Your favorite lightweight desktop environment?

cheese1343 · 07-22-2011, 03:37 PM

For a while I have been searching for a new desktop environment to use on my netbook, since gnome 3 is too heavy for it. Currently it is running ubuntu because unity is lighter than gnome 3, but I am planning to go back to fedora at some point in time. So far I found LXDE to be my favorite, after trying XFCE and Enlightenment.

I'm not looking for a solution here, just opinions, what is your favorite lightweight desktop environment (and with which WM if you wish) and why?

MS3FGX · 07-22-2011, 03:58 PM

I've used most of them, and I tend to stick with XFCE personally. I like FluxBox on very low end hardware (under 500 MHz, say), but for a halfway modern system it is probably unnecessary to run something so stripped down (unless you like the more utilitarian feel).

bret381 · 07-22-2011, 04:07 PM

I like openbox or fluxbox for use as a lightweight system. But if your looking for a full desktop environment, I guess I prefer lxde

Snark1994 · 07-22-2011, 04:14 PM

My favourite since I started using it has always been wmii; it's a different type of WM (tiling rather than compositing/stacking), but I find it intuitive to use and it helps organise your windows no end... But some people don't get along with it, so YMMV

tekhead2 · 07-22-2011, 04:33 PM

I would have to second on LXDE followed closely by custom openbox with tint2 , and finally followed by ratpoison.. I really like not using a mouse makes me feel geekier for some reason.

sycamorex · 07-22-2011, 04:49 PM

For my needs i3 wm is second to none.

dugan · 07-22-2011, 07:13 PM

Openbox for the window manager.
Tint2 at the bottom of the screen.
Feh setting the wallpaper.
gmrun hotkeyed to either ALT-F2 or Window-R.

GazL · 07-22-2011, 07:24 PM

I used WindowMaker for many, many years. About a month back I started trying some of the tiling window-managers and eventually settled on dwm + dmenu.
It's a no distractions, just get on with what you're doing setup. I love it.. You do need to customise it though. The default colours and keyboard shortcuts are useless.

D1ver · 07-22-2011, 07:30 PM

I really like Openbox, with tint2.

snowday · 07-22-2011, 09:00 PM

Openbox + tint2 (CrunchBang) is my all-time favorite. Currently experimenting with Ratpoison.

frankbell · 07-22-2011, 09:10 PM

I loves me the simple elegance of Fluxbox. I use it with Slackware, Debian, and Ubuntu.

MrCode · 07-22-2011, 09:35 PM

Xfce…because it's lightweight and portable (i.e. I can run it on all my machines, including the FreeBSD "frankencomputer"

), and I can make it look/feel like classic Windows (pre-7), and that's what I'm used to.

I don't think I could ever really get used to using just a bare WM; I'm stuck in my old habits, LOL.

I'm sure there's more to it than that, but I don't feel like trying to recall all my motivations right now…

shambler · 07-22-2011, 11:39 PM

XFCE, though only on a specialized virtual machine.

xjonquilx · 07-23-2011, 10:11 PM

LXDE is my favorite so far too, closely followed by XFCE.

Darkmaze · 07-23-2011, 10:43 PM

e17 or xfce