Evolution of a Linux desktop user:
- Get XFree86 to work on your S3 graphics card under Linux, dabble with FVWM and Windowmaker.
- Discover KDE in their 1.x days – become a fan of the heavyweight desktop environment.
- Keep using KDE, notice how each release gets faster than the previous one, think you’ve found desktop nirvana with KDE 3.5.
- KDE 4.0 is released, postpone package updates so that you can stay with 3.5.
- Eventually give up and make a painless switch to Gnome2.
- When Ubuntu makes Unity the default desktop, keep using Gnome2.
- Gnome3 is released, postpone package updates so that you can stay with 2.
- Eventually give up and try KDE ~4.5, watch it crash. Upgrade your Ubuntu to 11.08 to get KDE 4.7.
- Use KDE 4.7 for three weeks, notice that it is still much worse than KDE 3.5 or Gnome2 was.
- Realize that upgrading your Ubuntu nuked Gnome2.
- Try Gnome3 for 2 minutes, notice it’s gone 10 years backwards in terms of features.
- Try the Cinnamon interface for Gnome3, wonder how you move the workspace switcher to another panel. After discovering on a forum that it requires editing stuff in Dconfig – give up.
- In a last act of desperation install MATE (the Gnome2 fork). Log in, watch it crash.
- Install XFCE, customize it to behave like Gnome 2. Carry on with your life.
Of course, if XFCE becomes popular enough, hipster coders will remove all the features and make it look like the latest desktop environment from Apple. Then you’re off to install LXDE.
What is the sustainable solution?
Buy a Mac and get the hipster interface, but with more features and less bugs?
{ 2 } Comments
Amen!
Actually, I’ve let the package maintainers jump through the other hoops, from my POV I’ve never left step 1 – I just added ATI/Nvidia and Compiz-fusion and migrated to Gentoo (just to stay in touch with the original “Linux Experience” TM – and so I can keep tabs on how the kernel is coping with all the commits from the likes of Intel and IBM) :)
I clung to KDE 3.5 using Gentoo’s kde-sunset overlay for as long as possible, but eventually I threw caution to the wind and upgraded to 4.something. I managed to coerce it into something I could use but I still don’t feel comfortable with it the way I did with 3.5. Multi-monitor support is better but still so annoying (though to be fair that’s mostly an X / Twinview issue).
Window management on OS X is good but not nearly as powerful as KDE. I rely heavily on per-window shortcuts for my most used windows, which is easy to set up in KDE but tricky in OS X. Last time I checked, Gnome had no such feature. On the other hand, OS X has Exposé (or “Mission Control” these days) which I now find indispensable. I’d love to use the Compiz equivalent in KDE but it not only sucks, it also hates my Quadro and slows down everything or crashes.
OS X’s multi-monitor support also has its ups and downs… While it has none of the issues I have with Twinview, I can’t pin specific windows to one monitor the way I can in KDE. At least with the 27″ iMac I don’t need another screen ;) But sometimes it is useful…
I think the bottom line for me is that I’ve become used to a lot of kwin features that don’t seem to be all present in other window managers (that I know of). If KDE ever fizzles I’ll probably be clinging to that last version for as long as it compiles :)
Post a Comment