tried out Kubuntu. I really love KDE on my main desktop which is meaty enough for it, but on my older clunky laptop it's a different story, and it was just too stuttery.

I'm currently giving Linux Mint LXDE a go and quite like it so far. My laptop feels a lot snappier (although boot up times are surprisingly slow) and I can run all those GTK programmes nicely.

I want to like Unity though. I still feel that Gnome is my "home" environment and would like to be able to return to it one day. I've been impressed by what I've seen of the HUD, and the dash has improved by the sounds of it.

There's a few big stumbling blocks remaining though. I find docks very clunky and would miss having a proper window switcher. I could install something like tint2 though I suppose.

I hate the idea of a global menu, and would want to turn that off. I hear that is possible, but then I'd be left with a big panel which is mostly useless and (here's another stumbling block) has very few options to configure compared to the old panel. Why can't I remove it, move it, or make it like a wingpanel? Why can't I position apps on it like I can at the moment? I know, it's not the same programme as the old panel, but it's a shame it couldn't be more like it.

I also want a proper menu back. An indicator app seems a bit of an inelegant fudge.

If Unity could combine the best of the new innovations with the great things about gnome 2 then I'd be back in an instant to try it out. Currently I'm just waiting a while to see how things go....

... and continuing the distro hopping. I'll probably give Bodhi a go later on in the summer when the new version comes out.

BigSilly
June 14th, 2012, 05:19 PM
If Unity could combine the best of the new innovations with the great things about gnome 2 then I'd be back in an instant to try it out. Currently I'm just waiting a while to see how things go....

Sounds like you need to give Cinnamon a try. ;)

craig10x
June 14th, 2012, 06:29 PM
BigSilly, he could try either Cinnamon and/or cairo dock session....and he can do them both right on ubuntu! :)

Eddie Wilson
June 14th, 2012, 06:54 PM
I don't really switch between desktops anymore. I tried Cinnamon and it was okay but not impressive. Mate is just a Gnome2 wannabe and using Gnome2 would be like beating a dead horse. Gnome3 is good but I feel it's a little unstable. What I use now is Unity in 12.04 on my desktop, KDE in Kubuntu 12.04 on my laptop. Those are my main two. I do dual boot some with Win7 and that's because of the PLC programing and Karel programing software that I use. Also on my wife's desktop she uses LinuxMint Cinnamon and dual boots with WinXP for her hidden object games. She's having too many problems with the LinuxMint install so we might have to change that out soon. The new Unity is my favorite.

BigSilly
June 14th, 2012, 07:29 PM
Yes, I spent some time with Mint Cinnamon, and it does bug out. It's pretty awesome, but there are some stability issues here and there. It's prone to crashing occasionally, but I've no doubt that they'll fix the problems shortly.

I don't see the point of MATE either, but it does seem that quite a bit of work has gone into it. Some people love it but it just feels old to me. Cinnamon is borderline, but does enough to feel new with plenty of whizzy effects and a sensible approach to turning Gnome Shell into a "regular" desktop. I'm sure it'll go onto great things.

But for me right now, Unity. :)

eyeofliberty
June 14th, 2012, 07:30 PM
I stick with KDE for the heavyweight, and LXDE/Openbox for the lightweight.

NoTryDO
June 14th, 2012, 10:03 PM
At work I've been pretty stable on Ubuntu 10.04. At home I've been distro hopping a lot on my laptop though.

I started off on Ubuntu, moved over to Mint, and then tried out Unity when it first came out. Hated it.

Then I moved over to Xubuntu, which was nice, but a bit ugly and (this was quite unexpected) I came across quite a few glitches when running my favourite programmes.

Next I tried out Kubuntu. I really love KDE on my main desktop which is meaty enough for it, but on my older clunky laptop it's a different story, and it was just too stuttery.

I'm currently giving Linux Mint LXDE a go and quite like it so far. My laptop feels a lot snappier (although boot up times are surprisingly slow) and I can run all those GTK programmes nicely.

I want to like Unity though. I still feel that Gnome is my "home" environment and would like to be able to return to it one day. I've been impressed by what I've seen of the HUD, and the dash has improved by the sounds of it.

There's a few big stumbling blocks remaining though. I find docks very clunky and would miss having a proper window switcher. I could install something like tint2 though I suppose.

I hate the idea of a global menu, and would want to turn that off. I hear that is possible, but then I'd be left with a big panel which is mostly useless and (here's another stumbling block) has very few options to configure compared to the old panel. Why can't I remove it, move it, or make it like a wingpanel? Why can't I position apps on it like I can at the moment? I know, it's not the same programme as the old panel, but it's a shame it couldn't be more like it.

I also want a proper menu back. An indicator app seems a bit of an inelegant fudge.

If Unity could combine the best of the new innovations with the great things about gnome 2 then I'd be back in an instant to try it out. Currently I'm just waiting a while to see how things go....

... and continuing the distro hopping. I'll probably give Bodhi a go later on in the summer when the new version comes out.

why not tint2 & openbox?

devondashla
June 14th, 2012, 10:09 PM
After the emergence of Unity and Gnome 3, I went to XFCE, but was disappointed-probably because I found it too similar, yet too different to good old Gnome 2. I couldn't get what I wanted out of it. So, I decided to give KDE a shot, and stuck with it. I'm really happy with my decision.

Irihapeti
June 14th, 2012, 10:42 PM
I've got Gnome-fallback on my desktop machine and Openbox on my netbook.

I don't have strong feelings about any desktop environment. I like to think I'm adaptable enough to deal with whatever's placed in front of me. It's just that, well, I can only use one DE at a time.

yahoo
June 14th, 2012, 10:59 PM
I don't like either Unity or Gnome3, so have switched to xubuntu.

Trouble is, I found http://www.hybryde.org/hybryde_evolution/ which gives choices of all desktops, and am liking their xfce with cairo dock.

I'm now trying to get my xubuntu install to look like hybryde's xfce, then I can do away with hybryde and all it's extras which I do not need.

Old_Grey_Wolf
June 15th, 2012, 01:19 AM
:lolflag:

I never heard of the "Desktop Two-Step". I was expecting something related to the "Texas Two-Step (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Two-Step)".

I personally prefer the "Triple Two-Step".

:lolflag:

malspa
June 15th, 2012, 01:32 AM
I have several distros running here, various environments. On some of them, I have more than one DE and/or WM installed. It doesn't really matter to me which one I'm using on any particular day; I just don't like to use the same one every day.

DingusFett
June 15th, 2012, 02:02 AM
I got used to Unity from using the beta releases of 12.04, but have tried various DE's over the past month or so. I liked gnome-shell quite a lot, but missed some of the integration that Unity has but have hopped back to it a few times now. Cinnamon I liked and the missus found it comfortable, but as others have said, it is quite buggy. I'm still working on configuring openbox how I want it, and have XFCE on my HTPC (have thought of changing it to LXDE though for faster boot times). All the time though I end up back with Unity because I find it comfortable and I like the dash, the global menu, and the integration it has.

sffvba[e0rt
June 15th, 2012, 02:38 AM
My only dance has been a hip-hop hopping between Ubuntu and Windows... currently on Windows (for what ever reason, I am sure I had one, but I forgot)... Will be getting home in a few hours then I can have all the fun and games of installing Ubuntu again (and setting it up etc.)

Got to love night shifts :lolflag:


404

Lightstar
June 15th, 2012, 03:02 AM
I did:
Gnome 2 > Unity


But on my netbooks I use different desktops, lxde, enlightenment.

Dragonbite
June 15th, 2012, 04:56 AM
My only dance has been a hip-hop hopping between Ubuntu and Windows... currently on Windows (for what ever reason, I am sure I had one, but I forgot)... Will be getting home in a few hours then I can have all the fun and games of installing Ubuntu again (and setting it up etc.)

Got to love night shifts :lolflag:


404

Sounds like me. I was primarily using Windows and last night I just installed Ubuntu and let it run through all of the updates while I was in bed. Now I am adding the programs I want.

lento_
June 15th, 2012, 10:55 AM
Sounds like you need to give Cinnamon a try. ;)

Cinnamon is quite an interesting idea, although I just get the feeling that it isn't quite ready yet (although I haven't tried it, so could be talking rubbish here).

Cinnamon and MATE both seem like good efforts, but I worry that they'll be abandoned before too long. Will Mint stick with Cinnamon and keep on improving it, or come up with some better alternative?

lento_
June 15th, 2012, 10:55 AM
why not tint2 & openbox?

Hmmm, interesting..... very interesting. It's something to consider.

Ideally I'd like some kind of solution which gives me the advantages of Unity (the dash and the HUD) along with the advantages of the old style gnome (a proper panel and the main menu). I wonder how easy something like that would be to put together.

HansKisaragi
June 15th, 2012, 11:42 AM
I only use cinnamon

steviejay
June 15th, 2012, 03:40 PM
Cinnamon and MATE both seem like good efforts, but I worry that they'll be abandoned before too long. Will Mint stick with Cinnamon and keep on improving it, or come up with some better alternative?


I gave Cinnamon a try with Ubuntu 11.10 and with Mint 13 and although I liked it I did find it a little unstable.

I'm sure that Mint will stick with Cinnamon and continue to improve it to make it more stable and I look forward to giving it another try.

Bandit
June 15th, 2012, 04:05 PM
Recently there has been a lot of talk about changing Desktop Environments from "this" to "that" back to "this other one" and so on; The "Desktop Two-Step"?

.................

I kinda did a foot shuffle for a bit. But have settled down with Unity.
Went from Gnome2 to Unity to Gnome Shell then back to Unity. Honeslty I dont think so many users would have been juggling DEs if they would have released them when they was ready and not as half baked. Granted Unity is a good bit ahead of Gnome Shell IMHO and almost feels complete. Gnome Shell feels like they havent did anything to it in a long while. On the other foot Unity constantly shows improvement every release. Thats dedication and a team and am more willing to support.

If I had to thing to add to Unity, it would be to request that the Overlay Scroll Bars be able to be turned off in the appearance settings. I like them on my Netbook, despise them on my desktop. Hence removed them from desktop already. But love the screen room they save me on my netbook.

Dragonbite
June 15th, 2012, 04:28 PM
Honeslty I dont think so many users would have been juggling DEs if they would have released them when they was ready and not as half baked.

Not just that, but dumped on the user with a "take it or leave it" attitude. There was no time to ease into it.

Gnome 3 came out and Gnome 2 was immediately dropped, as opposed to even having a 6 month 'cross-over' period to do the improvements that they have done, and get people used to it.

Instead, the only way to stick with Gnome was to not upgrade, or go to a more conservative distribution such as CentOS.

SeijiSensei
June 15th, 2012, 05:49 PM
KDE worked great for me, but getting Windows 7 I find using KDE less palatable because I like the systems to be different. When I am on Linux, I want to know I am on Linux without having to click a thing, and the same with Windows (7).

Couldn't you just use different desktop backgrounds?

Personally I don't think KDE looks all that much like Windows 7. In the few cases I use Win7, I run it in a VirtualBox VM using "seamless" mode with the Windows panel at the top of the screen. I use Oxygen as my KDE theme, so the black KDE panel looks nothing like the gray Win7 panel. Of course having them in different locations on the screen is the most obvious thing.

I haven't used anything but KDE in about a decade now, so I've stayed off the dance floor.

cbennett926
June 15th, 2012, 05:53 PM
I've always loved Unity, so I've been pretty solid on 12.04, I used Mint for a while, and XFCE, but I love Unity haha

Artemis3
June 16th, 2012, 11:14 AM
Went from gnome2 to xfce.

I just use XFCE everywhere, so simply switched from Ubuntu to Xubuntu in all machines. Users don't feel alienated with it either, so its also installed as the default desktop at work.

Frogs Hair
June 16th, 2012, 01:40 PM
I have tried all the Ubuntu flavors as a result of the interest in other DE"S caused when Unity became default. I currently use Unity , the Gnome Shell, and E17.

Erik1984
June 16th, 2012, 02:01 PM
Actually I did the two step with regard to KDE and Gnome2 :D Gnome2 => KDE => Unity => Gnome2 => KDE.

Linuxratty
June 16th, 2012, 09:19 PM
KDE > Gnome2 > Gnome3 > Gnome2...That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Bandit
June 16th, 2012, 09:21 PM
Not just that, but dumped on the user with a "take it or leave it" attitude. There was no time to ease into it.
................

Yea I agree, that ruffled more then a few feathers.

black veils
June 16th, 2012, 09:53 PM
the desktops i considered, were:

kde

lxde

enlightenment

xfce


for me, xfce wins! but i do like enlightenment! i would like to alternate between the two, every few months, but i have been solely with xfce for a while.

black veils
June 16th, 2012, 10:11 PM
Hmmm, interesting..... very interesting. It's something to consider.

Ideally I'd like some kind of solution which gives me the advantages of Unity (the dash and the HUD) along with the advantages of the old style gnome (a proper panel and the main menu). I wonder how easy something like that would be to put together.

a dock, with lxde/xfce for gnome type panels, and there are ppa's for unity-specific features, there might be one for hud ? or if you only need to search for apps, files, web, dictionary, calculator, commands, then you could use synapse.

tartalo
June 17th, 2012, 12:56 AM
I stick with KDE for the heavyweight, and LXDE/Openbox for the lightweight.

Same here :)

I disliked the early versions of KDE4 but now it's simply awesome, not only does it look very well, but it's also stable and surprisingly responsive, and it's probably the most configurable desktop of them all. The more I use it the more good little things I find about it. It's steadily becoming my absolute favorite.

LXDE does the job well with low resource usage, and I appreciate that in my netbook, so it has stayed. I wish that adding shortcuts to the bar was more straightforward, like in Gnome 2, but I'm not doing that every day so it's not a big issue.

I haven't given a fair chance to the latest XFCE but several friends chose it when Unity arrived and are very happy now. It seems more configurable than LXDE and behaves well in low spec computers. It might replace my LXDE any day I feel adventurous, but it will have to compete against low fat KDE too.

e17 was almost there, unfortunatelly there were too many little annoyances I was unable to solve, probably my fault.

Gnome 3 and Unity gave me the same impression that the early versions of KDE4, you can see some good ideas but they are still lacking in what I consider essential features (1), still buggy (2), and also quite unresponsive even in a decent computer (3). All these problems will go away surely with time and I'll probably try them again, Gnome 3 is the one that attracts me more.

(1) To be fair, the community is filling some of the holes with extensions, specially in the case of Gnome 3, but it requires an investigate, try, fail, retry process I'd rather avoid until there are official solutions.
(2) More Unity than Gnome 3. My father is the only close one that insists on using Unity but complains about odd behaviors with window focus, icons not appearing in the dock until restart...
(3) Sorry, I'm not going to replace perfectly working computers only because of "new! shinny!"

There are a lot of valid alternatives I didn't try (Mate, Cinnamon, ...), but well, switching desktops is not everything I do with the computer.

wilee-nilee
June 17th, 2012, 01:00 AM
Not two-step per-say, but I always have two desktops.

Easier with unity and gnome 3 these days if you like those setups.

I never use the classic, it is just not needed is all.

wolfen69
June 17th, 2012, 02:10 AM
The only reason I was using Unity was because I used to help out a lot on the forums, and felt I needed to know it. I have nothing against it, but I have settled on gnome shell. With a couple extensions, I can have the best of gnome 2 and gnome 3.

But I don't 2 step anymore. I just want to settle into 1 DE and own it.