Linux Desktop Environments - Mostly my Gnome 3 rant..

[W4GPL]

Whatcha y'all using?

I've been a very loyal Gnome user going back as early as Gnome 1.4, perhaps before. The GTK/Gnome combination was always very functional. Though Gnome has always been a bit of a memory hog, that never much concerned me.

Then I upgraded my laptop to Fedora 15 Beta and had Gnome 3 thrust upon me. Holy smokes, what a change. And I dare say, not for the better. The enhanced desktop is very mouse dependant and requires 3D hardware acceleration. They removed numerous configuration options from the UI -- most are still there if you directly edit dconf (gconf's replacement). Though I consider removing basic features like being able to define custom preferred applications as being a regression no matter how you look at it. The only positive thing I can say about Gnome 3 is that is does use less memory than it's previous versions, albeit too little too late.

Gnome 3 does offer a 'fallback mode', which is basically a lot like Gnome 2 without any of the customizability. So here I am, a man without a desktop environment, evicted by the arrogant stupidity of the Gnome developers. I ran back to my old standby Fluxbox, but after a few days of using Fluxbox, it occurred to me that I am living in the 21st century and my desktop environment should reflect that. I'll use Fluxbox if I'm ever relegated to using a Pentium 3 with 512MB of RAM.

Gave KDE a brief whirl too, but KDE almost suffers from the opposite problem of Gnome 3. Where as Gnome 3 takes options away, KDE provides too many. And for whatever reason, I think Qt is some fugly stuff.

Now I'm giving Xfce4 a test drive and I'm very pleased. It's remarkably like Gnome 2 only about half the size in terms of memory usage. It's responsive and clean -- I may have found a winner.

http://heliosj.iddings.us/images/xfce-desktop.png

It is a shame, Gnome may have scared off a large user base, but time will tell.

[N1LAF]

What's a 'duffblimp'? Simpson's related?

had to ask...

http://media.monstersandcritics.com/galleries/788695/SGG-07300350075.jpg

[W4GPL]

It's the hostname of my laptop. I typically name my computers and servers after Simpsons related things. Since the laptop is mobile..

http://images.wikia.com/lossimpson/es/images/0/0c/GloboDuff.jpg

The HamIsland website is hosted on 'Quimby'.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TkR-KeU-T2A/RdeEiNVG5cI/AAAAAAAAAbU/H-KlS_e3qlI/s320/mayor+quimby.gif

The backup server is hosed on 'Wiggum', but I'm not sayin' if it's Ralph, Sarah, or Clancy.

[N1LAF]

That is really cool - a themed network. I probably use the characters from "Family Guy" if I was in your situation.

When I talk with Luke, I will typically end with "May the force be with you"
;)

[WØTKX]

That's funny! I've been naming networked computers with themes for years.

My home networked machines are named for planets from the science fiction Uplift Series by David Brin.

A rendering network for 3d Studio that I ran and managed years ago had Disney names. Cranky assed TCP/IP on Winders 3.12. :roll:

[W4GPL]

That's funny! I've been naming networked computers with themes for years.Yeah. It's a pretty common practice, I've run into other admins who use the Simpsons themes.

[N1LAF]

Jeff, thanks for sharing!

[WØTKX]

Quimby is freakin' hilarious.

Kind of like my Maine Coon kitty is named Milhous.

[WB0LSR]

I like Gnome over KDE personally, but nearly ever time I want to really get something accomplished using Linux I'm in a terminal window.. Nice thing about those is they all look the same lol. Boring as hell.

[WØTKX]

Well, you can change the terminal window to something like blue background with white letters.

Blue screen of "it works". ;)

[N8YX]

Kind of like my Maine Coon kitty is named Milhous.
Mine's named "Will light your a$$ up in a New York second"!

Only me, however. 'DSG is his buddy. :lol:

I have KDE running in dual-head mode on a downstairs workstation and Nicki's workstation currently runs Ubuntu 10.10 with its default Gnome install. Her Ubuntu setup is capable of launching several window managers but she prefers Gnome.

[KC2UGV]

I like Fluxbox. There's a whole lot you can do, and it even looks more "21st century" once you get it customized.

What I do like about it, the complete and total control of your workspace. It makes it a workspace that works in your flow, not forcing you to change how you work to match the WM's paradigm.

As far as network naming schemes, I'm pragmatic:

(Initials of who owns the box, ie CER, DLR, etc or REI for family units), followed by function (NOD for node, COR for network infrastructure, MED for media device, STO for storage), then a serial ID (1,2,3, etc). So, my server that I NX into is CER-NOD01. Wife's laptop is DLR-LAP01. Family computer is REI-NOD1. Router is REI-COR1. Switches are REI-COR2 and REI-COR3.

Just by seeing the hostname, I know immediately whose computer I take down/update/etc, so I can deflect the screams in the household; what it's function is; and generally where on the network it is.

[W4GPL]

I really like Fluxbox for a lot of reasons, I shouldn't have been so disparaging. But I have become accustomed to having certain (trivial) features that a more modern UI provides.

[WB0LSR]

Well, you can change the terminal window to something like blue background with white letters.

Blue screen of "it works". ;)

LOL... too true.

[mw0uzo]

I'm running Debian Squeeze with GNOME 2.30 and won't be using gnome 3 until its makes its way into the stable distribution. The fun of being on the bleeding edge of development soon becomes tiresome when the bugs start getting in the way of day to day work. For lightweight memory systems I use openbox, lxpanel and nitrogen. For ancient computers I use Slitaz.

[W3MIV]

Unbuntu 10.x with Gnome -- on those rare occasions when I power up the Linux laptop.

[n2ize]

KDE 4 user here. I prefer KDE. Been using it almost exclusively for years. Some problems when KDE 4 first came out. It was unstable, frequent crashes and sound issues, etc. But now it;s stable and problem free. Guess it has some groing pains to get through.

[W2NAP]

I'm running Debian Squeeze with GNOME 2.30 and won't be using gnome 3 until its makes its way into the stable distribution. The fun of being on the bleeding edge of development soon becomes tiresome when the bugs start getting in the way of day to day work. For lightweight memory systems I use openbox, lxpanel and nitrogen. For ancient computers I use Slitaz.

im using linux mint debian edition with the repos set to stable. used to use KDE untill KDE4 i just hated 4. so now i use gnome prob when gnome 3 comes out in stable ill drop to LDXE or something

[n2ize]

im using linux mint debian edition with the repos set to stable. used to use KDE untill KDE4 i just hated 4. so now i use gnome prob when gnome 3 comes out in stable ill drop to LDXE or something

Just curious when you tried KDE 4 ? The first time I tried it was when Fedora included it with Fedora version 9 or 10 and initially I hated it. At that point in time it was not ready for prime time use. it was unstable, there were sound problems, it crashed frequently. numerous configuration tools were missing, and by default it looked ugly. It is a miracle I continued to use it. But KDE 4 has matured a lot since then. Now it is very stable, the sound works flawlessly, the desktop looks great and is highly configurable, etc. These days I can;t find anything not to like about KDE 4. But I will admit, in the beginning it was quite a bumpy road.

[mw0uzo]

im using linux mint debian edition with the repos set to stable. used to use KDE untill KDE4 i just hated 4. so now i use gnome prob when gnome 3 comes out in stable ill drop to LDXE or something

Never used Mint - what do you like best about it? It uses the Debian stable repos and does a lot of the annoying configuration for you?

[W2NAP]

Never used Mint - what do you like best about it? It uses the Debian stable repos and does a lot of the annoying configuration for you?

linux mint uses debians testing repos (fresh install change the testing to stable is what i did) mint adds all the multimedia crap and some other stuff. and no annoying configs lol.

@ize, I tried KDE4 a few times. tried it again last month.. just dont like it. i cant stand everything being a widget (plasmoids) ill stick with gnome untill gnome 3 is pushed on me (debian stable repos that wont be for while lol) when that happens off to LXDE i go

[n6hcm]

ugh. i'd rather just have a command line and an x server for when i must have a graphical something or other. they don't provide xwm or uwm anymore, or i'd use that.

[KC2UGV]

ugh. i'd rather just have a command line and an x server for when i must have a graphical something or other. they don't provide xwm or uwm anymore, or i'd use that.

There's twm :)

[n6hcm]

There's twm :)

yeah, i know. i went and looked last night.

i'm kinda surprised that linux is just as unusable on a netbook as windows is.

[KC2UGV]

yeah, i know. i went and looked last night.

i'm kinda surprised that linux is just as unusable on a netbook as windows is.

Depends on what you mean by unusable. I had Ubuntu NBR on my netboook. Fine business there.

[N2CHX]

I'm running Ubuntu 11.04 on my Acer netbook. Took me a bit to get the GMA500 video drivers working, but I finally did yesterday. Ubuntu's new Gnome version just plain old doesn't work. No menus appear, just the desktop. So I switched back to "Gnome Classic" and it's fine, but seems to run slower than 10.10 did. I like the look of KDE these days, but unfortunately previous versions have failed miserably with getting wireless networking and a few other things to work. I may give it a whirl on Natty and see if they fixed that.

[W4GPL]

I'm tellin' ya, Xfce. It's a Gnome 2 drop in replacement. You'll hardly know the difference.

[KC2UGV]

I'm tellin' ya, Xfce. It's a Gnome 2 drop in replacement. You'll hardly know the difference.

This man speaks truth. Well, you might notice, because your machine is now running faster :)

[w6tmi]

That is really cool - a themed network. I probably use the characters from "Family Guy" if I was in your situation.

When I talk with Luke, I will typically end with "May the force be with you"
;)


Mine's typically been southpark chars. in "southpark.local" domain of course. Lately though it's just been dumb crap. Like my phone is "fleabag".

[W4GPL]

Just a random UI enhancement I recently made.. I started using the Droid font series as my standard system & browser font. Though originally made for hand-held device, they look smashing on my laptop.

http://www.google.com/webfonts/family?family=Droid+Sans&subset=latin (available via yum in Fedora)

[n2ize]

I'm running Ubuntu 11.04 on my Acer netbook. Took me a bit to get the GMA500 video drivers working, but I finally did yesterday. Ubuntu's new Gnome version just plain old doesn't work. No menus appear, just the desktop. So I switched back to "Gnome Classic" and it's fine, but seems to run slower than 10.10 did. I like the look of KDE these days, but unfortunately previous versions have failed miserably with getting wireless networking and a few other things to work. I may give it a whirl on Natty and see if they fixed that.

If you can get wireless networking working on the system then it shouldn't matter what desktop you are using.

[N2CHX]

If you can get wireless networking working on the system then it shouldn't matter what desktop you are using.

Well, it does. The Network Manager in KDE managed to mangle all my working connections. However, in Natty it does actually work. I played with it and decided I liked Gnome better. I live by my Gnome widgets and KDE just seems clunky compared to Gnome. I tried installing xfce but one of the dependencies in Natty is broken, so I'll try it again later when it's been hopefully fixed.

[n2ize]

Well, it does. The Network Manager in KDE managed to mangle all my working connections. However, in Natty it does actually work. I played with it and decided I liked Gnome better. I live by my Gnome widgets and KDE just seems clunky compared to Gnome. I tried installing xfce but one of the dependencies in Natty is broken, so I'll try it again later when it's been hopefully fixed.

Around here the "network configuration GUI" doesn't even run. It just spits out a message saying it can't import gnomevfs. So I just set up networking by hand editing the files in vi or emacs. Or I just let HAL or whatever they cal it do it automagically when it detects a network. At least with my hard wired network

if you're on a wireless network it's probably more critical. Problem I have is when I put on the laptop it always connects to the wrong network. Some joker in town has a open unprotected network and my machine always wants to automatically connect to that one instead of my own networks. Few times I;ve wondered why my printer disappeared and whoosh... noticed it was on someone else's network.

[KC2UGV]

Yeah, network-manager didn't play very nicely with my RTL8187 USB wifi card in Natty... So, I backed down to Jaunty, and used /etc/network/interfaces to manage everything.

[W2NAP]

I'm running Ubuntu 11.04 on my Acer netbook. Took me a bit to get the GMA500 video drivers working, but I finally did yesterday. Ubuntu's new Gnome version just plain old doesn't work. No menus appear, just the desktop. So I switched back to "Gnome Classic" and it's fine, but seems to run slower than 10.10 did. I like the look of KDE these days, but unfortunately previous versions have failed miserably with getting wireless networking and a few other things to work. I may give it a whirl on Natty and see if they fixed that.

go linux mint. they will be sticking with gnome 2.32 next release. or could go linux mint debian edition and after install set the debian repos to stable like idid

[ad4mg]

Ubuntu 11.04 has the Unity Desktop. The interface is almost magic! Fast, responsive, and pretty, too:

4119 <--- click me!


Jeff hates me now ... :-D

[KC2UGV]

I'm still growing my love for twm this weekend... Light, fast, nothing more than what I put there :)

[W2NAP]

Ubuntu 11.04 has the Unity Desktop. The interface is almost magic! Fast, responsive, and pretty, too:

4119 <--- click me!


Jeff hates me now ... :-D

do not like!

honestly cant stand "unity" ill keep my Gnome 2.30