Other Desktop Environments?

Questions about other topics and general discussion about LMDE
Forum rules
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
User avatar
richieurbano
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2022 11:57 am
Location: Mars
Contact:

Other Desktop Environments?

Post by richieurbano »

Hello LMDE friends, i love Debian, and love Linux Mint even more.

For me LMDE is the future, the idea and creation are amazing, but, i personally wants others flavors.

Im not into GTK, im into QT.

LMDE with KDE is my dream!
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
SOCIAL PLATFORMS:
🐦 Twitter: urbano_richie
👫 Facebook: fb.com/richieurbano95
📽️ Twitch: richieurbano95
🗨️ Discord: https://discord.gg/ndNuKtQRnE
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/31r56pfpe ... vvjczklkw4
User avatar
spamegg
Level 13
Level 13
Posts: 4861
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2019 2:34 am
Contact:

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by spamegg »

Take a look at this, why Mint dropped KDE: https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3418
So you would have to figure out how to put KDE onto LMDE (if it's possible at all)! Maybe write a tutorial on how to install it?
User avatar
richieurbano
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2022 11:57 am
Location: Mars
Contact:

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by richieurbano »

Yep, i installed KDE, is in the Screenshot section!

Well, in my opinion, QT is better than GTK, for me is KDE is the best Desktop Environment by far, and also LxQT.
I more like an Feedback, i love Linux Mint Community, but, i miss some features.

In 2012 i used Linux Mint LXDE, was the last one.
SOCIAL PLATFORMS:
🐦 Twitter: urbano_richie
👫 Facebook: fb.com/richieurbano95
📽️ Twitch: richieurbano95
🗨️ Discord: https://discord.gg/ndNuKtQRnE
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/31r56pfpe ... vvjczklkw4
User avatar
spamegg
Level 13
Level 13
Posts: 4861
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2019 2:34 am
Contact:

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by spamegg »

Congrats, however I don't think Mint will officially support KDE any more in the future. The only other thing I can think of is: finding other users like yourself and creating/maintaining a "LMDE community KDE Edition" or something like that. For example, Manjaro (another Linux distro, Arch-based) officially has XFCE, KDE and Gnome versions, but they have a "community-supported" Cinnamon version. Although that would be quite a lot of work.
MattJ86
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 194
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2021 2:44 pm

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by MattJ86 »

But why do you think Qt is better than GTK?
ne0h

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by ne0h »

I love LMDE, it's a great distro. adding a new edition (desktop environment) to maintain is quite expensive.
I am super happy that the Mint team has time to think about LMDE as well. Well he's only with one ED, so they only have one thing to think about.
And anyway if you want, you can safely install kde in lmde ...
br1anstorm
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 603
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2014 8:53 am

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by br1anstorm »

This discussion has - probably not for the first time - highlighted the constant challenge of meeting the hopes or requests of a very diverse user-community while ensuring that development (and the resources needed to do so) are focused and prioritised most efficiently.

The Mint team do an utterly amazing job in devising and maintaining the main Mint systems. Already and for many years, they have successfully delivered a slick, user-friendly, reliable OS. And - let's not forget - they provide Mint's own Cinnamon desktop environment, and also offer XFCE and MATE versions.

On top of that, they continue to develop and offer LMDE, both as an alternative option and also as a fail-safe 'insurance' which is not reliant on Ubuntu.

But we have to be realistic. That is already a portfolio of options within which almost all users ought to find a flavour which they like. To try to expand the range yet further - such as LMDE with KDE - risks spreading efforts and resources more widely and thus more thinly, as well as adding to the complexity of ensuring compatibility and fixing bugs. Better to ensure that the main, core distro options work flawlessly than to try to expand the range and have some of them work less well.

So I fully understand the reason (explained in the blog linked by spamegg) for dropping KDE. Personally I'm a long-time user of Mint XFCE, now recently moved over to LMDE. I like and admire both, and would rather see them remain rock-solid than find the Mint team turn their attention to other, additional variations and DEs.
MattJ86
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 194
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2021 2:44 pm

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by MattJ86 »

@br1anstorm

People just think that it's all a wish concert and they want any single distro to have all the DE/WM editions they want to use. They don't understand that teams developing these distros aren't backed by billions of dollars like Windows to have time and resources for every single user's whims. M$ has billions of $ and huge corporate environment and they don't care that their OS is making millions of PC obsolete, they don't provide any lightweight option for them.

Having like 12 DEs is also providing support for all of the users using them. Imagine so many people with different editions whining on the forums, because some dumb icons disappeared, panel is freaking out, wallpaper shows an indie p*rn slideshow :lol: or whatever else...

Why we have Mate and Xfce as lightweight options? Because they are well matured, they have tons of themes are proven to work fine. Also they don't look too outdated and can use the same theming as Cinnamon. I used GNOME 2 since 2010 and now I use Mate. Some people prefer Xfce which is also great with all the apps made for it.
User avatar
Joss
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 196
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 7:38 am
Location: 19th Century Europe

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by Joss »

richieurbano wrote: Sat Jan 08, 2022 12:04 pm LMDE with KDE is my dream!
Something very similar is MX-Linux KDE.
acerimusdux
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 635
Joined: Sat Dec 26, 2009 3:36 pm

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by acerimusdux »

I understand there are reasons some developers might prefer one or the other toolkit. Qt is apparently better for cross platform development, for those who want to write applications that will also work on Windows or on a Mac. While Gtk will integrate better with most Linux desktops, and most popular open source software like Libre Office, Gimp, or Firefox. Qt may be preferred by C++ programmers, and Gtk by C programmers. And while there are no longer significant licensing issues with Qt, it's development is still controlled by a for profit publicly traded company, while Gtk development is controlled by the non-profit Gnome foundation.

From an end user perspective though, I haven't been able to see any advantage at all to Qt apps over Gtk apps. I guess some might prefer one or the other for look and feel, but both have some decent theming choices to offer options there.

And, for desktop environments specifically, I'm not sure there's any big advantage for developers, either. Nobody is running alternative DEs on windows or mac systems, for example. So support for those platforms ends up being irrelevant. Whereas for a commercial application developer, that might be the deciding factor in which to use.

The main thing though is, while the official Mint releases are all more Gtk based, there's nothing that prevents installing any DE or any app, no matter what the toolkit. For anything that's available in the repositories, they mostly work fine together. To me, the whole "integration" think is over-rated anyway. I sometimes like when different apps have their own look. You *can* however run into conflicts installing the larger environments, like KDE and Gnome, alongside one another, or alongside Cinnamon or MATE. So this is *not* recommended. But I find you can normally install any number of the lighter desktops like Xfce, LXDE, LXQt, and of course lighter window manager only things like fluxbox, if you want to explore them. I've found that Cinnamon has a minor conflict, in that it handles desktop icons a bit differently than most others, but disabling icons on the desktop is a simple solution, and it otherwise works fine alongside any of these.

To me this is one of the nice things about Linux, is having all these options. And actually, this was one thing I didn't like about KDE: it required too many of it's own application choices for everything to be installed. Many of which wouldn't be my first choice. I prefer a more modular approach.
MattJ86
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 194
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2021 2:44 pm

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by MattJ86 »

I'm using a few Qt apps in Mint Mate like: k3B, Albert and VLC. With proper Qt5 Settings Manager (preinstalled in Mint) settings they integrate very well into Mate's GTK theming. Most of Linux distros prefer GTK-based DE's for a reason. There are tons of stuff made for GTK already and I really don't see any advantage of using Qt over GTK. Be realistic.
Murdock2525
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 23, 2020 12:14 pm

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by Murdock2525 »

Hmmmm ?
If I had time I might spin a Mintbang!++ Openbox :shock:
User avatar
sdibaja
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 900
Joined: Sun May 08, 2011 12:57 pm
Location: Baja California, Mexico

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by sdibaja »

As always, there are many methods, some are rock solid.

Personally I install Debian Stable, with the netinstall ISO. During the install I deselect the other desktop environments, and only choose Mate.

After the system is up and running, I add those Linux Mint gizmos that are not already in the Debian distro.
Everything works exactly as I prefer.

Best of luck mixing desktop environments, some are Not compatible and chit doesn't work.
BTW: removing a DE completely is really difficult...

PS: the "mate extras" meta package is great (search in Symantec, I forget the exact package name)
Peter
Mate desktop https://wiki.debian.org/MATE
Debian GNU/Linux operating system: https://www.debian.org/download
User avatar
Artim
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:10 pm

Re: Other Desktop Environments?

Post by Artim »

I would absolutely LOVE a "MintBang" mixture! I tried to suggest it in the Mint Community but I'm too new there to create a new idea (?) and it's not an official "idea" there. Currently use Xfce and really enjoy it, but a MintBang would be blazing with mind-bending speed even on this more modest hardware!
User avatar
900i
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1142
Joined: Sat Nov 18, 2006 9:30 am
Location: Wakefield, UK

Re: Other Desktop Enviroments?

Post by 900i »

Murdock2525 wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:48 am Hmmmm ?
If I had time I might spin a Mintbang!++ Openbox :shock:
+1
Desktop Core i7 Linux Mint 21.1 / Laptop Dell Precision M6400 Linux Mint 21.1
User avatar
900i
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1142
Joined: Sat Nov 18, 2006 9:30 am
Location: Wakefield, UK

Re: Other Desktop Environments?

Post by 900i »

Artim wrote: Sat Dec 24, 2022 2:23 pm I would absolutely LOVE a "MintBang" mixture! I tried to suggest it in the Mint Community but I'm too new there to create a new idea (?) and it's not an official "idea" there. Currently use Xfce and really enjoy it, but a MintBang would be blazing with mind-bending speed even on this more modest hardware!
Me too.
Desktop Core i7 Linux Mint 21.1 / Laptop Dell Precision M6400 Linux Mint 21.1
User avatar
Joss
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 196
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 7:38 am
Location: 19th Century Europe

Re: Other Desktop Environments?

Post by Joss »

What's a MintBang?
User avatar
karlchen
Level 23
Level 23
Posts: 18177
Joined: Sat Dec 31, 2011 7:21 am
Location: Germany

Re: Other Desktop Environments?

Post by karlchen »

Joss wrote: Sun Dec 25, 2022 4:26 pmWhat's a MintBang?
Some thoughts on what it might be over there: MintBang #!
Image
The people of Alderaan have been bravely fighting back the clone warriors sent out by the unscrupulous Sith Lord Palpatine for 762 days now.
Lifeline
Locked

Return to “Other Topics & Open Discussion”