Help me build a "minimalist" and wonderful desktop! :)

Don-DiZzLe · 2007-07-14 16:26:02

I just tried gvim, dont really like the interface, looks kinda weird for a vim noobie, any other good texteditors around there, but with a little more functionality than mousepad?

Gilneas · 2007-07-14 17:38:17

I prefer vim in a terminal, have you tried that? Although if you're using a file manager that won't work very nicely (with starting the term up and then vim). Try emacs, it starts up in a graphical interface in X.

Also, ezzetabi, you mixed up the WM field with something else

EDIT: my setup (since everyone is doing it)

WM: sithwm
mediaplayer: mplayer
editor: vim
terminal: urxvt
filemanager: coreutils
torrent: transmission
browser: firefox
mail: n/a (webmail only)
chat: gtmess
pictures: mirage

Last edited by Gilneas (2007-07-14 17:44:04)

Don-DiZzLe · 2007-07-14 18:08:07

I tried vim in terminal, but Im more used to nano. At the moment I got:

WM: Openbox
Editor: Mousepad + nano
Term: xterm
IM: Pidgin
FM: Thunar
Browser: Firefox
Mail: Thunderbird

A couple of thing though:
- Still looking for a good panel
- Still looking for a good filecleaner
- Still looking for a good IRC client
- How do I access my windows/samba shares?
- I have tango-icons installed along with tango-icons-extra and icon-naming-utils, but in thunar not all filetypes use tango, some filetypes like .srt and .iso use the standard icons
- I need to have a visible trashcan somewhere, so that I can delete files
- I want to use some themes form gnome-look, how do I apply them?
- Does xterm come with different color schemes?

Last edited by Don-DiZzLe (2007-07-14 18:12:33)

PavelZh · 2007-07-14 20:16:38

Don-DiZzLe wrote:

- Still looking for a good IRC client

XChat
BitchX (console)

Don-DiZzLe · 2007-07-14 21:11:11

I got XChat, and I also found the trashcan in Thunar

ezzetabi · 2007-07-15 08:08:20

@Gilneas, oh ho! Right. Fixed. The words Pidgin and Pekwm were too similar in my mind.

Thunar? Rox? what is the advantage over the simple command line? (No flame wars please. I am asking seriously...)

igglybuff · 2007-07-15 10:22:53

Eh.. I've noticed that nowadays I use openbox, wmii or any other lightweight wm on my 2,6GHz P4, 512M ram.. Am I just masochist?

chaosgeisterchen · 2007-07-15 11:05:39

No, you're simply saving resources for consuming processes - if available.

Xilon · 2007-07-17 11:03:52

This would be more of a shock to get used to than switching Metacity/Kwin -> Openbox, but it's awesome.

WM: wmii/dwm (or something else that has tiling mode - compiz even does now)
Editor: vim
Terminal Emulator: urxvt (take advantage of urxvtd)
Image Viewer: Mirage (uses python, but for me it's the fastest and most simple viewer with the features I want)
Mail: mutt
Media player: mplayer
PDF viewer: epdfview
Torrent: rtorrent
IM: Gajim (Great, but it's only Jabber)
File manager: I would use the cli utilities, but Thunar is a great GUI file manager.
Login manager: startx
Shell: ZSH (it has many advantages, especially for tab-completion and calculations)
Wallpaper setter: feh
C/DVD Burner: Gnomebaker (gnome), Graveman

I think that's about it for the basic setup.
I personally do almost everything from the command line.

igglybuff · 2007-07-17 13:17:02

Xilon wrote:

This would be more of a shock to get used to than switching Metacity/Kwin -> Openbox, but it's awesome.
WM: wmii/dwm (or something else that has tiling mode - compiz even does now)
Editor: vim
Terminal Emulator: urxvt (take advantage of urxvtd)
Image Viewer: Mirage (uses python, but for me it's the fastest and most simple viewer with the features I want)
Mail: mutt
Media player: mplayer
PDF viewer: epdfview
Torrent: rtorrent
IM: Gajim (Great, but it's only Jabber)
File manager: I would use the cli utilities, but Thunar is a great GUI file manager.
Login manager: startx
Shell: ZSH (it has many advantages, especially for tab-completion and calculations)
Wallpaper setter: feh
C/DVD Burner: Gnomebaker (gnome), Graveman
I think that's about it for the basic setup.
I personally do almost everything from the command line.

What urxvt and wmii version do you use, becouse I've some padding on bottom and right sides?

btw, you're using almost same utils what i'm

Last edited by igglybuff (2007-07-17 13:17:39)

ravisghosh · 2007-07-22 21:57:13

for wm, one should try out pekwm. at first it looks bland, but as soon as you start playing with keyboard shortcuts, its second to nothing imho. put nitrogen in the start file if you wish to choose different a wallpaper everytime you login. configuration is pretty simple and easy. use menumaker to make menu for pekwm. I use lxpanel.

superstoned · 2007-07-23 13:35:48

Making a light desktop isn't that hard. The most important factor is: don't mix toolkits. A pure KDE desktop will use less memory than a 'fluxbox + gkt + Qt + fltk + WxWidgets', even though many believe the latter to be 'very efficient'. Yes, the latter has less features, but still uses more memory...

Go for PURE kde/Qt or Gnome/GTK (the gnome desktop is rather wastefull, you could use XFCE instead) OR run a small amount of very barebone apps. Of course most KDE and Gnome apps use more memory as they have more features, but features/memory is actually better than the 'independend apps', as those duplicate huge amounts of functionality.

A KDE desktop works fine with 256 mb ram (I use it all the time on my laptop). Until you start non-KDE apps like firefox (a huge memory waster), OO.o (even worse - OO.o itself uses more mem than a full KDE desktop + KOffice).

And in all cases - starting an lot of apps is simply the killer, and webpages eat ram like crazy. Especially in Firefox of course, Konqi is more efficient.
As soon as webkit is used in Konqueror (KDE 4.0 maybe, more likely 4.1) and Epiphany, memory usage for webbrowsing will go down even further on both KDE and Gnome.

For music, a huge database eats more ram of course. Amarok is actually not bad, esp with the SQlite database.

Just keep an eye on your mem usage, don't let it go to high - close some apps then, because hitting swap sucks... BTW a patch like swap-prefetch is very nice on the desktop. Maybe it'll make it in 2.6.23 ;-)

gunnix · 2007-07-29 15:53:49

I've been a lot busy with getting a decent desktop on a pentium 1 once.. and I've always kept the lightweight obsession since

Here's my desktop: http://users.skynet.be/six/gpure/tech/icewmdesktop.jpg

windowmanager:
icewm-session (includes tray which is compatible with gnome/kde, a background app, etc)
+icewm-utils to give a control panel to change menu, background, etc
+ menumaker to generate menu
I change the theme to icebuntu, as it looks best (many icewm themes are crap!)

In /etc/X11/icewm/preferences:
OpaqueMove=0
OpaqueResize=0
MenuMouseTracking=1
TaskBarShowCPUStatus=1 and TaskBarShowNetStatus=1 . I only set them to 0 on very slow computers to save resources.
ShutdownCommand="sudo shutdown -h now"
RebootCommand="sudo shutdown -r now"

I also always change lines having x-terminal-emulator to aterm.

I also like ratpoison a lot and run it occasionally.

login manager:
Once the system has booted the user gets a black and white screen asking for the username and password, this is the program getty (I use fgetty to be specific). The admin can give a message which is shown above the query for the username by editing the file /etc /issue.
I added the logindetails for a guest account and added how to shutdown the computer with CTRL+ALT+DELETE: my /etc/issue

CTRL+ALT+DELETE is normally configured to reboot, change it to shutdown on your system if you want this. In linux you change it in /etc/inittab .
By the way, it never hurts to turn of the power when you're at the bios boot screen (the text you get just after turning the power on) so you could just as well shutdown the computer using the reboot function of your operating system.

I have put a line in my ~/.bash_profile (or put it in an other script which is executed automatically when logging in) to start X automatically:
ps ax|grep -q "[ ]`which X`" || exec xinit >/dev/null 2>&1

Terminal:
Aterm (I don't need unicode - otherwhise I use urxvt)

File manager
Emelfm is my favorite file manager.
It can mount with a right click, it's fast, 2 pane and very customizable.
For my users I let emelfm start with showing on the left their home directory and on the right the /mnt/ directory showing cdrom and floppy directories.

I also make a good filetypes file so they just have to doubleclick on files, not having to know which programs to use.

Emelfm might look ugly but that's just the gtk theme. I installed gtk-engines-industrial as gtk theme on my debian computer and it's very nice looking. Use gtk-theme-switch to switch gtk themes.

In emelfm you can change the buttons to do what you want and add your own ones. I added a button "images" to start "xzgv -z .", to browse images using xzgv.

Ofcourse Midnight Commander is very nice as well! Or the usual cp, mv, mkdir, etc (sometimes i feel like using the mouse, sometimes not..)

Image viewer
xzgv is a very fast imageviewer which can show quite many formats. If I need a more featured image program I use imagemagick.

Browser
There's no clear favorite for me as browser. I have opera, firefox, links2, dillo and elinks installed. If I need a full featured browser I usually use opera as it has much more features then firefox and works a bit faster. But if I need a fast graphical browser I use "links2 -g". And as console browser I use elinks, which is great.

Editor
As graphical editor I use nedit. But I'll mostly use vim in the console, which is the greatest editor in my opinion. Nano is nice for small things.

Music
I found that xmms uses fewest resources and it has a lot of features. I use the debian theme or the chalkitup theme.
In the console I use mocp, it has a good interface and is fast.

To set the volume I use alsamixer.

Videos
Mplayer

Email
As graphical mail program I use sylpheed-claws, it has many features and an easy gui.
In the console I use muttng. Very easy to use, fast and configurable.
Now i mostly just use webmail though..

Chatting
Irssi + bitlbee
also tmsnc for msn..

Torrent
rtorrent

CD burning
graveman

Ripping CD's
abcde (or grip..)

Archiving
xarchiver

I use almost the same setup on any computer, and newbies have no problem to use it as it's simple to navigate trough the menu and it operates a lot like the ms explorer window manager.. (Though much better ofcourse!)

Here are some links:
Lightweight desktop: http://users.skynet.be/six/gpure/tech/lightdesktop.html
linux lightweight apps: http://users.skynet.be/six/gpure/tech/linux/apps.html

Last edited by gunnix (2007-07-29 23:22:02)

Gilneas · 2007-07-29 19:34:17

Can I see your .screenrc?
And you mention a .elinksrc on that second website, but it 403's. I'd like to see that one too.

gunnix · 2007-07-29 19:40:05

Sure.

.screenrc

caption always "%{yK} $LOGNAME | %{yK}%c | %{yK}%-Lw%{yK}%50>%{Ky}%n%f* %t%{-}%+Lw%<%{- Wk}"
termcapinfo rxvt ti@:te@
bindkey -k F9 command
#escape F19
##################
## some basic stuff
crlf off # no thanks. #
startup_message off # don't want this either. #
defscrollback 1000 # please sir, can i have some more? #
#shell -$SHELL # i'll take my default shell. #
defmonitor on # turn monitoring on #
activity "%" # tell me when stuff happens! #

#################
## Prepend/append register [/] to the paste if ^a^] is pressed.
# This lets me have autoindent modes in vi(m).
register [ "\033:se paste\015a"
register ] "\033:se nopaste\015a"
bind ^] paste [.]

#################
##ctrl+left or ctrl+right to switch screens
#aterm bindings
bindkey "^[[c" next
bindkey "^[[d" prev
bindkey "^[Oc" next
bindkey "^[Od" prev
#putty bindings
bindkey "^[OC" next
bindkey "^[OD" prev
#some other term, don't remember which
bindkey "^[[5C" next
bindkey "^[[5D" prev

##################
### Let's do some bindings.
##################
### irc creates ssh tunnel to judecca then #
### launches irssi locally. #
##################
#bind G screen -t 'Google' links www.google.com #
#bind M screen -t 'Mail' mutt #
#bind F screen -t 'Fetchmail' fetchmail #
#bind C screen -t 'CENTERICQ' centericq #

In elinks I haven't changed that much. I just change the terminal option to 16 colors, so links are colored. And i change the color of links to green instead of blue (think it looks better). I turn on numbering of links so I can navigate quickly. I disabled css because often css makes the background not transparent and colors get fucked up. That's about all.

Last edited by gunnix (2007-07-29 20:16:54)

Theomachos · 2007-08-01 17:59:44

Ok....for all minimalists....my setup:

WM: xmonad + dzen as a statusbar (received mails, volume, battery, date)
Editor: emacs
Terminal Emulator: xterm (until I find out why urxvt cripples my terminus-font)
Image Viewer: feh
Mail: gnus (shipped with emacs)
Media player: mplayer + emms (emacs multimedia system)
PDF viewer: xpdf
Torrent: rtorrent
IM: bitlbee (converts IM to IRC) + erc (emacs irc client)
File manager: emacs
Shell: zsh (i love it )
Wallpaper setter: what's a wallpaper ?
CD/DVD Burner: erm....cdrecord....mkisofs and some scripting....
Office: Latex, Openoffice (only to read documents from my fellow students)
Browser: emacs-w3m or firefox/conkeror for flash, etc.
Image Editing: Gimp (Is there any alternative ? I don't think so....)

Maybe I'll try stumpwm or clfswm sooner or later....but xmonad (darcs version) handles floating windows much better.

@Don-DiZzLe: Try dzen as a panel. With a bit of scripting knowledge (any language) you have total control over every action.

ravisghosh · 2007-08-03 10:39:27

@gunnix. I really liked the way to start X as soon as one logs in. Until now, I was logging in and then using "startx." But your methods is better. I changed to it. But after adding that line in .bash_profile, I could not do anything in aterm. Aterm was starting without "[user@host]" thing and it would not do anything. Then I copied your .Xdefaults and then aterm was fine. The issue i'm facing now is that aliases in .bash_profile are not working. I tried copying aliases into .bash.aliases, .bash_aliases, .bash_alias, but aterm does not recognize those aliases. Any solution for this. I dont want to change systemwide settings in /etc. Also, how do you stop starting X as soon as you log in. For example, there is a problem in X and I'm unable to start it and also I'm unable to work in shell since as soon as I log in, it starts X and if X fails, it would log me out.

gunnix · 2007-08-03 12:20:40

Well in .bashrc I have this line:
source .bash.aliases

This makes sure aliases (in the .bash.aliases file) are loaded at bash startup

Well if there's a problem in X I login as root.. From there I can edit my settings so X does not start up automatically after loging in my nomral user. Then I login as normal user and find out the problem.

Hope it's of any help.

shining · 2007-08-03 17:37:25

Xilon wrote:

This would be more of a shock to get used to than switching Metacity/Kwin -> Openbox, but it's awesome.

Indeed

WM: wmii/dwm (or something else that has tiling mode - compiz even does now)
Editor: vim
Terminal Emulator: urxvt (take advantage of urxvtd)
Image Viewer: Mirage (uses python, but for me it's the fastest and most simple viewer with the features I want)
Mail: mutt
Media player: mplayer
PDF viewer: epdfview
Torrent: rtorrent
IM: Gajim (Great, but it's only Jabber)
File manager: I would use the cli utilities, but Thunar is a great GUI file manager.
Login manager: startx
Shell: ZSH (it has many advantages, especially for tab-completion and calculations)
Wallpaper setter: feh
C/DVD Burner: Gnomebaker (gnome), Graveman
I think that's about it for the basic setup.
I personally do almost everything from the command line.

I use nearly the same, here are the differences :
Image Viewer : don't use that much, but feh does the job (though Mirage looks nice).
IM: Gajim is nice, but since I already use irssi for IM, I now connect to a bitlbee server
File Manager: cli (I don't understand if you use Thunar or only recommend it )
Wallpaper setter : none
CD/DVD burner : cdrecord, but I only burn iso.

But if I was using xfce (I do sometimes), I think there wouldn't be any differences
Mirage, Gajim, Thunar and GnomeBaker/Graveman would fit perfectly with the rest,
and that would probably make a more user friendly desktop.

Agent69 · 2007-10-30 13:40:34

I prefer the standard Unix WM/shell configuration. Here is what I am running:

Window Manager: EvilWM
File Manager and Shell: Bash
Web Browser: Firefox
Editor: Vim (console only)
Database: Sqlite (I use it as a personal DB program)
Terminal Emulator: Xterm
Image Viewer: Feh (also used to set my background wallpaper)
Image Manipulation: ImageMagick
FTP: Lftp

Last edited by Agent69 (2007-11-01 13:48:07)

GogglesGuy · 2007-10-30 19:48:21

I would suggest using Goggles Music Manager for your music. It's pretty light weight and is available in [community] under 'musicmanager'. (ofcourse I'm pretty biased, but you can always uninstall it if you don't like it...)

maci · 2007-11-01 22:18:45

Keyword: lxde

Maki · 2007-11-18 00:34:00

if you use an WM use :
Irc - irrsi
Video - mplayer
Music - Audacious
Editor - nano
P2P - mldonkey
Filemanager - Midnight Comander
Mail - gmail set up with forwarding and stuff
Office - Abiword, Gnumeric
Chat - Psi
Browser - ?

If you use KDE use kdemod, remove stuff you dont need and dont use non KDE-apps
on gnome and xfce you should use the same as in KDE, just dont use firefox and openoffice

All in All a minimalist desktop is every desktop that dont have stuff the user dont needs

lilsirecho · 2007-11-18 01:33:58

Afraid I don't understand the "minimalist" desktop concept. The very minimum would be only one thing shown on the screen.

I feel that the minimum desktop display might well be four or five items, one of which enables a terminal, another the trash, another the internet and the last the menu to the programs installed. An option to turn off the icons would reduce the Desktop to almost nada.

But why? What is a desktop for?

EDIT: There are multiple desktops...separate the functions using the various desktops...Voila!! Minimalist!!

Last edited by lilsirecho (2007-11-18 02:17:28)

RobotBee · 2007-11-18 03:03:53

igglybuff wrote:

Eh.. I've noticed that nowadays I use openbox, wmii or any other lightweight wm on my 2,6GHz P4, 512M ram.. Am I just masochist?

Eh I use openbox on a 3.2 GHz with 1.5 gigs of ram. I just like it.

Arch Linux

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Re: Help me build a "minimalist" and wonderful desktop! :)

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#36 2007-07-22 21:57:13

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#37 2007-07-23 13:35:48

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#38 2007-07-29 15:53:49

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#40 2007-07-29 19:40:05

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#41 2007-08-01 17:59:44

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#42 2007-08-03 10:39:27

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#43 2007-08-03 12:20:40

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#44 2007-08-03 17:37:25

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#45 2007-10-30 13:40:34

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#46 2007-10-30 19:48:21

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#47 2007-11-01 22:18:45

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#48 2007-11-18 00:34:00

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#49 2007-11-18 01:33:58

Re: Help me build a "minimalist" and wonderful desktop! :)

#50 2007-11-18 03:03:53

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