lightweight desktop environment?

andrewlkho · 07-05-2003, 07:16 PM

Hi,
I've been searching around for a while for what gui to use. My primary aim is simplicity and lightweight, even in the face of excess simplicity. I've tried various window managers, and like fluxbox the best. However, I think that a desktop environment would suit me better. Can anyone suggest one that would fit these criteria, or compare various desktop environments?
Cheers

DrOzz · 07-05-2003, 07:18 PM

personally i like gnome and hate kde

contrasutra · 07-05-2003, 07:46 PM

The lightest Desktop Environment (not window manager) I know of is: XFCE.

I use it and its wonderful. It looks similar to GNOME because it uses GTK2, but its much less buggy (even for a beta) and faster.

It comes w/ a File manager, panel, Window manager, Desktop Manager, etc.

xfce.org

Even though the site says "Beta 1", they are actually at Beta 2 and approaching RC1. So be sure to check their SourceForge website to get the latest version.

shellcode · 07-05-2003, 10:11 PM

that looks interesting....

i've been using fluxbox but a desktop environment would be nicer in some ways than a window manager.

my MAIN concern: speed

pumping all the speed out of my 400 mhz pII slack box is my top priority..... how is it for speed?

contrasutra · 07-05-2003, 10:17 PM

Well, its slower than the lightboys (fluxbox, windowmaker), but its still pretty good.

Its very modular, so you only have to load the parts you want to use.

footfrisbee · 07-06-2003, 05:19 AM

How about fvwm? I ran it on my old 166 MHz (with internal cache disabled) machine just fine. And I continue to run it on my Athlon XP.

acid_kewpie · 07-06-2003, 05:23 AM

To clear up a little, a Desktop Environment is not a lightweight solution ever. KDE and Gnome, and XFce too, are DE's as they provide full application frameworks and such like.

Window Managers like Blacbox and WindowMaker on the other hand provide much less and are much lighter, with less interaction with the system as a whole

Proud · 07-06-2003, 05:37 AM

Is Enlightenment too heavy a WM in this case? It is fully featured though...

andrewlkho · 07-06-2003, 12:42 PM

cheers guys. I'm trying out xfce as we speak ..

DavidPhillips · 07-06-2003, 08:10 PM

twm for the very light weight solution.

try wmaker if you didn't yet. it will run smoothly on your machine.

Thymox · 07-06-2003, 08:15 PM

TWM? Surely not! Pure, unabridged X with a console open so that you can run apps!

Personally, I prefer the approach of SawFish - completely blank screen so you can do what you like with it. No slit, no panel, nothing. There is a menu, but you need to press the middle button on the desktop to get it working.

DavidPhillips · 07-06-2003, 08:27 PM

twm has a menu that you can edit to suite your needs.

Just a suggestion, it's not my personal favorite. I use it sometimes for using X over a dialup connection if I need to.

andrewlkho · 07-06-2003, 09:55 PM

hmm....i'm not so sure now. I'm using kde at the moment, but it's got more than I want. So what I've ended up doing is launching it, and then killing the kicker [the kde taskbar]. What I'm looking for is something that will let me do the following:
change the wallpaper
focus on click
change the keymap to a uk setting. I'll try some others out...sawfish sounds good

adz · 07-06-2003, 11:13 PM

A couple of people have mentioned windowmaker (wmaker) and I'd just like to say it rocks. It's IMMENSELY configurable but stays very small and lightweight. It also doesn't have a menu bar or anything you have to click the right button on the b/g to access it. It does have a dock (a collection of icons) on the right by default and a clip (allows access to workspaces) in the top left corner and that's it. Magic.

andrewlkho · 07-07-2003, 04:41 AM

well i must say that i've been trying out windowmaker for an hour now, and i think it's excellent. however, there's two things i would like to see in it - and it's probable that there already there, i just don't know how. want i want is to be able to change the wallpaper to an image of my choice, and secondly to be able to configure a shortcut key for the 'run command'...anybody know how to do this?