
The Joy of Linux Desktop Environments - douche
https://medium.com/@steven_ovadia/the-joy-of-linux-desktop-environments-365d6cc8de72
======
awalGarg
One not-so-unrelated thing I really love about linux is that the
"configuration" for just about every application is stored in plain-text
files, mostly in the user's home directory. Which means we can use git to
version control them (like many many people do - the dotfiles trend).

You can have a log of configuration changes for your system, you can have
various profiles with branches, etc. Want to switch to a different profile?
Just `git checkout <branch-name>`, done! Want to revert some change, or see
how your PC looked like 2 months ago? `git log` and `git checkout` your way
through!

I currently have all my configurations[1] in a dotfiles directory representing
the home directory (same directory structure etc.) and symlinks to them in the
actual home directory. Very easy to manage.

[1]:
[https://github.com/awalGarg/dotfiles](https://github.com/awalGarg/dotfiles)

~~~
digi_owl
For every person loving those plain texts, there are one that want to see them
purged from existence. Observe how Gnome has basically recreated the registry,
complete with hidden magic switches...

~~~
willtim
The Gnome stack is horrible. I long ago started questioning the sanity of the
devs when they tried to build an entire office suite in C. Start any Gnome/GTK
app and it will continously spew assertion failed log messages at you. Gnome
has also forced certain standards, e.g. Network Manager when superior
alternatives exist (the excellent Connman).

~~~
tomrod
I'm stuck in GNOME -- any advice on breaking free is appreciated!

~~~
uabstraction
First, replace the core GNOME apps you use most frequently with lighter
alternatives. Take it easy, do it one at a time. Try rxvt-unicode instead of
gnome-terminal. Try Thunar or Dolphin or an mc clone instead of Nautilus.

There's a lot of non-obvious configuration options in the X11 stack. An
.Xresources file can select better fonts, tweak hinting so they look
fantastic, and change settings and color themes for many X applications. Out
of the box, many X applications look like obsolete garbage, but they can be
lightweight, functional, and awesome looking at the same time with a little
configuration and love.

After getting your core apps sorted, consider an alternate DE/WM. I personally
love the gaps fork of i3. XFCE is nice if you still want DE functionality.

I personally dual boot Debian Stretch and Gentoo ~amd64 - sharing a home
partition. I keep Debian more or less stock on GNOME, while I rice the hell
out of Gentoo with i3 and no systemd.

Check out [https://reddit.com/r/unixporn](https://reddit.com/r/unixporn) for
inspiration and ideas.

~~~
moon_priestess
All you need to do is install XFCE. It has a great terminal, a solid file
manager, a compositing WM, and easy configuration. I don't bother setting
things up piecemeal or fiddling with .Xresources any more.

Also, it would be great if we could stop using "rice" as an adjective. Even if
you don't find it offensive, some people do.

------
manaskarekar
Edit: Can the downvoter explain their reason?

My personal favorite is the LXDE / Lubuntu 16.04 setup.

All my subjective opinion, of course:

\- Sits in the sweet spot for bare bones distro vs batteries included.

\- Without decorations, I have essentially borderless applications, that I can
quickly toggle the titlebars etc.

\- Kept sane keyboard shortcuts and did not remove them for some arbitrary
reasons. Here's a random nitpick, why do some interfaces no longer allow you
to press a single letter on the keyboard to launch an option from a menu,
example: An option from the list of options in the File menu?

\- Very fast, allows a great battery life, all of ubuntu packages and ubuntu
community support/troubleshooting, very easy to customize if you need to.

I love it because it is an OS that stays out of my way, has a sane setup out
of the box and looks awesome with the borderless windows.

It is perfect in almost every way! I'm worried about their plans to switch to
LXQt. It's almost like how Ubuntu 10.10 was IMHO, the pinnacle of perfection,
sane choices etc, and then they decide to start all over again.

~~~
benologist
Only thing I dislike about Lubuntu is losing Mac keyboard shortcuts and
hardware, a lot of them I managed to replicate and even found a (slightly
unstable) Alfred alternative called Albert [1]. My Magic Mouse 2 could only
work like a dumb mouse.

I turned off the tray at the bottom, the window borders and set apps to start
full screen, switching between full screen apps was much nicer than what
remains after Apple closed off whatever Total Spaces was using. It ended up
being a really productive way to work due to the lack of distraction like crap
software from Apple, Adobe, 1Password, iTerm etc endlessly begging for 5
minutes so you can watch their updates download. Or all the other
notifications that mostly don't need to be read or exist.

[1] [http://www.howopensource.com/2015/03/launcher-for-ubuntu-
lin...](http://www.howopensource.com/2015/03/launcher-for-ubuntu-linux/)

~~~
TheCoelacanth
That's probably my favorite thing about Macs. The unix/emacs-like keybindings
like C-f, C-b, C-n, C-p to move the cursor, C-c to kill a process in the
terminal, etc and the Windows-like keybindings like ⌘-c, ⌘-v, ⌘-x for copy,
paste, cut, ⌘-n for new window, etc both exist by default without colliding. I
can get this on Linux if I spend a week remapping things but not by default.
As far as I can tell, there's no way to get this on Windows.

~~~
grzm
The Unix/emacs-like keybindings _are_ great, aren't they? They're included in
the default bindings of the Cocoa text system, and, though I wasn't able to
find references to it in the limited searching I did, it's not so surprising
given that OS X comes from NeXTSTEP which was a Unix-based system. I did find
that you can change these keybindings as well.[0][1] Pretty, cool, eh?

Minor pendantic nit: ⌘-C, ⌘-V, ⌘-X originate with Apple, so referring to them
as "Windows-like" is backwards.[2] Like I said, minor, eh? Normally I'd
suggest alternative wording in the interest of providing constructive
criticism, but I'm too lazy to do so right now, so feel free to disregard :)

[0]:
[https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Co...](https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/EventOverview/TextDefaultsBindings/TextDefaultsBindings.html)

[1]: [http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-
text.html](http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html)

[2]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut,_copy,_and_paste#Populariz...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut,_copy,_and_paste#Popularization)

------
bengalister
I recently tried to use Linux (Ubuntu 16.10) as my primary desktop and failed
again. I tried yearly since year 2000. But again in late 2016 I switched back
to Windows (10) and MacOs. Driver support is getting better but so are my
expectations and Linux (well Ubuntu) doesn't seem to catch up fast enough. For
instance I failed having my dual graphic cards be used in extended mode with
the my native laptop screen and an external HDMI screen monitor. My bluetooth
headset has a hard time being recognized by the OS I have to retry many times.
And I cannot have sound through on my monitor connected to HDMI output of my
Nvidia graphical card. Maybe I used the wrong distro, but all these issues are
non-existent when I switch to Windows 10. Linux desktop is getting better but
is still a painful experience when used with non common setup.

~~~
rifung
> Linux desktop is getting better but is still a painful experience when used
> with non common setup.

Indeed every time I think of getting a new laptop or desktop, I try to do
research into how well Linux will run on the hardware. Thankfully there seem
to be a decent number of laptops that have Linux preinstalled now.

As much as I enjoy tinkering, even after using Linux for a while I still don't
have a strong understanding of how things work, and it's frustrating to be
forced to tinker when my intention was to get things done.

Perhaps I need to dedicate more time to understanding how things work?

~~~
madamelic
I had the same opinion of Linux as you. I didn't want to tinker with it and
get everything working well.

Just install Ubuntu. Ignore everyone saying Ubuntu is a kiddy OS ("All you
need is X, Y, Z-ix"). Ubuntu is Linux Windows (not really, but it is pretty
hard to mess up).

~~~
dhimes
Linux Mint rocks for ease of setup and use.

~~~
alphapapa
Unfortunately Linux Mint does not track security issues or issue security
updates. That alone is reason enough to avoid it completely, but then when you
add in their server breach and the way they handled it...

Stick with Debian and Ubuntu. And more Debian, going forward.

~~~
dhimes
I get security updates pretty soon after they're released on the Debian
mailing list, actually. Logging on this morning I have an update for the
gstreamer issues.

I use Debian for servers though.

------
anondon
One thing I noticed about installing multiple desktop environment on Ubuntu:
they all have different default apps that are always installed. So when you
have two desktop environments, you end up with 2 different terminals, 2
different file browsers, 2 different archive managers etc. You could uninstall
apps that have the exact same purpose, but it would be nice if there was a
formal way for DEs to recognize and acknowledge the existence of another DE.

 _Rant:_ When I first wrapped my head around the concept of a desktop
environment, the first thought that came to mind was: why don't Microsoft and
Apple abandon their proprietary OSes and just build and maintain a solid
desktop environment for Linux and the BSDs. It would save them a ton of money,
resources, developers, it would improve security. The major drawback was
porting the apps written for their OSes to Linux and BSDs, which was a deal
breaker. Then came the announcement of Windows subsystem for Linux, first
thought: incredible engineering feat but MS did the exact opposite of what I
would have wanted, which was a Linux subsystem for Windows. It would have
solved the issue of porting Windows apps to Linux. Now I am beginning to
realize that all decisions technical or not, are just ugly politics with nice
explanations to make the decisions seem like the right thing to do.

~~~
digi_owl
> ugly politics with nice explanations

And why in the long run OSS will be subverted because it exists to strip free
software of politics...

~~~
TeMPOraL
It seems like the endless iteration of OSS stripping some politics, then
someone taking it and adding different politics, which makes someone else do
an OSS version without _that_ politics, etc.

------
drinchev
For all interested, there is a really nice thread on reddit for showing off
your desktop configuration [1]. There really are some master-pieces there.

1: [https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/](https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/)

~~~
api
Pretty really isn't the problem and hasn't been for a very long time. You can
make Linux IMHO prettier than a Mac or Windows pretty easily.

The problem is having to tinker. Tinkering is fine if you've got the time and
enjoy it, but if you just need your computer to always "just work" this is a
problem. Both Linux and Windows strike out for me here. I use a Mac because I
almost never have to mess with it... I mean sometimes a _year_ can go by
between times when I have to actually mess with my machine. Nothing else does
that.

~~~
hsitz
I'm not sure why you think you "have to tinker". I run Ubuntu 14.04 and use i3
window manager. I haven't "tinkered" with the setup in about a year-and-a-
half, dating back to when I installed i3 shortly after I got the my last
computer. The default Unity DE is nice, too. I don't use it, but I could have
used it all this time, can't imagine what "tinkering" would be required.

~~~
CaptSpify
I'll bite:

I have to tinker all the time because hw compatibility still sucks. Wifi,
sound, video-cards often require tinkering to get them working, especially
after upgrading. They are a lot better than they used to be, but they still
have a ways to go.

~~~
hsitz
I've had zero driver issues on my Asus UX305 laptop. Even if I had, those
issues are generally solved once on installation, not continually tinkered
with.

~~~
CaptSpify
Congratulations I guess?

I've had quite a few computers that didn't have any problems and worked right
out of the box. That doesn't mean there aren't still problems with other
computers.

------
roider
Tiling window managers like i3 seem to allow the perfect mixture of terminal
and graphics. After spending some time using i3 I've noticed (when using for
work, etc.)that desktop environments universally seem extremely inefficient
and slow. For certain types of tasks a mouse is essential, but being forced to
use it for nearly everything in OSX seems like a massive waste of time. I'd
like to see a study on efficiency among proficient users of desktop
environments and proficient users of WM. Users who view themselves as fluent
in an OSX desktop environment and users who view themselves as fluent in a
WM(say i3) probably spend different amounts of time executing the same tasks.
IMO not having to use the mouse as frequently seems like a tremendous
efficiency booster.

~~~
Symmetry
What I do is run a tiling window manager inside a desktop environment. XMonad
inside Gnome is what I'm using right now. For 95% of what I do every day I'm
just using the keyboard but when I do something unusual there's still the
friendlyish GUI to take care of it.

On Ubuntu it's just a matter of

    
    
      sudo apt-add-repository ppa:gekkio/xmonad
      sudo apt-get update
      sudo apt-get install gnome-session-xmonad

------
AceJohnny2
I remember when I discovered Unix as a college freshman (HP-UX with CDE), I
spent way too much time fiddling with the desktop settings. For a while I even
ran a buggy Enlightenment because _wow_ was it pretty.

I loved trying out new visual styles. I spent so much time on wallpapers.

It took me years before I realized that what I really wanted to optimize was
app layout. Any screen space that wasn't used by an app was wasted space.
Space I could use to have a few extra lines in a terminal, a few extra columns
of code...

I used AwesomeWM for a few years because I loved its concept of "tagging"
windows which let you mix-and-match which you were displaying at a given time
(this is my "all code" setting, that's my "all terms", and this is my "some
code some term..."). Now I'm on macOS and I dearly miss it.

Anyhow, I haven't looked at a desktop wallpaper in years, and I like my window
decorations as minimalistic as possible.

~~~
psadauskas
I'm in the same boat, I used AwesomeWM for several years, before switching to
OSX around 2010, just because the Mac hardware was superior to just about
everything else, but I always felt crippled in the window manager. iTerm2 +
tmux can get close, but switching to the browser never "fit" in that flow.

A few weeks ago I switched back to Linux on a NUC, and its like I've come home
again.

~~~
AceJohnny2
Which NUC? I've been eyeing one for a while, and am always looking for
recommendations :)

------
yoz-y
I do not subscribe to the idea that it is a good thing to switch from one DE
to another for specific tasks. I think it is better to learn one, master it
and stick to it. Otherwise time that should be spent working is spent on
tinkering with the DE.

~~~
digi_owl
Well the idea is supposedly that if you get your DE/WM just the way you want
it, you can be more productive.

Various people have a love for tiling WMs because they can navigate and
organize things with the keyboard.

~~~
falcolas
> get your DE/WM just the way you want it, you can be more productive

Does that ever actually occur? My vimrc changes almost on a daily basis, and
I'm frequently changing plugins, writing new tools, and creating new aliases
all time time. And that's just for my terminal.

Having to repeat some of those modifications 3-4 times because I'm using a
slightly different terminal app for each individual task would, I think, drive
me batty.

~~~
jlarocco
> Does that ever actually occur? My vimrc changes almost on a daily basis, and
> I'm frequently changing plugins, writing new tools, and creating new aliases
> all time time. And that's just for my terminal.

Don't take it the wrong way, but that sounds like a personal problem ;-)

If I were changing my configuration files that often, I would start looking
for an environment that worked better for me.

My config editing is approximately logarithmic. There's a bunch when I start
using new software (or start using old software in a new environment), but it
slows down quickly as time goes by. Nowadays, I _might_ make a big change to
my .emacs once a year, and maybe tweak a variable or keyboard shortcut once
every 3 months or so, but generally it doesn't change much. Same with all my
other config files.

~~~
hsitz
>Don't take it the wrong way, but that sounds like a personal problem

Yes, and in addition one that exists regardless of what OS/WM/DE you're
running, since Vim and Emacs configuraion works basically the same whatever
platform they're on.

~~~
digi_owl
And now i wonder if this is a contributing factor to a certain big name DE
stripping out options...

------
milkytron
Although this blog entry is entirely about desktop interfaces, he does mention
that

> ...Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android, have one common interface...

This is true for the first three without significant modification, but it
isn't true for Android. One of my favorite things about Android when I had it
was the ability to choose a launcher right from the app store. You can
completely change your home screen interface with a downloadable app, and it's
actually much easier to do than it is on linux last time I checked.

For desktops I agree, Linux has the most customization when it comes to the
interface. But on Android, it's just as customizable as a Linux desktop(I
mean... it is Linux after all).

~~~
nathcd
I agree mostly, but

> on Android, it's just as customizable as a Linux desktop

I wouldn't say is true. For android launchers to be functionally equivalent to
(or as customizable as) linux DEs, they'd have to be able to customize
android's nav bar, pull-down menu, settings app, recents menu, and split
screen/tiling/windowing. At the moment, these are all handled at the OS level.
Not that android's launcher concept isn't cool, but it's definitely not as
flexible as DEs.

~~~
milkytron
I agree, the launcher isn't as customizable as a linux desktop. To change the
entirety of a linux user interface is much easier on a linux desktop. But
nonetheless, Android is still quite customizable, and the other interfaces you
mentioned (nav bar, pull down menu, etc) are still customizable if you're able
to flash a custom ROM. It's all possible, but desktop Linux is much easier to
fiddle around with in that manner.

Nonetheless, I think Android should've been left out of that group in the OP.
Not a big deal, but for someone who used to tinker with Android quite a bit, I
couldn't resist commenting the point.

------
buckbova
> If you’re using Windows, you’re pretty much stuck with the Windows
> interface. The menus are always going to be in the same place and while you
> can do things, like change your desktop image and your colors and themes,
> you’re still limited in how you interact with your computer.

I'm not so sure about that. I used winblinds years ago for XP. Not surprised
to learn that they're still around.

[http://www.stardock.com/products/](http://www.stardock.com/products/)

~~~
digi_owl
There used to be a bunch of alternatives to explorer.exe (yep, the very same
damned .exe as the file explorer), but its been ages since i played with them.
They all had quirks and issues, as best i recall.

~~~
notalaser
Litestep used to be very sleek at one point. I've used it for an year or two
without any problems.

~~~
fmoralesc
I remember making themes (and even a "distro") for litestep when I was in
highschool. Good times.

The best shell I ever used for Windows in terms of productivity was a blackbox
variant, xoblite ([http://xoblite.net/](http://xoblite.net/)).

------
city41
I think even more importantly, Linux allows DEs and WMs to do practically
anything they want. The window manager i3 simply is not possible on OSX. OSX
tiling window managers use the accessibility API as a hack, and it's just not
very good at all.

I can't even begin to express how much I love i3. I literally switched from
OSX just for i3, it's made me that much more efficient, focused, less
frustrated and allows me to use my ultrawide monitor to its fullest potential.

------
bitwize
I get to experience the joy of not having a desktop environment; of using a
bare WM, the shell, and 30-year-old Unix skills to work with my system.

It's a good feeling.

~~~
slgeorge
I've been going through a similar experience over the last few years, mostly
driven by my hardware getting older and not handling the requirements of
modern DE's (when I'd prefer the resource to be used for applications).

It's nice stripping back to the original structures, though it does feel like
computer archaeology sometimes. There's a lot of services in the upper layers
that have to be switched off to get back to plain .xinitrc and Xresources!

On the upside, I know my configuration and it's all in a repository now!

~~~
bitwize
Except I never actually got on board with KDE or GNOME. Command line,
.xinitrc, and .Xresources were my jam lo these many years.

When I first tried Linux in the 90s it was already less of a pain than
Windows. Why would I want to reinstate all that Windows-like cruft to be at
most 0% more productive than I was without it?

------
kevinvdburgt
That is one of the reasons i like Linux very much! Still, bspwm is my
favoriete because i van everything togheter as i want :) And a tilingwm is
increasing my workflow! Still considering to leave osx (or called macOS these
days) behind. But there is still the osx only software problem.

------
rootbear
In the environment I'm in, my Linux home directory is shared by multiple
systems. Most are CentOS 6, but we're starting to use CentOS 7, too. I'm using
the default Gnome 2 Desktop on 6, but Mate Desktop on 7, as I don't like Gnome
3 or the "Classic" option. I can't point to any specifics at the moment, but
I've had what I think are issues of these desktops stepping on each other.
Being able to switch between DEs is nice, but they have to play nicely with
each other and I'm not sure that's always true.

I also maintain some Solaris 10 systems and that's a whole other set of
issues, sharing a home directory across different "unix family" systems.

~~~
mverwijs
If in this case you've a /home that is an NFS mount shared across several
nodes running different *nix or even Linux distros then yes, that is a
problem.

Centos6 will have different Gnome versions than Centos7. However, both will
write in ~/.gnome, possibly .gtk, or .gtk-3.0 or wherever the hell they write
to these days.

Better to share your data through an nfs share in /data instead of /home and
take the pain of not having the exact Desktop across different nodes. Or to
create a homogenous environment with only Centos7 for example.

~~~
rootbear
I'm beginning to think that's the right approach. Or, have a minimal home
directory with a .bashrc that sets $HOME at login to an appropriate sub
directory. Might not be too robust...

------
theSoenke
If there is one distro i have to recommend it's Solus. I'm usually not a fan
of new distro xyz were not much except the wallpaper changed. But Solus is
build from scratch and questions many old linux dogmas. It also focuses on the
desktop and is probably one of the fastest distros with a great OOTB
experience. It also has a very high velocity were every time you look there
are new amazing improvements

------
adrianlmm
I'm more productive when using GNOME, to me is the most usable DE out there.

~~~
nolepointer
Some design choices for GNOME simply escape me. By default, no window buttons
(i.e. active windows) on the top panel. By default, no maximize/minimize
buttons for windows. Who could possibly find that user-friendly?

~~~
symlinkk
> no maximize/minimize buttons for windows

why do you use the maximize / minimize buttons? If you're just trying to see a
different app, wouldn't alt+tab do the same thing?

> no window buttons (i.e. active windows) on the top panel

why do you need to see a running list of everything that's open in your face
at all times? it seems to me like the only time you should need this
information is when you're switching apps. you can also see this information
by pressing the Super (aka Windows) key. also, afaik i3 doesn't show you all
of the running applications at once either, but no one ever complains about
that.

~~~
alphapapa
> why do you use the maximize / minimize buttons?

To maximize and minimize windows?

> If you're just trying to see a different app, wouldn't alt+tab do the same
> thing?

Can you alt+tab with a mouse?

> why do you need to see a running list of everything that's open in your face
> at all times?

A taskbar at the edge of the screen is "in your face"? What if the panel auto-
hides?

> it seems to me like the only time you should need this information is when
> you're switching apps.

And by hiding that information, you add an extra step to the process. The one-
step "click on taskbar button" becomes the two-step "activate the window list,
click on window button".

> i3 doesn't show you all of the running applications at once either, but no
> one ever complains about that.

That's because people who use i3 don't want that feature. People who do don't
use it.

GNOME _used_ to have it, but threw it away--along with many other features.

Why is it so hard to understand that not everyone uses their computer the same
way you do?

------
habosa
This year my MacbookPro died (battery exploded). Since I was frustrated with
Apple's lack of support for this extreme case and the fact that the new models
can't be repaired, I bought an Asus UX305LA and loaded Ubuntu onto it.

I have used Ubuntu at work for a few years but this was the first time I went
with Linux at home.

For the most part, I love it! The whole OS seems to be really light on
resources and the UI is pretty nice these days. It also passes a critical
test, which is when I hand my laptop to a non-technical friend they don't even
notice it's running anything uncommon. Chrome is Chrome I guess :-)

One thing that kills me is the fact that Linux is basically left in the dust
when it comes to media on the web. I can't watch HBO Go, installing Flash
player requires a PhD, and many websites just tell you to go away for using an
"unsupported operating system".

~~~
alphapapa
> Chrome is Chrome...installing Flash player requires a PhD

Huh? Chrome has Flash built-in, and for everything else, just `apt-get install
flashplugin-installer`.

------
sandGorgon
Ubuntu has turned into this franken-beast that is simply not cutting it for me
anymore.

Right from the installer (that doesn't work well on XPS 13 with name) to Unity
to Mir.

Fedora 24 has been brilliant and works awesome out of the box. I am constantly
recommending F24 to people and have never had a bad experience.

~~~
willtim
Ubuntu are playing a (very long) game. If they manage it, IMHO they'll be in a
better place than Fedora's UI which is built on a stack that increasingly only
Redhat will continue to develop.

~~~
sandGorgon
Just like systemd, Wayland and the kernel right ?

Are you aware that Redhat actually employs most of the kernel devs ?

Ubuntu does not have the "people's stack" ... It's just another company
building a stack that is not as good.

~~~
slgeorge
Are you aware that the whole of the development resource (people) across the
_entire_ free software desktop would fit into a reasonable size conference
room? Versus, say the size of the development teams on proprietary systems
such as Windows?

So, what is the point of trying to divide the community of people all trying
to work towards similar(ish) goals - the improvement of the alternative
desktops - rather than focusing on how they are part of the same thing? It
doesn't improve the likelihood of achieving the goal of a "better" desktop.

You are literally stood in a room with 10 people trying to demonstrate how 2
of them are better than the other 8. It's an exercise in pointlessness, makes
the free software community unfriendly and sets up fake academic wars [0].

Note: I previously worked for Canonical so have bias, I know people at RedHat
and other open source companies. I have had the opinion that this sort of
stupid divisionism stuff is bad for FOSS for at least 10 years.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre's_law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre's_law)

~~~
sandGorgon
I apologize if I came off as an ass. I was ticked off by Redhat being painted
as the BigBadCo and Canonical being painted as the little-guy-who-could.

I have the greatest of respect for anyone who has ever contributed a single
line to Linux - more than anywhere else, your works really impacts countries
like India.

I am not sure why there is this impression. I would be lying if I didn't think
so myself.

~~~
slgeorge
@sandGorgon thanks for apologising, I really appreciate anyone taking a moment
to reconsider their underlying assumptions and thinking.

------
seanwilson
I used to love the choice after being limited by Windows but it meant all the
development and design efforts were split between different desktop
environments so mixing apps from different desktop systems was an awkward user
experience.

I preferred KDE the most but I never understood the obsession with the number
of customisation options. These surely slowed down development and it felt
like you had to be the UX designer yourself instead of sensible defaults
behind chosen.

Now I just want something with minimal customisation with decent defaults so I
know it won't suddenly break when I have to get some work done.

~~~
slgeorge
> Now I just want something with minimal customisation with decent defaults so
> I know it won't suddenly break when I have to get some work done.

The difficulty is that one persons "sensible default" is anothers "crazy
terrible default". Particularly in the Linux world, fuelled by it being
committed hobbyists who create much of the desktop software and the tradition
of UNIX configurability.

------
shmerl
Waiting for KDE to switch to Wayland at last. The progress is slow, but
steady: [http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/](http://blog.martin-
graesslin.com/blog/)

Some major applications are still behind. For instance Firefox:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=635134](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=635134)

------
zedr
The freedom of using a variety of desktop environments, and the ability to
customise them down to the source code, is what got me interested in Linux in
the first place.

Back in 2003, I was experimenting with Rainmeter and a port of Blackbox for
Windows, but became quickly frustrated about their limitations. I spent an
embarassing amount of time trying out the different window managers, before
settling on KDE 3.

There's a downside, however: fragmentation.

------
mmphosis
Oh the joy ...

[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CustomXSession](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CustomXSession)

------
santaclaus
I wish one of the major Linux distributions would double down on design as a
core priority (as in, bring in designers and give them serious pull). I'd kill
for a beautiful, opinionated, and novel Linux desktop environment.

~~~
nixos
>as in, bring in designers

That's the mistake. You bring in UX experts (who also happened to understand
your primary users)

Graphics design != UX

~~~
digi_owl
> who also happened to understand your primary users

That would be the hard part...

------
budhajeewa
The only problem will be having a dozen of calculators, control centers, text
editors, terminal emulators, and file browsers installed on your computer, to
the point you have to hunt for the correct program.

------
aarghh
Speaking of window managers - is there a successor/branch of scwm (Scheme
Constrained Window Manager) that is being maintained currently? I loved how
that worked...

------
z3t4
Unity tip: Use the windows key + number to start or switch between programs.
Then when you've learned the keys you can hide the menu bar.

------
macawfish
I love Gnome 3. Just wanted to pitch that! Didn't used to, but the extension
system, as it matures, is making Gnome 3 awesome!

------
hellofunk
Has anyone got a comment on his book, mentioned in the article, Learn Linux in
a Month of Lunches? Good, ok, not good...?

------
lottin
Nice article, but what's wrong with that page? ublock reports 409 requests
blocked and increasing...

~~~
tyrust
You can click on the uBlock icon and open the logger (little icon that looks
like a window with lines) to see which requests are being blocked. I'm seeing
xhr's to [https://collector-
medium.lightstep.com/api/v0/reports](https://collector-
medium.lightstep.com/api/v0/reports) being blocked every few seconds. Probably
some medium analytics request.

------
tracker1
I was a pretty big fan of the LiteStep desktop environment for windows... very
configurable.

------
mwkaufma
Cargo cultism is alive and well! So many _feelings_ of variety! 2016 is the
year of the linux desktop, just like 2015, 2014, 2013...

So many options of ways to lay out windows but fewer than half the actual
applications creative professionals need to do their job, so we're still stuck
on Mac or Windows.

~~~
slgeorge
But, the reality is that "creative professionals" have very few reasons to
change platforms as Mac/Windows satisfises [0] them. This means they don't
contribute to making alternative platforms better for their use-case.

Second, professional Linux development is focused on the server. No-one is
really paid on the desktop side to create applications for creative
professionals [1]. Most of the applications are created by "hobbyist"
developers whose target audience is themselves.

This means no-one is really contributing to what "creative professionals"
want.

The Linux desktop works for me perfectly, it's been the year of the Linux
desktop since 1996 - but then I'm not a 'creative professional' or an
'accounting professional' etc etc.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing)
[1] Creative professionals are a more difficult segment than general users
because they have high expectations of the platform and specific
applications/use-cases.

------
copperx
At first I thought this was a sarcastic post.

------
jokoon
I think the core of the argument about linux is not about having a well
designed system that works well, but that it should be an american technology
that dominates, and not anything that is managed by a non american, especially
if he is against corporatism and tend to do things in a way that can be
perceived as arrogant.

So basically, linux will not prosper as long as it is not in the interest of
the US.

~~~
nols
Linux is extremely successful though, just not on the desktop.

