Poll: Desktop environments

[Sonsum]

Gnome 3 with extensions is heaven for me. I tried to get used to Cinnamon on a fresh LMDE, but I just couldn't get over some of the bugs.

And regarding all this discussion of KDE, I just don't see the appeal of KDE. Knoppix was my first Linux experience, but Ubuntu was the first OS to put in support for my USB wireless card. After that, I've been solid Ubuntu/Debian. Being so used to the way Gnome looks has locked me into using a Gnome-fork of some kind. I feel that Ubuntu's Unity will driver more people to Gnome 3/Gnome-Fallback, but not to a non-Gnome fork. After all, people are complaining about the change to Unity. A Gnome-fork will be the closest thing to that pre-Unity state.

[BostonPeng]

And regarding all this discussion of KDE, I just don't see the appeal of KDE. Knoppix was my first Linux experience, but Ubuntu was the first OS to put in support for my USB wireless card. After that, I've been solid Ubuntu/Debian. Being so used to the way Gnome looks has locked me into using a Gnome-fork of some kind. I feel that Ubuntu's Unity will driver more people to Gnome 3/Gnome-Fallback, but not to a non-Gnome fork. After all, people are complaining about the change to Unity. A Gnome-fork will be the closest thing to that pre-Unity state.

If you haven't looked at KDE lately you may want to give it a spin on a LiveUSB (or something). I know there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when KDE 4 came out but it's really nice now. If you like tweaking your system KDE's a fantastic DE for it, and I find it's so easy to do anything from launching apps to shutting my laptop down I've found myself frustrated the last two times I had opportunity to try LMDE. Plus you have a lot less of upstream decisions being shoved down users' throats on KDE, but Mint devs are actually good enough to undo some of them when they can.

[Rob190]

Just a request for one of these desktops to support desktop sharing reliably. I've actually gone back to Ubuntu for now but I really liked the Cinnamon desktop. Very clean and fast and desktop sharing was great when it worked. Unfortunately it was just so unreliable. Had endless crashes and hangs just moving files around. If there was a way to reliably restart it from an SSH shell, I could probably have lived with that.

Mate: Desktop sharing not working at all in LM13
KDE: Desktop sharing slow and some strange problems getting lots of repeated characters when typing into dialog boxes.
Gnome: Installation failed (broken package) and removing it corrupted the system so badly I had to do a fresh install (and decided to move back to Ubuntu).

[SmallTock]

Cinnamon, LXDE, XFCE, MATE

[d_knuckle]

New to Mint, using LXDE--- was long time ubuntu user (gnome and kde) and was trying out the unity desktop when I ran into trouble with flash not working after a security update--while looking for a fix on the web I came across "Mint, the new ubuntu" and decided rather than trying to solve the flash issue I would give mint a try.Chose mint 12 lxde because I don't have DVD (cd only) and could not find my pen drive (seems the daughter had it for something) so I got the latest ISO that fit on cd and installed it.So far I am impressed.It kind of reminds me of the way I felt when I left windows for freespire -- it is new and it works and it is not M$ which is cool but now I wonder if I might want to go cinnamin...or maybe mate....so many choices,so little time...

[telenux]

Gnome3 is garbage and for ****s. KDE4 was a mess but it has a new challenger for biggest mess out of all the DEs. XFCE isn't bad but is becoming bloated. LXDE is for low-resource computers.

Cinnamon and MATE look ok. The devs for that will probably mess those up eventually, too, though. Everyone wants their DE to be versatile so they can go on mobile devices or something. That's what Ubuntu seems to be doing with Unity and why it's almost universally hated. Is there a pattern (there)?

[bimsebasse]

"Almost universally hated" - not if you go outside the #tabletrantcodgers channel. Also, there is currently no effort whatsoever in either Cinnamon or MATE to be cross-platform, they are 100% desktop interfaces. Oh how people love to moan

[Sonsum]

"Almost universally hated" - not if you go outside the #tabletrantcodgers channel. Also, there is currently no effort whatsoever in either Cinnamon or MATE to be cross-platform, they are 100% desktop interfaces. Oh how people love to moan

I'd just ignore telenux. If you look at his recent posts, they're all just like this. My favorite is on the Gnome 3 board "Mint sucks".

Hardly an attitude that I want to get involved with.

[monkeyboy]

There seems to be a useful shelf life for posts, after too long they become troll and flame bait.

[MintRainbow]

As someone who began using Ubuntu in 2009, I found the evolution of GNOME went from a simple interface to a complex, cumbersome and complicated DE. MATE to me brings sanity back to the desktop.

Despite the fact I am using an uber-customized interface away from MATE, when I first saw it, I enjoyed it. It was not complicated, and it's something I can show off to my Windows friends without the **** factor that other DEs seem to have these days.

[willation]

I use Cinnamon mostly on Linux Mint 13 as my Main OS. I really enjoy it, my favorite and I am sure it will only get better. For older hardware I like the Mate edition. The Linux Mint Team is doing a great job and I am slowly introducing Mint to family. We are winning over M$ users to Linux, which is beginner friendly with Linux Mint. At the very least get them started on dual-booting Customization with Cinnamon is awesome, changing the taskbar to the top, adding multiple workspaces with Expo, and the hot corner is fun and easy to get used to. I am definitely Mintspired with this release! This is the Best Desktop of 2012!

[Alphonse]

Having migrated from KDE to Unity to Mint Cinnamon, my search for the best desktop is over. Cinnamon reigns!

[Linux AL]

I love XFCE, LXDE i think they work gre8 on old hardwares

[flugmint]

While its still early days for cinnamon it looks, to me, like the way of the future. I'm using it on a daily basis on my main production system. Sure, there are still lots of tiny issues (its a little bit hungrier than it should be, for example... ), but I can only see this DE becoming truly GREAT!

Thanks to all involved...

-flugmint

[ingeva]

Mod/Admin, please remove this post.
Thanks.

[AlbertP]

I don't need Mate's panels. Cinnamon does what I want it to do.

[ingeva]

I don't need Mate's panels. Cinnamon does what I want it to do.

The panels in MATE are a fork of Gnome 2 panels. They allow you to have launch panels along the sides of the screen, instead of on the desktop where they are being covered by application windows. Also, they allow you to start programs using one click instead of several. That's called efficiency. Efficiency is pleasant for people who want something done.
Cinnamon has panels, and you can make two (upper and lower) but they do not allow you to put launchers in them, so in effect they are useless.

[AlbertP]

That you cannot make launchers in Cinnamon was perhaps the case in older versions but it's not true anymore. In Cinnamon 1.4, which is used in Mint 13 Cinnamon and present in the Mint 12 repository, you can right-click items in the menu > Add to Panel. There are your launchers.
Adding them manually is also possible by right-clicking any launcher > Add.

[ingeva]

That you cannot make launchers in Cinnamon was perhaps the case in older versions but it's not true anymore. In Cinnamon 1.4, which is used in Mint 13 Cinnamon and present in the Mint 12 repository, you can right-click items in the menu > Add to Panel. There are your launchers.
Adding them manually is also possible by right-clicking any launcher > Add.

Didn't work for me. I tried the latest version, just av few days ago.
I have noticed that you can install the mate desktop in Cinnamon, but considering all the problems with it, I'd say it's better to run MATE.

[buzzingrobot]

I want to like Gnome-shell more than I actually like it at this point. So, I install Mint 13 Cinnamon, move the panel to the top, put a dock on the left, and it dawns on me that it's just like gnome-shell except that it has a traditional menu instead of all those big icons in the Overview. (Gnome copied that from OS X. I'm also an OS X user and I never use that feature.)

The only real difference I can see between the Cinnamon panel and the Gnome-shell panel is that Cinnamon shows open apps in the panel. And, a Gnome extension does that, in any case.

Gnome-shell is supposed to be rather unconfigurable. I usually stay with a default theme, but Gnome uses CSS, just like Cinnamon (for obvious reasons).

I'm staying with Mint for the time being. Maybe. I may decide to go back to Gnome-shell and add the Cardapio menu.