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#1 2008-03-01 16:06:26

miggols99
Member
Registered: 2007-06-10
Posts: 424

Choosing a desktop environment

I have a computer with Gnome on it but it is very slow. I would like to put something else onto it to make it faster. My options it seems are:

* E17 - Quite unstable for me
* KDE - Not sure how fast it will be
* KDEmod - How fast would that be?
* KDE4 - Have it on the rest of my computers
* Xfce - No login manager...but otherwise a good option
* Window managers - Too incomplete

So which one do you think I should put on here? Here are the specs:

AMD Athlon XP 1GHz
512MB RAM
Integrated Savage graphics (not very good, it can do compositing, but very badly)

Last edited by miggols99 (2008-03-01 16:46:45)

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#2 2008-03-01 16:10:10

stavrosg
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From: Rhodes, Greece
Registered: 2005-05-01
Posts: 330
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Re: Choosing a desktop environment

Just a clarification.. What do you mean with the term 'desktop manager' ?

If all you want is icons and files on your desktop, then yes, you can have them with xfce.

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#3 2008-03-01 16:10:20

ise
Developer
From: Karlsruhe / Germany
Registered: 2005-10-06
Posts: 404
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Re: Choosing a desktop environment

miggols99 wrote:

* Xfce - No desktop manager...but otherwise a good option

What do you mean with "No desktop manager"? It is a full desktop environment with all the options the others have.

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#4 2008-03-01 16:13:31

miggols99
Member
Registered: 2007-06-10
Posts: 424

Re: Choosing a desktop environment

By desktop manager I mean login manager. Sorry for the confusion.

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#5 2008-03-01 16:21:50

stavrosg
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From: Rhodes, Greece
Registered: 2005-05-01
Posts: 330
Website

Re: Choosing a desktop environment

A popular (I think) option for xfce is slim login manager (if this is what keeps you from using xfce).

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#6 2008-03-01 16:26:02

miggols99
Member
Registered: 2007-06-10
Posts: 424

Re: Choosing a desktop environment

Well if Xfce had it's own login manager, that would be great, because slim is too minimalistic for me because first of all there is no user list option and secondly it is hard to choose sessions...it's just not for me sad I would use GDM but it has Gnome dependencies which I loathe for some reason..guess I hate bloat smile

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#7 2008-03-01 16:47:17

McQueen
Member
From: Arizona
Registered: 2006-03-20
Posts: 387

Re: Choosing a desktop environment

After you install Xfce you will probably add some Gnome dep-based apps so I doubt there would be much "bloat" when using GDM.


/path/to/Truth

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#8 2008-03-01 16:49:44

miggols99
Member
Registered: 2007-06-10
Posts: 424

Re: Choosing a desktop environment

Ok so which Xfce is better? Xfce4 or Xfce-svn? I think the svn version has more applications, but are they usable? And is it stable?

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#9 2008-03-01 17:01:34

McQueen
Member
From: Arizona
Registered: 2006-03-20
Posts: 387

Re: Choosing a desktop environment

Well, no the svn branch won't be stable but do you like to test new pkgs and builds? Otherwise...nah.


/path/to/Truth

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#10 2008-03-01 17:04:13

fwojciec
Member
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,411

Re: Choosing a desktop environment

xfce-svn has been recently orphaned so go with the regular xfce from extra.

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#11 2008-03-01 17:09:54

miggols99
Member
Registered: 2007-06-10
Posts: 424

Re: Choosing a desktop environment

Just wondering, would KDE3/4 or KDEmod work well with this computer? KDE has always been my favourite DE but if it will be too slow I won't use it sad

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#12 2008-03-01 20:09:08

gazj
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From: /home/gazj -> /uk/cambs
Registered: 2007-02-09
Posts: 681
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Re: Choosing a desktop environment

I run gnome on an IBM x20 which is only 600mhz, I wouldn't say it runs fast, but well enough.  I would go for xfce if you still want a full desktop enviroment.  Kde would be to much I'm sure of it.  Try replacing gnome's metacity wm with openbox, it seems to make things more responisive for me at least.

As for login manager's for xfce, There is slim as already mentioned, wdm and xdm also require few dependencies.

Last edited by gazj (2008-03-01 20:10:57)

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#13 2008-03-01 21:46:08

miggols99
Member
Registered: 2007-06-10
Posts: 424

Re: Choosing a desktop environment

Well I decided to go with KDEmod. KDE4 would be too unstable for me so I went with the stabler option. It's running much faster than I expected it would. smile

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