Poll: Desktop environments

[intok]

Using Mate 1.2 from it's official repos http://mate-desktop.org/ has ironed out all the kinks that where in version 1.0 in the Mint repos, I don't use Compiz or any other compositor.

I have Cinnamon installed, but rarely use it as it's too heavy on my old Pentium4. I've tried XFCE and LXDE a few times and was never impressed with either.

I'd actually much prefer a Mate only version of Mint13.

[kmb42vt]

Guys guys...have you seen this?
Clem were right about KDE's hike. But one thing you probably haven't noticed. Well rather describing, here is the screenshot.

https://twitter.com/#!/psychover/status/197259966141300736/photo/1

For information's sake for everyone else, please read this post if you haven't: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1985

What you're looking at is the poll conducted on the Linux Mint blog that was purposely closed by Clem due to people purposely manipulating the numbers by clearing their browser cookies and history and voting again for their favorite DE. This is not the way to conduct a poll. One person, one vote, that's it. The poll was closed the same day it was posted and another was opened in the forums and the post was updated as to why this happened.

Clem did not allow more than one vote per person.

[penguinx64]

Thank's Clem for posting the results of this poll. It doesn't surprise me that almost every desktop environment is more popular than Unity. I sure hope Mark Shuttleworth takes note of that. Your poll proves that Unity is not very popular. I didn't get to vote in this poll, but I have to say MATE is my favorite, followed by XFCE and LXDE. I' a big fan of LMDE XFCE because it's fast. I tried Cinnamon briefly, but switched back to MATE. Cinnamon is definitely an improvement over Unity though. I'll give Cinnamon another shot when Linux Mint 13 is released next month. Right now, I'm running Lubuntu 12.04 with LXDE. It's fast, reliable and doesn't have Unity. For me, it's a toss up between XFCE and LXDE. XFCE has more eye candy and it's easier to configure. LXDE is fast and doesn't eat up system resources. MATE is still #1 in my book. I plan to download and install Linux Mint 13 with MATE the first day it's available. It will probably be my main OS for the next 4 years.

I have 4 computers. My main desktop was running LMDE XFCE 64 bit, until and update caused problems. I switched to Lubuntu 64 bit temporarily to give it a try. My main laptop is running Linux Mint 9 64 bit with Gnome 2. It too was running LMDE XFCE 64 bit until updates hosed it. I also have a Netbook running Linux Mint 9 32 bit with Gnome 2. I have to say Linux Mint 9 is the best choice for older netbooks. And my last computer is a Mac Mini running OS X Snow Leopard. Hey, I need to run iTunes on something. At least it's not running that other 'W' OS produced by that evil monopoly near Seattle.

[just1acc]

@just1acc, there is nothing wrong with the total exceeding 100% because we are allowed to vote more than once. ..

Thanks bro, and cwwgateway too, for clearing this up.

But I think when we're counting on %, then if one person voted two DE then that should be counted as 2 votes ( both in total no of votes and individual one) to maintain the 100% thingy. Otherwise its mathematically weird.

I guess this forum poll is maintaining 100% accurately .

For information's sake for everyone else, please read..

You haven't got my point. See the replies just after my comment.

[kmb42vt]

For information's sake for everyone else, please read..

You haven't got my point. See the replies just after my comment.

Got it. My post was mainly just for those new forum members who joined up for the poll. It gives them a reference point to start from. I guess I wasn't thoroughly clear on that.

[MALsPa]

It doesn't surprise me that almost every desktop environment is more popular than Unity. I sure hope Mark Shuttleworth takes note of that. Your poll proves that Unity is not very popular.

Well, the poll is for Mint forum members to vote in, so what kind of results would you expect? Run the same exact poll at the Ubuntu forums, different story.

[hyoumoku]

Voted for XFCE and LXDE as both are fast. Before GNOME3 though, GNOME2 was main desktop environment. I tried GNOME3 and Cinnamon for a few months but can't really get the hang of it. Currently using Mint Lisa GNOME 64bit with GNOME3 fallback but I have to say, I'm still not much used to it. Can't make it work how I made my setup of the older settings of GNOME2 with MintMenu I also use LMDE XFCE 64bit in another partition but I haven't used that partition in awhile. I'll probably do a complete reformat of my laptop once Mint Maya LXDE is out. Will add LMDE XFCE 64bit in another partition as I love XFCE eyecandy. Can't help but also need to install Winblows XP in my laptop sadly because I need those Avisynth, VirtualDub, Adobe AfterEffects and meGUI (never gotten used to Winblows 7 nor the dreaded Winbows Vista - Winblows XP with only the same partition size of the LMDE XFCE and Mint LXDE would be fine - unlike Winblows 7 and Winblows Vista which you have to have like 4 times the recommended partition diskspace). Sadly, I can only say goodbye to Winblows once I get around mastering video encoding using Linux (which I still need to give a lot of time to study).

And oh please, sorry if it's somewhat a request but - Kindly release an Ubuntu based XFCE again, pretty please~ Even if the awesome Mint team would release them during Ubuntu LTS releases - please~ X3b

Thanks

[HumbleLinux]

By "KDE" i presume you are talking about KDE SC (KDE Software Compilation).
KDE is the community around KDE SC.

[jackintheoc]

I have Mint 11 one PC that I use for work, and the Latest LMDE on another for development purposes.
I love the Gnome 2 desktop and dislike the newer ones.
In my opinion, LMDE is very close to being fully completed.
LMDE runs flawlessly on my laptop with an Intel P6100 processor and Intel graphics.
Jack H.

[wobblybob]

I've been using Linux since Ubuntu 7.04 and dropped Windows all together after a couple of years. I switched to Linux Mint due to Unity and currently run the old fluxbox edition on my eeepc and would love to see a new version. I then moved to pure Debian Squeeze/Wheezy on my main PC and laptop with XFCE but have just downloaded the Linux Mint XFCE Debian Edition to test. So far so good it looks very sleek but it needs less Gnome apps and more lightweight apps for my liking but I'll still testing and would recommend it for new users wanting an out of the box distro.

[Cheesethief]

Cinnamon is my favorite. It just does everything right on my computer and looks amazing. Much better than Gnome 2 and most of what is offered today that I have played around with.

[goodgod261]

- Gnome 2 and MGSE are discontinued and do not appear in this list. If you run either DE, instead of which desktop you currently use, please indicate which desktop you plan to switching to in the future.

I don't plan switching to any. Add Gnome 2 as an option and you'll see that I'm not the only one.
You are trying to force changes. And people don't like changes, especially those not needed.

[Paul_Vandenberg]

I disagree that anyone is forcing changes. Gnome 2 = MATE.

[trabuio]

I'm using Mate because Cinnamon, even if elegant DE, gives me problems on wireless connection and the apps for desktop and their tools are less and not complete. I'm disappointed by gnome 3 and all the worsening in comparison with gnome 2.xx.
Same that what happen for kde. To look for appearance , big loss of usability. Lxde is still too rigid and not friendly in customisability. I'll try Xfce, but now the best solution seem to use Ubuntu and unity ( Ubuntu team moved to unity once they understood how big trouble gnome 3 will be?)
Clem, try to give us back same Mint as version 10, Julia that I'm still using on my destop.
Thanks a lot for your big work.
Paolo

[cwwgateway]

- Gnome 2 and MGSE are discontinued and do not appear in this list. If you run either DE, instead of which desktop you currently use, please indicate which desktop you plan to switching to in the future.

I don't plan switching to any. Add Gnome 2 as an option and you'll see that I'm not the only one.
You are trying to force changes. And people don't like changes, especially those not needed.

The Mint team is trying to force change? If I recall, when Ubuntu went to Unity in 11.04, Mint gave you gnome 2. When all major distros went either to unity or gnome shell, Mint tried to make MGSE to help give people the traditional desktop, and they also included MATE, which is a fork of Gnome 2. Then they forked Gnome Shell to give you a more traditional user experience. Look at openSUSE - pure Gnome Shell. Fedora - pure Gnome Shell. Ubuntu - Unity. Debian - pure Gnome Shell with their next release. Mint has been fighting to keep the changes to the user experience at a minimum. Gnome 2 is dead and end of life. Mint has no way to stay compatible with Ubuntu and keep gnome 2. If they stayed with gnome 2, their last release would be Mint 11. So they gave you the continuation of Gnome 2 - MATE. It is almost exactly like gnome 2. Clem has said so many times that Gnome 2 is the most popular linux desktop, but Gnome 2 itself is dead. Clem is trying very, very hard to give you gnome 2 still. As I've said before, how are you going to use gnome 2? Are you going to use Debian 6 until it's EOL? SolusOS is going to Gnome 3 in its next release (albeit a heavily tweaked one). I in no way mean to sound angry or offensive, but it is a little bit inconsiderate to accuse the people who are working very hard to give you a good, traditional, and free OS of forcing change.

[vrkalak]

Were you guys, aware that MATE desktop (gnome-shell) has a help and support Forum?

MATE Forum > http://forums.mate-desktop.org/index.php

[cwwgateway]

Were you guys, aware that MATE desktop (gnome-shell) has a help and support Forum?

MATE Forum > http://forums.mate-desktop.org/index.php

Thanks for this link. I've been there before, but I kind of forgot about it.

[Kimaster]

LXDE is the way of the future!

[dustystrings3001]

LMDE with Xfce desktop.

LMDE 201204 and Xfce 4.8 have both been very stable for me, and I've been extremely satisfied. Now and then I will look at other desktops and other distributions for a week- or two on an older desktop that I have, but I keep coming back to LMDE with Xfce.

To be honest, I haven't tried the LXDE desktop because it is only 32-bit at this time; I use the presence of a 64-bit version as an indicator of that desktop's staying power within the Linux Mint family. I realize that the Mint Team surely has limited resources and cannot keep up the current pace for very long, and I applaud their canvassing the user base to help determine what a good way forward might be.

[egabrum]

I have voted already. I have my preferences, like everybody else. But IMHO, the Linux Community is putting way too much effort and time in this DE craziness, considering the problems that are still keeping it from reaching to the general public.

I recommend to read some of the comments in http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/04/30/1616200/****

Cheers