Linus on Gnome 3.2

[Thomas Milne]

On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 8:35 PM, Howard Gibson <hgibson-MwcKTmeKVNQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Dec 2011 15:36:43 -0500
> lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org (Lennart Sorensen) wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Dec 02, 2011 at 03:04:10PM -0500, Thomas Milne wrote:
>> > I have had exactly the same experience, but with KDE, so I think it is
>> > more a matter of personal preference. KDE always seems like a
>> > nightmare to make anything work the way I want it, and I find the look
>> > of it kind of awkward. I hate the file chooser dialogue beyond
>> > comprehension.
>> >
>> > I only use maybe half a dozen apps on a regular basis, so maybe that
>> > has something to do with it. I hate the KDE menu, I don't need even a
>> > fraction of the applications.
>> >
>> > Gnome 3 without the Tweak Tool would be infuriating for anyone with a
>> > desire for a lot of personalization, but now that I have that working
>> > I honestly don't see what's missing.
>>
>> Actually it is infuriating to anyone wanting to just work.
>>
>> I expect and want very little:
>>
>> I want my programs to be in a box that I can resize, minimize and
>> maximize.  I like it if double clicking the title bar toggles maximize
>> on/off.
>>
>> I want alt+tab to switch between windows.
>>
>> I like alt+f2 to give me a box to type a command to run.  This is the
>> only way other than typing stuff in an xterm I use to start things.
>> I don't ever use menus.
>>
>> I expect sloppy focus.  If I point at a window, give it focus.  If I
>> alt+tab to a window, give it focuas and bring it to the top.  If I click
>> on it, bring it to the top....
>
> Lennart,
>
>   I use FVWM2 most of the time.  I love multiple windows.  FVWM is the only window manager I know of that allows you to keep a non-focus window on top of the focus window.  I find this handy for copy and paste.  Other than that, I like speed and reliability, which FVWM has.  I have been configuring it to work exactly as I damn well please since 1996.
>
>   I don't see the point of Gnome_3.0.  It seems to take more mouse clicks to do anything.  It looks cool, but that is way down my list of window manager requirements.  I want to locate files, launch applications, and move from application to application when I have multiple things running.  I did not appreciate it when I had problems with accelerated video, and Gnome_3 refused to work.  3D_Video should not be a requirement of the desktop.
>
>   The KDE with Fedora_15 is vastly improved.  It launches almost immediately now.  It was easier to personalize then I recall previously.  I also played with XFCE a bit.  It works.  It is small and fast.  It is predicable and configurable to someone used to Microsoft Windows.  I am not looking for new paradigms.
>
>   There is a Linux advocacy issue here.  People remark to me that they have an old computer that, probably, will not run the latest version of Microsoft Windows.  They are curious about Linux.  The old Gnome was a good solution for these people, and it provided enough eye candy to keep power users happy.  I am not sure what to tell people now.  Definitely, they should install KDE, if or nothing else to get KDM, which can be configured to not display the user list.  XFCE is a good low powered window manager, but I do not know how well the Linux community supports it.  It uses a lot of old, now-obsolete Gnome tools.

Gnome is perfectly fine on old computers. I am still using my Pentium
4 with an old AGP NVidia card, it runs very fast. Web browsers
contending with content-heavy sites are going to tax a computer far
more than the desktop environment.

I believe at least one person on this list has looked very closely at
the resources used by XFCE, and as far as memory it uses just as much
as Gnome or KDE.

-- 
Thomas Milne
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