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Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

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prahladyeri
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Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#1 Post by prahladyeri »

After trying out all the DEs including KDE, Unity, GNOME, XFCE and LXDE, I've found that the last one is a marvelous piece of engineering and is the only Desktop that follows the unix philosophy in the true sense.

In fact, it is not as much a DE as a meta-package consisting of components like openbox, lxpanel and lxappearance that you may as well assemble on your own! In other words, simplicity and minimalism which you don't find anywhere else.

But I was truly astonished when I visited LXDE forums and found that it is quite inactive. There hasn't been a single post in the month of february. This indicates that lots of people have shifted to GNOME or KDE and forsaken this wonderful DE.

And the interesting part is that in most phronix benchmarks, LXDE turns out to be the fastest, then why do people insist on installing bloated monsters like Unity and GNOME. If all I use my machine is to do "actual things" like browsing the Internet, checking emails, working with spreadsheets and other apps, then why is the choice of DE such an important thing?

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dasein
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#2 Post by dasein »

LXDE is no longer in active development. For more information, do what you should have done in the first place: spend 15 seconds doing an obvious Web search like lxde development

Wheelerof4te
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#3 Post by Wheelerof4te »

There is really no need for LXDE since even the most low-end PCs and notebooks of today will run XFCE easily. For really old hardware, there is openbox/fluxbox and Co.

I get the ''Unix'' philosophy, but we shouldn't constrain ourselves with blind ideology any more. People simply like stuff that just works.

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HuangLao
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#4 Post by HuangLao »

dasein wrote:LXDE is no longer in active development. For more information, do what you should have done in the first place: spend 15 seconds doing an obvious Web search like lxde development
Sorry but LXDE is still maintained, it was transferred from pcman to a few other people. This is an old post but, for what its worth, still relevant.
http://blog.lxde.org/?p=1310

Innovate
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#5 Post by Innovate »

I've been annoyed since it can't auto arrange desktop icons.
The desktop is less flexible than xfce.
But their applications are most useful than XFCE.
Some XFCE users love to merge LXDE applications with XFCE.

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dasein
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#6 Post by dasein »

HuangLao wrote:
dasein wrote:LXDE is no longer in active development. For more information, do what you should have done in the first place: spend 15 seconds doing an obvious Web search like lxde development
Sorry but LXDE is still maintained...
And to prove it you point to an old blog post that says "both are still being maintained," despite the fact that the last release of LXDE actually predates the blog post you point to. Alrighty then.

One of the DE's has had two point releases since that post, while the other has had zero. Call me a data snob, but I find it hard to think of them both as "actively developed," regardless of what someone says (or, more accurately, said 14 months ago).

Bulkley
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#7 Post by Bulkley »

Somebody is maintaining something; LXDE components are still in Testing and Unstable. It may be minimal but it's hanging in there. Having said that, LXDE is a bunch of programs that function individually and it may be these that are being maintained.

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Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#8 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

openbox works better with tint2 than with lxpanel and there are better examples of desktop-style integration with that window manager.

Of course I may be biased here...
deadbang

oldtechaa
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#9 Post by oldtechaa »

@Bulkley,

That does not mean a whole lot because packages stay in Debian unstable and testing forever until manually removed. LXDE could be unmaintained for years and the packages would still be there unless there were release-critical bugs. The LXDE packages aren't updated; they're just sitting static. Stretch will probably be the latest version ever included. I would think we'll see LxQt taking its place soon.

thenewguy
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#10 Post by thenewguy »

I'd like to point out that development of LXDE has shifted toward LXQt, which has been putting out releases. The same design is used, just with a different toolkit. The last major release of LXQt came out just three months ago.

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HuangLao
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#11 Post by HuangLao »

dasein wrote: And to prove it you point to an old blog post that says "both are still being maintained," despite the fact that the last release of LXDE actually predates the blog post you point to. Alrighty then.

One of the DE's has had two point releases since that post, while the other has had zero. Call me a data snob, but I find it hard to think of them both as "actively developed," regardless of what someone says (or, more accurately, said 14 months ago).
You are funny....Here you go this is from last July and it is quoting one of the developers that pcman put in charge of LXDE, so he (pcman) can focus on LXQt. Once again it is still being maintained. As long as GTK2 is around and they will cross the hurdle of GTK3 when they get there.
http://www.iwillfolo.com/lxde-not-dead- ... developed/

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dasein
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#12 Post by dasein »

A parting thought...

"Actively developed" and "maintained" are not the same.

(Just sayin')

No_windows
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#13 Post by No_windows »

I've never cared for LXDE. I've tried it a few times, but each time I quickly ran back to Xfce. From the trivial reasons of not liking the graphics (how is a bird a replacement for an x???) and not liking some of the names like pcmanfm (something I can pronounce, please) to more serious reasons like it freezing-up/crashing.

oldtechaa
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#14 Post by oldtechaa »

For one, I don't want to be stuck on a dying platform, and my biggest problem with LXDE was its fragmented configuration tools. I can do a lot on the CLI, but I don't make it my goal to have to, which LXDE with its lack and fragmentation of tools makes you do.

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thanatos_incarnate
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#15 Post by thanatos_incarnate »

I use Xfce because of 1 thing: Thunar has the custom action thing. If pcmanfm had that, I'd rather use LXDE since I think Openbox is a leaner WM as Xfwm and the DE itself has less overhead. It has everything an advanced user would need and a lot of other UI stuff can be borrowed from other leaner DEs like Xfce or Mate.

Of course, if you need a complete set of GUI tools and don't like to use the console from time to time, then Xfce or better yet Mate would be better contenders, while still beaing overall lean desktops compared to Gnome or KDE.

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Danielsan
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#16 Post by Danielsan »

Ehmmm.... Somebody missed that the LXDE and Razorq DE projects merged in one single project LXQT...

http://lxqt.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LXQt

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thanatos_incarnate
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#17 Post by thanatos_incarnate »

Danielsan wrote:Ehmmm.... Somebody missed that the LXDE and Razorq DE projects merged in one single project LXQT...

http://lxqt.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LXQt
Ehmmm.... Somebody missed half the thread:
HuangLao wrote:Here you go this is from last July and it is quoting one of the developers that pcman put in charge of LXDE, so he (pcman) can focus on LXQt. Once again it is still being maintained. As long as GTK2 is around and they will cross the hurdle of GTK3 when they get there.
http://www.iwillfolo.com/lxde-not-dead- ... developed/

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Danielsan
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#18 Post by Danielsan »

:oops: :oops: :oops:

Sorry...

oldtechaa
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#19 Post by oldtechaa »

It's OK. Sometimes we just don't have time to read threads real thoroughly.

TonyVanDam
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Re: Why is LXDE losing its popularity among Linux users?

#20 Post by TonyVanDam »

dasein wrote:
HuangLao wrote:
dasein wrote:LXDE is no longer in active development. For more information, do what you should have done in the first place: spend 15 seconds doing an obvious Web search like lxde development
Sorry but LXDE is still maintained...
And to prove it you point to an old blog post that says "both are still being maintained," despite the fact that the last release of LXDE actually predates the blog post you point to. Alrighty then.
hh
One of the DE's has had two point releases since that post, while the other has had zero. Call me a data snob, but I find it hard to think of them both as "actively developed," regardless of what someone says (or, more accurately, said 14 months ago).
Excuse you, but the last updated information concerning LXDE was in 12/7/2015:
http://blog.lxde.org/

LXDE developments are still alive and well. And also, LXDE will still exist long after LXqt reach 1.0 status.

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