Which desktop system do you recommend?

Message

bjorntj · Post by **bjorntj** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:31 am

I have been using Gnome for awhile but there are a lot of small things I don't like, so I am thinkg about trying something else.. (and not KDE)
Which desktop system should I try?

(I need to run both Gnome apps and KDE apps, but that shouldn't be a problem?)

Regards,

BTJ

spOOwn · Post by **spOOwn** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:16 am

Let's try xfce , it is much more light than gnome or kde !

And if you want one more lightweight than this one, use fluxbox, really fast x windowing system, this is the one I prefer .

bjorntj · Post by **bjorntj** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:43 am

And dual screen is no problem with xfce or fluxbox?

BTJ

zoni · Post by **zoni** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:46 am

xfce has excellent support for that, and it's what I'd recommend you to try out first as well. I wouldn't know about Fluxbox, though I'm pretty certain it would run after some tinkering.

spOOwn · Post by **spOOwn** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:07 am

I don't known if fluxbox support it, but it will probably needs more tweaking than with xfce I think.

If you only used kde or gnome, the best choice for you will probably be xfce, as it is easier to use at the beginning.

bjorntj · Post by **bjorntj** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:10 am

How about support for switching keyboard layout on the fly? (is it included in the window manager or do I need to set it up using xorg.conf? )

BTJ

bjorntj · Post by **bjorntj** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:13 am

spOOwn wrote:I don't known if fluxbox support it, but it will probably needs more tweaking than with xfce I think.

If you only used kde or gnome, the best choice for you will probably be xfce, as it is easier to use at the beginning.

I used to use fvwm2 many years ago, not sure if that counts....

BTJ

zoni · Post by **zoni** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:27 am

bjorntj wrote:How about support for switching keyboard layout on the fly? (is it included in the window manager or do I need to set it up using xorg.conf? )

xfce has a panel plugin that can change keyboard layouts, but I think it can only switch the layout to the ones configured in X. (Description is "Button to switch the X keyboard layout") I've never used it myself.

Edit: Also, it's a pretty subjective question, to get more useful responses, consider letting people know what kind of things you're looking for.

bjorntj · Post by **bjorntj** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:35 am

zoni wrote:
bjorntj wrote:How about support for switching keyboard layout on the fly? (is it included in the window manager or do I need to set it up using xorg.conf? )
xfce has a panel plugin that can change keyboard layouts, but I think it can only switch the layout to the ones configured in X. (Description is "Button to switch the X keyboard layout") I've never used it myself.

Edit: Also, it's a pretty subjective question, to get more useful responses, consider letting people know what kind of things you're looking for.

I need to be able to switch between two different keyboard layouts just by using a keyboard shortcut...

BTJ

zoni · Post by **zoni** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:42 am

Sorry for any confusion, the edit referred to the general question of 'What desktop would you recommend', not the keyboard layout switcher thingie

I think the panel plugin could do what you want, but only via a mouse click.. There are probably non-desktop specific commands for it as well though.

bjorntj · Post by **bjorntj** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:46 am

zoni wrote:Sorry for any confusion, the edit referred to the general question of 'What desktop would you recommend', not the keyboard layout switcher thingie

I think the panel plugin could do what you want, but only via a mouse click.. There are probably non-desktop specific commands for it as well though.

Aaaah, I was a bit uncertain about that... (A)

Well, what I want is just a window mananger where I can start my programs efficiently, support for virtual desktops, support for notification/system tray and fast (also nice to have support for themes and things like that....)

Also maybe support for compiz but that is not a must...

BTJ

zoni · Post by **zoni** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:56 am

I'd stick with the recommendations of xfce then. It's not as lightweight as one of the *box variants for example, but it's still very fast and lightweight nonetheless, without loosing much of the features something as huge as gnome/kde offers you.
It also has a built-in compositor which, although nothing as fancy as compiz, does give some pretty transparancy effects.
You can also have compiz take over from xfce's WM without many issues if you really do want all the fancy effects. (I played with it a good while ago and it worked pretty well that time)

B-one · Post by **B-one** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:03 pm

bjorntj wrote: (I need to run both Gnome apps and KDE apps, but that shouldn't be a problem?)

I'm interested too !
Is it possible to install xfce and then additionnal kde applications ? I'd like to have Kate and Amarok, that's all

How does the relation between two desktops like KDE and xfce works ? Is it a master / slave relation or something like that ?

Thanks

yngwin · Post by **yngwin** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:31 pm

If you want something light and simple, I'd recommend openbox or pekwm. If you want a full desktop environment, I recommend kde (3.5, not 4).

B-one: you can always use applications from other environments, it doesn't matter which DE or WM you are using.

zoni · Post by **zoni** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:53 pm

You can run gnome/kde apps on any desktop environment. However, to start a kde/gnome application, all the underlying programs needed by kde/gnome respectively have to be started up as well.
It doesn't really matter on a modern PC, though if you were tight on resources you'd likely notice the added ram/cpu usage.

To do this loading when you start xfce, as opposed to when you start the first kde/gnome app, you can go to Settings->Sessions and Startup and enable the "Launch Gnome/KDE services on startup" checkboxes under the advanced tab.
You can do it manually too, I'm pretty certain it's "kdeinit" for KDE, though for Gnome I have no idea.

You will have the default KDE theme/colors though. xfce is gtk based, which means gnome apps will look and feel the same, but KDE being qt based means they won't blend in unless you put in effort.

B-one · Post by **B-one** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:05 pm

Thanks zoni and yngwin for your answers.

zoni, you say that all the underlying programs needs to be started up as well. So, if my idea was to get a faster environment with xfce, will it be slowed down by this background kde-running ?

Pandor · Post by **Pandor** » Fri May 02, 2008 10:23 am

B-one wrote:Thanks zoni and yngwin for your answers.

zoni, you say that all the underlying programs needs to be started up as well. So, if my idea was to get a faster environment with xfce, will it be slowed down by this background kde-running ?

Like zoni said, you can set it to pre-load the kde/gnome dependencies at startup, to improve startup of gnome/kde aps. At the cost of system load.
You can dismiss this and have them loaded on a as-needed basis. This saves on system resources, but the (kde/gnome) apps will take longer to load.

while1 · Post by **while1** » Fri May 02, 2008 11:18 am

Maybe a little late but if you are looking for a fast and configurable window manager check out FVWM. It is not that nice looking in the standard config but if you give it a little time configuring, the look and feel is awesome.

pilla · Post by **pilla** » Fri May 02, 2008 12:11 pm

Moved from Desktop Environments to Gentoo Chat.

Zvezdichko · Post by **Zvezdichko** » Fri May 02, 2008 2:39 pm

KDE 4.0.3 - my favourite, unfortunately it's hard masked.

yngwin · Post by **yngwin** » Sat May 03, 2008 8:04 pm

Zvezdichko wrote:KDE 4.0.3 - my favourite, unfortunately it's hard masked.

You mean fortunately. Because it is not ready for end-users yet.

Zvezdichko · Post by **Zvezdichko** » Sun May 04, 2008 7:02 am

It's quite stable on my machine:

http://www.linux-bg.org/cgi-bin/y/index ... yout=clean

it almost never crashes.

alistair · Post by **alistair** » Mon May 05, 2008 1:19 am

Zvezdichko wrote:it almost never crashes.

need I say more?

bladdo · Post by **bladdo** » Mon May 05, 2008 6:34 pm

pekwm, fast, pipe menus, light... what more do you need

i92guboj · Post by **i92guboj** » Sun May 18, 2008 3:05 am

alistair wrote:
Zvezdichko wrote:it almost never crashes.
need I say more?

I laughed hard at that hehehe. I suppose that's the typical case: some people see the glass half filled, some others see it harf empty.

But for me, software that crashes is not ready for end users. Not to speak about the functionality that 3.5.x has and 4.x has not yet (because it has not been ported still or because it's being substituted by something new). Gentoo only provides a way to control unstable software, so the end users are not complaining about how the silly Gentoo developers broke your installation by pushing into your system unstable crap.

About the capability to change the keyboard layout with a keystroke, ANY wm can do that. Some of them will have specific support for that feature, but, if a given wm doesn't have it, you can always define a keystroke to call an external command like xmodmap. Any wm can do that.

Which desktop system do you recommend?

Which desktop system do you recommend?

Re: Which desktop system do you recommend?