Jorge Morais wrote:
On Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:56:20 -0700 Mark Knecht <markkne...@gmail.com>
wrote:
While not a KDE user I echo your thoughts. I'm personally a bit
worried about Gentoo overlords sort of pushing this hald thing with
reasons like 'Gnome's automounting depends on it'.
Where have you got that from? I have not heard of that. I don't use
hal either, and I have -hal in /etc/make.conf
I started in Linux about 12 years ago and the best environment for
my needs at that time (audio recording, 32 channels of live audio,
real-time kernels, Ardour, etc.) was fluxbox. Low overhead. Easily
customizable. Every time I get fed up with Gnome I go back to
fluxbox. Takes a few minutes to build, not hours like Gnome or days
like KDE. Not a great environment for my wife and kids, so they
get Gnome.
I have used Xfce at version 4.4.2 (or 4.4.3, I don't remember) and I
think it has a lot of user-friendliness. And it is even similar to
GNOME, so GNOME users will feel at home. I think Xubuntu is a good
example of a well put together Xfce desktop. I don't agree with every
Xubuntu choice for default apps, but it is a great start if you want
to build a user-friendly, lightweight, customizable desktop with
Xfce plus the right applications. So if you like simplicity and
lightweight, but think your wife won't like fluxbox, give Xfce a try.
Maybe even fluxbox could be configured and combined with the right
applications to be easy to use, but starting with Xfce would probably
be much easier (I say "probably" because I have never performed
either of these tasks). On the other hand, maybe you should continue
giving GNOME to your wife simply because GNOME is much more common
than Xfce and, by knowing GNOME, she is more likely to know how to
use another GNU/Linux computer, and if she needs technical support
from, say, the ISP, the technicians are more likely to know GNOME and
Xfce.
For the record, I have moved from Xfce to LXDE because I am a speed
freak and also a simplicity freak. More on simplicity below.
I hope the future of Linux desktops doesn't look anything like
Windows. Sometimes it seems to me we're moving too far that
direction too fast.
I get that feeling too. When I use Ubuntu and something fails,
sometimes I feel it is hard to diagnose and fix the problem. Maybe
this is the cost of things being "automagic": when it works, great,
but when it doesn't work, you've got to be a wizard to fix it.
Car analogy: A person with mediocre knowledge of car mechanics can
understand how a classical car works, and doesn't complain that the
transmission is manual. He can even fix simple problems. A person
with good knowledge of car mechanics can even fix more serious
problems, because the car is simple, and many of its parts can be
serviced by an interested man.
But a modern car... With all of its automatic transmission and
everything, one does not even need mediocre knowledge to drive it;
but to understand how it works is hard. To fix simple problems is
harder. To fix serious problems, one needs complex tools and specific
knowledge that is almost beyond the reach of the common man.
So I think that "automagic" things often tend to be harder to
understand and much harder to fix.
But so far, Ubuntu is actually *more* "automagic" than Windows but
more open, easier to understand and easier to fix (Windows is a badly
documented black box).
And a Gentoo desktop is easier to understand and fix than Ubuntu.
Specially if the user selected simple software such as Xfce or, even
simpler, LXDE. Of course, you can theorize that at least part of this
impression of mine is caused by me being used to my simple no-hal
no-nothing LXDE Gentoo desktop and me being unfamiliar with Ubuntu.
Regards, Jorge
Heh..... Your overall "attitude", as suggested by the above, rang a
sympathetic sound with me.
So, I figured that even though LXDE couldn't be faster than my beloved
fluxbox, I'd at least give it a try.
WOW!
It (seems) *significantly* faster than flux both in initial loading, and
in the operation of windowed applications. Certain window activity (e.g.
lightning "alarms" on TBird) now display as intended (something that I
couldn't get working in FB). Only downside ...may... be the
documentation; but everything is pretty intuitive so far. It stays.
Ditto everything you said.
Thanks!!!
