Show off your desktop

[Werne]

Oh yeah, KDE really is awesome. I used XFCE for the longest time after GNOME3 was released (since my computer couldn't handle) it. Wish I tried KDE earlier.

 

Awesome visuals and usability, plus tons of reprogrammable hotkeys for pretty much anything. The only thing I don't like is the "desktop cashew" at the top-right which can be removed with a plugin, and the whole deal with "Activities", which can just be ignored. In other words, best DE ever.

To be honest, I was never much of a fan of KDE, I always used GNOME 2 which suits my needs best. I used to use Debian Squeeze with it and Compiz so I had desktop effects (KDE effects are far from Compiz, I like that thing). Ever since that over-simplified GNOME 3 got out, I've been looking for it's replacement.

 

I miss good old GNOME 2, I think MATE is basically a fork of it updated to work on new systems, never tried it though but I might. :smile:

 

KDE seems to be a pretty nice replacement though, can't wait for 3.11 kernel and updated ATI drivers, then my desktop effects will work much smoother (Arch kernel updates break proprietary ATI drivers more often than I want). Also, I very much like Oxygen Transparent theme, reminds me of Win7's Aero but much better looking.

 

The "Desktop" in upper right corner, I actually like it being there, my right mouse button tends to get stuck so I can't right-click the desktop, that's where that button comes in handy. :thumbsup: Activities is just useless though, I keep it's button as a spacer between Kickoff and Pager and ignore it otherwise, don't see any use for it anyway. :dry:

[Woggsy]

 

To be honest, I was never much of a fan of KDE, I always used GNOME 2 which suits my needs best. I used to use Debian Squeeze with it and Compiz so I had desktop effects (KDE effects are far from Compiz, I like that thing). Ever since that over-simplified GNOME 3 got out, I've been looking for it's replacement.

 

I miss good old GNOME 2, I think MATE is basically a fork of it updated to work on new systems, never tried it though but I might. :smile:

 

KDE seems to be a pretty nice replacement though, can't wait for 3.11 kernel and updated ATI drivers, then my desktop effects will work much smoother (Arch kernel updates break proprietary ATI drivers more often than I want). Also, I very much like Oxygen Transparent theme, reminds me of Win7's Aero but much better looking.

 

The "Desktop" in upper right corner, I actually like it being there, my right mouse button tends to get stuck so I can't right-click the desktop, that's where that button comes in handy. :thumbsup: Activities is just useless though, I keep it's button as a spacer between Kickoff and Pager and ignore it otherwise, don't see any use for it anyway. :dry:

 

Oh yeah, I used to use Gnome 2 before I switched to XFCE. I did try Gnome 3, but the Intel Celeron I used to use crumbled beneath it. As for me, my pager was set on the far right of the bar, so I didn't need a spacer. You know, just like it is in XFCE and Gnome 2 I think. Kickoff's a good launcher too.

 

And yep, MATE is Mint's fork of Gnome 2, whereas Cinnamon is their fork of Gnome 3. I didn't really like either though. They're better than the originals, but still. I never really used much desktop compositing at all though. Mostly just shadows. I might have had window animations, but I forget. Definitely not on my old Celeron, that's for sure. I have an AMD GPU right now, well, APU. Their proprietary drivers aren't so good though, so I'd understand its incompatibility with Arch updates. Yeah, kernel updates would always mess things up with me.

 

Checked out my imgur, turns out I don't have any screenshots of my KDE desktop. I gotta switch back to Linux again, I miss KDE.

[Werne]

I tried XFCE, seems pretty good but there's just something about it that doesn't suit me, can't put a finger on it though. And GNOME 3, that thing is a resource hog, I have an Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 overclocked to 3.0GHz and Gnome Shell is killing it, it's designed for new, more powerful machines with touch screens, on a normal desktop PC it's pretty much useless due to the bad layout.

 

I can't say I like Mint's stuff either (neither Ubuntu nor Debian based Mint cut it for me), Cinnamon is a resource-hog just like the Gnome Shell, the only difference being that it's actually useful.

 

And AMD proprietary drivers aren't bad, I get the same performance as I had on Windows, about 20MB less RAM usage too. It's just that whenever the kernel gets updated, I have to remove the AMD driver and replace with open-source driver, then wait for updated Arch legacy patches to hit AUR (I have a Radeon 4350 and AMD dropped 3xxx/4xxx/5xxx driver support for Linux after kernel 3.4). I hate drivers. :dry:

[Woggsy]

I tried XFCE, seems pretty good but there's just something about it that doesn't suit me, can't put a finger on it though. And GNOME 3, that thing is a resource hog, I have an Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 overclocked to 3.0GHz and Gnome Shell is killing it, it's designed for new, more powerful machines with touch screens, on a normal desktop PC it's pretty much useless due to the bad layout.

 

I can't say I like Mint's stuff either (neither Ubuntu nor Debian based Mint cut it for me), Cinnamon is a resource-hog just like the Gnome Shell, the only difference being that it's actually useful.

 

And AMD proprietary drivers aren't bad, I get the same performance as I had on Windows, about 20MB less RAM usage too. It's just that whenever the kernel gets updated, I have to remove the AMD driver and replace with open-source driver, then wait for updated Arch legacy patches to hit AUR (I have a Radeon 4350 and AMD dropped 3xxx/4xxx/5xxx driver support for Linux after kernel 3.4). I hate drivers. :dry:

Ah, so I guess GNOME 3 is like the Linux equivalent of the Windows 8 interface? From what I've heard, at least; I've only used GNOME 3 for like 10 minutes when it crushed my Celeron, and never Windows 8.

 

And yeah, I know what you mean with AMD's proprietary drivers. This one kernel update broke most of my KDE apps and Steam for Linux.

 

One problem I've been having since I built the computer though, is that my display would stay black and freeze before the OS started up. Like, I could get past the GRUB bootloader, but 20-60% of the time I'd run into a black screen instead of starting up the Operating System. Wasn't fun when my luck was bad. I don't think that'd be a proprietary driver fault, would it?

[Thor.]

SSD is cure to your microstuttering problems. :thumbsup:

 

My desktop is pretty basic, sense i just recently installed from scratched. Found out AMD does support trim with standard Microsoft controller drivers found on win7 OS, Works like any Intel mobo, infect amd i think is faster :ohmy:

Edited July 23, 2013 by Thor.

[Werne]

@Woggsy Yup, GNOME 3 and Unity both are the Linux equivalent of Windows 8 - oversimplified, resource-sucking interfaces designed for touch devices, pretty looking with fancy effects but about as useful as tits on a bull when it comes to using them on a desktop PC.

 

One problem I've been having since I built the computer though, is that my display would stay black and freeze before the OS started up. Like, I could get past the GRUB bootloader, but 20-60% of the time I'd run into a black screen instead of starting up the Operating System. Wasn't fun when my luck was bad. I don't think that'd be a proprietary driver fault, would it?

That depends on the OS and the exact time when it happens. If it freezes while initiating the display server, it's likely Xorg (could be driver, xorg.conf, etc.). If it's happening during the init post/splash screen, it's something else (might be a failed mount). Also could be messed up GRUB as well, stuff like that sometimes happens when you edit partitions.

 

If it's the first, you can try to go into tty (if you can) and look through dmesg for any errors. If second, make sure to set grub to display the init post instead of splash screen and make a script to output dmesg to a file after boot. If third, run grub-install on the MBR, either from a chrooted environment or from the desired OS directly, then update grub (I'd try that first, it's the simplest).

 

Then it could be that you're using RAID without configuring GRUB for that (even Windows tends to have problems with RAID). Or UEFI without configuring GRUB for UEFI boot.

 

For me, Arch will go blank on boot if there's a partitioning table change without editing /etc/fstab to reflect the changes (failed mount, systemd freezes up). Ubuntu would do it occasionally when using kernel 3.5 with proprietary drivers (Arch driver patches don't work too great for Ubuntu). Fedora would do that just for laughs, which is why I hate it.

 

 

@Thor He was talking about a full system freeze on boot, not micro-stutters, there's a huge difference between the two.

 

Also I solved my micro-stutters by replacing NTFS and Windows with XFS/EXT4 and Linux, I prefer simple solutions to expensive ones. :smile:

 

 

 

And I just had a HDD upgrade, extending my total storage capacity to 4TB. Due to being too lazy to transplant the OS partition, I reinstalled Arch, got a bit of history back this time around:

 

 

Mate 1.6.1, it uses the same theme and background (except the distribution logo is different) as my old Debian 6. Gotta say, GNOME 2 is the best bloody desktop I ever used, good looking, minimalistic, low resource demands, good performance, great layout, bloody awesome.

 

MATE feels a bit different than GNOME 2 though, but it still feels pretty darn good compared to GNOME 3 "classic". :rolleyes:

[leirynot]

Mine cycles through 3.

 

http://i.imgur.com/TlKN2Jf.png

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/HOn6qiV.png

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/xTRiadO.png

 

Just a bit obvious that I like Misogi Kumagawa.

 

On a side note, I have considered changing it to one of the Weeping Angels, but am a bit scared. After all, that which holds the image of an angel becomes an angel.

Edited July 27, 2013 by leirynot

[KyuubiNoYouko]

Here you go:

 

http://i42.tinypic.com/2ue1i6p.png

[Thor.]

I need a decent bliss wallpaper, custom of course :sad: for windows 7.

[Werne]

@leirynot Well, I'd say a Weeping Angel can be sold for more money than a PC, right? So you can start a business:

 

1. Buy cheap PC

2. Turn PC into weeping angel

3. Sell for more money

4. Repeat process

 

Just... don't blink. :ermm:

 

 

 

@Kyuubi no Youko ZEBRAS!!! :woot:

 

I swear, Zebras look like donkeys painted in an awesome black and white camoflague pattern, if someone were to put sunglasses on them, they'd look damn cool. :cool: And I don't know about you but looking at that wallpaper makes me a bit dizzy, can't figure out why though. :unsure:

 

 

 

@Thor I don't like Bliss, I'm more of a fan of wallpapers featuring either mechanics, electronics, or half-naked women.

 

Mechanics cause I like to fiddle with anything mechanical (and it looks great), electronics cause I like to work with that too (and it looks great), and half-naked women cause it makes my wife so jealous her face turns red like a crab and steam starts coming out of her ears :laugh: (not to mention that she's cute when she's angry).