There is really no change for Gnome 3.6 in Wheezy?

[cynwulf]

I switched my main computer over to KDE 4.8.

Been there, done that, etc...

And in a few months you'll switch again... to be honest the problem is that the three main DEs are crap and all three have enough issues to write a book about.

[vbrummond]

And in a few months you'll switch again... to be honest the problem is that the three main DEs are crap and all three have enough issues to write a book about.

Too right. It gets to the point of frustration. I ask myself: Which is the lesser of all of the evils that I can install/recommend for Linux beginners?

[cynwulf]

I can only give my opinion, but I'd choose KDE or Xfce over gnome any day of the week - and I don't say that only because of it's awful bastardisation of a GUI...

KDE however is a big bloated beast with some good apps, but with tons of bells and whistles which most people don't want, know about or need. Yet for all it's bloat and features they couldn't manage simple old fashioned desktop icons (which I don't use, but many if not all KDE 3.x users probably did)...

Xfce and anything gtk2 based has always run like crap on any system I've installed it on - I suppose if you have something really high end you won't notice it, but my system are mediocre at best (but not antiques either). I find gnome-shell and KDE more responsive.

For me I can only get a system running to my liking without the bloat and without all of the gnome, mono and Qt crap, by using simple window managers.

[Randicus]

I have only seen gtk3 stuff on other people's screen grabs, so cannot comment on them, but when it comes to icons and themes, I have always preferred gtk2 over qt. KDE's icons never appealed to me.

[PhilGil]

I don't hate Gnome3, but like many other posters the niggling issues have driven me to try other desktop environments. I just finished a several day trial of KDE and, while I liked using it, it was still unstable compared to Gnome or XFCE. The niggling problems were things like installing programs and not having them appear in the menu (not obscure packages I compiled myself but core KDE applications) and not having configuration changes stick. The most aggravating issue was that, at login, performance would be dreadful until I stopped and restarted kwin. One thing I can say for Gnome3 is that I've found it to be remarkablly stable (particularly for a young project).

I'm currently giving Cinnamon a shot and liking it quite a bit. As it uses mostly Gnome3 components it's an easy install (I think there's six packages total). I could see this as a good place for old and new Linux users - it's quick, more configurable than Gnome3, it doesn't break the traditional metaphors and it still gives you some modern eye candy. Even though I've installed the development release from Sid, it's stable enough to use as a daily driver. I'd really like to see it in backports once Wheezy goes stable.

[llivv]

however "we the debian users community" feel about the DE's our complaints fall on "deef" ears.
As the tide of "hardware enhancements?" edd and flow like the seas
it becomes an endless parade of SNS written by authors who
don't care much about how code intereacts on bare hardware.
A lot is now written for VM's an such or other architectures.
The new chips that are included in the DRM code we run everyday
is staggering.
Then take into account what is being built into the kernel these days.
What will happen if / when Linus retires?

[debil]

For me I can only get a system running to my liking without the bloat and without all of the gnome, mono and Qt crap, by using simple window managers.

Quoted for truth.