<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Ronald,<br><br>One feature of Linux is that it can be configured in an unlimited number of ways which is both a source of confusion for people first encountering choices in how their computer works and a topic of conversation for more experienced Linux users. Some people like lots of graphic features; some people like lean and mean. <br><br>If you look at the <a href="http://lists.svlug.org/archives/svlug/2013-March/thread.html#start">http://lists.svlug.org/archives/svlug/2013-March/thread.html#start</a> you will find a long thread titled, "What Desktop Environment do you prefer?" <br><br>My suggestion is to start with a test drive of a few live CD's from Rick's collection.<br><br>The "right answer" is "what works for you."<br><br>Paul<br><br>--- On <b>Mon, 4/15/13, Rick Moen <i><rick@linuxmafia.com></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote
style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><br>From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com><br>Subject: [conspire] (forw) Re: InstallFest on Apr. 13th<br>To: conspire@linuxmafia.com<br>Date: Monday, April 15, 2013, 12:41 AM<br><br><div class="plainMail">----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <<a ymailto="mailto:rick@linuxmafia.com" href="/mc/compose?to=rick@linuxmafia.com">rick@linuxmafia.com</a>> -----<br><br>Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:41:28 -0700<br>From: Rick Moen <<a ymailto="mailto:rick@linuxmafia.com" href="/mc/compose?to=rick@linuxmafia.com">rick@linuxmafia.com</a>><br>To: Ronald Schild <<a ymailto="mailto:rschild@gmail.com" href="/mc/compose?to=rschild@gmail.com">rschild@gmail.com</a>><br>Cc: <a ymailto="mailto:installers@linuxmafia.com" href="/mc/compose?to=installers@linuxmafia.com">installers@linuxmafia.com</a><br>Subject: Re: InstallFest on Apr. 13th<br>Reply-To: <a
ymailto="mailto:installers@linuxmafia.com" href="/mc/compose?to=installers@linuxmafia.com">installers@linuxmafia.com</a><br>Organization: If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.<br><br>Quoting Ronald Schild (<a ymailto="mailto:rschild@gmail.com" href="/mc/compose?to=rschild@gmail.com">rschild@gmail.com</a>):<br><br>> I am unable to make it today to Menlo Park. I am so sorry for not<br>> being able to attend today. From your initial response, you are very<br>> helpful.<br><br>Ah, well, you're always welcome. We had a pleasant group, and I made a<br>from-scratch pizza featuring some early pickings from my vegetable<br>garden.<br><br>> I still would like to install a Linux O.S. on the netbook here. I<br>> started looking into Mint, and it looks like what I need and want.<br><br>Yes, I get the impression you'd like it. If sticking with GNOME, you<br>will want to decide whether to try first the MATE or Cinnamon
desktop<br>variants. (They also provide supported KDE4 and XFCE desktop<br>environments. Each of the four is a separate DVD for i386 and a<br>separate DVD for x86_64. CABAL burns each one to media for the<br>convenience of visitors -- and also a large variety of other distros:<br><a href="http://linuxmafia.com/cabal/installfest/#distros" target="_blank">http://linuxmafia.com/cabal/installfest/#distros</a> )<br><br>> P.S. - What is your take on KDE? I have used a SuSE version with KDE<br>> and rather warmed up to it. Please let me know when convenient.<br><br>I haven't really played around much with KDE since KDE3 days, so my<br>experience is out of date. Both GNOME3 and KDE4 have become very<br>heavy-weight desktop environments, which is to say that they run a large<br>number of service processes and are heavy drains on CPU and RAM. FWIW,<br>many people really love KDE, though there are vocal users who resented<br>the
changes introduced in the change from KDE3 to KDE4, and who truly<br>detest KDE4.<br><br>My _personal_ preference is to use no Desktop Environment whatsoever,<br>and just a nice clean window manager with no DE.<br>(The 'tl;dr' version is: DEs appear to mostly appeal to people who like<br>drag and drop file handling. Since I don't, I would rather eschew DEs.)<br><br>More about that (recommended, if I may be so bold):<br><a href="http://lists.svlug.org/archives/svlug/2013-March/057971.html" target="_blank">http://lists.svlug.org/archives/svlug/2013-March/057971.html</a><br>Note in particular the recommendation to visit Matt Chapman's <br>site comparing DEs and various window managers:<br><a href="http://xwinman.org/" target="_blank">http://xwinman.org/</a><br><br><br>----- End forwarded message -----<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>conspire mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:conspire@linuxmafia.com"
href="/mc/compose?to=conspire@linuxmafia.com">conspire@linuxmafia.com</a><br><a href="http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/conspire" target="_blank">http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/conspire</a><br></div></blockquote></td></tr></table>