Yeah fluxbox rules on old and new boxes. Simple, clean, does everything I want. I may check out ION again. I thought it was very nice but the default setup seemed weird to me. Changing from one screen to another was worse than learning Emacs all over again! It doesn't make sense that a WM designed around the concept of not using the mouse makes you play twister on the keyboard just to move from screen to screen.

CDE is very cool in a weird sort of way. You can get an almost identical look on Linux with fvwm. Have you tried it?

I was surprised to find out CDE is being deprecated in Solaris latest v10 in favor of (gag me with a spoon, dude!) Java desktop!

I don't like icons so I like Fluxbox. Fluxbox doesn't have much icons as default. I like Fluxbox because of that. Fluxbox is clean. Let me know if there is another easy to configure, clean likfe Fluxbox.

Enlightenment DR16, baby.

that's ZEN computing

screen + plain linux console. Why use anything more

Fvwm. The default configuration isn't so great, but it's fast and infinitely customizable. You can start with some quick fixes and over time work it up into exactly what you like.

I use plenty of WMs, but prefer kde with kdm

I too have quite a fondness for the [XYZ]box range of desktops. I tried bbLean for Windows around 2 years ago, because I was so irritated with Windows Explorer, and it helped give me the push I needed to switch to Linux. However, I think a program menu with a comprehensive list of all software on the system is very important for a "newbie" like me. When I eventually made the jump to Slackware 12.0, I tried Blackbox and Fluxbox, and KDE beat them hands down in that department. And it is so configurable, it's easy enough to make it look and feel like [XYZ]box, which is what I've done to some extent.

Probably going a little off topic here, but is Solaris a feasible option for a desktop operating system in general? I have been quite interested in having a pure Unix system, but the general opinion seems to be that they are mostly aimed at the server market, with the exception of Mac OSX, which I'm not interested in at all.

I was a long time XFce user, but, I've switched to KDE.

I still have some fond memories of Xfce too, especially from my experience with KateOS. Very clean, lightweight and a nice "atmosphere" to it. I loved the XScreenSaver that came with it. "Old-school" screensavers that you can stare at in wonder for hours.

All superficial reasons, I know, but then "superficial" is what desktop environments are all about anyway.

I like a clean desktop with no icons and nothing but my wallpaper. I can do that with Fluxbox. I also make my own menus, customised by user, and I don't like to have menus pregenerated for me. Some of the reason I love fluxbox are the reasons you don't. And I haven't found a faster wm. KDE and GNOME take forever to open an app. I can't stand waiting for their balls to bounce

KDE is a good Windows replacement desktop, but I run Linux!

I don't consider Solaris to be a server OS but it *is* mostly focused on Sun server hardware as far as drivers go. You can use it as a development platform, they have their own toolchain (compilers, etc.) and nice IDEs. If I can ever get it to work like I want and if I can learn to use it, I will be able to answer your question better! But this is what I have found from my researching.

The driver support for x86 boxes has always been an issue with Solaris. OpenSolaris tries to make Solaris more installable and usable on a wider variety of platforms with more variety of drivers available. I just slapped down Solaris 10/08 with a zfs root on a new box and I can't get grub to install (they use a special fork of it, you can't use regular grub). Solaris also doesn't recognize my NIC.

I have had a lot of problems with Solaris but I don't really want to run OpenSolaris. I think you can probably make a good desktop with either one but you may have to get different video cards and NICs etc.

If you want a UNIX OS for a desktop, look into FreeBSD and OpenBSD. Both make excellent desktops and the driver support seems to be pretty current. I am running the AMD64 port of OpenBSD 4.4 now on a Core 2 Duo box and it is a super nice OS. I have run OpenBSD since 3.6 or 3.7 on a few different boxes and always liked it. I also run FreeBSD 7.1 AMD64 which seems rock solid although it has weird performance problems.

Well the way I see it, if having a Windows-like desktop helps people migrate to Linux more comfortably then I'm all for it! Once they start poking around under the hood they can choose something more fuel-efficient if they like. I myself love playing around at the command line, but for point-and-click enjoyment I loves my KDE.

lxde, fast and easy.

Now, this is beginning to appeal to me.

KDE is not Windows replacement desktop, it is much better.

Windows desktop was always uncustomizeable crap where you can't even assign shortcuts to window operations without using additional software.