Poll: Desktop environments

[jotafrisco]

As I said before: Gnome Shell for those who want to move forward, the most polished and customizable Cinnamon you can make, and LXDE or Xfce for lower resources.

[IslandWolf]

Since I am not a coder, rather than flame against this or that DE, I find it more reasonable to limit myself to making observations based on my experiences. For a good while I tried to get along with KDE as my DE for Linux Mint 12, but its apps would crash unexpectedly for no apparent reason several times an hour. I have never liked Gnome, but thought I'd give MATE a try. That was a no-go. It seems Gnome/MATE and my onboard ATI Radeon 4290 video controller don't like each other. So I moved on to Cinnamon. Thus far, Cinnamon has been useable, though it is obviously in need of further development (as in, allowing for separate background images for each workspace).

Is Cinnamon a better desktop environment than the Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit machine I have running in a VirtualBox window? No. Am I considering returning my homemade computer to being a Windows box once again because I haven't found a Linux distro that's as slick or familiar? Never! Sure, I feel handicapped some of the time, especially since I am not a programmer in a demonstrably programmer-centric neighborhood. But I can survive with this OS, only occassionally having to bring up the Redmond Beast (like when I need to modify a web page on my site using NoteTab Pro and CuteFTP, or when I want to shoot off a message to my wife across the house using WinLANPopup Messenger). She is pretty much stuck with the MS Windows 7 Pro 64-bit computer I built for her because of all the Windows-only software she uses (Cubase, etc.), and we prefer to use IM as opposed to, say, hollering like barbarians. WinLANPopup Messenger is the only app we've found that works for us. We could use Yahoo!, I guess, but that would involve the signal leaving the house and then coming back in, wouldn't it? No thanks.

I made the decision last year to once and for all go with a *NIX environment, and I'm a'gonna stick with it. There. I said it. I'm free!

[IslandWolf]

As I said before: Gnome Shell for those who want to move forward, the most polished and customizable Cinnamon you can make, and LXDE or Xfce for lower resources.

My problem with LXDE and Xfce, if I remember correctly (an ever-increasing challenge these days, dammit), is that neither one would not let me do multiple desktops. Am I wrong about that? There was something I found I didn't like about each of them ... if only I could remember what it was.

[CapitalG]

xfce

[mustafaa]

For desktop environments outside Mint, mucktware run a poll several days ago, and KDE won:
http://www.muktware.com/articles/3518/k ... nvironment

[bamm]

I have several distros/DEs installed such as LMDE/Mate/Cinnamon, Ubuntu/Unity, Debian/Gnome2, LM12 Lisa, even Windows 7 and XP. But my main system is running LinuxMint 11 Katya. I am happy with Katya and in love with it. My only concern is that Katya will be gone in October. What I really want to have is something that works exactly like Katya, but with Long Term Support. I was excited when Cinnamon came out. It was beatiful. It was traditional. But, it didn't have the mintmenu and didn't work exactly the same as Katya. I tried Mate and at that time it was so buggy. And when the new LMDE came out, I was pleasantly surprised at the improvement of Mate. Suddenly, Mate IS the continuation of Katya. I am looking forward to Mint Maya Mate as my replacement for Katya, and one that I will be using for the next 5 years. Thank you to all the developers and contibutors of Mint.

[nobody813]

I run Xubuntu 12.04 on my Netbook, but may be swapping to LMDE XFCE soon. XFCE is my preferred DE, and I hope Linux Mint 13 features an XFCE version (rather than installing generic XFCE)

That said, I do like Cinnamon. I used it on my desktop PC when I was dual booting with Windows 7 and Linux Mint 12, until my Linux drive failed

I use Lubuntu on my elderly laptop, but may swap to Linux Mint 12 LXDE if I can be bothered installing it

I haven't really touched any other DE's before, though I have used KDE before. I didn't like

[bamm]

For desktop environments outside Mint, mucktware run a poll several days ago, and KDE won:

If I had participated in that poll, I would also choose KDE, because I couldn't stand any of the other choices. I started out as a KDE user (the first distros I used, in order, are RH+KDE, Slackware, Bayanihan, Mandrake, Kubuntu, Mandriva). I never liked Ubuntu with Gnome2 but I was a fan of what Ubuntu was doing. After the upgrade to KDE4, which I hated, I discovered Mint Felicia+Gnome2 and I loved its implementation of Gnome2. I stuck with Mint since then. I realized that KDE4 is now much improved compared to its early incarnations. But then Mint developers also done a good job with Gnome and kept me there. The Mint team is also doing a good job with Cinnamon and Mate, which is giving their own users much more options.

I guess people outside of the Mint community have fewer choices, and since Gnome Shell, Unity, XFCE and LXDE all have their usability issues, then it would be natural for KDE to take the lead. I am happy about KDE returning to the mainstream. But I had already grown used to Mint's implementation of Gnome, and therefore I will stay with it and will move to Mate.

[ManicSquirrel]

I'm actually a big fan of Enlightenment--fast, configurable, very different--but it also comes with a steep learning curve and doesn't have the same polished feel of any of the heavier desktops. I know a lot of people really like KDE but there is just something about the general feel of it that I can't get behind. Unlike a lot of people I actually don't mind Gnome-Shell, and I like a number of features of Unity, such as the messaging menu, but looking forward I think Cinnamon is the way to go. I can't help but be impressed by how quickly it is developing. Really great work to everyone involved in both Cinnamon and Mint. The fact that so much energy is spent getting feedback--even replying to individual commnets--speaks volumes about the philosophy behind the projects. Thanks to everyone involved for these efforts.

[dygituljunky]

I'm answering for both me and for my mom (whom I installed Mint after Windows caused major support headaches):

For me, I'm willing to try unity and gnome shell but I'm really frustrated that the basic interface has changed so much from gnome 2. I'm checking out lxde, xfce, gnome shell, and unity as governments for my own personal use. For my mother, it's definitely going to be one of the ones that gives a traditional desktop look/feel to minimize the amount of support and training I have to provide after the upgrade. The mint menu has provided an excellent extension for letting my mom manage her desktop the way that she wants to.

Thanks for all that you do, mint team!

[Daboo]

KDE 4.8. It is stable and highly customizable. Everything just works. The KDE desktop environment doesn't get in the way of using the computer.

Gnome 3 looked like it was designed to be anti-Win7. Everything seemed to be in a different place than you'd find in Win7 and the only rationale I could see was to make it different. Change is good. Change just to have change didn't make sense.

Chris

[dalcde]

+1 for enlightenment. Bodhi is a good Bodhi distro but I don't like the fact that new versions come only every 2 years. A Mint E17 would be great.

[FiveSidedPoly]

First time posting in the forums, not a new Linux user, or new to Mint. I'll have to introduce myself in the proper forum later.

But recently I have been testing LMDE for many reasons and hope to make it my all around daily distro because I am not a huge fan of Gnome 3 or Unity and I like the idea of a semi-rolling distro.

I finally joined the forums to vote Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce because at the moment I am tinkering with all three on LMDE. I see a huge future in all of them and really hope they get the attention they deserve moving forward.

[panzeroceania]

I use enlightenment for everyday use.

I also like trinity and wmii on occasion.

[cudayne]

cinnamon an kde i think they both have much to offer.

[z06gal]

I have really grown fond of the cairo dock with gnome and effects session. The latest 3.0 Cairo Dock release makes things very easy to customize along with all that compiz allows. I will likely run both it and Cinnamon in Mint 13 although I am impressed with KDE 4.8 as well. That is what is so nice about Linux = choices and more choices

[varonbondumb]

My vote is for MATE.

I use MATE for 3 computers. One is a 7 year old IBM Thinkpad. It runs very smoothly with MATE with all the resources as low as possible. The second is a 2 year old ASUS EEE PC 1001P. It slowed to a crawl with Cinnamon (even with minimal options!), but runs nice and fast with MATE. The third is a 5 year old desktop. Although it runs Cinnamon nicely, I prefer the low key simpleness of MATE over the inherent elegance of Cinnamon.

[clliu]

I am an Linux Mint user since Mint 10. My favorite DE is MATE and LXDE. I have tried the original LXDE before but it is a little ugly
Mint LXDE really improves the GUI.

[greandreams]

I voted KDE. Love it. I'm running Mint 12 KDE on three machines. I do sorta like Gnome shell with some extensions and who knows, I may try it again. I just downloaded the latest Ubuntu LTS and still can't stand Unity, although I do like the head-up display a lot.

So it's like this when it comes to Ubuntu.

I like HUD.

But I can't stand Unity.

But I like HUD.

But I can't stand Unity.

But I like HUD...



OK seriously, I think I'll be checking out LMDE again and check out Mate and Cinnamon. If I was to chose between Mate or Cinnamon, I think I would like Cinnamon better. By what I have read they've matured quite a bit since they first became available. But if Mate is still trying to be a Gnome2 clone fergit Mate.

So it looks like I'll be downloading some more.

Just wanted to add this. So far it looks to me like maybe KDE should move up the priority list a little since it's certainly not in last place in the poles, although it's always the last one released each time.

Just sayin.

[velinion]

Still bouncing around a lot looking for the "perfect" one...
Probably spend more time in Fluxbox than anything else, just wish that the experience was more polished.

Got LMDE on my desktop, with Mint 11 on my laptop.

Probably going to give Linux Mint 12 KDE a good solid try on my laptop in the next month or so.