On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 12:13 PM, behrouz khosravi <bz.khosr...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi. I have been using the gnome for some time(in other distro's) and I > had no complaint. However after switching to gentoo I installed i3 and > it is very great. > I really love it, but I was considering to install a DE too. > Before jumping to gnome I wanted to evaluate my options. > I have heard that " It is a matter of taste" but think it is not all > of the story. > I have heard that the gentoo community is more inclined toward KDE > too. So KDE must have some advantage that makes people like it's > taste! > So can you please tell me why you have chosen a specific DE and not > the other options ? > thanks.
I've bounced between quite a few, both straight WMs and full featured DEs over the years. I liked Gnome pre-3, mostly due to the fact that it typically 'just worked' and the bulkiest programs I ran being primarily GTK based. While I liked Gnome Shell when it was in early development, there were quite a few decisions made (*notably the distinct aversion to allowing meaningful customization) on that end on the way to Gnome 3 that I don't find it very appealing as it stands. I ran and enjoyed KDE about a decade ago, but hadn't really touched it since until recently, and it's just too heavy to suit my needs (most of my systems are lightweight laptops/netbooks anymore). In the end, once I ran across Blackbox, then Fluxbox, my interest in 'full featured' DEs was pretty much killed. My favorite WM when I'm running a truly stripped down system is actually ratpoison, while I tend to run LXDE (and toying with LXQT now) on most of my systems for the sake of giving a more 'normal' usage paradigm (primarily if I need other people to be able to use the system). LXDE gives just enough trinkets for things like battery status, multiple desktop management, coherent configuration interfaces for themes and such, and a proper menu while otherwise staying out of the way. I've never really used xfce or e17 much, but both seem to be pretty well loved by their users. I still bounce between LXDE, Ratpoison, and Fluxbox fairly often (and as proof of how much I liked Blackbox and Fluxbox, I run an offshoot of those on Windows as a shell replacement). I have friends that vary between liking and tolerating Gnome 3, KDE, etc. and I can honestly say the only meaningful factor in deciding what they run has always boiled down to taste. Sit down with each for a week or three (as your main system, you won't get a real feel for them if you're not trying to get real work done through them), get them working as close to your preferences as you can, then judge which a) took the least work to get there and b) most closely match what you actually want from them. As an added bonus, poke around for a third thing to score based on... which gives you the best set of features you *weren't* looking for but *will* use. -- Poison [BLX] Joshua M. Murphy
