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The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

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Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#11

Post by stinkytaco »

santaclaus wrote: post #5

I wish one of the major Linux distributions would double down on design as a core priority (as in, bring in designers and give them serious pull). I'd kill for a beautiful, opinionated, and novel Linux desktop environment.

There are many that would argue that Gnome 3 is just that. Opinionated to the point of driving users away.

Beyond that, there are many projects that I feel meet your criteria: Enlightenment, Deespin, Sugar, etc.

And, of course, you can go ask the folks at i3 or wmii for an opinion, I bet they will be happy to give you several.

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#12

Post by digi_owl »

yoz-y wrote: post #2

I do not subscribe to the idea that it is a good thing to switch from one DE to another for specific tasks. I think it is better to learn one, master it and stick to it. Otherwise time that should be spent working is spent on tinkering with the DE.

Well the idea is supposedly that if you get your DE/WM just the way you want it, you can be more productive.

Various people have a love for tiling WMs because they can navigate and organize things with the keyboard.

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#13

Post by awalGarg »

One not-so-unrelated thing I really love about linux is that the "configuration" for just about every application is stored in plain-text files, mostly in the user's home directory. Which means we can use git to version control them (like many many people do - the dotfiles trend).

You can have a log of configuration changes for your system, you can have various profiles with branches, etc. Want to switch to a different profile? Just `git checkout `, done! Want to revert some change, or see how your PC looked like 2 months ago? `git log` and `git checkout` your way through!

I currently have all my configurations[1] in a dotfiles directory representing the home directory (same directory structure etc.) and symlinks to them in the actual home directory. Very easy to manage.

[1]: https://github.com/awalGarg/dotfiles

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#14

Post by manaskarekar »

Edit: Can the downvoter explain their reason?

My personal favorite is the LXDE / Lubuntu 16.04 setup.

All my subjective opinion, of course:

- Sits in the sweet spot for bare bones distro vs batteries included.

- Without decorations, I have essentially borderless applications, that I can quickly toggle the titlebars etc.

- Kept sane keyboard shortcuts and did not remove them for some arbitrary reasons. Here's a random nitpick, why do some interfaces no longer allow you to press a single letter on the keyboard to launch an option from a menu, example: An option from the list of options in the File menu?

- Very fast, allows a great battery life, all of ubuntu packages and ubuntu community support/troubleshooting, very easy to customize if you need to.

I love it because it is an OS that stays out of my way, has a sane setup out of the box and looks awesome with the borderless windows.

It is perfect in almost every way! I'm worried about their plans to switch to LXQt. It's almost like how Ubuntu 10.10 was IMHO, the pinnacle of perfection, sane choices etc, and then they decide to start all over again.

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#15

Post by api »

drinchev wrote: post #4

For all interested, there is a really nice thread on reddit for showing off your desktop configuration [1]. There really are some master-pieces there. 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/

Pretty really isn't the problem and hasn't been for a very long time. You can make Linux IMHO prettier than a Mac or Windows pretty easily.

The problem is having to tinker. Tinkering is fine if you've got the time and enjoy it, but if you just need your computer to always "just work" this is a problem. Both Linux and Windows strike out for me here. I use a Mac because I almost never have to mess with it... I mean sometimes a year can go by between times when I have to actually mess with my machine. Nothing else does that.

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#16

Post by notalaser »

digi_owl wrote: post #9
buckbova wrote: post #3

> If you’re using Windows, you’re pretty much stuck with the Windows interface. The menus are always going to be in the same place and while you can do things, like change your desktop image and your colors and themes, you’re still limited in how you interact with your computer. I'm not so sure about that. I used winblinds years ago for XP. Not surprised to learn that they're still around. http://www.stardock.com/pro…

There used to be a bunch of alternatives to explorer.exe (yep, the very same damned .exe as the file explorer), but its been ages since i played with them. They all had quirks and issues, as best i recall.

Litestep used to be very sleek at one point. I've used it for an year or two without any problems.

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#17

Post by zedr »

The freedom of using a variety of desktop environments, and the ability to customise them down to the source code, is what got me interested in Linux in the first place.

Back in 2003, I was experimenting with Rainmeter and a port of Blackbox for Windows, but became quickly frustrated about their limitations. I spent an embarassing amount of time trying out the different window managers, before settling on KDE 3.

There's a downside, however: fragmentation.

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#18

Post by Zikes »

buckbova wrote: post #3

> If you’re using Windows, you’re pretty much stuck with the Windows interface. The menus are always going to be in the same place and while you can do things, like change your desktop image and your colors and themes, you’re still limited in how you interact with your computer. I'm not so sure about that. I used winblinds years ago for XP. Not surprised to learn that they're still around. http://www.stardock.com/pro…

I used Rainmeter and DisplayFusion to set this up as my desktop: https://goo.gl/photos/JNtxrGasR4LnRPPn6

Pardon the phone recording bit, I had difficulty finding a screen recording software that would record at a decent framerate at 4K.

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#19

Post by falcolas »

digi_owl wrote: post #12
yoz-y wrote: post #2

I do not subscribe to the idea that it is a good thing to switch from one DE to another for specific tasks. I think it is better to learn one, master it and stick to it. Otherwise time that should be spent working is spent on tinkering with the DE.

Well the idea is supposedly that if you get your DE/WM just the way you want it, you can be more productive. Various people have a love for tiling WMs because they can navigate and organize things with the keyboard.

> get your DE/WM just the way you want it, you can be more productive

Does that ever actually occur? My vimrc changes almost on a daily basis, and I'm frequently changing plugins, writing new tools, and creating new aliases all time time. And that's just for my terminal.

Having to repeat some of those modifications 3-4 times because I'm using a slightly different terminal app for each individual task would, I think, drive me batty.

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#20

Post by theSoenke »

If there is one distro i have to recommend it's Solus. I'm usually not a fan of new distro xyz were not much except the wallpaper changed. But Solus is build from scratch and questions many old linux dogmas. It also focuses on the desktop and is probably one of the fastest distros with a great OOTB experience. It also has a very high velocity were every time you look there are new amazing improvements
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