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Charmesal
5y

Been looking for a light-ish, stable but beautiful (not outdated) DE. Any advice or opinions?

I'm torn between Mate, Gnome3, KDE and even XFCE.
I currently use Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS and I love the indicator applets and dock. I know the applets can be used in other DE's as well but I'm uncertain about the dock. Plank and docky don't feel right and I couldn't get dockbarx on Debian (which I experimenting with instead of Ubuntu).

I'm now considering just sticking with Ubuntu, install 18.04 LTS and change the DE to something new.
I will use it as a daily driver for programming, heavy Chrome usage and some games (via wine). What do you guys suggest?

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  • 1
    5y
    I think when it comes to stability it's hard to beat XFCE, at least I've never experienced any problems with it, and I like the selection of software that comes with it.

    If you like it a bit more modern I'd say Gnome. The main reason I stopped using it after a long time was the performance, but as far as I can tell that improved quite a bit. Other than that Gnome always worked quite reliably and smooth for me, I just find the default theme and icons a bit ugly, but you can easily change that.
  • 2
    5y
    Light-ish, stable, beautiful - modify that "beautiful" to "pretty damn decent looking" and you get Cinnamon. Highly recommend.
  • 2
    5y
    Xfce, or if you wanna really experiment and dont mind configuring stuff; i3.

    I switched to it a couple months ago from xfce and even with my new triple monitor setup i3 works wonders for me
  • 0
    5y
    @deadlyRants I have tried XFCE last night and I love the snappyness, but I have noticed a few small nitpicks like when I added the system monitor applet all of its graphs had the same color except CPU usage and it couldn't be changed. Now it's not a big deal but esthetically not so pleasing. Other than that I felt like it didn't look as good even with the same theme applied but that could be because it's a VM.

    I heard gnome is kind of in between Unity and XFCE when it comes to performance these days. But then again, you are 12 different opinions on 1 forum alone.
  • 0
    5y
    @knurek123 really? I have seen people state that it became resource heavy after all these years. If it's not that bad I think I'll go for KDE.
  • 0
    5y
    @RememberMe cinnamon based on gnome3, which is pretty resource heavy, but mate is based on gnome2. Is cinnamon been changed so much from its early days to make a lot of performance improvements?
  • 0
    5y
    @GodlikeBlock I checked out XFCE and it's definitely still on the list. It's pretty darn snappy.

    I3 seems catered too the more hardcore users and even though I've been using Linux for a few years and been tinkering with it I still prefer to keep things simple on the surface. Add some indicator panels and a dock for most used apps and that's it.
    And I still want to drag my Windows around. I don't need I3 to make em all fit on the screen.
    I3 is great for a lot of people but from what I've seen it's not for me. But thanks for reminding me it exists.
  • 0
    5y
    @knurek123 I'll give it a try then. I'm already downloading Manjaro KDE to try it and compare it to XFCE and Mate.
  • 0
    5y
    @knurek123 I'm not sure if I want to as a daily driver yet. I run a lot of random software. On Ubuntu you just add a ppa, but on Manjaro I'm stuck with AUR and 2 Manjaro repos.
  • 0
    5y
    @knurek123 installing manually isn't a big problem but I'm lazy in the long-run and I know I hardly update them 😅. But if the rest is great I'll settle for manually updating.
  • 1
    5y
    Cinammon is the best balance
  • 0
    5y
    @lonelydev cinnamon is pretty heavy according to Manjaro's website. It has a comparison table of their different versions and cinnamon is one of the most RAM heavy at least.
  • 1
    5y
    @Charmesal I know that but nowadays you cant call 1.2GB heavy. We developers have decent machines. I like it because everything is so well organised. Takes less or no space while coding on screen without pressing f11 everytime. Its more like windows so I like the acquaintance
  • 0
    5y
    @lonelydev that's true. It's not terrible but I'm looking for something that will be the most efficient. Not because my machine can't handle it but because I do a lot of work and I want it to lag (if that's the correct term) as least as possible.
  • 1
    5y
    @Charmesal xfce it is then.. Or if you want trendy then lubuntu 18.10. But if you wanna go even leaner then puppylinux
  • 1
    5y
    @Charmesal and yeah I forgot.. Check out Pantheon too.. Its the one in elementary os
  • 0
    5y
    @lonelydev so far XFCE looks good. With compton compositions it even feels as smooth as KDE does. I'll still check out Mate since it's also not that heavy but I think I'll go for XFCE. Just to have something new to play with.
  • 1
    5y
    @Charmesal yes is good.. Mate gives you all look and feel in one.. Like it can look like mint, ubuntu, pantheon etc.. And do check out Pantheon that is elementary os
  • 0
    5y
    @lonelydev I've used elementary is for a while and it's good but it doesn't feel right to me.
    Thanks the help :)
  • 1
    5y
    @Charmesal same here.. Windows guy not macos.. You should go for lubuntu though. It has lighter footprint than xubuntu.. Only 256mb Ram combared to 512mb on xfce
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