Arch Linux

roger99

Member

Registered: 2008-09-14

Posts: 3

I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

Right, I'm gonna take the plunge in the next couple of days, the switch to Arch!

Been using Ubuntu since dapper and feel it's time get myself a more customised linux install and keep hearing the word of Arch being passed around.  So I've decided that i'm gonna backup, wipe the HDD and re-install.

Initially I was gonna stick with Gnome as my DE but after reading round these forums for a couple of days I keep changing my mind, first I thought Xcfe, then Openbox, then ....... etc etc now i've just confused myself.

I know I can try them all and probably will over time as all i've ever used is gnome and kde, but I need to make a decision on which will be the first installed and the one that I delve into to learn well enough to be able to customise entirely to my liking.

So what i'm after is people opinions of the pro's and con's of their fave DE.

Cheers in advance for any answers.........

haxit

Member

From: /home/haxit

Registered: 2008-03-04

Posts: 1,247

Website

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

Gnome, KDE, XFCE are all Desktop Environments, while Openbox, Fluxbox, PekWM, are all Window Managers.

If you want a Desktop Environment that is fast, go with XFCE.
If you want a good Windows Manager, get Openbox or Fluxbox.

That is just my opinion though.

---

Archi686 User | Old Screenshots | Old .Configs
Vi veri universum vivus vici.

whargoul

Member

From: Odense, Denmark

Registered: 2005-04-04

Posts: 546

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

Gnome, KDE, XFCE are all Desktop Environments, while Openbox, Fluxbox, PekWM, are all Window Managers.

If you want a Desktop Environment that is fast, go with XFCE.
If you want a good Windows Manager, get Openbox or Fluxbox.

That is just my opinion though.

You forgot one.

If you want a Desktop Environment that is even faster, go with LXDE!

---

Arch - It's something refreshing

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

*sigh* Try them out for yourself. That's the beauty of open-source. choice

---

The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

I lie E17 a lot. It's right in between a DE and a WM.

fflarex

Member

Registered: 2007-09-15

Posts: 466

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

I lie E17 a lot. It's right in between a DE and a WM.

But it's never going to be finished...

Mr Green

Forum Fellow

From: U.K.

Registered: 2003-12-21

Posts: 5,896

Website

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

Well if your coming from Ubuntu then stick with Gnome until you get used too Arch

Then try out some see how you go

Welcome ;-)

MrG

---

Mr Green

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

I lie E17 a lot. It's right in between a DE and a WM.

But it's never going to be finished...

I feel that way sometimes too! In all honesty, I haven't a crash in E17 core in a very, very long time. There's third party stuff that crashes, and sometimes themes get borked, but E17 itself is very stable; Far more than KDE or Gnome have ever been.

dhave

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

From: Outside the matrix.

Registered: 2005-05-15

Posts: 1,112

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

I lie E17 a lot. It's right in between a DE and a WM.

I don't run E17 normally, but I keep on hand a virtual disk with it installed just to open it up and play around a bit from time to time. It has a very innovative feel, as if you're using a gui that was designed with a different philosophy or something. Plus, it's incredibly fast, especially considering all the cool graphic effects it's got.

If you're spoiled by Gnome and KDE's feature sets, Xfce4 approaches them and feels a lot faster (though it's waaay slower than Xfce 3 used to be). It installs and sets up quickly, so you'd be up and running right away.

I preferred flux and pekwm when I had a slower machine, because I liked how snappy they are, and, for a while, I enjoyed the minimalist approach. But now I've gotten lazy and just run a full-fledged DE (KDE4 for now, though I keep Xfce around).

It's just so nice to be able to choose -- and switch when I feel like it.

---

Donate to Arch!

Tired? There's a nap for that. --anonymous

dhave

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

From: Outside the matrix.

Registered: 2005-05-15

Posts: 1,112

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

BTW, you're gonna love Arch. Welcome.

---

Donate to Arch!

Tired? There's a nap for that. --anonymous

Skofo

Member

Registered: 2008-08-21

Posts: 36

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

Gnome, KDE, XFCE are all Desktop Environments, while Openbox, Fluxbox, PekWM, are all Window Managers.

If you want a Desktop Environment that is fast, go with XFCE.
If you want a good Windows Manager, get Openbox or Fluxbox.

That is just my opinion though.

You forgot one.

If you want a Desktop Environment that is even faster, go with LXDE!

aka Openbox + PCManFM + some gimmicks

Which is what I'm using, minus the gimmicks. Simple but versatile; works great! Cons are that you can get too into the customization of it, and it may take a huge chunk of your time in what feels like minutes.

Also, you can install more than one DE/WM and pick em from a login manager (also of your choice). I have Openbox, GNOME, GNOME/Openbox, KDE, KDE/Openbox, Xfce, and soon I'm going to try awesome.

The best way to find out which works for you is to try them! That's why there are more than one.

Last edited by Skofo (2008-09-14 20:30:39)

phisphere

Member

From: Tallinn, Estonia

Registered: 2007-03-05

Posts: 136

Website

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

i like fluxbox a lot. it has all the basic features built in like panel (with system tray, clock etc), run dialog, window tabs, transparency (i personally don't use it) and so on.
when compared to openbox, you have to add seperate programs for those things (which is not a bad thing, if you like to choose every component).

latest fluxbox 1.1.0.1 has some great improvements and with the default conf files, multimedia on my laptop worked out of the box.
so, i think you should also check out fluxbox.

as a file manager, pcmanfm is imho the best choice out there.

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

Sometimes it feels like I'm one of the very few unlucky people that have nothing but problems with stuff from the XFCE project: runaway processes in Thunar, Terminal following way behind the mouse, graphics glitches with xfdesktop, etc... This is true within and without the whole XFCE environment. It's basically unusable for me.

dhave

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

From: Outside the matrix.

Registered: 2005-05-15

Posts: 1,112

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

Sometimes it feels like I'm one of the very few unlucky people that have nothing but problems with stuff from the XFCE project: runaway processes in Thunar, Terminal following way behind the mouse, graphics glitches with xfdesktop, etc... This is true within and without the whole XFCE environment. It's basically unusable for me.

Weird. It works flawlessly for me. It's also great with Compiz -- a lot smoother than KDE4.1 with Kwin, at least for now.

Were you able to get any help in the Xfce forum?

Last edited by dhave (2008-09-14 21:22:48)

---

Donate to Arch!

Tired? There's a nap for that. --anonymous

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

Sometimes it feels like I'm one of the very few unlucky people that have nothing but problems with stuff from the XFCE project: runaway processes in Thunar, Terminal following way behind the mouse, graphics glitches with xfdesktop, etc... This is true within and without the whole XFCE environment. It's basically unusable for me.

XFCE would get along with me either....

---

The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

Sometimes it feels like I'm one of the very few unlucky people that have nothing but problems with stuff from the XFCE project: runaway processes in Thunar, Terminal following way behind the mouse, graphics glitches with xfdesktop, etc... This is true within and without the whole XFCE environment. It's basically unusable for me.

Weird. It works flawlessly for me. It's also great with Compiz -- a lot smoother than KDE4.1 with Kwin, at least for now.

Were you able to get any help in the Xfce forum?

I didn't even try. The runaway process thing has been in XFCE's bug tracker for at least three years. And just like what I found here, some people have it and some people don't. Anyway, I really don't need it anyway. E17 is everything I want, and there are as good or better applications for everything XFCE produces.

--EDIT--

The only downside to E17 is theming it. The new default theme (in subversion) is well over 5000 lines long.

--EDIT 2--

6563 line long for the theme description, and 268 images. It's complex.

Last edited by skottish (2008-09-14 22:15:27)

smakked

Member

From: Gold Coast , Australia

Registered: 2008-08-14

Posts: 420

Re: I'm after peoples opinions of the various DE's

Im a E17 convert now, had it on my box for about 4 days after trying it on the laptop for a while. Have not had one issue with E ittself just a few other programs . And it is blazingly fast.

---

Certified Android Junkie
Arch 64