LXDE, the worst DE

[woteb]

Right! That's Debian, you can use what you want and what you need. I use plain Openbox with Rox, Lxappearance, Lxpanel (on the top), Wbar (on the bottom) and Thunar. No need for LXDE, rock solid and extremely fast.

[Derduden]

I just happened to stumple upon this discussion which lead me to create a profile and comment
Anyway I think LXDE is just fantastic!
I've got this laptop from HP with a 1.6 Ghz AMD Neo singlecore and needless to say this is no monster of cpu-cycles, but it's very light (the laptop)

1st I thought I'd be friends with Win7, but I realized it was too much for the poor thing!
Then I went straight to Gnome but it was even worse than Win7, I dunno why but the cpu-usage was so high by every task I had to do..
I tried out Unity, which turned out to be the worst performing desktop that I have ever encountered!!

Then I found LXDE, which just fitted me perfectly! The performance is great and I didn't need to do too many customizations. So I think I've found my perfect DE for almost any computer with lack of cpu-power. Last machine I set up with LXDE was a PIII Mobile 600 Mhz with 192 MB ram combined with Lubuntu 11.04 it was running just about okay and everything just worked! Ram usage with Chromium started was about 70 MB

Anyway my 1.6 Ghz Neo combined with Kingston SSD 280 MB/s hits the DE from cold in less than 15 seconds so yeah I'm pleased with LXDE!

[Anzhr]

Excellent, Derduden.

[birdywa]

I like LXDE a lot, I just wish PCmanFM was a little more polished, i wish it came with better default fonts, and I wish you could remove all of the desktop icons. Other than those small gripes, I dont have much bad to say about this awesome DE. Its basically the only one that actually tries to conform to the UNIX philosophy. It would be cool if they made something akin to LXDE using a tiling WM.

[mvdan]

I like LXDE a lot, I just wish PCmanFM was a little more polished, i wish it came with better default fonts, and I wish you could remove all of the desktop icons.

Have you tried XFE? After using Nautilus, Dolphin, Thunar, PCmanFM and MC, it's clearly the best. It can be 100% used without any need of the mouse, handles perfectly file formats and applications, and its configuration (both from plain text config file and preferences window) is very extensive. It is based on ROX, so no external dependencies whatsoever. Very fast and lightweight, as well.

[tuxracer]

XFCE is WAY better! My LXDE on my Debian install is no benefit. It just crashed and I was just surfing... LXDE is way overrated.... it sucks. Still no keyboard layout utility for changing the layout / language.... Pathetic...

[jw013]

Keep in mind that constructing a polished well-integrated DE is not an easy task, as there are so many different pieces that must come together. Apple can do it b/c they pay people to sure their OS's have that nice shiny Mac look and they maintain greater control over the OS so they can make sure everything plays nice. LXDE is fairly new in the world of DE's, and I don't think they have a huge developer base, so it probably needs some time before it gets to the level Gnome or Xfce users are used to. Even Xfce 4.8 looks tremendously better than 4.4 back when I used it. And the nice thing about many DE's (not GNOME) is you can easily swap in and out pieces that you don't like.

In light of the above, instead of relying on volunteer devs to assemble a DE for me in their free time and complaining when what works for them doesn't quite work for me, I chose to drop a DE altogether and just pick and choose my own pieces:
WM: openbox; panel/taskbar/pager: tint2; system monitor: conky; terminal: urxvt; file manager: mc (midnight commander); /etc/default/keyboard for keyboard layouts; login manager: getty->login->startx etc ...

[dmhdlr]

Keep in mind that constructing a polished well-integrated DE is not an easy task, as there are so many different pieces that must come together. Apple can do it b/c they pay people to sure their OS's have that nice shiny Mac look and they maintain greater control over the OS so they can make sure everything plays nice. LXDE is fairly new in the world of DE's, and I don't think they have a huge developer base, so it probably needs some time before it gets to the level Gnome or Xfce users are used to. Even Xfce 4.8 looks tremendously better than 4.4 back when I used it. And the nice thing about many DE's (not GNOME) is you can easily swap in and out pieces that you don't like.

In light of the above, instead of relying on volunteer devs to assemble a DE for me in their free time and complaining when what works for them doesn't quite work for me, I chose to drop a DE altogether and just pick and choose my own pieces:
WM: openbox; panel/taskbar/pager: tint2; system monitor: conky; terminal: urxvt; file manager: mc (midnight commander); /etc/default/keyboard for keyboard layouts; login manager: getty->login->startx etc ...

What's your editor?

[jw013]

What's your editor?

vim and gvim

[birdywa]

I like LXDE a lot, I just wish PCmanFM was a little more polished, i wish it came with better default fonts, and I wish you could remove all of the desktop icons.

Have you tried XFE? After using Nautilus, Dolphin, Thunar, PCmanFM and MC, it's clearly the best. It can be 100% used without any need of the mouse, handles perfectly file formats and applications, and its configuration (both from plain text config file and preferences window) is very extensive. It is based on ROX, so no external dependencies whatsoever. Very fast and lightweight, as well.

I have used xfe. I liked it, but it lacked in device management (mounting).

[LaneLester]

Have you tried XFE? After using Nautilus, Dolphin, Thunar, PCmanFM and MC, it's clearly the best.

I prefer a two-pane FM, and for a long time, EmelFM2 was my choice. But its development fell behind and I had too much trouble getting it to work right. After looking at the field, I ended up with XFE and am delighted with it... with the exception as another user mentioned, the failure of the mount/unmount feature. So I keep Thunar on hand for that task alone.

I confess I don't really understand the difference/overlap of DEs and WMs. I'm using GDM and XFCE4 in a Debian Netinstall now with satisfaction. I tried an LXDE install, but couldn't figure out how to get things the way I wanted them. I might try SLIM in place of GDM some day, but I'd like to know what I'd give up in convenient functionality.

Lane

[Anzhr]

I have used xfe. I liked it, but it lacked in device management (mounting).

Yes, so I prefer Thunar. It handles external drives and network shares flawlessly.

[tuxracer]

I switched ISPs and now wicd stopped working. My wireless is not being detected.

Furthermore, installing network manager doesn't get entered into the menu.

LXDE is such a useless POS.... it's baffling why anyone uses this useless DE. Yeah, might as well use Fluxbox or something like that.

LXDE = SH$$!

[bw123]

Yeah, might as well use Fluxbox or something like that.

LXDE = SH$$!

join the dark side Tux, I am your father (Fluxbox)

[4D696B65]

Hey tuxracer, I'm starting to get the impression that you are not fond of lxde. I'm probably wrong.

[dasein]

Hey tuxracer, I'm starting to get the impression that you are not fond of lxde. I'm probably wrong.

There you go again, jumping to conclusions.

I have to say, I think the thread title is spot on. Among the full-fledged DEs, LXDE is the youngest and (not surprisingly) the most unpolished. Frankly, I wish it were better; I want to like LXDE, but I just can't.

Still, I like the idea behind LXDE. Maybe someday.

[bw123]

Well, I hit another mystery (to me anyway) about menus. I have been using fluxbox and I really like it. It's fast, simple, and uses an automatic menuing system called 'menu' I believe that automatically finds just about everything I install. Somehow fluxbox uses files in /usr/share/menu to make /etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu which basically is a pretty much human readable script-like language. Don't really have to fool with it, works great. It's a little tricky to customize but I haven't really needed to.

I'm trying compiz out a little, there's no toolbar? so snagged lxpanel, and it's using some .desktop files located at /usr/share/applications for it's menu, and not all apps are making these files when they are installed. I -think- this is just an lxpanel thing, but not sure.

Anybody know whether I am on the right track or what? does lxpanel suck? it's pretty small and simple and I like that, but I don't want to fool with setting up a bunch of menu junk...

[dasein]

From what I have observed, folks who use *box as WMs but still want some sort of panel seem to like tint2. A few like wbar. But ultimately, as with all such things, it always comes down to personal preference(s).

[AMLJ]

LXDE... I didn't use to like it very much, but now things have changed...
In my opinion, it's kinda poor, but when someone has a very old computer, and doesn't like to have just a WM and wants a DE, GNOME and KDE might not work very well, while LXDE does.
When you want a light "DE" it's not such a bad choice...

[jw013]

From what I have observed, folks who use *box as WMs but still want some sort of panel seem to like tint2. A few like wbar. But ultimately, as with all such things, it always comes down to personal preference(s).

Lol I am one of those people: openbox/tint2.

Well, I hit another mystery (to me anyway) about menus. I have been using fluxbox and I really like it. It's fast, simple, and uses an automatic menuing system called 'menu' I believe that automatically finds just about everything I install. Somehow fluxbox uses files in /usr/share/menu to make /etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu which basically is a pretty much human readable script-like language. Don't really have to fool with it, works great. It's a little tricky to customize but I haven't really needed to.

I'm trying compiz out a little, there's no toolbar? so snagged lxpanel, and it's using some .desktop files located at /usr/share/applications for it's menu, and not all apps are making these files when they are installed. I -think- this is just an lxpanel thing, but not sure.

Anybody know whether I am on the right track or what? does lxpanel suck? it's pretty small and simple and I like that, but I don't want to fool with setting up a bunch of menu junk...

If you like the fluxbox menu, that's great - why not continue using it? Lxpanel doesn't force you to use its menu - you can remove it from the panel if you wish. Tint2 doesn't have a menu - it's just a taskbar. When I want a menu I simply use openbox's, but I hardly use a menu nowadays b/c I've been using the same apps long enough to have mapped everything I use to keyboard shortcuts (gvim, iceweasel, terminals, music players, etc).