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Thread: Desktop Environment Preferences

  1. #21
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    Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: Desktop Environment Preferences

    I liked Gnome 2 in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS but felt in love with Xfce in Xubuntu 12.04 LTS. It is simpler, greater, better and more user-friendly!

  2. #22
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    Re: Desktop Environment Preferences

    So, my question to the forum is: what do people use? How popular is each desktop environment, and what makes it so?
    There is a saying ..... "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". So it is with linux desktop environments IMO.

  3. #23
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    Re: Desktop Environment Preferences

    Recently I began using Gnome 3, I've been an Ubuntu user from the beginning and I liked Gnome 2 because of its customization. When Unity rolled along though I thought it looked great, however when I started using it I found I disliked the lack of menus for storing applications. I tried out Fedora 17 with Gnome 3 and loved it, combine Gnome 3's appearance and, in my opinion ease of use, with Ubuntu's support and community I now swear by Ubuntu with Gnome 3.

    But, as others have said, a desktop environment is simply a choice some need to make.. It's all about what fits you!

  4. #24
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    Re: Desktop Environment Preferences

    XFCE all the way.

    I found unity to be far too resource-intensive for a desktop environment. A system with so much overhead ram usage reminded me of windows. I paid for a certain amount of ram in my pc so I could run programs with it, not shiny buttons and weird launchers.

    With the impending end on support for 10.04, I took the opportunity to switch to XFCE, and also switched to a distro intended for advanced users who prefer to be their own admins.

  5. #25
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    Xubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail

    Re: Desktop Environment Preferences

    Quote Originally Posted by Petro Dawg View Post
    In my opinion Unity beats out menu browsing due to the search pulling up documents and files along with apps, where as menus just list apps. Those programs I use 99% of the time are on my Launcher anyway, I don't search much for anything.
    Yeah, I'm the same with KDE. Any programs I need are fixed to the kickoff launcher. My home folder can be viewed through a widget on the desktop, and I've got some other useful things there like a weather notifier, a CPU load monitor, etc. Multiple desktops is handy as well, (for instance, I might have my browsing/email on one screen, my IM on another, and my music/DVD on a third. If I need to be notified of something, it pops up across all desktops, so it's a handy way of having something in the background without it really being in the background).

    Quote Originally Posted by Petro Dawg View Post
    Unity can also be used to search for items on the web as well, and some of the lenses are rather interesting (wikipedia and youtube lenses especially). Come to think of it, what would the internet be if you couldn't just search for what you wanted and you had navigate to websites using an endless series of drop down menus?
    This is actually one of the things that is sort of a deal breaker for me. I REALLY hate the idea of something from Wikipedia popping up if I'm searching for a program. The thing about Amazon too - I really think it's intrusive. The fact it can be turned off isn't the point, it should never have even been considered, let alone implemented. I have been known to dabble with the tin hat brigade, but even so...why anyone would want this feature is beyond me, privacy concerns aside.
    If I want to search for a Youtube video, I can just flip to my open browser (on desktop 1, where it's out of the way of whatever I'm doing on desktop 2 for example). I use firefox, and there's an addon called "add to search bar" that means I've got all the sites I want/need to search regularly close to hand. I've even got them set up using the HTTPS version, which I couldn't guarantee in Unity, I'm assuming?

    Quote Originally Posted by Petro Dawg View Post
    I will admit Unity is easier to get used to if you know the names of your apps, however if you don't know the name of the file, the search seems rather intuitive (typing "email" will pull up the thunderbird mail app, and "game" will pull up nearly every installed game on the system for example).
    This is another strength of KDE - programs are sorted by "type". I've created some custom .desktop files too, and dropped them into /usr/share/applications, so if I don't like where something's stored, I can change it (creating a minecraft launcher for instance meant I didn't have to have the .jar sat in my home folder - I swept it all into the ~/.minecraft folder, where it's all hidden and out of the way by default.


    Quote Originally Posted by Petro Dawg View Post
    You may notice, even Windows8 has taken a step away from traditional menu systems.
    Yeah, I ran the beta for months. Absolutely hated it. I've no idea why just because tablets are becoming more common these days, there seems to be an "all or nothing" approach. Just because tablets are becoming more prevalent, doesn't mean people suddenly stop using their desktops, and an interface which seems purely directed at tablets and ignores desktops just irritates the hell out of me tbh.

    [QUOTE=Petro Dawg;12425171
    In the end, Ubuntu is great, you can choose which ever desktop environment and search method you like best.[/QUOTE]

    Quote Originally Posted by MadmanRB View Post
    For me KDE is the best, not only is it "modern looking" but its highly configurable and much easier to tweak to ones liking then its closest competitor.
    Absolutely, 100% agreed. This is one of the marvels of open source. Choice and customisability really are the amazing things which should be driving the open source revolution.

  6. #26
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    Re: Desktop Environment Preferences

    Xfce 4.8 on my Debian setup ~ mega good screen real estate and reassuringly familiar menu system, low ram footprint, FAST. My main machine.

    Openbox with Tint2 (the defaults) on my #!11 installs (netbook and laptop) ~ great un-cluttered screen layout, seriously low ram footprint, VERY fast indeed.

    I also have an Ubu 12.04.1 installation with Gnome session fall-back, because although i like the way Unity looks and works it is still just far too slow and cumbersome for my tastes.

  7. #27
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    Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr

    Re: Desktop Environment Preferences

    Quote Originally Posted by ArminasAnarchy
    This is actually one of the things that is sort of a deal breaker for me. I REALLY hate the idea of something from Wikipedia popping up if I'm searching for a program.
    See, I would love that if it were an option. Switching to a browser, searching Google, and then scrolling through the list of returns is fine for most searching, but having Wikipedia articles as quickly accessible as applications would be brilliant. (As it is, I have to click the Wikipedia lens, then type the search, which isn't any faster than using a browser search.)

    Absolutely, 100% agreed. This is one of the marvels of open source. Choice and customisability really are the amazing things which should be driving the open source revolution.
    Customization isn't guaranteed by open source software. There are free applications that are locked-down with zero customization and highly customizable closed-source ones. Linux apps tend to be modular and customizable, and Linux apps tend to be open source, but that's the only real connection.

  8. #28
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    Re: Desktop Environment Preferences

    I'm one of the seemingly rarer people who likes Unity, but I'm also using LXDE on a low power netbook which my wife also uses.

    I've just started using xmonad on my work laptop and, while the learning curve is a little steep, I find it really does not get in the way and just lets me do my work. Getting me to think about my setup much more as I'm customising it to the way I work.
    Can't think of anything profound or witty.
    My Blog: http://gonzothegeek.blogspot.co.uk/

  9. #29
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    Lubuntu Development Release

    Re: Desktop Environment Preferences

    I'm on DWM at the moment. It's extremely small and, frankly, if you're not a programmer or really familiar with linux it's not something I'd recommend. Took me a week or two to get used to it as a result, but now I (almost) can't use anything else. If you want to try it out, do a source build, the ubuntu package sort of defeats the point.

    It does very few things, very well, and I respect that.

    Although I really want to get a usable wayland desktop. The ones I've tried so far (apart from Weston, which is just boring) have all been a little buggy.

  10. #30
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    Kubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: Desktop Environment Preferences

    I'm lost not dragging a bar to the top of the screen that has a simple/traditional drop down menu of apps and i like global menus here within the last few years, and then a panel with tasks on the bottom (be a panel or dock) i also have always done this on Windows, go figure- Gnome2 did that well! but i digress..

    I think any DE would allow me to do this, im fairly sure (maybe not the app menu bit), but im in favour of KDE in my endeavour.
    Last edited by Jakin; January 8th, 2013 at 12:45 AM.
    Toshiba Satellite L875-s7230 / A6 2.7ghz dual-core piledriver w/ ATI Radeon HD 7520G / 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 RAM / 500 GB Seagate Momentus XT formatted JFS. >Wifi Drivers for this machine< My Deviant Screenshots

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