desktop difference

[Tuckson]

Hi,

Having installed Helena Main at the moment, I actually am just wondering.
What would be good reasons to switch to either fluxbox, lxde or xfce? I know KDE. Itś pretty nice but also pretty big.

But those others, how would they be compared to the standard GNome desktop that comes with mint? faster? Smoother? Any other (from an objective point of view) reason? or does perfomanc not differ and is it just a matter of taste? Are they alle well designed and complete? (read newbi proof).

I think you'll get the point.
I am curious to your opinions.

[Aging Technogeek]

The major difference among the three versions is ram usage. in general, all three use less ram to maintain the desktop than Gnome or KDE. In order, from most to least ram usage, they are(ram usage numbers are for my system. Offered only for internal comparison. Your usage may vary)

KDE - Don't know. Don't use it enough to have a feeling for ram usage or speed

Gnome- 225-260 Mb In general, as fast as or faster than Windows XP on the same system

XFCE - 200-240 Mb Slightly faster to load than Gnome, uses many Gnome features and tools, easy to learn and use.

LXDE - 180-220 Mb Faster than XFCE, still quite intuitive to use but learning curve can be longer

Fluxbox- 170-200 Mb Fastest and lightest (because it is not a desktop manager.) Least intuitive to use. Probably not the ideal first Linux version for a newcomer

[Tuckson]

And why is learning curve higher for some? Because the tools are less polished or so? More CLI work needed perhaps?

[DrHu]

And why is learning curve higher for some? Because the tools are less polished or so? More CLI work needed perhaps?

...More CLI work needed perhaps?
Yes, sometimes but only for that part of the statement, for example the recent Mint 8 lxde version doesn't provide any panel editor or allow easy application setups for a user who doesn't want to use the shell./cli interface..
--that is an lxde developer issue (upstream), not necessarily a mint issue
And why is learning curve higher for some?..
No, not really, depends on the focus/target audience for the distribution

• The terminal can be your friend, when you need to get something done quickly and easily, provided you know what you are doing..

Depends on what you are used to as a desktop environment

• KDE 3x was easy, KDE 4x was a bit of a shock, but has gotten much better, and almost all KDE 3x applications now work..
  --sometimes considered more windows like
• Gnome was always the simpler interface, meaning less customization available
  --sometimes considered more mac like
• XFCE was one of the lighter (in resources) desktop environments
  --although it seems more mac like than even Gnome
• LXDE was one of the lighter (in resources) desktop environments
• Fluxbox or other low resource desktop environments depends more on the user for customization, setups..
• Non-GUI environments exist for Linux, it is the terminal or someone has provided a menu structure in the shell
  --people already using one environment don't often switch desktops eg. from KDE to Gnome or vice-versa

[Biker]

• Non-GUI environments exist for Linux, it is the terminal or someone has provided a menu structure in the shell
  --people already using one environment don't often switch desktops eg. from KDE to Gnome or vice-versa

HAH! I have KDE, Xfce, AND Fluxbox environments on this notebook. Love all three!

[Tuckson]

Well.... In the past I used to choose for KDE usually. Often liked the looks, but then I got this old laptop, I wanted to run with linux. Tried a dozen distros or so. Only the non KDE and non Gnome desktops seemed to run a bit on the system. This made me think about the differences between those.

I always used linux besides windows Just because I wasn't too familiair with X and KDE often came pre-installed with way to much stuff. However then I met Mint and found it's interface nice and it's feeling smooth. A bit to my suprise I found out it runs on Gnome. On my desktop in my office upstairs (which is an old P4 with 700 MB) it's just running fine. Better than Windows even. Even that fine that for the very first time a linux distro on 1 of my PC's became the main OS for that machine.

But performance can always be better. However, A smooth running graphical environment is important to me. (I am not afraid of CLI at all, heck I'm a websphere on Unix engineer) but just prefer graphical solutions in a graphical system.

[jameslynns]

You can jump to any based on your desktop features and recommendation for that systems. Choose the best perfect and suitable system for your desktop.