2012 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice AwardsThis forum is for the 2012 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards.
You can now vote for your favorite products of 2012. This is your chance to be heard! Voting ends on February 4th.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
View Poll Results: Desktop Environment of the Year
Desktop
Gnome-shell (voted) this buggy can of rats.. arggg but otherwise quite good.
Multi-Touch Tablets
seeking solution for multi touch tablets
Cairo - well currently only one usable solution for me. With some caveats in UI and not very pleasant virtual keyboard solution.
KWin/PlasmaActive - not this one = multi touch is buggy and unusable. But UI is good.
Android-x86 4.0 - i think it works with limited amount of specific hardware good.. not managed to get it up and running on same hardware but not from project supported manufacturer. Android is currently have one of best touch oriented interfaces around.
Yet untested Sugar DE.
Unity, because it just makes sense. Seriously, I fail to understand what all the fuss was about over in the Ubuntu forums. Sure, it's a little different and takes a few minutes to learn, but Unity is a full-featured DE that I consider one of the easiest to use without a lot of useless, unnecessary, resource-hogging eye candy.
Wait...last time I checked, Unity required compiz--which is (IMHO) the very epitome of resource-hogging, bloated, buggy "eye candy." I dare say, I hope my information is out-of date! (Maybe it just hates my hardware...?)
Still, whatever you like, kudos for finding it! :-) One great thing about *nix is the variety!
I use the CLI most, but when I want a GUI I strongly prefer KDE as I find it to be functional, customizable, and good looking. I will say that I have been impressed with razorqt w/kwin and now use it instead of LXDE when I desire a lighter DE then KDE. I would use GNOME if someone put a gun to the back of my head....just kidding, I'd rather they squeeze the trigger
KDE4 had totally come of age this year. Properly mature and stable. PIM and poor default settings are still weak points, but overall it's a cracking desktop and definately should be the default linux desktop now.
Poor default settings yes. I had screen tearing in games until I found and checked "Suspend Desktop Effects for Fullscreen Windows." I have no idea who could possibly have thought that "off" was a good default setting. Since that is fixable, though, KDE will likely be my choice this year.
(Compiz, IIRC, also has screen tearing by default... and an even more hidden option to fix it).
There are some graphical issues that could stand to be tweaked a little more out of the box, but I feel like part of what draws me to KDE is the ability to customize and tweak settings.
Sorry but whatever answer comes out my finger tips won't be credible. I never pay attention to the desktop enviornment too much. I usually use the default desktop of whatever distro I use. My favorite distro's are: Slackware, Fedora and CentOS. I don't spend much time tinkering with the desktops though... But I can say that Unity sucks!
Gnome 3 and 2 have their advantages in their own ways. I find KDE nice as well but lacks the support. If KDE had more support I would probably chose KDE but am unable to answer this question because KDE widgets are quite buggy as well.
If more people had used KDE instead of Gnome and fixed up a lot of its problems I think KDE could win. PS. KDE is my least used desktop the one i used the most is Gnome 3 so I really can't give a fair comparison.
-------------
Edit: Also noticed a lot of ppl hate Gnome 3. I am using it now and is is better at least 3.4 is. Yes It is lacking some functionality but as I said I use the CLI mostly for that. I think its nice cross between functionality and ease of use and it has been quite stable for me. But if you ask me I think I prefer Gnome 2. Never tried Mate or Cinnamon. All in all if you ask me its a waste of time for me personally and my focus to focus on a desktop environment. If I really took desktop environment that seriously I would have Chosen Macintosh it has the best desktop env. out there. I don't think anybody with a sane mind could compare it to linux desktops. But my current favorite desktop environment would be: Terminator for the Shell and Vim for editing text files and using python LOL
Last edited by Mercury305; 01-03-2013 at 09:15 AM.
Unity, because it just makes sense. Seriously, I fail to understand what all the fuss was about over in the Ubuntu forums. Sure, it's a little different and takes a few minutes to learn, but Unity is a full-featured DE that I consider one of the easiest to use without a lot of useless, unnecessary, resource-hogging eye candy.
JM2C
Wow, this was the only desktop I hated the most of the ones i tried... It has a giant ugly taskbar that covers the left side of screen all the time. Also lacks a lot of functionality. Quite buggy allthough that just might be Ubuntu's fault since Ubuntu is the most buggy distro I have tried. Overall I really hate Ubuntu as a distro it has been 1 of the main reasons Linux has mutated to be what it is today. I heard now they have spyware installed in 12.10 yet people still use it LOL. Man I'm happy not to use Ubuntu.
F*** it I am voting for KDE. KDE is the underdog DE!
But I like both Gnome and KDE with all their flaws. If more people switched to KDE I think it would overall improve and be number 1. Its more functional then Gnome but needs a more standard setup for oobe.
Unity is a modified Gnome 3 with an Ubuntu appearence. Just like Cinnamon is a modified Gnome 3 with a Mint appearence.
at least in gnome 3 you don't have the 4 desktop limitation. also you dont have to deal with the big taskbar infront of you and its a hell of a lot less resource consumption. Unity is the worst desktop I have ever used on Linux (period)
I can live with the flaws of KDE and Gnome but Unity just pisses me off. Whoever votes Unity must die! LOL
If more people had used KDE instead of Gnome and fixed up a lot of its problems I think KDE could win.
I'm pretty sure kde is currently more often used than gnome. I can't prove that, but kde got the most votes last year. I've used kde 4.8 quite extensively, and have minimal issues. I know one of the distros you use is CentOs, which uses kde 4.3. I hope you weren't basing your opinions on that version, because it is very old, and in my opinion Kde4 did not achieve greatness until 4.6.5.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mercury305
If I really took desktop environment that seriously I would have Chosen Macintosh it has the best desktop env. out there. I don't think anybody with a sane mind could compare it to linux desktops.
You ever used Os X? The Os X desktop environment does look pretty, but in my experience (which is with Snow Leopard) it is so limiting, and hard to use. The close button in the corner of windows doesn't actually close programs. There is no maximize button, they have a zoom button instead which seems to be inconsistent and unreliable. If you have to open a window but you've already opened one of the same program; for example, you want two file browser windows open, you have to right click the icon in the dock, and select open new window in the menu: instead of just right or middle clicking it. Os X uses a universal menu like Unity. Universal menus are annoying because if you have two windows open at the same time, you can only access one of the windows menus at a time.
Os X isn't all bad though. Os X introduced me to 'spaces' and 'expose'. I have found these two functions, combined with 'hot corners' marvelous. I think that's really all i can think of, that i like about the Os X; but those functions are easily attainable in the *nix desktop environments too, so big whoop. In fact i use the kwin equivalents.
All up, anyone who does think the Os X desktop environment is a functional master piece are the real "unsane".
Wow, this was the only desktop I hated the most of the ones i tried... It has a giant ugly taskbar that covers the left side of screen all the time. Also lacks a lot of functionality. Quite buggy allthough that just might be Ubuntu's fault since Ubuntu is the most buggy distro I have tried. Overall I really hate Ubuntu as a distro it has been 1 of the main reasons Linux has mutated to be what it is today. I heard now they have spyware installed in 12.10 yet people still use it LOL. Man I'm happy not to use Ubuntu.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.