[Novalug] LXDE

Bryan J Smith b.j.smith@ieee.org
Sun Jul 12 16:38:55 EDT 2015


Roger W. Broseus wrote:
> Someone posted here a few days ago that LXDE was his "desktop" of choice.

That was my very opinionated self.

Understand I have no issue with using either Unity (Ubuntu LTS) or
GNOME Shell (RHEL7), but I prefer LXDE ... if it is a peer-supported
option.

> So, I tried it and love it: fast as greased lightening.

XFCE bloated over the v4.x years, to the point its components are as
big of memory hogs as many GNOME and KDE components. The only
advantage XFCE has over GNOME and KDE is that it doesn't load
everything at login.  But once you launch a few things, you're not
saving much over GNOME and KDE, memory-wise.

In fact, if you're using Compositing (e.g., Clutter/Mutter), even
GNOME Shell with a decent GPU can seem faster than XFCE these days.
That's really why I don't like XFCE any more, and just run Unity or
GNOME Shell, depending on the distro.

LXDE's Openbox WM, LXPanel Dock and PCMan FM are really, really
lightweight GTK+ programs.  They are very, very well done in this
regard.  Openbox has some features that are configurable in its
"Openbox Configuration Manager" GUI, but others have to be modified in
the RC text file (but it's not too bad).  The Dock is pretty spot-on
for about any use, everything can be done it in the GUI, and fairly
quickly as you've probably notice (a few things could be better, but
not by much).  And PCMan FM brought me back to using a GUI file
manager ... instead of the CLI for everything.

And get this ... unlike a number of WMs, Openbox is _extremely_
ICCCM/NETWM _compliant_.  That's why even non-LXDE environments use
the Openbox WM too.

BTW, I'm running dual-4K (or dual-2.5K on older systems that don't
have a 4K capable GPU-ADC) here with LXDE without issues.  Although I
do drop to a single monitor for full-screen Steam titles, but other
than that, no issues and the multi-Window is quite configurable.

> Easier to configure the "panel" that the stock one that comes with
> XFCE (sp?) on Xubuntu. Love it. Will give it a try on my travel Netbook.

The lxpanel is the bomb.
Literally "just works" without "bloat," while still very configurable.

But this is all 100% subjective opinion of mine.

-- bjs



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