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I just don't understand DEs. I run Openbox with dmenu and no DE. It's stupid fast, lean, easy to customize, and you only get what you ask for. Really good for r

I just don't understand DEs. I run Openbox with dmenu and no DE. It's stupid fast, lean, easy to customize, and you only get what you ask for. Really good for running Linux VMs to do work while the company demands Windows or OSX on the metal.

spindle 8y ago
You really don't understand? I also (like you) don't use a DE, and I'm very happy that way, but in order to get to that I had to learn some stuff from scratch. It seems obvious to me that almost everyone who comes from MacOS and Windows needs a DE, at least at first (and forever if they don't like learning stuff). ETA: Also, I don't know any non-DE setups that have a hope of being usable on shared computers, even though I'm sure there could be one in principle.
- squirrelicus 8y ago
  I suppose you're right, for shared systems I absolutely get it. For techie workstations though...
  - jraph 8y ago
    I get people who prefer not running desktop environments but I just like the convenience of using one. Every need I haven't anticipated is fulfilled. Integration of everything is here out of the box. I can tweak anything I would want to tweak but it turns out the default configuration usually pleases me. And it's fast and never gets in my way. Actually it's faster than no desktop environment: I have to use an USB key? Just plug it in, and it's mounted, I just need to click on the notification at the bottom right of the screen to open the file manager. I have a nice eject button to. No need to set this up myself or to launch mount commands. I can sill use commands if I want to. I would argue that outside of desktop environments, it's fast to do what I don't need to do in a desktop environment. I don't use a tiling window manager because my windows are always full screen anyway (or side by side), but I guess it would be possible to just run a tiling window manager instead of kwin in plasma or xfwm4 on xfce. (Gnome 3 may be different). The session is a bit slow to boot and that could be improved, but that's just a few seconds once in a while. I say all this knowing how to use a GNU/Linux system without a desktop environment perfectly well.
  - narwally 8y ago
    I Like having a familiar desktop environment for the cases when family/friends/coworkers need to use my computer. It's not a frequent use case, but it happens enough that it started being an annoyance when I was using a tiling window manager. These days I just use Emacs like a window manager and do all my work inside of it, and can still have an environment that's comfortable for other people when I pair program, or when a family member wants to add some of their shows to my Plex server.

spindle 8y ago

You really don't understand? I also (like you) don't use a DE, and I'm very happy that way, but in order to get to that I had to learn some stuff from scratch. It seems obvious to me that almost everyone who comes from MacOS and Windows needs a DE, at least at first (and forever if they don't like learning stuff). ETA: Also, I don't know any non-DE setups that have a hope of being usable on shared computers, even though I'm sure there could be one in principle.

squirrelicus 8y ago
I suppose you're right, for shared systems I absolutely get it. For techie workstations though...
- jraph 8y ago
  I get people who prefer not running desktop environments but I just like the convenience of using one. Every need I haven't anticipated is fulfilled. Integration of everything is here out of the box. I can tweak anything I would want to tweak but it turns out the default configuration usually pleases me. And it's fast and never gets in my way. Actually it's faster than no desktop environment: I have to use an USB key? Just plug it in, and it's mounted, I just need to click on the notification at the bottom right of the screen to open the file manager. I have a nice eject button to. No need to set this up myself or to launch mount commands. I can sill use commands if I want to. I would argue that outside of desktop environments, it's fast to do what I don't need to do in a desktop environment. I don't use a tiling window manager because my windows are always full screen anyway (or side by side), but I guess it would be possible to just run a tiling window manager instead of kwin in plasma or xfwm4 on xfce. (Gnome 3 may be different). The session is a bit slow to boot and that could be improved, but that's just a few seconds once in a while. I say all this knowing how to use a GNU/Linux system without a desktop environment perfectly well.
- narwally 8y ago
  I Like having a familiar desktop environment for the cases when family/friends/coworkers need to use my computer. It's not a frequent use case, but it happens enough that it started being an annoyance when I was using a tiling window manager. These days I just use Emacs like a window manager and do all my work inside of it, and can still have an environment that's comfortable for other people when I pair program, or when a family member wants to add some of their shows to my Plex server.