
Poll: Desktop environments
Forum rules
Section reserved for the team. You can reply to announcements here but not post new topics.Please do not add support questions to threads here,use the appropriate support forum instead
Section reserved for the team. You can reply to announcements here but not post new topics.Please do not add support questions to threads here,use the appropriate support forum instead
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
Before upgrading to Mint 13, I tried all of the Mint 12 DEs on my desktop and laptop. In the end, I preferred Cinnamon on the desktop and LXDE on the laptop. When Clem and his team released Mint 13, I stuck with Cinnamon on the desktop and switched to Xfce on the laptop. The more I played with Xfce, the more I liked it. In fact, I liked it so much that I also switched to Xfce on the desktop. In both cases, it's fast, responsive, and stable with no problems at all. 

System 76 Pangolin: 4x Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3230M CPU @ 2.60GHz, Manjaro 15.12 Capella Xfce/Cinnamon 64-bit
iMac 21.5: Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz, Mac OS 10.11
[iWhat? Me worry?[/i]
iMac 21.5: Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz, Mac OS 10.11
[iWhat? Me worry?[/i]
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
MATE forever!
When I was a Ubuntu user, I put in a lot of time to learn Gnome2's ins and outs so that I could customize my desktop to perfection. Now that Gnome2 is gone, customizing any DE other than MATE to my satisfaction would take up so much time that it would put a serious strain on my marriage
Except for having to learn some new names for the forked applications (gedit -> pluma, nautilus -> caja, gnome-terminal -> mate-terminal, eye of gnome -> eye of mate, etc.), I can't tell the difference between MATE and Gnome2. There are no stability or speed issues on any of the laptops I have LM13-MATE 64-bit installed on (Dell XPS15, Thinkpad T520, and Sony Vaio so far--I'm working on converting some other relatives to LM13-MATE to make my life easier, so this list will hopefully grow soon).
MATE is the reason I came to Linux Mint. MATE saves me time and keeps the wife happy. MATE allowed me to recreate the look and functionality of my perfect Gnome2 desktop with ease. I'm the IT guy in my family and circle of friends and, as long as Linux Mint supports MATE, Linux Mint will remain our one and only distro.
When I was a Ubuntu user, I put in a lot of time to learn Gnome2's ins and outs so that I could customize my desktop to perfection. Now that Gnome2 is gone, customizing any DE other than MATE to my satisfaction would take up so much time that it would put a serious strain on my marriage

MATE is the reason I came to Linux Mint. MATE saves me time and keeps the wife happy. MATE allowed me to recreate the look and functionality of my perfect Gnome2 desktop with ease. I'm the IT guy in my family and circle of friends and, as long as Linux Mint supports MATE, Linux Mint will remain our one and only distro.
Last edited by bdantas on Fri Sep 07, 2012 5:54 pm, edited 25 times in total.
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
Xfce here, too. Pretty much did the same thing as Mike (mingle), with the same outcome.
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
Tried many other desktops but for me KDE is the best. I want to be able to configure DE to adjust to my needs and not the other way around. Gets me frustrated when interfaces have irritating elements that I cannot change. I also love the way KDE looks and how much it has features. Haven't got stability or performance issues with it.
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
I installed 13 cinnamon on 1 desktop & my laptop. I put the old hard drive w/ 12 back in the laptop. Cinnamon seems to be sluggish on it.
I'd reinstall 12 on this desktop, but I really don't feel like messing with it.
I guess as much as I hate to, I'll have to switch to xfce, never could get used to kde.
I'd reinstall 12 on this desktop, but I really don't feel like messing with it.
I guess as much as I hate to, I'll have to switch to xfce, never could get used to kde.
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
I'm conflicted between Cinnamon and Mate. I like both, but Mate is dramatically speedier on my relatively low power hardware, and there are much more themes available, as well as it being more mature and customizable. But Cinnamon is more stable and has the features I'm looking for. After trying both for a while, I'm back to Cinnamon. Really do like it, and the development is moving along at a swift pace.
Last edited by d00med on Sun Sep 16, 2012 10:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- SkunkApeMan
- Level 1
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:37 am
- Location: Miami, Florida
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
I'm using Mint 13 with Mate. I come from Gnome2 and jumped to Mint because Unity is a joke.
I am extremely thankful to all the folks involved in the developement of Mate, and for how easy they made it to configure it almost exactly like my Ubuntu 10.04/Gnome2 setup!
Here's my config:
Moomex theme with Breathe icon set
Thunar File Manager (I like the icons better than the ones in Caja - other than the icons Caja is great)
Added a top panel with the Menu Bar that has Applications-Places-System just like Gnome2
Please keep up the good work with Mate! Mint13/Mate is the best out there!
- SkunkApeMan
I am extremely thankful to all the folks involved in the developement of Mate, and for how easy they made it to configure it almost exactly like my Ubuntu 10.04/Gnome2 setup!
Here's my config:
Moomex theme with Breathe icon set
Thunar File Manager (I like the icons better than the ones in Caja - other than the icons Caja is great)
Added a top panel with the Menu Bar that has Applications-Places-System just like Gnome2
Please keep up the good work with Mate! Mint13/Mate is the best out there!
- SkunkApeMan
- SkunkApeMan
- SkunkApeMan
- Level 1
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:37 am
- Location: Miami, Florida
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
dagrump wrote:I installed 13 cinnamon on 1 desktop & my laptop. I put the old hard drive w/ 12 back in the laptop. Cinnamon seems to be sluggish on it.
I'd reinstall 12 on this desktop, but I really don't feel like messing with it.
I guess as much as I hate to, I'll have to switch to xfce, never could get used to kde.
Did you give Mate a proper chance? It's a lot more configurable than XFCE and not as sluggish as Cinnamon.

- SkunkApeMan
-
- Level 3
- Posts: 106
- Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 2:46 pm
- Location: the 919
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
I am probably the only one silly enough to install the XFCE version and then install JWM. 

--Ben
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
this sounds interesting, I'll have to try it as a poor man's lxde version
.
though, lately lxde has had a system monitor plugin as in gnome 2/Mate, and I guess JWM does not support a feature such as a volume icon.
I've downloaded lxpanel's source, but didn't build it yet, there are annoying dependencies to meet first.
/edit: I had Jwm installed already, just tried it but the session gave me an empry black screen with a white mouse cursor. this is on mate edition. I use lxde to save on memory.

though, lately lxde has had a system monitor plugin as in gnome 2/Mate, and I guess JWM does not support a feature such as a volume icon.
I've downloaded lxpanel's source, but didn't build it yet, there are annoying dependencies to meet first.
/edit: I had Jwm installed already, just tried it but the session gave me an empry black screen with a white mouse cursor. this is on mate edition. I use lxde to save on memory.
-
- Level 3
- Posts: 106
- Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 2:46 pm
- Location: the 919
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
I usually install volumeicon and have it as a StartupCommand in my .jwmrc. It swallows automatically. xfce4-power-manager works the same way.baptiste wrote:this sounds interesting, I'll have to try it as a poor man's lxde version.
though, lately lxde has had a system monitor plugin as in gnome 2/Mate, and I guess JWM does not support a feature such as a volume icon.
I've downloaded lxpanel's source, but didn't build it yet, there are annoying dependencies to meet first.
/edit: I had Jwm installed already, just tried it but the session gave me an empry black screen with a white mouse cursor. this is on mate edition. I use lxde to save on memory.
--Ben
-
- Level 3
- Posts: 106
- Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 2:46 pm
- Location: the 919
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
In fact, if you want to see the .jwmrc file, I can throw it up somewhere.
--Ben
-
- Level 1
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2012 11:31 pm
- Location: Georgia, USA
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
Cool to see the poll supports some of my suspicions. I currently use Cinnamon for a "daily driver", but I'm on a laptop so I have XFCE installed for when I'm running on battery. I'm also playing with a few others to run battery tests and just get a feel for other options. After all, what is the point of Linux if you're just going to take everything as it comes out of the box, right? 

Keep your desktop smooth, clean, and sexy.
Asus N53SVxv1 - Linux Mint 15 - Cinnamon - Kernel (playing)
Asus N53SVxv1 - Linux Mint 15 - Cinnamon - Kernel (playing)
Re: Poll: Desktop environments




-
- Level 1
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 2:29 am
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
Unfortunately - the Linux world isn't doing enough work on the lightweights. My very favorite DE is Enlightenment, but it's been stuck at E17 for a long time. LXDE is nice, but it really needs some polishing. I don't understand the need to have a desktop environment that uses 1/4 of the memory on a 4 gig system, and loads a ton of widgets, applets, etc at startup. This is all to much Windows-like for my taste.
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
I agree. I was always a fan of Enlightenment and wish they had more development. As I understand it, Enlightenment acts as both a DE and a windows manager and other DE's sometimes use it as a window manager. It only makes sense, if it can do both jobs successfully to use all of it's capabilities; why layer a whole other set of programs and their inherent dependencies on top of it?Runaway1956 wrote:Unfortunately - the Linux world isn't doing enough work on the lightweights. My very favorite DE is Enlightenment, but it's been stuck at E17 for a long time. LXDE is nice, but it really needs some polishing. I don't understand the need to have a desktop environment that uses 1/4 of the memory on a 4 gig system, and loads a ton of widgets, applets, etc at startup. This is all to much Windows-like for my taste.
I was never a fan of LXDE or XFCE but recently installed Ubuntu Studio. I've used it previously and it was always buggy and slow. They changed from Gnome to XFCE and I can't believe how quick it is! They made the desktop look somewhat gnome-like and is organized quite well. In fact, they kept familiar applications like gedit and Nautilus. I can run multiple memory intensive applications simultaneously, that I never could before on just a half gig of memory and they are quick and smooth. Try a live CD!
Mint 17.3 with Cinnamon on a Dell D620 laptop.
You are free the instant you want to be!
You are free the instant you want to be!
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
Yeah! Cinnamon goes well with a bagel or mint!Acebull wrote:I think Cinnamon is the ducksnuts its great keep up the great work with Mint
![]()
![]()


Mint 17.3 with Cinnamon on a Dell D620 laptop.
You are free the instant you want to be!
You are free the instant you want to be!
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
There must be some problem with your system if you are seeing your DE using a gig of ram.Runaway1956 wrote:Unfortunately - the Linux world isn't doing enough work on the lightweights. My very favorite DE is Enlightenment, but it's been stuck at E17 for a long time. LXDE is nice, but it really needs some polishing. I don't understand the need to have a desktop environment that uses 1/4 of the memory on a 4 gig system, and loads a ton of widgets, applets, etc at startup. This is all to much Windows-like for my taste.
I just looked at my system monitor and Cinnamon is consuming 94MB of ram on my system, right now and this amount is typical. The highest I have seen it was about 135MB but that was Cinnamon 1.3. Ram use has gone down in newer versions.
i7 3770, 12GB of ram, 256GB SSD, 64GB SSD, 750GB HDD, 1TB HDD, Cinnamon.
-
- Level 5
- Posts: 531
- Joined: Fri May 25, 2012 2:43 pm
- Location: Somewhere on planet Earth (mostly)
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
I'll throw this in for a comparison. I'm on Mint 13 KDE 64 bit now. Total mem use now is 965 Mb. I did run Cinnamon 32 bit and it used 200-300 Mb less total, but that was on my old rig also with only 1 Gb ram and Cinnamon commonly used 150-170 Mb. Now on KDE I see processes for Plasma desktop- 85 Mb, Kwin 40 Mb, and xorg 40 Mb, all rounded up numbers. Not much difference in total unless I'm missing something. I thought 64 bit used more anyway. I much prefer KDE over Cinnamon.
i5 3570k, ASRock z77 Extreme 4, 8 Gb Ripjaws 1600, Antec 430w psu, HVR 1600 tv tuner, custom case- marble top, oak face. Carver & DCM Time Window sound system. Mint 14 KDE.
Re: Poll: Desktop environments
Cinnamon RAM usage has decreased even more in 1.6 compared to the default 1.4 version of Mint 13. If you are worried about your RAM usage please upgrade: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2177.
Registered Linux User #528502

Feel free to correct me if I'm trying to write in Spanish, French or German.

Feel free to correct me if I'm trying to write in Spanish, French or German.