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Alternative Desktops


Agent007

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hi all,Finding the default KDE and GNOME too heavy and resourse intensive? Check out these extremely light-weight and easy to configure alternatives...Btw, all of the mentioned desktops below support themes and have tonnes of options to suite everyone.1) This is what I use and it rocks!Window Maker---->http://www.windowmaker.org/2) ICE WM----------->http://icewm.sourceforge.net/3) XFCE--------------->http://www.xfce.org/snapshots.html#TOP4) Ximian Desktop ( a bit heavy, but well organised menus)http://ximian.com/products/desktop/screenshots.htmlbye,007

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Good point Agent007 ! IceWM is one of my all time favorites, has cool themes too. In fact my VectorLinux runs that by default, ¨look no further¨ is what I said after the install. :D Bruno

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Prelude76

question from a linux rookie:Why do you guys (Bruno, Agent 007) have several distros loaded? Don't you have to reboot to switch to the other distro? Wouldnt you have to have all apps like KDE , Gnome, Open Office, etc... loaded twice or thrice or more, one for each distro? and my understanding is that with any distro, you can customize its interface, all loaded applications, etc... so why have all these distros loaded at once? why not just pick best one and then fine tune it, adding anything you've seen done better in another distro? B) perfect example: is it possible to load up SuSE 8.2, and then add in the Galaxy theme from Mandrake? or add Red Hat's BlueCurve into SuSE as well?

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Prelude76:I triple-boot Mandrake, Debian and Slackware ( Lilo bootmanager ) and can access, read and write files in Slack from within Mandrake, or Debian files in Slack etc. etc. Applying a theme from KDE 3.1 in Slack on KDE 3.1 in Mandrake is someting I have not tried yet, but then I would just copy or download the theme to the distro I would like to apply it to.As I´m stil ¨learning¨ Slack and Debian I use KDE in them like I do In Mandrake, but soon I will change Debian to Gnome and Slack to IceWM. ( I´ve got VectorLinux on another box, there I use IceWM and like it every second I´m on that computer. )Hope this answers your question. B) Bruno

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Hello Prelude76,I don't have any other distro apart from RedHat 9.0......The last thing I need to do is reboot to another OS and play around. What I mentioned in my post is "Alternative Desktops". I think u r confused beetween Distro and Desktops environments.A desktop environment is basically what u see on the screen. This may include the desktop where there r icons, a File-Manager, the menu at the bottom of the screen which can expand to give u a listing of applications etc. Now, GNU/Linux can have multiple Desktop Environments. I have listed some above. To understand better, just compare a desktop Environment to Windows Explorer. Now, it is important to note that Explorer is NOT just the File-Manager, but it is actually the Desktop wherein u can create shortcuts, the start menu etc. Try terminating Explorer.exe and c what happens. The taskbar will dissapear!So, coming back to the point, since u mentioned it, lets take RedHat's blucurve as an example. Bluecurve is a unified theme which they have added to Desktop Environments namely KDE and GNOME. There r quite a lot of changes that RedHat has done to KDE and GNOME to make the "look & feel" look alike. KDE just dosent look like KDE and the same goes for GNOME. So, I really have my doubts if BlueCurve will work on SUSE. Also, u can run any application on any Desktop. There are no contraints there...The reason, I dont fine tune GNOME and KDE is because there is just too much to do and I dont think they can be made light-weight. In any case they are not meant to be "light" hence I use Window-Maker or Ice-WM. With KDE or GNOME, 256 Megs of RAM just dissapear and I'm left with only 5MB...After switching to the lighter alternatives, I have 65% of FREE unused memory space. Which can be put to use somewhere-else.Have a look at my desktop environment (Window Maker) here:-www.ilug-margao.org/desktop.jpgwarm rgds,007

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Prelude76

bruno:i guess i didnt make the question too clear. i wanted to know the pros of using multiple distros on a system. I understand you can hand KDE, or Gnome, or IceVM or WindowMaker (or all of them) on 1 distro. Short of 'trying out' different distros to see which you like better, why would someone keep 3 or 4 distros and boot to them? Why not just pick one? or you just like variety and are trying to learn them all? :)agent007: I know the difference between desktops & distros. Ive played around with Litestep in windows, so im guessing desktops are something like that. A different GUI. I thought you ran several distros, but i was mistaken, so i guess my question was more towards Bruno. About bluecurve, how do you find it? do you prefer it over KDE or Gnome? I'm waiting to get my SuSE 8.2 Pro CDs and i'll load that up. But i do have their self-bootable eval CD (like Knoppix, except it saves settings). And from the look, it has KDE, Gnome and WindowMaker among others when you're loggin in a user. (not sure if it has IceVM too, i'll wait and see).thanx guys

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Prelude76:

I understand you can hand KDE, or Gnome, or IceVM or WindowMaker (or all of them) on 1 distro.
That is 100% correct !
Short of 'trying out' different distros to see which you like better, why would someone keep 3 or 4 distros and boot to them? Why not just pick one? or you just like variety and are trying to learn them all?
Yes trying different distro´s has alway´s been the most fun, usualy my main was Mandrake and I used my other HD to play around with new stuff. Mandrake will stay my main distro on HD1the one I use for mail and music, I loaded recently on a repartitioned HD2 Slackware and Debian mainly to get to know them better, and in the second place because I want to be able to answer questions on this forum related to those 2 distro´s. Mandrake ( RedHat based distro ) Debian and Slackware are the 3 main basis for nearly every other distro you see on Distrowatch, also: Zox and Stryder are good with SuSe, Peachy and LilBambi in RedHat, ThunderRiver in FreeBSD, Mandrake is widely supported by all of us, this way we´ve got all sides covered.B) Bruno
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Prelude76,The reason I like Bluecurve is primarily because it puts me in a better position to tell people to try and switch over to GNU/Linux. The unified look is kind of easy for the newbies. This way they dont have to learn how GNOME and KDE work. Heck, they dont even realise the difference between the 2!When newbies c my Desktop environment (window maker)its definately a big NO-NO to switch to GNU/Linux. Guess Microsoft has played a big role in making people always want the START button in the Taskbar...But then again in India, not everyone has got tonnes of RAM. A basic system will come with usually 64megs sometimes even 32! Frankly, I'm way ahead of the race with just 256...and even on my system I found bluecurve to be a resource-hog.So, all in all RedHat needs to cut back just a little here on the heavy stuff or come out with separate Home and Professional Versions.....rgds,007

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