LinuxQuestions.org - Desktop Environment of the Year

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- 2014 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/2014-linuxquestions-org-members-choice-awards-113/)

- - Desktop Environment of the Year (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/2014-linuxquestions-org-members-choice-awards-113/desktop-environment-of-the-year-4175528387/)

I like Kde Because it's clean and pleasant to use

I don't always use the GUI but when I do I like EnlightenmentDE.

How far Gnome has fallen since they debut'd Gnome Shell. Regularly was fighting with KDE for first place, now a DISTANT 3rd.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timothy Miller (Post 5311600)

How far Gnome has fallen since they debut'd Gnome Shell. Regularly was fighting with KDE for first place, now a DISTANT 3rd.

Frankly, Timothy, Gnome Developers don't give a damn what you think.

Nor what anybody else thinks, for that matter.... Which pretty much explains these results.

I care what Timothy thinks.

Now this result doesn't surprise me, I think it's safe to say this forum has more experienced/enlightened members, so GUI nightmare lawn ornament Gnome coming in a distant THIRD doesn't surprise me in the least.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knightron (Post 5311736)

I care what Timothy thinks.

In case my sarcasm wasn't clear... comment above was intended as an indictment of Gnome and not Timothy.

Peace

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poprocks (Post 5310771)

I'm going to say KDE *one* last year, but I'm going to explore other options going forward. I'm just so sick of the bloody bugs! Akonadi daemon bringing CPU usage up to 100% until I kill it, Kmail spamming my IMAP server with requests until it gets locked out, baloo leaking memory, kio-mtp crashing 90% of the time I try to access files on my phone, screenblanking not auto-disabling with fullscreen browser videos... Ugh!

GNOME3 is a non-starter for me; I *hate* that kind of interface. Unity, I've never even tried. MATE is GNOME2 which I loved, but I refuse to name a fork of an *old* DE the DE "of the year".

XFCE could easily, EASILY get my vote if they would just bring Thunar up to par!

So yeah, I guess it's KDE but that doesn't mean I like it very much. Some of its applications are amazing and keep me using it, so for that reason I'll keep my vote with them for now.

I suggest you look at Xfce. It's come a long ways over the past decade and has become pretty full featured and well integrated, while still remaining modular. For something lighter, maybe LXDE.

Quote:

Originally Posted by normanlinux (Post 5310072)

Perhaps there is a tendency to refer to the workspaces etc but, as the *original* Linux Desktop Enironment, Matthias Ettrich created a repacement for the clunky and expensive CDE - Common Desktop Enviroment - calling it the Kool Dektop Environment, so the way in which everybody else in this thread uses the term KDE is, in fact, correct.

For information purposes readers make like to refer to this post from 1996:
https://www.kde.org/announcements/announcement.php
That's right, KDE has over 18 years behind it, and was based on a great toolkit to start with.

CDE was pretty sweet for its day. I rather liked it. In its day ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poprocks (Post 5310771)

XFCE could easily, EASILY get my vote if they would just bring Thunar up to par!

Just a suggestion to make Thunar more palatable, in Thunar go to Edit/Configure custom actions (right click options), create/add a few things (you may have to pre-install a few packages like gksu and gnome search tool):

'Open Terminal Here' is probably already included so add a few more...

Name=Open Thunar As Root Here
Description=Thunar As Root
Command=gksu thunar
Icon=optional, I use folder-saved-search, the elementary icon set version has a nifty gear symbol on it.

And another...
Name=Search Here
Description=Search For Files
Command=gnome-search-tool --path=%f (this command searches from Thunar's 'current' directory)
Icon=gnome-searchtool

I've always found Thunar to be fairly reliable, screenshot sample of Thunar right click (Debian 7.8 Xfce custom GUI)...
http://s7.postimg.org/nhv6b3ibb/Thun...ick_15_2_5.jpg

I'm switching to PCLinuxOS MATE because Debian is going systemd (I have previous PCLinuxOS experience), although Xfce is in the PCLinuxOS repo, MATE is 'officially' supported, so I'm going to use it. PCLinuxOS MATE is very pretty with this GUI theme combo; elementary icons (they're in the repo, no git download/manual install), BlueMenta theme and BlackMate 'window border', good enough for me, I'm past tweaking and customizations, my PC is basically just a multimedia/office/browser workstation now. The pic below is PCLinuxOS 2014.12 MATE (default kernel 3.18.1) with the aforementioned GUI choices (the window buttons 'illuminate' with different colours when the mouse cursor travels over them), click on the pic after it loads to go full size...
http://s28.postimg.org/hnrc4jkzt/PCL...ve_15_1_29.jpg

Edited for minor corrections, grammar and spelling.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gotfw (Post 5312330)

CDE was pretty sweet for its day. I rather liked it. In its day ;)

Yes,, but its day was the early nineties - and it didn't seem to progress. Under Linux it ws really only available on Red Hat - and it was pricy.

Compare screenshots of CDE in 2000 with KDE 2 in 2000 and you can see the progress made thanks to using a good, well-maintained and updated underlying widget set. The pity is that the 'purists' were unhappy with the QT licence - which allowed free software (with source code) under Linux but required a commercial licence for programs on non-free systems. I wouldn't have objected so much had the Gnome guys used gtkmm, but gtk was such an almighty kludge that it was painful to work with in comparison to QT

Quote:

Originally Posted by cykodrone (Post 5312526)

I'm switching to PCLinuxOS MATE because Debian is going systemd

Just out of curriosity what version of decian were you using, stable, testing, or unstable?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knightron (Post 5313480)

Just out of curriosity what version of decian were you using, stable, testing, or unstable?

As stated in my post, "Debian 7.8 Xfce" (Wheezy='stable'), the only 'tweaks' are the backports kernel (linux-image-3.16-0.bpo.3-amd64) and non-free firmware (AMD CPU and Radeon microcode) have been installed. I leave backports enabled but NOT pinned only for higher version dependcies if certain packages require them, like from the dmo repo, for example.

The GUI is the shearwater theme (found in the Murrine themes package), Bluebird 'window manager' and Xfce elementary dark icons manually installed from github. A while back somebody in FDN said one of my screenshots looked ugly and retro so I went on a beautification kick, that's what I wound up at, clean, pretty and modernish looking.

Good to see Xfce4 in such a strong second place, despite the slow development of 4:12. Also nice that ROX still has a couple of fans... even though it's practically abandonware now. :)