5 ms·

Fedora Linux Lets You Choose Your Own GUI Adventure

28 points by cryptoz 14y ago

tikhonj 14y ago
Coincidentally, if you're considering trying something new, I really recommend KDE. I've found it to be a very well-thought-out system that's both easy to use and easy to customize. The defaults are good, so there is no real need to customize, but if there's something you don't like chances are you can change it fairly easily. I also really like certain KDE applications, especially Amarok (the music player). Okular is also pretty good--at the very least, I like it more than Evince. I've been using KDE on Fedora for a while now, and I've been entirely happy with it. I'm switching over to a much more minimal XMonad setup now, but that's a different story and a much larger shift.
- retroafroman 14y ago
  I find KDE has the most polish of all the desktops, but it's also a fairly heavy in terms of computer requirements. Gnome 2.x ran very well on my old Atom netbook, Fedora 16 with Gnome 3.x runs acceptably (minus the small screen), and XFCE actually feels fast. I tried KDE several years ago on the same machine and it was unresponsive.
- sasvari 14y ago
  I'm switching over to a much more minimal XMonad setup now, but that's a different story and a much larger shift. I switched from using Gnome on Debian (work) to XMonad approximately one year ago (I am running Arch with XMonad on my MacBookPro at home and been very happy with this setup), and I didn't find the shift that large: the basic configuration pretty much works out of the box without the need for customization - at least at the beginning. And if you are eager to customize, there is a lot of information on how to set up xmobar, trayer and some Haskell XMonad stuff out there.
  - alborland 14y ago
    So are you using XMonad without a DE? How is the experience? BTW, how do you manage wireless networks and stuff?
    - technomancy 14y ago
      I use fbpanel to make nm-applet work in my xmonad setup; it's very simple and config-file driven rather than hiding config in crazy XML gconf files like gnome-panel did.
      - alborland 14y ago
        Thanks! I am about to make the switch to XMonad without a DE and so I was making a list of things that I would be doing without a DE and wondering how the experience would be.
        technomancy 14y ago
        You might find this interesting: https://github.com/technomancy/dotfiles/blob/master/.xsession https://github.com/technomancy/dotfiles/blob/master/.xsessio...
    - sasvari 14y ago
      So are you using XMonad without a DE? How is the experience? Yes, exactly. It's very lightweight and fast without all the clutter of a DE. I don't really miss anything. BTW, how do you manage wireless networks and stuff? I manage wireless/wired networks with netcfg in the background (without an applet for the trayer, haven't had any need for that yet; but that's up to individual preferences).
antihero 14y ago
Pretty much every distro does this. Like most things, the way to get the most out of Linux is to learn and explore it. I've been happily ignoring the "GUI Wars" because I'm using i3, a tiling window manager that AFAIK nothing comes with out the box, but you just install it and configure it and bam, you're away. No worrying about Gnome 3 or KDE bloat or whatever. You set it up so you have a nice enough GTK theme that is then emulated by Qt (so things look consistent) - I use Zukitwo - and then you just pick which apps you like and use them. There's no deciding one way or other, you just use the programs you like.
mcantelon 14y ago
Ubuntu lets you do this to (it has for awhile). I've been using Cinnamon which seems less clunky than Unity.
- BCM43 14y ago
  The article's point is that you have to download it from the web via the repos to do this. Which seems like an incredibly silly and inconsequential thing to write an entire article about.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
vacipr 14y ago
Too bad Linux Mint is not a fork of Ubuntu.
- esrauch 14y ago
  Is it not? The Linux Mint wikipedia page seems to indicate that it is a fork of Ubuntu.
  - vacipr 14y ago
    Being a fork and being based on something are two different things. "Version 2.0 "Barbara" was based on Ubuntu 6.10, using its package repositories and using it as a codebase. From there, Linux Mint followed its own codebase, building each release from its previous one but it continued to use the package repositories from the latest Ubuntu release. As such the distribution never really forked. This resulted in making the base between the two systems almost identical and it guaranteed full compatibility between the two operating systems"
    - esrauch 14y ago
      That sounds exactly like a fork to me. There are forks of chromium that add some feature and when new chromium releases come out they patch it back in; just because a project continues to track the original projects patches doesn't mean its not a fork. Just because the vast majority of the code base is identical doesn't make it not a fork. Besides, the default meaning of "it's not a fork" would be "it's unrelated" not "it's even more closely related than a fork". Simply stating "Mint isn't a fork of Ubuntu" is a totally misleading statement.
      - vacipr 14y ago
        In case you didn't notice,I quoted text from the Linux Mint wikipedia page which you said it indicated it's a fork.Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks it's not. Forking Ubuntu and rebasing code every single release on a new Ubuntu release are two different things. Examples of forks: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTI1NTE http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTI1N... http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTgxMA http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTgxM... http://www.osnews.com/story/24957/Plan_9_Forked_Continues_as_9front http://www.osnews.com/story/24957/Plan_9_Forked_Continues_as... Linux Mint is not a Ubuntu fork neither are other distributions that are based on Ubuntu.Same thing goes for Debian or Chromium.They are just spin-offs (excluding the Ubuntu-Debain relationship of course) Also the default meaning of "it's not a fork" is "it's not a fork".

28 points by cryptoz 14y ago

Coincidentally, if you're considering trying something new, I really recommend KDE. I've found it to be a very well-thought-out system that's both easy to use and easy to customize. The defaults are good, so there is no real need to customize, but if there's something you don't like chances are you can change it fairly easily. I also really like certain KDE applications, especially Amarok (the music player). Okular is also pretty good--at the very least, I like it more than Evince. I've been using KDE on Fedora for a while now, and I've been entirely happy with it. I'm switching over to a much more minimal XMonad setup now, but that's a different story and a much larger shift.

retroafroman 14y ago
I find KDE has the most polish of all the desktops, but it's also a fairly heavy in terms of computer requirements. Gnome 2.x ran very well on my old Atom netbook, Fedora 16 with Gnome 3.x runs acceptably (minus the small screen), and XFCE actually feels fast. I tried KDE several years ago on the same machine and it was unresponsive.
sasvari 14y ago
I'm switching over to a much more minimal XMonad setup now, but that's a different story and a much larger shift. I switched from using Gnome on Debian (work) to XMonad approximately one year ago (I am running Arch with XMonad on my MacBookPro at home and been very happy with this setup), and I didn't find the shift that large: the basic configuration pretty much works out of the box without the need for customization - at least at the beginning. And if you are eager to customize, there is a lot of information on how to set up xmobar, trayer and some Haskell XMonad stuff out there.
- alborland 14y ago
  So are you using XMonad without a DE? How is the experience? BTW, how do you manage wireless networks and stuff?
  - technomancy 14y ago
    I use fbpanel to make nm-applet work in my xmonad setup; it's very simple and config-file driven rather than hiding config in crazy XML gconf files like gnome-panel did.
    - alborland 14y ago
      Thanks! I am about to make the switch to XMonad without a DE and so I was making a list of things that I would be doing without a DE and wondering how the experience would be.
      - technomancy 14y ago
        You might find this interesting: https://github.com/technomancy/dotfiles/blob/master/.xsession https://github.com/technomancy/dotfiles/blob/master/.xsessio...
  - sasvari 14y ago
    So are you using XMonad without a DE? How is the experience? Yes, exactly. It's very lightweight and fast without all the clutter of a DE. I don't really miss anything. BTW, how do you manage wireless networks and stuff? I manage wireless/wired networks with netcfg in the background (without an applet for the trayer, haven't had any need for that yet; but that's up to individual preferences).

antihero 14y ago

Pretty much every distro does this. Like most things, the way to get the most out of Linux is to learn and explore it. I've been happily ignoring the "GUI Wars" because I'm using i3, a tiling window manager that AFAIK nothing comes with out the box, but you just install it and configure it and bam, you're away. No worrying about Gnome 3 or KDE bloat or whatever. You set it up so you have a nice enough GTK theme that is then emulated by Qt (so things look consistent) - I use Zukitwo - and then you just pick which apps you like and use them. There's no deciding one way or other, you just use the programs you like.

mcantelon 14y ago

Ubuntu lets you do this to (it has for awhile). I've been using Cinnamon which seems less clunky than Unity.

BCM43 14y ago
The article's point is that you have to download it from the web via the repos to do this. Which seems like an incredibly silly and inconsequential thing to write an entire article about.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

vacipr 14y ago

Too bad Linux Mint is not a fork of Ubuntu.

esrauch 14y ago
Is it not? The Linux Mint wikipedia page seems to indicate that it is a fork of Ubuntu.
- vacipr 14y ago
  Being a fork and being based on something are two different things. "Version 2.0 "Barbara" was based on Ubuntu 6.10, using its package repositories and using it as a codebase. From there, Linux Mint followed its own codebase, building each release from its previous one but it continued to use the package repositories from the latest Ubuntu release. As such the distribution never really forked. This resulted in making the base between the two systems almost identical and it guaranteed full compatibility between the two operating systems"
  - esrauch 14y ago
    That sounds exactly like a fork to me. There are forks of chromium that add some feature and when new chromium releases come out they patch it back in; just because a project continues to track the original projects patches doesn't mean its not a fork. Just because the vast majority of the code base is identical doesn't make it not a fork. Besides, the default meaning of "it's not a fork" would be "it's unrelated" not "it's even more closely related than a fork". Simply stating "Mint isn't a fork of Ubuntu" is a totally misleading statement.
    - vacipr 14y ago
      In case you didn't notice,I quoted text from the Linux Mint wikipedia page which you said it indicated it's a fork.Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks it's not. Forking Ubuntu and rebasing code every single release on a new Ubuntu release are two different things. Examples of forks: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTI1NTE http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTI1N... http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTgxMA http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTgxM... http://www.osnews.com/story/24957/Plan_9_Forked_Continues_as_9front http://www.osnews.com/story/24957/Plan_9_Forked_Continues_as... Linux Mint is not a Ubuntu fork neither are other distributions that are based on Ubuntu.Same thing goes for Debian or Chromium.They are just spin-offs (excluding the Ubuntu-Debain relationship of course) Also the default meaning of "it's not a fork" is "it's not a fork".