Desktop Environments

[Terry]

...Unity vs Gnome vs Xfce vs Mate (Mate is a new one)...
The Ubuntu community is in a tailspin over Desktop Environments. Here is an article w/comments about the Unity vs Gnome controversy and it discusses alternatives. One alternative in particular is Mate, which is really just a Gnome2 continuation for the last couple of Ubuntu releases. The comments are as interesting as the article so don't skip that part. Aside from the assumption that the whole world uses Ubuntu or one of it's derivatives, the article is fairly interesting / informative and explains that the reason for Unity is to support the explosion of touch screen tablets on the market these days, or at least, that's what it appears to imply.
http://www.thevarguy.com/2011/11/23/cou ... interface/

As for me, I don't have a touch screen tablet and I'm an xfce user [now-days]. I find xfce simple, easy to use and easy to customize.
See: http://www.xfce.org/

I've yet to try out jwm. How about you?
See: http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/ and screenshot: http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/screenshots/jwm-2.1.png
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[stack]

I have tinkered with JWM before, but not in a while. That screenshot looks a lot better then it did when I used it.

I have switched to a customized version of EvilWM for all my apps that need to be lightweight. I also really like that because it is so keyboard driven. http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/

I have run XFCE for many years on my "lightweight" systems but I have slowly converted those to the EvilWM mentioned above for simplicity, customization, and for being keyboard driven.

Gnome3 really irked me and Unity straight pissed me off. I can see the appeal for a touchscreen device (and it works well there) but as a desktop device it is terrible.

I have not messed with Mate, but I do wonder how long it will end up sticking around before fizzing out. I just don't see it having a lot of staying power.

I installed Enlightenment and it is fun to tinker with but I am not sure I could run it full time as my desktop.

I am a Gnome2 guy. I have been for years. I have run Gnome since the 90s and I always liked it till version 3. The last time I seriously tried to use KDE was 2002-2003 ish and that was a disaster. I have toyed with it every once in a while but I have always brushed it off since then. My mistake. KDE4 is much faster then Gnome3 on my system and it is really polished. I used to hate the layout and custimization KDE required to work well but now it is very simple to use and the configurations are layed out very nicely. There are a few personal adjustments I have to make, but over all I am pleased with KDE4.

So for the time being, I am using KDE4 on my laptop and I am enjoying it. I am still running Gnome2 on my desktop, but with the impending doom of Gnome3 soon to be forced upon me I will probably migrate it to KDE soon.