Beginners Guide Setting Up Mint LXDE

[k7aay]

LXDE stands for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment. It is by design a lightweight, no frills, computer-friendly, user-friendly general desktop control system for a variety of operating system. It is basic, and rather primitive by comparison to the slick and bigger desktops. But don't be fooled by the lightweight characterization. LXDE can do everything the bigger distributions do. It is mostly a matter of personal preference. Do you want to spend time removing bloat from a heavy distribution, or add just what you want to a lightweight one? You want plasmoids, fancy multi-dimensional drop-down menus, rotating cubes, etc, just add them. Do you want your computer to be a tool or a toy? Although I sometimes treat it as a toy, I really want it, first and formost,

foremost

to be a tool. I want it to conveniently and quickly launch and shutdown the maximum possible number of applications (softwares

software

) possible, and to flawlessly run these applications. The role of the desktop and its associated companions, the file browser and windows manager, is to supply the tools that do the launching and shutting down. This is where LXDE delivers. It is simple to adjust, offers a broad range of operations and performs quickly. You click on something and BAM there it is, no waiting. LXDE is the stabilist

most stable

of the Linux desktops in my experience. Things that work today will work the same way tomorrow. Finally, don't be fooled by the "conventional propoganda

propoaganda

" ("bull shit") that the LXDE desktop is only for old computers with lack-luster hardware. I put it on all my computers, some of which have 8 GB of memory and none of which has a CPU under 2 GHz, because it is the best desktop tool available. Most new computers over the past few years come with dual or more CPU's

CPUs

and 3 GBs or more Ram

RAM

, which means they perform for some tasks better with a 64-bit (Amd64) operating system, instead of a 32-bit (i386 or i686) one. On such systems LXDE is even faster. Lubuntu offers an excellent ready-made 64-bit LXDE system, and the 64-bit Linux Mint with the Gnome 3 desktop can be easily reloaded with the LXDE desktop. See the abbreviated version (LXDE Quick Set-up Guide) of this Guide for installation guidelines, including a list of items that I removed without remorse from the Mint 12 64-bit Gnome 3 system adapted to LXDE.

[seppalta]

I'm a mathematician, nothing logical about English spelling. I'll take your word on these except for "propoaganda". O,BTW, thanks.

[antikythera]

Do you want your computer to be a tool or a toy?

I called a computer a tool with voice recognition turned on once. It brought up a picture of Jeremy Clarkson followed by fatal exception error

LXDE is minimalist and appeals to me because of that. Maybe I am old school but I like things to just happen without everything being an animated celebration of a mundane task like switching desktop or application. I just think "Oh FFS get on with it" when I use machines with all the GUI bells and whistles enabled. I tried installing Docky at one point because I thought the panel might be handy for shortcuts. It lasted a month before I got rid and resorted back to trusty LXDE taskbar icons and widgets.

Agreed, it is an excellent guide.

Did you know Huskies are one of the smartest breeds of dogs in the world? I think I read on Wikipedia that if you repeat a command between 10-15 times, Huskies will learn to follow it! (compared to I think hundred+ for small dogs like chihuahuas and such)

10-15 times is better than some humans I know. Think I would prefer to work with Huskies lol.

[seppalta]

I have revised the contents of my website, and the address has changed to http://lxlinux.com .

[ChiJoan]

Hello,

Sorry, I just found your guide, but I think I added LXDE to the latest LinuxMint 14 RC, and then updated it to final. I tried Mate briefly, but the colors are too hard on my eyes, and I prefer LXDE menus to Mint Menu. However, I had to hunt around to get any 1 or 2 Rated Updates to show up. I took some screenshots if they will help to further the LXDE spin-off movement.

I'll now switch back to my other hard drive running Zorin 6.1 LXDE, I miss my Google search engine. Thanks to Clem, I knew to try the 32-bit install of Zorin after the last Zorin 64-bit updates failed.

Joan in Reno

[seppalta]

I have updated http://lxlinux.com/openbox.html with some nice scripts for Weather, Recent Files, Deirectories, Devices and Conky. All of these have been copied from the new Sparky Linux distribution. They should work in any Openbox Window Manager, 3.50 or later.

[seppalta]

Wbar is a simple and highly customizable quick-launch dock that adds a little dimension and color to an LXDE or Openbox desktop without adding much additional weight or being gaudy. I have recently added a Wbar section to http://lxlinux.com showing some pictures and a recipe for setting up Wbar on an LXDE desktop.