What is the difference between Debian, Fluxbox, XFCE, ...

Quick to answer questions about finding your way around Linux Mint as a new user.
Forum rules
There are no such things as "stupid" questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions use the other forums in the support section.
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
cypher-neo

Re: What is the difference between Debian, Fluxbox, XFCE, ..

Post by cypher-neo »

southernpride1865 wrote:So, pros/cons on the following:

Query: switch from Win7, stay with Mint, or try/use Debian Whezy?

Query: because these are Windows games, what issues can I expect to encounter with the switch, assuming I decide to make it?

Query: can/shoud I move everything over to an external HDD and run it via an emulator? And yes, I believe I understand that Wine Is Not an Emulator, but what the heck IS it, and would/will it work in this circumstance? Or should I look into something else? And would this, in essense, be just a stupid way of doing a dual boot system to keep my Windows stuff and use Debian for everything else?

Oh yeah, "Query" was my word of the day!
Query 1: Switch to what you are comfortable with. Debian tends to me a little more complicated than Mint. But if you don't mind learning something new, or you really want to learn what makes Linux tick, I would say Debian is certainly an easy way to jump in and learn. Because Debian is a rolling release, you won't have to worry about doing fresh upgrades every 6+ months, but this does make Debian slightly more unstable (things break occasionally).
If you're worried about stability, then stick with Mint.

Query 2: It generally depends on the game. Most games are playable when you install them through WINE, and you can check the performance ratings that games get at winehq.com (just type in the game title in the search field, and it will search winehq).

Query 3: Wine (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, Mac OSX, & BSD. Instead of simulating internal Windows logic like a virtual machine or emulator, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly, eliminating the performance and memory penalties of other methods and allowing you to cleanly integrate Windows applications into your desktop.

I would, under no circumstances, advise you to use Win7 because I'm a Linux-purist.
I also don't like advising dual-booting, because it can get ugly at times (Windows loves overwriting the bootloader during innocent sounding updates). If you dual-boot, you may at times feel like two OS'es are having a tug-of-war with your computer stuck right in the middle.
An easier option would be to install Mint on the computer, and then install the virtualbox-ose package and install Windows on the VirtualBox. Then, any games that don't work through Wine, you can install in the Windows Virtualbox.

Query was an excellent word of the day!
tooppy

Re: What is the difference between Debian, Fluxbox, XFCE, ..

Post by tooppy »

Robin wrote:Wow, I'm really glad I wrote that! And delighted that people have found it so helpful. Proof that even a stunted little autistic kid (me) can do something really good sometimes! I hope I get to do alot more of that kind of good as I learn more.

Humbled and grateful,
Robin
Robin, I join the crowd to tell you thanks you very much. Surprisingly in the Linux community it is very hard to get just simple straightforward explanations.
To give clear explanations one has to get a clean thoughts and knowledge, you have it.
And there is a lot you could do I am sure.
For example, suppose you type a letter and want to save it on your NAS, how to do that ? The arborescence stops at the local hard drive and never open the private network, so you need to save the document in "/home/somewhere", then manually, get there, cut the document, go to your private network and paste it there. Silly isn't it, surely there is a way. Nobody has been able to explain it to me.
Another one : I opened a post here in this forum, it has to do again with the network :
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 73#p855573

Again many thanks for your post, you open up a lot to my understanding.
Tooppy
tooppy

Re: What is the difference between Debian, Fluxbox, XFCE, ..

Post by tooppy »

I sent my previous post above after reading the first page of this post and didn't know about the death of Robin.
I am ashame, sorry to him and all his friend here.
Let me apologize.

Tooppy
Bryan88
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 154
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2014 3:29 am
Location: South Africa

Re: What is the difference between Debian, Fluxbox, XFCE, ..

Post by Bryan88 »

From reading this thread I decided to try LXDE (I'm using Mint 15 Cinnamon with GNOME I think) and it seems to be working great. My question is, would it be advisable to remove GNOME altogether or should I just leave well enough alone. At the moment I am using LXDE on the "for this session only" setting, I assume that if I wanted to remove GNOME I would first have to make LXDE the default desktop environment? Thanks.
sweller

Re: What is the difference between Debian, Fluxbox, XFCE, ..

Post by sweller »

Newbie here to add my appreciation for an excellently written post. Thanks, Robin!
Robin wrote: 2. - Consider a "lightweight" if you have an older, low-resource computer that you want to run fast!
I have just purchased a NUC (BOXDCCP847DYE), a stick of RAM (CT25664BF1339), and a flash drive (SDCZ33-016G-B35) to run Linux from. I *think* an appropriate choice is Mint 16? Is there anything lighter and as newbie-friendly?

I might go for Mint 17, but the "recommended" drive size is 20GB. I haven't seen why, but it seems to be the first version of Mint with that recommendation.
Nilla Wafer

Re: What is the difference between Debian, Fluxbox, XFCE, ..

Post by Nilla Wafer »

sweller wrote: I have just purchased a NUC (BOXDCCP847DYE), a stick of RAM (CT25664BF1339), and a flash drive (SDCZ33-016G-B35) to run Linux from. I *think* an appropriate choice is Mint 16? Is there anything lighter and as newbie-friendly?

I might go for Mint 17, but the "recommended" drive size is 20GB. I haven't seen why, but it seems to be the first version of Mint with that recommendation.
How much RAM?

I always recommend that new users stick with the Long Term Support releases. The upcoming Mint 17 is the next LTS, and the current LTS - with support all the way to April of 2017 - is 13, "Maya." If your new computer is low on RAM and processing speed, use the Xfce version.

Another reason to use Xfce in my opinion is that the interface is easy and "kinda familiar looking" to folks who used Windows before. There's a Menu button that does what the "Start" button did in Windows, and you can just follow the categories to the software you want to run. You can also just click anywhere on the desktop and bring up that menu too! It's sweet and fast even on my decade-old Dell.

Maya Xfce needs only about 5 GB of hard drive space, leaving plenty for all your other stuff.

nilla
sweller

Re: What is the difference between Debian, Fluxbox, XFCE, ..

Post by sweller »

Nilla Wafer wrote:How much RAM?
Hi, Nilla.

That's a 2GB stick and a 16GB flash.

I can bump the RAM up to 4GB just by adding a second stick, but the recommendation for Mint 16 is, "512 MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage)." Should be good there?

I will certainly give Xfce a spin. It sounds like it will have enough spouse acceptance to please her.

As for Mint 17, I'm still wondering about this though, "5 GB of disk space (20GB recommended). Someone must know why?
Nilla Wafer

Re: What is the difference between Debian, Fluxbox, XFCE, ..

Post by Nilla Wafer »

sweller wrote:
Nilla Wafer wrote:How much RAM?
That's a 2GB stick and a 16GB flash.

I can bump the RAM up to 4GB just by adding a second stick, but the recommendation for Mint 16 is, "512 MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage)." Should be good there?
More than enough! But why Mint 16 instead of the LTS release? Use 13 or wait for 17 if it's for a novice Linuxer. Less work to do, longer support life.
As for Mint 17, I'm still wondering about this though, "5 GB of disk space (20GB recommended). Someone must know why?
20 GB is recommended for the combination of the operating system, plus all the software you have and want to install, all your bookmarked favorites and all the documents, pictures, music, videos, etc.

My hard drive is 80 GB. Linux Mint Xfce 13 takes up less than 3 GB for the OS! But I designated 20 GB as "/" for the operating system. Way more than it really needs. I have a swap partition because my poor old computer has only 512 RAM, so I designated 1 GB as "Linux-swap." All the rest of my hard drive, 59 GB, is "/home" and it has all my settings, e-mail, Firefox bookmarks, preferences, and all my school work, photos, music, and videos. All of it combined - and you know how quickly a teenager can accumulate pictures and music - takes less than 10 GB. Either I'm just a really boring person or I don't need alot of stuff. So I think the answer to your question is that a 20 GB hard drive is recommended as a minimum, and 512 RAM as a minimum - for Xfce or Mate. Cinnamon is alot more demanding on CPU and RAM than Mate or Xfce. So Cinnamon would be slower on a modest little box like my hand-me-down computer. I have never tried it so I can't tell you how "Windows-familiar" Cinnamon is, but I know Xfce pretty well and it's set up on Mint Xfce to be friendly for people who are used to Windows.

nilla
sweller

Re: What is the difference between Debian, Fluxbox, XFCE, ..

Post by sweller »

Nilla Wafer wrote:But why Mint 16 instead of the LTS release?
Ignorance. Plain and simple.

Mint Xfce 13 it will be then. When I'm feeling more adventurous, I'll move to 17. We are "novice Linuxers." ;-) But we've been PC users for a very long time (C:\).
Eraph

Re: What is the difference between Debian, Fluxbox, XFCE, ..

Post by Eraph »

G'day folks! Digging this thread up as things have no doubt moved on, and I think my question isn't quite the same as what was originally asked.

I'm currently running Cinnamon on Linux Mint 17.2. I've used Linux on and off a lot in the past, never liked KDE but got along well with Gnome. But I'm more interested in Cinnamon vs. Xfce. The answer tends to be "use Xfce on older/less capable hardware, otherwise use Cinnamon".

But in my case I have a choice. I have hardware capable of running any desktop manager. So my questions:
  • Apart from the flashiness or animation effects, would I be missing anything by moving from Cinnamon to Xfce?
  • Would my machine run noticably snappier?
  • Could I expect longer battery life?
  • Would I be missing out on themes, applets, anything like that?
  • I am aware that I can have both environments running side-by-side, is there anything I should watch out for if I give that a go?
Cheers!
Locked

Return to “Beginner Questions”