On Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:56:20 -0700
Mark Knecht <markkne...@gmail.com> wrote:
> While not a KDE user I echo your thoughts. I'm personally a bit
> worried about Gentoo overlords sort of pushing this hald thing with
> reasons like 'Gnome's automounting depends on it'.
Where have you got that from? I have not heard of that. I don't use
hal either, and I have -hal in /etc/make.conf
> I started in Linux about 12 years ago and the best environment for my
> needs at that time (audio recording, 32 channels of live audio,
> real-time kernels, Ardour, etc.) was fluxbox. Low overhead. Easily
> customizable. Every time I get fed up with Gnome I go back to fluxbox.
> Takes a few minutes to build, not hours like Gnome or days like KDE.
> Not a great environment for my wife and kids, so they get Gnome.
I have used Xfce at version 4.4.2 (or 4.4.3, I don't remember) and
I think it has a lot of user-friendliness. And it is even similar
to GNOME, so GNOME users will feel at home.
I think Xubuntu is a good example of a well put together Xfce desktop.
I don't agree with every Xubuntu choice for default apps, but it is
a great start if you want to build a user-friendly, lightweight,
customizable desktop with Xfce plus the right applications.
So if you like simplicity and lightweight, but think your wife
won't like fluxbox, give Xfce a try.
Maybe even fluxbox could be configured and combined with the
right applications to be easy to use, but starting with
Xfce would probably be much easier (I say "probably" because
I have never performed either of these tasks).
On the other hand, maybe you should continue giving GNOME
to your wife simply because GNOME is much more common than Xfce and,
by knowing GNOME, she is more likely to know how to use another
GNU/Linux computer, and if she needs technical support from, say,
the ISP, the technicians are more likely to know GNOME and Xfce.
For the record, I have moved from Xfce to LXDE because I am a
speed freak and also a simplicity freak. More on simplicity
below.
> I hope the future of Linux desktops doesn't look anything like
> Windows. Sometimes it seems to me we're moving too far that direction
> too fast.
I get that feeling too. When I use Ubuntu and something fails, sometimes
I feel it is hard to diagnose and fix the problem. Maybe this is
the cost of things being "automagic": when it works, great, but when
it doesn't work, you've got to be a wizard to fix it.
Car analogy:
A person with mediocre knowledge of car mechanics can understand how
a classical car works, and doesn't complain that the transmission is
manual. He can even fix simple problems.
A person with good knowledge of car mechanics can even fix more serious
problems, because the car is simple, and many of its parts can be
serviced by an interested man.
But a modern car...
With all of its automatic transmission and everything, one does not
even need mediocre knowledge to drive it; but to understand how it
works is hard. To fix simple problems is harder. To fix serious problems,
one needs complex tools and specific knowledge that is almost beyond
the reach of the common man.
So I think that "automagic" things often tend to be harder
to understand and much harder to fix.
But so far, Ubuntu is actually *more* "automagic" than Windows
but more open, easier to understand and easier to fix (Windows
is a badly documented black box).
And a Gentoo desktop is easier to understand and fix than Ubuntu.
Specially if the user selected simple software such as Xfce or,
even simpler, LXDE.
Of course, you can theorize that at least part of this impression of
mine is caused by me being used to my simple no-hal no-nothing LXDE
Gentoo desktop and me being unfamiliar with Ubuntu.
Regards,
Jorge
--
Software is like sex: it is better when it is free. --Linus Torvalds
