The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences
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So I have been thinking about a project for fun to explore the Linux Desktop experience. And I've been trying to determine what really are the most quintessential desktop experiences on Linux. It's hard because there are many and nearly all have some awesome features or feel to them that make them important and worth considering. I'm thinking about this from an "introducing people to the awesomeness of the Linux desktop" perspective, rather than completeness, and have a few guidelines like sticking to key mainline distributions, avoiding lightweight and low resource desktops no matter how cool they are, only showing a key desktop environment on its most important distro and so forth. I want to keep the number low enough to not be overwhelming, but high enough to show the variety and quality that is out there.
Here is what I am thinking right now...
- Fedora with Gnome 3
- Linux Mint with Cinnamon
- openSuse Tumbleweed with KDE Plasma
- Solus with Bungie
Four seems on the edge of too many, but which one of those would be okay to drop? Gnome 3, perhaps, but with Ubuntu adding Gnome 3 as the default this fall, it's so prominent and important that I don't think it can be skipped no matter how much I'd like to. Elementary OS with Pantheon would be nice, but it's too niche. Ubuntu is absent both because it is in desktop flux right now and because it is just copying Fedora, with Fedora long being the main distro for Gnome 3 - plus Ubuntu is well represented with Linux Mint. This also gives a good survey of underlying OS groupings, not just different distros and desktop environments.
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@scottalanmiller fedora 25 with kde is not bad, either.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Quintessential Linux Desktop Experiences:
Solus
Solus seems just as niche if not more so then Elementary OS.
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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.
Yeah I had never even heard of Solus.
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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
