[sf-lug] Fwd: KDE, Gnome3 and Unity (yes, all Ubuntu)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Wladyslaw Zbikowski (embeddedlinuxguy at gmail.com):

[...]
> Now you might think, "Alternative desktops which appeal to hackers are
> fine, but I don't want to be left out of the mainstream of desktop
> developments and end up not being able to use kewl new features". The
> good news is, you don't need to use one of the Big Two, because all
> the window managers are tied to STANDARDS (X11, Portland/xdg-utils and
> the other freedesktop.org stuff). This means you can use Joe's Funky
> (But Conformant) Window Manager, and mix in components from other
> desktops (like Avant Window Navigator for a dock bar). I think this is
> the key: if you use Awesome, you don't have to only use components
> written for Awesome -- you can use mix 'n' match components from ANY
> X11 window manager. You don't need full KDE to use Nepomuk any more
> than you need a GNOME desktop to run Gimp.
> 
> So the bottom line is: Unity, GNOME, and KDE are not the pinnacle of
> the Linux desktop experience; they're a point of entry for new users,
> and an adequate default for people who don't want to spend their lives
> customizing their desktop. If you are really looking for thrills from
> your window manager, don't be afraid to immerse yourself in XMonad,
> XFCE, LXDE, Fluxbox, or whatever else appeals to your sense of fun.

Extremely well said.

I've been trying to remind people of the option of starting with your
choice of window manager and enabling _only what you actually want_ on
an a la carte basis, instead of taking some entire kitchen sink just
because it came with a distro's default 'desktop environment'.  

The first key, and really instructive (but reversible) step is to try
disabling the X session manager and reboot.  On *buntu/Debian systems,
this is as simple as mv'ing the /etc/alternatives/x-session-manager
symlink to somewhere for safekeeping.  (You can always put it back.)

Having done that, try 'sudo update-alternatives --config x-window-manager'
and try out different window managers.  If you don't have choices listed
there, install a few and compare them, e.g., mmaker, icewm, fluxbox,
etc.  (Again, the update-alternatives command can be used to revert
changes, if desired.)