can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

maloy · 2011-12-01 07:43:57

Now that Gnome3 and Unity are here lots of users, like me, want to migrate to a more usable desktop. LXDE it's simple and fast. But not as good as we want.

I think that LXDE can attract a bunch of new users with some little changes, that make it look and feel more like Gnome2 (that was simply great):

1. Make the application menu more attractive, with big icons, like in Gnome2.

2. Make a more usable places menu, like it was in Gnome2. Just 'click and open', and also make it shows removable-drives.

3. Make lxpanel show the icon theme 'starthere'-icon, instead of the ugly button that has now.

4. Make lxpanel show the panel background that it's included in the gtk-theme automatically. Like gnome-panel and xfce4-panel.

5. Include a session-menu applet to let the user logout, restart or shutdown quick from the panel, something like the indicator-session applet, from Ubuntu.

6. Add a plugin for lxappareance that can change metacity (or xfwm4) themes, to give a chance to use it, instead of openbox. And also make it change the wallpaper.

7. Make pcmanfm mount removable-drives on the Desktop. Like in nautilus or thunar (xfdesktop4). And add the 'open-in-terminal' option also in the Desktop.

8. Make the volume applet shows pavucontrol, alsamixer or something, to adjust the volume more easily. And also include an option to select the sound theme.

What do you think?

nbvcxz · 2011-12-01 08:13:15

Most of the proposed fetures you could set to official LXDE bugtrucker (feature list). I thing most of your proposals can be added to funcionality. Considering lxpanel - it will be written again from the scratch (but no schedule for that). There is also alternative lxpanelx so you can ask them to make some plugins. Generally ideas are good.

Unia · 2011-12-01 08:43:02

Seems to me that XFCE has almost every feature you list there. Did you try XFCE? It's not that heavy either and most that want a Gnome2-like environment switched to it

nbvcxz · 2011-12-01 09:15:54

maloy wrote:

3. Make lxpanel show the icon theme 'starthere'-icon, instead of the ugly button that has now.

Can't remember how is in 'normal lxpanel' - I use lxpanelx. Here you have an option to change icon and caption text. I use beautiful Lubuntu menu icon

clpc · 2011-12-01 09:25:16

Does not Mate fit what it is you are after?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MATE

swanson · 2011-12-01 11:07:22

I think most style mods you listed are feasible as is already. Just need some editing of ordinary config files - remember LXDE should be light!
And concering Pcmanfm; it was recently taken out of extra/common arch repos and moved to AUR = installation now requires compilation.

SS4 · 2011-12-01 11:39:30

swanson wrote:

I think most style mods you listed are feasible as is already. Just need some editing of ordinary config files - remember LXDE should be light!
And concering Pcmanfm; it was recently taken out of extra/common arch repos and moved to AUR = installation now requires compilation.

Then into [community] so you need not compile it

LXDE shouldn't try to be like gnome 2, the idea seems like an abomination to me, XFCE is a perfectly good DE and is closer to Gnome 2 than LXDE will ever be (or so I hope). LXDE's success comes from it's modular setup and that very little depends on little else. Don't like lxpanel? Change it without uninstalling half the sysem

maloy · 2011-12-01 17:33:14

Unia wrote:

Seems to me that XFCE has almost every feature you list there. Did you try XFCE? It's not that heavy either and most that want a Gnome2-like environment switched to it

I'm in Arch with XFCE, right now. It's not what I want, LXDE it's more simple and fast. I prefer pcmafm over thunar, and lxpanel over xfce4-panel, and all the lxde stuff.

nbvcxz wrote:

maloy wrote:
3. Make lxpanel show the icon theme 'starthere'-icon, instead of the ugly button that has now.
Can't remember how is in 'normal lxpanel' - I use lxpanelx. Here you have an option to change icon and caption text. I use beautiful Lubuntu menu icon

Actually I have Lubuntu besides Arch. What I want is that lxpanel set the 'start-here' icon and the background without any manual configuration, like others panel do, that's all.

clpc wrote:

Does not Mate fit what it is you are after?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MATE

Honestly, I don't like MATE, Gnome2 it's dead.

SS4 wrote:

swanson wrote:
I think most style mods you listed are feasible as is already. Just need some editing of ordinary config files - remember LXDE should be light!
And concering Pcmanfm; it was recently taken out of extra/common arch repos and moved to AUR = installation now requires compilation.
Then into [community] so you need not compile it
LXDE shouldn't try to be like gnome 2, the idea seems like an abomination to me, XFCE is a perfectly good DE and is closer to Gnome 2 than LXDE will ever be (or so I hope). LXDE's success comes from it's modular setup and that very little depends on little else. Don't like lxpanel? Change it without uninstalling half the sysem

I don't think that "the idea seems like an abomination" maybe you don't get my point, I don't want LXDE to be a "clone" of Gnome2. I used Gnome2 as a referece because I like it. That's all. I also doubt that this little changes affect the LXDE performance.

I just think that LXDE can fill the blank. Gnome2 it's dead. LXDE has the potential to become the most popular DE, with some little improvements.

Meyithi · 2011-12-03 04:52:58

LXDE project is collection of third party apps held together with apps such as lxappearance/lxpanel. The devs of LXDE have to submit bug reports/patches upstream and coordinate with the devs of these third party apps which makes the whole process difficult and I would say unwieldy, which is why LXDE can be "rough around the edges", they don't have full control of their DE.

So no, LXDE will never be "the new Gnome2".

Awebb · 2011-12-03 09:51:19

@Meyithi: I hope it stays that way, I really don't want to see LXDE devs taking any influence on, say, the Openbox dev. I really love Openbox, but I have yet to see an LXDE driven system I actually want to use longer than a few minutes.

I somehow hope the concept of the DE extincts slowly, being replaced by sane standards and interfaces.

evert_ · 2011-12-03 14:20:33

How about the mint 12 approach? The new shiny gnome3 with some shell extensions for the menu, tray icons, window list, panel? I think they made a very good decision on that, using the gnome3 as a starter, but with some extensions to make it more usable.

I'm a fan of tiling wm's, but i can see the potential of gnome3 + msge for people looking for a (refreshed) gnome2 experience .

GERGE · 2011-12-03 15:09:10

I didn't like MSGE. There is Mate anyway. Gnome 3 together with Awn and Mint menu extension is the best way to use Gnome 3 I've found.

Or you can use Openbox and have Nautilus draw the desktop. Finding suitable panels isn't hard. Even use Mate's one.

Iranon · 2011-12-03 20:33:12

There is no need for a new Gnome2, and Gnome3 would be the wrong choice even if there was.

Why torture a supposedly well-integrated desktop environment into doing something it doesn't want to do with mismatched add-ons - the only good reason to accept all the misplaced bloat is consistency in both technology and design. Gnome and Gnome Shell in particular try to work smoothly without bothering the user with unnecessaryl details; additions for more information/control are out of place.

XFCE is a sensible if staid DE, modular enough to be a good starting point for individual solutions without requiring excessive geekery. LXDE is a collection of decent tools held together by duct tape, and a good example that you don't need a real DE... personally I feel it tries too hard to be one, the rest of the stuff mostly gets in the way of a rather decent WM.
Both have their place. Gnome2, while usable and inoffensive, increasingly didn't: no real commitment to being lean, clean and modular (i.e. troublesome to maintain if most users move on), no commitment to innovation and new functionality. Good riddance, even if the transition to something else is uncomfortable.

nbvcxz · 2011-12-05 08:02:42

Maloy made 8 simple questions, but the the discuion seems to be "If LXDE is better than XFCE and why not to use MATE or Gnome3". It it obvious they are different and made different way.

Last edited by nbvcxz (2011-12-05 08:34:48)

IncredibleLaser · 2011-12-05 20:56:29

I don't know why so many people are bashing GNOME 3. I didn't like GNOME 2 and I am KDE user since 3.5 (IIRC). I really like KDE4 with its plasma and -oids, but I could imagine switching to GNOME 3.2 . It's a new and interesting concept, the UI is snappy and is very appealing IMHO. GNOME finally arrived in the 21st century of desktops (this, of course, is only my personal opinion).

gbrunoro · 2011-12-06 10:41:13

nbvcxz wrote:

Maloy made 8 simple questions, but the the discuion seems to be "If LXDE is better than XFCE and why not to use MATE or Gnome3". It it obvious they are different and made different way.

Actually the LXDE vs XFCE discussion fits perfectly here. All the features OP listed can be fulfilled by XFCE, I don't think LXDE was meant for that kind of use case.

It is meant mainly to be a fast DE for low end hardware, not so much of a automounting-eyecandy-user-experience-faster-than-GNOME-and-KDE, that's XFCE

Last edited by gbrunoro (2011-12-06 10:41:27)

sakisds · 2011-12-06 13:33:00

IncredibleLaser wrote:

I don't know why so many people are bashing GNOME 3. I didn't like GNOME 2 and I am KDE user since 3.5 (IIRC). I really like KDE4 with its plasma and -oids, but I could imagine switching to GNOME 3.2 . It's a new and interesting concept, the UI is snappy and is very appealing IMHO. GNOME finally arrived in the 21st century of desktops (this, of course, is only my personal opinion).

I am with you, I didn't like KDE3 but I found KDE4 good. Also, I found Gnome 2 ok but Gnome 3 awesome.

Iranon · 2011-12-06 18:04:17

The problem with Gnome2 is that it was built to be a sophisticated and full-featured desktop environment for its time, not to be clean and timeless. It may be very usable, but according to the creators it became excessively difficult to maintain for the functionality it provides.

Losing usage share and development effort seem inevitable, and with slipping polish/integration/progress I expect XFCE to leave it behind in every way that matters. XFCE has the advantage of being no-nonsense and (compared to modern excesses) frugal by design, not by obsolescence.

bwat47 · 2011-12-06 23:44:22

I think XFCE is a closer fit to gnome 2 than LXDE. XFCE is also a more complete DE, and a bit easier to configure and has a better control panel than LXDE.

Last edited by bwat47 (2011-12-06 23:46:33)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-12-01 07:43:57

can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#2 2011-12-01 08:13:15

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#3 2011-12-01 08:43:02

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#4 2011-12-01 09:15:54

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#5 2011-12-01 09:25:16

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#6 2011-12-01 11:07:22

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#7 2011-12-01 11:39:30

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#8 2011-12-01 17:33:14

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#9 2011-12-03 04:52:58

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#10 2011-12-03 09:51:19

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#11 2011-12-03 14:20:33

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#12 2011-12-03 15:09:10

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#13 2011-12-03 20:33:12

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#14 2011-12-05 08:02:42

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#15 2011-12-05 20:56:29

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#16 2011-12-06 10:41:13

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#17 2011-12-06 13:33:00

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#18 2011-12-06 18:04:17

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

#19 2011-12-06 23:44:22

Re: can LXDE be the new Gnome2?

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