The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences
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@scottalanmiller I like the opensuse choice
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Things that I think are essential experiences when it comes to using a Linux Desktop.
- Simplicity in installing applications (wide variety of sources)
- Simplicity in using the applications
- Intuitive desktop design (wifi, my docs etc etc) should all be intuitive to use and find.
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller fedora 25 with kde is not bad, either.
It's not the most dedicated showcase for it, though.
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@coliver said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
Solus
Solus seems just as niche if not more so then Elementary OS.
It's the home of Budgie, though.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@coliver said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
Solus
Solus seems just as niche if not more so then Elementary OS.
It's the home of Budgie, though.
Which all and all seems like a niche DE. I get why you'd want to test it of course as it is a unique distribution but I don't see that as having a wide user base even if it grew a bit.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
avoiding lightweight and low resource desktops no matter how cool they are
While I love my LXDE and XFCE, there are reasons I don't recommend them to most people.
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@coliver said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@coliver said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
Solus
Solus seems just as niche if not more so then Elementary OS.
It's the home of Budgie, though.
Which all and all seems like a niche DE. I get why you'd want to test it of course as it is a unique distribution but I don't see that as having a wide user base even if it grew a bit.
Budgie is starting to appear as an option on lots of other distros.
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@travisdh1 said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
avoiding lightweight and low resource desktops no matter how cool they are
While I love my LXDE and XFCE, there are reasons I don't recommend them to most people.
Same here. Or Mate.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@travisdh1 said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
avoiding lightweight and low resource desktops no matter how cool they are
While I love my LXDE and XFCE, there are reasons I don't recommend them to most people.
Same here. Or Mate.
Just curious as to why not Mate?
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@dafyre said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@travisdh1 said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
avoiding lightweight and low resource desktops no matter how cool they are
While I love my LXDE and XFCE, there are reasons I don't recommend them to most people.
Same here. Or Mate.
Just curious as to why not Mate?
I haven't used Mate myself, but I'd imagine it's along the lines of LXDE and XFCE. They're just very basic, most of your system management is still done via a terminal emulator. They're for those times when UNIX admins want a web browser.
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@travisdh1 said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@dafyre said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@travisdh1 said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
avoiding lightweight and low resource desktops no matter how cool they are
While I love my LXDE and XFCE, there are reasons I don't recommend them to most people.
Same here. Or Mate.
Just curious as to why not Mate?
I haven't used Mate myself, but I'd imagine it's along the lines of LXDE and XFCE. They're just very basic, most of your system management is still done via a terminal emulator. They're for those times when UNIX admins want a web browser.
I'll definitely give you that one.
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The essential experiences have to be based around someone coming from windows or mac to Linux.
While the desktop experience it's self is certainly a part of that, the system overall must be intuitive.
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So @scottalanmiller take away your experience with Linux, and play as if you're a complete newb when it comes to Linux.
Find several distro's that are super intuitive looking, and test with those.
Using your experience here is actually a hindrance for a fair evaluation.
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I think you have the primary DE's covered. I wouldn't consider Budgie a major player yet but I can understand why you're testing it. I agree that both LXDE, XFCE, and Mate are a bit too complex for the generic entry level user.
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I'm looking forward to the conclusions here. It'll give me some direction when I make the dive with my home computer.
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@EddieJennings said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
I'm looking forward to the conclusions here. It'll give me some direction when I make the dive with my home computer.
@scottalanmiller I think I was just talking about this
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While we may have the test samples covered there, how are we going to test the samples? What are newb users going to be starting off with to get comfortable with the new environments? I think that needs to be the basis of these experiences.
Some examples that I can think of:
- Working in a document, such as LibreOffice Writer
- Working in a spreadsheet, such as LibreOffice Calc
- Playing music in something like VLC
- Surfing the web in Firefox (however, this shouldn't be a difficult thing for a new user to deal with)
- Checking email in the client of choice (whether it is Thunderbird, Evolution, etc.)
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@dafyre said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@travisdh1 said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
avoiding lightweight and low resource desktops no matter how cool they are
While I love my LXDE and XFCE, there are reasons I don't recommend them to most people.
Same here. Or Mate.
Just curious as to why not Mate?
Gnome 2 based, no mainstream use case, same overlap as other low resource desktops.
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@travisdh1 said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@dafyre said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@travisdh1 said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
avoiding lightweight and low resource desktops no matter how cool they are
While I love my LXDE and XFCE, there are reasons I don't recommend them to most people.
Same here. Or Mate.
Just curious as to why not Mate?
I haven't used Mate myself, but I'd imagine it's along the lines of LXDE and XFCE. They're just very basic, most of your system management is still done via a terminal emulator. They're for those times when UNIX admins want a web browser.
Exactly. Its like a slightly more overhead version of those.
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good list for comparison. Esp for Windows users moving over who are new. Those distros listed are the most complete package generally.
One thing to look at is blu ray playback. I know most people are using network storage options for viewing movies, but going to Redbox and getting a bluray is convenient for new releases.
I havent had much luck getting those to work in Linux.
