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The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

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Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#111

Post by tomrod »

willtim wrote: post #63
digi_owl wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For every person loving those plain texts, there are one that want to see them purged from existence. Observe how Gnome has basically recreated the registry, complete with hidden magic switches...

The Gnome stack is horrible. I long ago started questioning the sanity of the devs when they tried to build an entire office suite in C. Start any Gnome/GTK app and it will continously spew assertion failed log messages at you. Gnome has also forced certain standards, e.g. Network Manager when superior alternatives exist (the excellent Connman).

I'm stuck in GNOME -- any advice on breaking free is appreciated!

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#112

Post by lima »

juliangoldsmith wrote: post #73
robmccoll wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the configuration is plain text: unit, service, and environment files are plaintext. Which services are enabled and disabled cannot be controlled through file manipulation that I know of. Journal (log files) are binary. I think what bothers me about both is that the presence of text files in a predefined location is not enough to make things happen on its own. Instead of the simplest possible everything-is-a-…

IIRC enabling and disabling services in systemd are done via symlinks. You'd have to call a binary to start newly-added services, though. (i.e. systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl start service)

> You'd have to call a binary to start newly-added services

It reloads its configuration on SIGHUP (same as daemon-reload).

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#113

Post by symlinkk »

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.

ElementaryOS is just a skin of GNOME and some half-assed replacements for some GNOME apps. If you want a polished desktop just install GNOME. The best distro for GNOME is Fedora. So I guess what I'm saying is just install Fedora.

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#114

Post by reitanqild »

madamelic wrote: post #70
rifung wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Linux desktop is getting better but is still a painful experience when used with non common setup. Indeed every time I think of getting a new laptop or desktop, I try to do research into how well Linux will run on the hardware. Thankfully there seem to be a decent number of laptops that have Linux preinstalled now. As much as I enjoy tinkering, even after using Linux for a while I still don't have a strong understa…

I had the same opinion of Linux as you. I didn't want to tinker with it and get everything working well. Just install Ubuntu. Ignore everyone saying Ubuntu is a kiddy OS ("All you need is X, Y, Z-ix"). Ubuntu is Linux Windows (not really, but it is pretty hard to mess up).

More like Mac Linux.

Neon or openSuse is more Windows-like IMO.

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#115

Post by lima »

jstimpfle wrote: post #56
digi_owl wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For every person loving those plain texts, there are one that want to see them purged from existence. Observe how Gnome has basically recreated the registry, complete with hidden magic switches...

It's the worst. I've sufferred so much although I never wanted to care about it. I'm a little blurry on the details, but if you want to automize addition of some configuration to the dconf system you have to put your part of the configuration tree in /etc/ and recompile the whole config to a new binary file. I doubt anybody can measure the parsing advantage of a binary format, but the drawbacks are obvious. You can't…

> automize addition of some configuration to the dconf system

You mean like "dconf dump" and "dconf load"?

I use it for exactly that (importing my hotkeys config).

What you describe (compiled files in /etc) are system-global default values. You only need those for multi-user environments.

> I doubt anybody can measure the parsing advantage of a binary format, but the drawbacks are

The performance advantages are massive. The dconf database is just a hashtable which can be directly mmap'ed, so no parsing happens at all. This does matter for settings which are read hundreds of times (your current desktop theme, for example).

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#116

Post by CaptSpify »

lima wrote: post #55
digi_owl wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For every person loving those plain texts, there are one that want to see them purged from existence. Observe how Gnome has basically recreated the registry, complete with hidden magic switches...

Gnome re-created the registry because they needed features that plain text files don't have. I simply have a hook for my dotfile repo which calls "dconf dump / > .dconf". This dumps the entire tree and it's nicely versioned in the repo.

Curious what features a plain-text file doesn't have that a registry would?

Re: The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments

#120

Post by CaptSpify »

hsitz wrote: post #27
api wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 som…

I'm not sure why you think you "have to tinker". I run Ubuntu 14.04 and use i3 window manager. I haven't "tinkered" with the setup in about a year-and-a-half, dating back to when I installed i3 shortly after I got the my last computer. The default Unity DE is nice, too. I don't use it, but I could have used it all this time, can't imagine what "tinkering" would be required.

I'll bite:

I have to tinker all the time because hw compatibility still sucks. Wifi, sound, video-cards often require tinkering to get them working, especially after upgrading. They are a lot better than they used to be, but they still have a ways to go.

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