Re: Questions : switching back to Linux for my desktop

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Author: Stephen Partington via PLUG-discuss
Date:  
To: Main PLUG discussion list
CC: Stephen Partington
Subject: Re: Questions : switching back to Linux for my desktop
Weird vs not and piggishness or not is going to be so subjective here.

On Mon, Oct 24, 2022, 9:45 AM Ryan Petris via PLUG-discuss <
> wrote:

> Neither. They're both slow, entangled pigs. Gnome has a weird,
> inobvious user interface. If you want something performant, simple and
> clean, LXDE is the way to go.
>
>
> I just wanted to rebut this...
>
> GNOME, I would say, is different, not weird. It's designed in a way where
> the desktop environment gets out of your way, only appearing when you
> really need it. What you do see by default is stuff that you really want to
> see at a glance, like what program is selected, what the time is, how much
> battery you have left, etc.. If you want to see more, you can open
> activities or a menu to see more.
>
> If you're worried about RAM usage, my GNOME installs use about 1G of RAM
> on boot, but that also includes several other programs I run on startup
> like Syncthing, a Syncthing GUI, Solaar, etc.. If you have even a modest
> amount of RAM, say at least 8GB, this is not a problem. What else are you
> going to use that RAM for anyway? If you're always trying to maximize
> "free" RAM then you're just wasting your money by having more RAM than you
> need.
>
> GNOME is also not slow, in fact on any hardware made in say the last 10
> years, it's incredibly fast and smooth. Even in a non-graphics-acellerated
> environment, it's still fast as by default it disables all animations. Even
> Core 2 Duo machines can run GNOME like a champ.
>
> Lastly, GNOME also integrates well with standard systemd services.
>
> Now, if you want to talk about KDE, I've had it take 10-15 seconds to
> start up on a brand new machine where GNOME would start in a second or two.
> That and it kind of wants to do its own thing for a lot of stuff makes me
> not want to use it.
>
> But to call either of them "slow, entangled pigs", no, I absolutely cannot
> agree with you.
>
> If you have a relatively modern computer, you're giving up a lot going the
> LXDE route, and will overall add more frustration to your Linux experience.
> I'd only use "lightweight" environments on really old/slow computers.
>
> Not to disparage the maintainers of LXDE or LXQt either, but GNOME and KDE
> have much more resources put behind them, constantly improving. LXDE has
> been abandoned and LXQt is slow moving. On top of that LXQt even pulls in
> some dependencies from KDE, so you can't really argue much about LXQt being
> more lightweight than KDE when they're using the same core features.
>
> On Mon, Oct 24, 2022, at 2:00 AM, Steve Litt via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>
> Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss said on Sun, 23 Oct 2022 11:04:51 -0700
>
>
> >
> >My first question has to do with what desktop KDE or GNOME?
>
> Neither. They're both slow, entangled pigs. Gnome has a weird,
> inobvious user interface. If you want something performant, simple and
> clean, LXDE is the way to go. Or if your distro doesn't offer LXDE,
> LXQt is almost as good.
>
> By the way, except for Redhat which likes to keep their monopoly close
> to the vest, you can use any wm/de (Window Manager/Desktop Environment)
> on any distro.
>
>
> >
> >I want to use Ubuntu. Ubuntu desktop used GNOME. Kubuntu uses KDE
> >and has the Plasma desktop. Not sure what the Plasma desktop is. I
> >will look into that once I have sent this email.
>
> The computer you describe has paltry resources, by today's standards.
> Ubuntu will consume a lot of those resources. Also, if you sign up with
> Ubuntu, you sign up with the incredibly entangled and complexified
> systemd. Just saying.
>
> >
> >I eventually would like to edit videos on Linux. According to what I
> >hear and read, Kdenlive is said to be the best free Linux editor.
> >
> >I need to do a handful of things with this Linux box. Mail,
>
> All email clients suck. Claws-Mail, Evolution and Mutt suck the least.
>
> > Internet
> >surfing,
>
> All distros I'm aware of come with lots of great browsers. Get to know
> them, and which ones work best in which situations.
>
> > virtualization using oracle VirtualBox,
>
> Or qemu or others.
>
> > programming using
> >Visual Studio Code,
>
> I use VSCode every day to do websites. It's fantastic.
>
> > and video editing using Kdenlive. I hope I did
> >not leave anything out.
> >
> >List of initial questions:
> >
> >1) Is it GNOME or KDE?
>
> Neither
>
> >2) What mail client should I use? I have been using Thunderbird for
> >years and am not married to it.
>
> Thunderbird's fine if you don't have a lot of emails stored. When you
> have lots of stored emails in your various mailboxes, Thunderbird can
> actually come to a standstill. I've had it happen. Claws-Mail,
> Evolution and Mutt are much more performant.
>
> >3) For FTP I have been using FileZilla.
>
> For file transfer I use sftp. For whole directory trees I use rsync, or
> tar=>gzip the tree, transfer it with sftp, and then ssh to the
> destination and untar it.
>
> >4) For watching DVD videos I have been using VCL media player - any
> >thoughts?
>
> Different media players work in different situations. Whatever distro
> you pick will probably have lots of choices. VLC, Totem, SMPlayer are
> just a few of your many choices. I use them all.
>
> >5) For SSH I have been using the Win 10, I think it called the Linux
> >subsystem. This new box will have command line access so that should
> >not be an issue.
> >6) I will be using a wired non-routable static IP.
>
> Here's my simple, distro independent script for obtaining a fixed IP4
> address. Just have your rc.local script run it.
> http://troubleshooters.com/linux/qemu/nobs.htm#tldrstep
>
> And here's my complete script for hosts of qemu guests:
> http://troubleshooters.com/linux/qemu/nobs.htm#hostnetworking
>
> >7) Eventually I will need to configure my printer/scanner. From a
> >quick search it looks like KDE makes it simple compared to the old
> >days...
>
> Before you select the massively entangled KDE, read this:
> http://troubleshooters.com/lpm/201202/201202.htm
>
> The preceding article is specifically about Kmail, but KDE does the same
> krap to all its apps.
>
> >
> >I apologize in advance for all my future questions. I'm sure I will
> >drive you crazy over the next few months while I try to understand and
> >learn.
>
> Welcome to the world of desktop Linux!
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
> Summer 2022 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/thrive.htm
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