Arch Linux

ljshap

Member

From: Ossining, NY

Registered: 2008-01-23

Posts: 160

Re: What DE/WM?

I think the "major" DE, Gnome and KDE, need to improve in this area asap. The market of the users that have a PC one or two generations old is very warm towards Linux as their only other modern choice is Windows Vista, maybe the slower OS ever build (heck it doesn't work without lag even in my system). They should given a choice of a modern, fast DE!

That was always the MS approach, Don't worry about tight code, computers will get faster.

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Live Free or Die !

Xyne

Administrator/PM

Registered: 2008-08-03

Posts: 6,963

Website

Re: What DE/WM?

XFCE; it's the easiest to configure and has lots of function while being lean and efficient.  The *box DE's lack in function and ease, but XFCE is the best of both worlds.  Plus it's based on GTK so your GTK apps will look very nice in it, just like they do in GNOME.  Only they'll load up faster

The "*box DEs" are actually WMs so you can't compare them with DEs... that's like saying that someone's computer is better than someone else's motherboard.

I've used xfce4 before which uses xfwm4 as its window manager and there's no way that it has the same level of functionality of openbox. Xfce4 is nice though and I'd recommend to someone looking for a quick setup, but you can mix and match as much as you like to get a DE that suits you. Xfce4 on top of openbox? Sure. Openbox with the xfce4 panel, terminal, and mousepad? Sure. A DE is just a metapackage of stuff the devs thought you might like to have. Use something like lxde as a starting point and build a DE from there.

Also, all you need to get gtk apps looking good is lxappearance, from lxde. It's basically dependency-free (depends on gtk2, and there'd be no point in installing it if you didn't have that anyway).

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My Arch Linux Stuff • Forum Etiquette • Community Ethos - Arch is not for everyone

sm4tik

Member

From: Finland, Jyväskylä

Registered: 2006-11-05

Posts: 248

Website

Re: What DE/WM?

...
Also, all you need to get gtk apps looking good is lxappearance, from lxde. It's basically dependency-free (depends on gtk2, and there'd be no point in installing it if you didn't have that anyway).

Hey, thank's for the nice tip. Good to have that proggy around to preview modified themes etc.. and why not use it to select them too Now that you mentioned it, I know what I've been missing, thanks again!

The_ouroboros

Member

From: Pavia, Italy

Registered: 2007-05-28

Posts: 140

Re: What DE/WM?

For music, I recommend mpd + ncmpc or mpd + sonata if you fancy more eye-candy.
Take a look at the page froli recommend, there are really good shots over there

or moc

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Gnu/Linux User on Arch(x86_64)

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: What DE/WM?

For everyone thinking E17: I found that it was the perfect gateway between a DE (many years of KDE in my case) to a WM. It's really in between both. It's super fast, beautiful, and stable. I'm using Openbox now, but I used E17 for at least a year before switching. I'm thinking of going back though. I really enjoy it.