From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 29 22:50:48 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E460D7BB for ; Mon, 29 Dec 2014 22:50:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id A4C23321C for ; Mon, 29 Dec 2014 22:50:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-39-170.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.39.170]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4390A278B0; Mon, 29 Dec 2014 23:50:46 +0100 (CET) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id sBTMojam002123; Mon, 29 Dec 2014 23:50:45 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 23:50:45 +0100 From: Polytropon To: galtsev@kicp.uchicago.edu Subject: Re: Xwindow advise needed Message-Id: <20141229235045.b8156cdf.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <55358.128.135.70.2.1419874589.squirrel@cosmo.uchicago.edu> References: <55358.128.135.70.2.1419874589.squirrel@cosmo.uchicago.edu> Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 22:50:49 -0000 On Mon, 29 Dec 2014 11:36:29 -0600 (CST), Valeri Galtsev wrote: > Dear All, > > I just upgraded my workstation from 10.0 to 10.1. Which made me to make > "step up" from Gnome 2 to Gnome 3. And after a few days of frustration > (which was just trying to do the work on workstation as usually) I > realized that I'm not ready to join ipad generation yet. Wait, you do _not_ want fat sausage finger prints from tapping on your screen? ;-) > Any suggestion anybody? To prolong my not joining ipad generation for just > a bit longer. It depends on how much of a "desktop environment" you need. What comes closest to Gnome 3 is Gnome 2, and therefore, Mate, derived from Gnome 2. An alternative is Cinnamon. But I can't make a statement about how functional those are when running on FreeBSD. Is KDE an option for you? For a long time, Xfce has been considered the "less fatty desktop" in comparison to the "big players" Gnome and KDE. But with the growing incompatibilities btweeen FreeBSD and Linux (the system Xfce is primarily being developed on and for), you might experience missing functionality. The last statement probably is also true for LXDE. If you're comfortable with a powerful window manager, why not try something "lower level", which means: faster, less dependencies, higher productivity? Personally I'm using WindowMaker on my workstation for more than 10 years now. I've tried a lot of alternatives, but WindowMaker has the best integration of mouse and (programmable) keyboard from my experience. It's fast and versatile, and pleasant to the eyes, once configured to the user's delight. But if you want something even faster, FVWM is a good choice. As it has been mentioned, tiling window managers are even more professional. Sadly, their magic didn't open up to me yet. It's a very powerful paradigm of managing your screen content, but I don't get it. Maybe too much "passive smoking" of the iStuff pollution floating into my direction... ;-) Basically, it will be a "trial & error" for you, because you'll have to actually _use_ the different desktop environments and window managers to form an opinion about if they are good _for you_ or not. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...