It's been a while.. Which Desktop Environment?

Dj_Jestar

Dj_Jestar

Dj_Jestar

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Gnome, KDE, Xgl (with Compiz), or raw-to-the-bone X? ... any others?

Which, Why, and on What do you use?

KDE on Gentoo 2006.1 with X11 here

I dislike Gnome, defeats the purpose of using Linux and Gentoo in the first place, in my opinion.. i.e. it does far too much for me, I want to do it. I also find it semi-restrictive.

KDE is what I am using right now.. a better balance of control and still nice and customisable, though it could be improved (what can't ?) though I'm inferiror and can't do it myself.

I am tempted to give Xgl and Compiz a go just for the leet factor, though I am sure I will turn off all the fancy wobbly bits after a very short time.
 
Gnome personally. Used to prefer KDE but imo it looks a little tacky and requires loads of customisation to make it look half nice. If I could be arsed, I'd love to get E17 totally lovely looking.

Saying all that, I do like how the slax theme suits KDE. Perhaps I just haven't experimented enough :) most of the time I'm in the console anyhow.
 
e17 for me, have been using it for well over a year now (though have experimented with xgl, wobbly windows etc are adictively fun for a while :p). Check out the first link in this thread as to what can be done with e17. e17 is also quite a quick compile on gentoo compared to kde & gnome (about 45 minutes to compile e17 with a few extras like entrance, exhibit and entice for example although I do use nautilus as well, which is part of gnome, and would add to the total compile time until e17s own folder browser thingy is released & usable :)).
 
Dj_Jestar said:
Looks quite nice.. may give it a go. However it looks like it will be a mission to setup, is this so?
Click to expand...

It's pretty easy to setup on Gentoo. Put the following in your package.keywords:

Code: 
>=x11-wm/e-9999 -*
>=dev-db/edb-9999 -*
>=dev-libs/eet-9999 -*
>=media-libs/imlib2-9999 -*
>=media-libs/imlib2_loaders-9999 -*
>=x11-libs/evas-9999 -*
>=x11-libs/ecore-9999 -*
>=media-libs/epeg-9999 -*
>=media-libs/epsilon-9999 -*
>=dev-libs/embryo-9999 -*
>=media-libs/edje-9999 -*
>=x11-libs/esmart-9999 -*
>=media-libs/etox-9999 -*
>=x11-libs/ewl-9999 -*
>=dev-libs/engrave-9999 -*
>=dev-util/e_utils-9999 -*
>=x11-misc/entrance-9999 -*
>=media-gfx/elicit-9999 -*
>=media-gfx/entice-9999 -*
>=media-video/elation-9999 -*
>=media-video/envision-9999 -*
>=app-misc/examine-9999 -*
>=media-libs/emotion-9999 -*
>=mail-client/embrace-9999 -*
>=net-news/erss-9999 -*
>=sci-calculators/equate-9999 -*
>=dev-libs/exml-9999 -*
>=x11-plugins/e_modules-9999 -*
>=media-video/eclair-9999 -*
>=app-misc/entropy-9999 -*
>=x11-libs/etk-9999 -*
>=sys-fs/evfs-9999 -*
>=media-gfx/exhibit-9999 -*
>=media-gfx/retina-9999 -*

x11-libs/cairo ~amd64
media-libs/glitz ~amd64

^The above is probably more packages than you'd actually emerge, but it leaves room to emerge packages you might be interested in. Having cairo & glitz as ~amd64 (or ~x86) should stop any problems with evas compiling.

Then do:

Code: 
emerge eet dev-db/edb evas ecore embryo imlib2 edje e epeg media-libs/epsilon esmart ewl engrave e_utils entice exml e_modules etk exhibit

It will probably stop emerging at e_modules, in which case I can supply an ebuild that works (can't take the credit for writing it, mind) but by which time you should have e17 on your system anyway :)
 
How long does it normally take to compile e17? If it's quite a while (10hours+) then I'll leave it for now until I go back to work.
 
Assuming you don't run into problems, probably around 45 minutes on a modern cpu (mines an AMD64 3000+) for all the packages I've suggested.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
Really? wow.. KDE took something silly like 15hours.. xp2700+
Click to expand...

e17 is more of a minimal desktop environmet - it does have some add on programs which is why it is more than just a window manager (but these are optional - except that there are plans for it to have an integrated file browser). It's not nearly as full featured as KDE or Gnome, but you do have the option to pull in KDE & Gnome packages (eg Nautilus, Amarok etc) as you do with any of the window managers for *nix :)
 
KDE or Gnome what ever choice you like. I find KDE to feel faster, but it seems to have so much stuff, apparent duplication, tons of options for everything which is nice, the KIO slaves are really good. KDE seems to be uber-integrated (which is IMO a good thing in a DE) right click will pop up all sorts etc.. but I always get problems with things running it.


I like the Gnome, it feels a lot more natural to use, very Mac-like, but some of it is lacking they could do with a bit more options in the stuff - but they are making progress every release usually has a needed feature. The backends are beginning to mature gstreamer etc, but gnome Vfs isn't as good a kioslaves. The samba browing for example kinda sucks. You can run certain files, others I need to copy over . Using Connect to server in menu doesn't work like that either I need mount it via fstab properly. (which I suppose is the correct solution but come on I don't want to need to be editing text files in 2006 DE.

Gnome just feels a lot more polished.

With the modularisation of Xorg things are lookings up for the graphics and we are already seeing the results..

Note: This is as I understand it, feel free to point out otherwise

XGL is a hack, running the XGL server ontop of your Xorg server to enable 3d effects is cool, but the result is too much for my CPU (XP1900 GF3, when actually doing anything useful)

It looks like AIGLX is where it's at. BUT..

It's possible if you have an ATI card, 9250,9550{?},X800 maybe others to use the free drivers which allows direct rendering and they can work with the AIGLX stuff with your xorg to give you 3d accel without the need for a whole extra server runnign ontop, but as I say only with the free drivers, mean high end cards are out because ati won't release the specs so developers can do a proper free driver.

Nvidia users are out of luck becuase the nvidia drivers don't support 1 or the 3 criteria needed to go AIGLX. But with the 9xxx series of cards brings a new driver which apparently will still be proprietry binary, but will have the needed feature to allow proper running og AIGLX on nvidia.

That looks pretty neat for me, in my eyes better than the free ATI driver as the card will be fully supported, but I fully understanded the libre aspect..

Compiz is definatley pretty freaking awesome. The expose style features alone make it worth it, all the rest (cube, wobbly,etc etc) are just icing on the cake. The newest builds have a full checkbox style gui to enable disable effects, on ubuntu its a case if installing a coouple of packeages and creating a couple of text files.


I was toying with Window maker and GNUstep there, and I really like the interface.

Anyway for me I'm waiting for KDE4. Redone on QT4, this should be a really nice release, new codebase. Due out begin of 2007. This should hopefully fix all the rubbish little niggles I have with KDE.
 
Windowmaker here too (NeXTSTEP clone).

Nice and rapid, even on an old PII. Starts almost instantly, and I find I actually enjoy working in a NeXT style environment :)
 
I always was a Gnome fan, seemed far more intutive than KDE, plus it is also quite similar to OS X which helps me!

Fluxbox is good (if you have the patience to set it up).

Rich
 
G550 said:
Windowmaker here too (NeXTSTEP clone).

Nice and rapid, even on an old PII. Starts almost instantly, and I find I actually enjoy working in a NeXT style environment :)
Click to expand...

Another vote for window maker, sod this silly "desktop" minimalist, finctional and with the effort, rather nice to look at!
 
I didn't realise it would be so popular. I didn't find much in the way of activity on Window Maker when I was searching the net, good to hear some people using it.

Does anyone know how I can compile drag+drog support into WM? The program in certain areas of the UI has a notice saying not compiled with drag and drop support. These are (ubuntu packages) so I compiled from source but still got these messages - am I missing something?
 
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