Poll: Desktop environments

[bdantas]

The Mint that we know is tried and tested. Let as continue it in Maya+mate. Cinnamon should be an option for those who want to test a newer technology. Clem, let's put more love on Mate and produce the best LTS.

IMHO bamm is right. MATE is based on paradigm that is tested and true. It would feel comfortable and familiar even to users who intend on using Cinnamon instead. I think LTS releases should be conservative and, therefore, I hope LM13 will use MATE as the default desktop environment (while making it easy for users who like to experiment and/or try new desktop environments to use Cinnamon instead).

[gimlet]

I have used Gnome and KDE in the past but find them a bit heavy, with a lot of dependencies, so I now use xfce. So far I don't care for Unity or Gnome Shell after several tries each. I have tried MATE and Cinnamon briefly, but I will keep an eye on them as they continue to develop and maybe I will end up using them. For now, xfce 4.8 feels solid and intuitive.

[bimsebasse]

Ok - Im a socalled newbie......

Im using LISA and gnome 3.2.1

What exact environment is on, I actually dont know. I dont understand what "Cinnamon" is, what "mate" is.
So - I didnt vote because I dont know what Im using..

Still, this time is the first time Im going to stick with a Linux. Mint works for me, in a lot of ways - not all. Wine cannot work satisfacory at all, as an exampel. Soundprogrammes freeze quite easy.

Exactly one feature keeps me here - its the magic corner feature, where I can arrange desktops and - in my version, also programmes.

Im quite disappointed to learn that this feature with the programme-part, is now being removed.

You're a Gnome Shell user!

Cinnamon has done away with Gnome Shell's unified overview but still has window and workspace overviews. I like the unified overview but have come to think splitting them into separate entities works somewhat better (matter of taste and preference of course). I really hope someone with coding skills makes a Gnome Shell overview extension for Cinnamon so you can have that in Cinnamon as well if preferred.

[anthro_a]

Mint plus gnome 2 is intuitive. Gnome 3 is not so intuitive but I find it empowering. I have lmde and wheezy with gnome 3.2 installed now. I installed cairo-dock to make it easier for other household members. I prefer not to return to a gnome 2 like desktop however I can understand why many would want that. Out of curiosity I installed windows 8 consumer preview in virtual box to see how it compares. It made me angry just about right away.

[Stephen Stadler]

Hi

This post is really to give practical feedback on why I am enjoying Cinnamon. It is mainly because of the panel where I can place all my favorites - it is my "super bar"!

[just1acc]

Voted for Cinnamon and Mate.
Gnome 2 would be great, but as its not possible so...

KDE is a great DE. But the file manager 'dolphin' sucks. Otherwise I could consider voting.

[kmb42vt]

For those who are upset that the poll shows Cinnamon as the (user) DE of choice, it always pays to read the latest entries on the Linux Mint blog. It doesn't matter whether Cinnamon becomes the default desktop or not as Clem intends to release two LM 13 editions, one with the Cinnamon DE (Cinnamon is a fork of gnome-shell and runs on Gnome 3) and the other with the MATE DE (which is a fork of Gnome 2.3). Here's the quote from the blog:

Linux Mint 13 should feature separate editions for MATE and Cinnamon. Whether one of these and which of these two editions will be considered the “default” wasn’t decided yet.

Again, it doesn't matter which "edition" is chosen as the default "Main Edition". Both will be offered so you can chose whichever edition you want. And for for those of you who are wondering about the "the fate" of MATE or Cinnamon it stands to reason that since both editions will be based on the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS release that both MATE and Cinnamon should be supported for 5 years (EOL for 12.04 is April, 2017*) which is the length of time Ubuntu now supports it's LTS releases. It really doesn't make much sense to drop the DEs before the EOL of 12.04. Improve them, yes but drop them in favor of something else? Same goes for KDE. Folks who prefer KDE will have to wait a bit longer for LM 13 KDE to be released but it will be released and it will be an LTS as well.

*https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

I know the world of DEs has become rather uncomfortable since Gnome ditched the traditional desktop, I feel it myself, but for those folks who are considering dropping Mint because of this, well, that's your prerogative of course. However, this DE debacle is affecting every popular distro out there so you may not find anything better or more comfortable or more user friendly but that's up to you. This is just my opinion of course.

[Kent88]

KDE for my main desktop with screen space, as I am trying to do Qt programming.

Fluxbox for my netbook where screen space is an issue. I'm using 11.10 Kubuntu with fluxbox right now and I can't wait to get something with fluxbox that reliably handles networking, browsing, and shutting down (right now there is some rigamaroll when I want to connect wirelessly, I'm occasionally getting random logouts when I try browsing, and I'm freezing when I intentionally want to logout/shutdown)

Please, KDE and fluxbox. Don't forget about them

[Kevin108]

Anybody that hasn't tried Gnome Fallback for daily use, check out http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=trisquel I had some weird font issue but other than that it was a responsive, stable and polished new distro. I like the underdog approach to using Gnome Fallback despite the threats of its short lifespan.

That said, I'm absolutely loving MATE in LMDE 201204. It looks almost identical to what I came to love in Mint 11 and the performance of the Debian base is just fantastic.

[msx_]

While I'm running KDE/Dwm these days, I would love to see Cinnamon mature to install it on my Arch box

[snodgrss1984]

LXDE ITS BETTER AND FASTER MAKE IT COMPATABLE WITH GNOME THINGS AND WIN WIN

[snodgrss1984]

Anybody that hasn't tried Gnome Fallback for daily use, check out http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=trisquel I had some weird font issue but other than that it was a responsive, stable and polished new distro. I like the underdog approach to using Gnome Fallback despite the threats of its short lifespan.

That said, I'm absolutely loving MATE in LMDE 201204. It looks almost identical to what I came to love in Mint 11 and the performance of the Debian base is just fantastic.

THANKS FOR THAT !!!

[Verix]

Cinnamon has done away with Gnome Shell's unified overview but still has window and workspace overviews. I like the unified overview but have come to think splitting them into separate entities works somewhat better (matter of taste and preference of course). I really hope someone with coding skills makes a Gnome Shell overview extension for Cinnamon so you can have that in Cinnamon as well if preferred.

I second this. In Gnome Shell, I really like just moving the pointer to the hot corner and just starting to type the application or folder name and launch it. I also like using the window selector when no more than 4 windows are in use. The only problem I faced there is that when the number of windows change, the 'expose' view reshuffles the windows and you have to search to find your desired window again.

I also have no qualms with applications starting as maximized by default. That's what I do to most applications anyway after starting them (Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, gEdit, Clementine), save for Nautilus.

Anyway, I voted for both Gnome Shell and Cinnamon. Still undecided which one I would eventually use.

[hellfire695]

Anybody that hasn't tried Gnome Fallback for daily use, check out http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=trisquel I had some weird font issue but other than that it was a responsive, stable and polished new distro. I like the underdog approach to using Gnome Fallback despite the threats of its short lifespan.

That said, I'm absolutely loving MATE in LMDE 201204. It looks almost identical to what I came to love in Mint 11 and the performance of the Debian base is just fantastic.

I agree with that last statement, i even find mate a bit lighter and more responsive then gnome 2, not to mention mate seems to be the best for multi-tasking
also I love the avatar and I want that botttle

[cajual]

KDE.

How I would love for a fluid KDE+LMDE environment.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

i am using (testing) xubuntu 12.04 with mate switching between DEs from time to time
i have used cinnamon and i do like where it is going, last i checked it still needs a bit more work to make my happy (yes, i am picky)
in 6 months it may very well meet my needs, but i am trying to stick with the LTS releases
honestly, I expect mate will be dropped in the future when maintaining it becomes too much work and it will be missed so if i can get 3 or 4 years out of mate in a lts i will be happy since cinnamon will be very solid by then

[drcasper]

I voted for MATE and Cinnamon.

[drjster]

I've been using Cinnamon in Mint 12 Main and its performance is great. It's modern looking and very snappy though a bit unpolished (which is to be expected from such a new DE). I'm also running Cinnamon in LMDE 201204 and its performance is acceptable but not nearly as responsive as in the Main edition. I switched over to Mate in LMDE just to check it out and it is very responsive and feels complete for the most part, though not as elegant or modern as Cinnamon. The graphics/font rendering is better/sharper in Mate than Cinnamon in LMDE using Nvidia drivers. Mate is also lighter in terms of CPU and memory usage. So I voted for the present (Mate) and the near future (Cinnamon). I'd be happy using either, or both.

[alexpetrov.rb]

Cinnamon is great! Excellent work! Respect!

[cwwgateway]

There is no garuntee that Clem follows what this poll says

Well, Clem started the thread and created the poll.

Yes, but what I'm saying is that nowhere did he say "this is the poll to decide the default desktop environment in Mint 13." Obviously, it probably will have a large impact, and it would give a lot of bad press if he chose the DE that wasn't top in the poll for the default DE. Say, although this is probably unlikely (the numbers have stayed pretty consistent), MATE rises to about 20% and Cinnamon drops to 24% or 25%. Clem could look at these numbers and think "a lot of forum users could be the users who are more knowledgeable about linux, not the people who turn on their computer every day and don't really pay attention to what's happening in the linux world (like MS Windows users rarely care about what's happening in the microsoft world), so there are more users here who have tried new things, not people who just want to use what they know and don't care about new things. Therefore, in our actual user base, more people would probably vote for MATE, so the result is about even." That would be a logical conclusion from those numbers, where the basic user just wants to use the same thing. I know that these aren't the numbers and that there's a clear winner, but if the numbers were to change so that they're similar to the ones that I mentioned, it could be interpreted that there really isn't a clear winner. Also, Clem could, if he wanted to, make the desktop fluxbox if he wanted to. He is really in charge, not this poll. I will, however, concede that with the current numbers, Clem would be very wise to use the winner.