Poll: Desktop environments

[Jawz]

Okay, got Linux Mint Debian 201204 in VirtualBox.

- Cinnamon looks got and stuff, but unstable, window manager crashes and restarts on occassion.
- Simple packages not available via Debian, like wine, never knew there was such a difference.
- Never been passionate about Gnome2 but I'll say MATE so far is stable and familiar, so that's good.

Conclusion: will stick with LM12-KDE
Darn it! Gnome Shell is catching up!

[cwwgateway]

A while back there were some comments on how Cinnamon would do on a different distro's forum, and I just stumbled across a DE thread on the PinguyOS forum. Here's the link http://forum.pinguyos.com/Thread-Which-DE-do-you-use-the-most. Interestingly, Cinnamon has 16.67% of the vote (it's behind Xfce and Gnome-shell which both have 19.44% and tied with unity), although there have only been 36 votes so far. Considering PinguyOS has no versions that ship with Cinnamon and no plans to ship a Cinnamon version (at least no plans that I know of), this is a pretty high percentage.

[MALsPa]

A while back there were some comments on how Cinnamon would do on a different distro's forum, and I just stumbled across a DE thread on the PinguyOS forum. Here's the link http://forum.pinguyos.com/Thread-Which-DE-do-you-use-the-most. Interestingly, Cinnamon has 16.67% of the vote (it's behind Xfce and Gnome-shell which both have 19.44% and tied with unity), although there have only been 36 votes so far. Considering PinguyOS has no versions that ship with Cinnamon and no plans to ship a Cinnamon version (at least no plans that I know of), this is a pretty high percentage.

Yeah, but take a good look at that poll. The thread was started February 2, 2012 -- 3 months ago. Like you said, only 36 votes so far. Only 6 votes for Cinnamon. Nothing significant about those numbers at all, I'm afraid.

[cwwgateway]

A while back there were some comments on how Cinnamon would do on a different distro's forum, and I just stumbled across a DE thread on the PinguyOS forum. Here's the link http://forum.pinguyos.com/Thread-Which-DE-do-you-use-the-most. Interestingly, Cinnamon has 16.67% of the vote (it's behind Xfce and Gnome-shell which both have 19.44% and tied with unity), although there have only been 36 votes so far. Considering PinguyOS has no versions that ship with Cinnamon and no plans to ship a Cinnamon version (at least no plans that I know of), this is a pretty high percentage.

Yeah, but take a good look at that poll. The thread was started February 2, 2012 -- 3 months ago. Like you said, only 36 votes so far. Only 6 votes for Cinnamon. Nothing significant about those numbers at all, I'm afraid.

If I remember correctly there's something special about having a sample size of either 32 or above or 36 or above (can't remember which one), but I agree, the numbers aren't significant. Still, it's interesting.

[FiReSTaRT]

If I remember correctly there's something special about having a sample size of either 32 or above or 36 or above (can't remember which one), but I agree, the numbers aren't significant. Still, it's interesting.

If it's 36, that would mean 92.3% of their userbase

[bamm]

If it's 36, that would mean 92.3% of their userbase

Only 39 people use PinguyOS?

[cwwgateway]

If it's 36, that would mean 92.3% of their userbase

That's a little bit derogatory. They have like 2000 forum members.

[egabrum]

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2000

We’ve also heard your opinion, via the poll, and we acknowledge the fact that the most popular environments within our community are Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce and KDE. Going forward, we’ll focus primarily on these desktops.

Does this mean that we won't have the LXDE version of the regular Mint releases?
That's a pity. Although XFCE is somewhat lighter, none of the 4 chosen DE represents the systems with low hardware specifications.

It is also interesting that Gnome Shell is left out, having virtually the same popularity than KDE. But I understand that Clem just wanted to probe the air and never committed to follow strictly the results. Anyways, I am glad that Gnome Shell is out . (In my own humble opinion) It's a crime against the basic rules of usability, user experience and ergonomics.

[FiReSTaRT]

If it's 36, that would mean 92.3% of their userbase

That's a little bit derogatory. They have like 2000 forum members.

Just crackin' a joke, but I've made my point.. With that being said, I'll respect a distro even if it only has 5 users as long as it's well-packaged and scratches an itch.

Does this mean that we won't have the LXDE version of the regular Mint releases?

I'd also like to see an LXDE version for really low spec hardware. XFCE can even be a bit much for some really old stuff and LXDE seems to be decently usable so far. Only running it on a virtual machine that only needs to vpn in, run an NX client and Twinkle, but I played with it a little during slow times at work and I could set it up to meet my daily desktop needs (even though I'd prefer Cinnamon or XFCE on hardware that's under 5 years old).

[cwwgateway]

My guess is that they'll keep releasing some version for low-end hardware (although this might be simply a lighter LMDE Xfce, so I don't know). It will probably be released later in the cycle, though. @FiReSTaRT, there are many linux distros, and most of them have a small, dedicated community. I'll remind you that Mint (granted, a long time ago) used to be at this point. While I don't mind joking, that particular joke was a little bit insensitive, although you obviously didn't mean it literally so no real harm done.

[ausmuso]

I want to strike a blow for LXDE! I know it is mainly promoted as a desktop for a lightweight environment but put it on top of Mint Lisa on a powerful desktop machine and you'll be surprised what it can do.
I have played with Cinnamon and whilst it shows potential, it is still very much a work in progress. I'll keep an eye on it for the future. For now I'm quite happy to stick with LXDE!

[FiReSTaRT]

My guess is that they'll keep releasing some version for low-end hardware (although this might be simply a lighter LMDE Xfce, so I don't know). It will probably be released later in the cycle, though. @FiReSTaRT, there are many linux distros, and most of them have a small, dedicated community. I'll remind you that Mint (granted, a long time ago) used to be at this point. While I don't mind joking, that particular joke was a little bit insensitive, although you obviously didn't mean it literally so no real harm done.

There was one point I was trying to make with that joke, though: Mint was meant to be a distro that will be an easy to use desktop distro that'll appeal to a large userbase. Our goals may not coincide with the goals of other distros.

I wouldn't wanna run XFCE on truly lower-end hardware.. I found it to be a bit of a hog in comparison with LXDE. The community has put a bit too much bloat into it and with bloat come the extra bugs.

[jackmetal]

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2000
It is also interesting that Gnome Shell is left out, having virtually the same popularity than KDE. But I understand that Clem just wanted to probe the air and never committed to follow strictly the results. Anyways, I am glad that Gnome Shell is out . (In my own humble opinion) It's a crime against the basic rules of usability, user experience and ergonomics.

LOL - I respect all others opinions, that's part of the beauty of Linux; you can make it anything you want. but.....I have to say, that I find it a little strange to hear that Gnome-Shell is unusable, etc... I work for an extremely large global tech company and although probably 99.9% of the workforce uses Windows, I use Linux (although, with a VM for windows for any of the 'windows' specific tools needed). When my original LMDE build changed over to Gnome Shell it worried the heck out of me for a little bit, then I decided what the heck, I'll give it a shot...and within a day or so I had no problem at all getting my work done (and usually much easier and faster) and I no longer had one hand on my clonezilla image waiting to move back to Gnome 2. Now, After using it, configuring and adding 15-20 extensions, I find myself in the opposite camp. I've tried Cinnamin / Mate, etc, and just don't like it. Like I said though, if someone else likes it, that's great, use it; but it does baffle me that so many whined and cried about it and I'm betting the majority didn't really give it a chance and just followed along with the crowd. So now, I've tried installing the Cinnamin/Mate version moving it back to GDM from MDM, remove the mate and cinnamin junk and install gnome-shell but it feels like such a cobbled together piece of junk after that, that I blew it away and am now trying it with the XFCE version. It's beginning to look like my best option is going to be to install from my OLD LMDE install disk from last year. LOL

[bamm]

Now, After using it, configuring and adding 15-20 extensions, I find myself in the opposite camp.

Interesting that you needed to add 15-20 extensions to bring Gnome Shell to a state that you can love. Anyway, to each his own. I am glad you find Gnome Shell useful. Personally, out of the box I would rather use Unity than Gnome Shell.

[jackmetal]

Now, After using it, configuring and adding 15-20 extensions, I find myself in the opposite camp.

Interesting that you needed to add 15-20 extensions to bring Gnome Shell to a state that you can love.

LOL - I knew something like that would be coming from the other camp. Is that not what the extensions are for (so anyone can adjust it to their liking)?

Just another reason I've loved and used Linux for years..... The ability to do whatever we want with it to make it exactly what we want. Linux has definitely come a long way since I first started using it in the 90's with SLS and Slackware.

[eishai1]

Hi linuxMint'er,

i hope xfce will be a part of Mint 13!
I like xfce and the new version 4.10 ist the best.

Greatings

[madwoollything]

In my opinion, Cinnamon looks very promising but due to the extensive excellent work on MATE, MATE is the best option at present.

[bamm]

LOL - I knew something like that would be coming from the other camp. Is that not what the extensions are for (so anyone can adjust it to their liking)?

The purpose of extensions are to extend. As you said, it is for anyone to adjust it to their liking. But something is wrong if there exists an entire ecosystem of extensions whose purpose is not just to extend functionality but to make it usable. Good software should have good defaults.

Let's say you configure Gnome3 for a friend you are converting to Linux. What if he creates a new user? What if he recommends it to his friends? Do they need to have you to reconfigure it to make it usable?

When Mint attempted to include Gnome3 in Lisa, they had to create their own extensions. Zorin also created its own set of extensions. SolusOS is still in Squeeze but when they migrate to Wheezy Ikey has said that it will have a heavily modified Gnome3. These distros wanted people to have a good experience on first try.

Think Firefox. Firefox has a good extension system, but has good defaults too. That is the beauty of open source. Now let's say I release a browser that has no URL bar or no support for bookmarks, because I don't believe in them anymore. Then lots of third party coders scramble to create extensions that restore these functionality. It is a sign that my product is bad by design. To rely on third parties to provide important things is irresponsible, and it's the ugly side of open source when people say "you want it, you code it yourself!" because it gives an excuse to do things badly.

Gnome made a lot of bad decisions which they won't even admit. Did you add a panel, or a maximize/minimize button? You had to add 10-15 extensions because the Gnome team believes that those features should not be there. Fortunately, Mint is a distro that cares about giving people good defaults.

[AlbertP]

SolusOS is still in Squeeze but when they migrate to Wheezy Ikey has said that it will have a heavily modified Gnome3.

I don't think you're right here. I know the SolusOS devs like Mate but they haven't yet made a final decision on the desktop.

[bamm]

SolusOS is still in Squeeze but when they migrate to Wheezy Ikey has said that it will have a heavily modified Gnome3.

I don't think you're right here. I know the SolusOS devs like Mate but they haven't yet made a final decision on the desktop.

SolusOS uses Gnome2 not Mate. It is based on Debian Stable. Current stable still has Gnome 2. Solus will release a new version when Wheezy becomes stable. However, Ikey has said that they will not use vanilla Gnome3 but a modified one.