|
|
With the nature of open source, if you don't like how something walks or talks, then you can change it up to how you like it. One of the up sides to linux, is the fact that if you don't like your Desktop Environment, then you are free to modify it or even just swap it out entirely.
|
|
Now this can be a little scary to newcomers, and generally there is no best suited environment for everyone, so here we will go through a few of the more well known ones.
Gnome (Gnome 3 / Gnome Shell)
Gnome 2 was the main environment for linux for quite some time, and the developers polished this environment to the point of it feeling as good, if not better than the more proprietary environments.
It became the staple environment so much that when it did a complete overhaul for Gnome 3, it scared many fans off and led to forks of the preferred Gnome 2, which include Mate which will be covered also.
The Gnome 3 environment itself, is rather beautiful and pulls you out of the traditional desktop and into a more engaging and polished HUD. There are also easily to install Extensions which add greater functionality, such as a drop down terminal.
This, including all Gnome Shell based environments can be resource heavy, therefore they are only really suitable for modern computers.
Although it works well on several distribution, the best experience is found on Fedora.
Rating: 4/5
Unity
Unity is much like Gnome Shell, but was split away as the developers had different views of how aspects should be handled. This environment is also backed by Canonical and is the main environment for the Ubuntu distribution.
The aim with unity is to maximise space and work-flow, which although has a strange learning curve, especially if you're coming from windows, is worth churning through as it does speed up usage and is very friendly and polished.
I have been using it as my main environment for roughly a year now, but in the early days I ditched Ubuntu like many and went to more familiar environments, and that's where I tested Cinnamon.
The most noticeable differences from Gnome 3 are:
Fixed Dock
Lenses
HUD
Global Menu’s (Similar to found in Mac OSX)
I have not tried installing in other distributions, but as it was made by Canonical for Ubuntu, the best experience will be in Ubuntu.
Rating 4/5 - Based on it being polished and great for workflow, but resource heavy and takes some getting used to.
Cinnamon
This is another environment based upon Gnome-Shell. Where Unity made it more unique, cinnamon makes it more familiar. It's reminiscent of the Windows Style UI and is easy for anyone to pick up and go, but is still resource heavy.
In general it is easy to use and does not get in the way of what you are doing. But it does not do much to separate itself as a unique desktop.
The best experience of this is in the Linux Mint distribution, and although I once favoured it, I would not recommend using Linux Mint due to varied insecurities.
Rating 3/5 - Based on it being a good base desktop but not adding much value.
Mate
This environment came into being as a direct fork of Gnome 2. When the Gnome developers dropped Gnome 2 and pushed forward the radically different Gnome 3, there was a revolt from the community wanting to hold onto the constant which was Gnome 2.
It was officially forked when Gnome 3 started dropping its fall back session which was reminiscent of Gnome 2. Now Mate continues the development and rather than adding features, they are refining what was the stable of linux environments. It works well on older machines and holds the traditional working approach.
By default it has 2 task bars / panels. One at the top with Menu’s, Clock and notifications and one at the bottom with open windows. This can be changed rather easily so you can make it more windows or mac like fairly easily.
I tried mate shortly after it was forked, but used Gnome 2 for many years. It's true to being a direct fork of the original. It's a proven and stable environment but is starting to age.
Rating: 3/5 - Based upon it being a great and stable environment but showing its age.
XFCE
A very lightweight environment and ideal for older machines. It focuses on having a small footprint on resources whilst retaining usability.
I have used this on and off as a fallback distribution, and is my go to environment on an initially headless server.
In general if feels a lot like Mate, just lighter. It is also quite open to customisation.
As for a learning curve, it may be because I have used a lot of environments, but I found none what so ever. Older machine? then this is the one I would say to use.
Rating: 5/5 - Best for daily use on older computers or where you want to keep resources free.
KDE
It used to be a case, that you were ever a KDE fan or a Gnome fan. Although I never put KDE through its paces, I feel that it is a good environment itself. It is resource heavy like Unity and benefits from all the bells and whistles you would expect from a modern environment.
My impression of this, is it looks like an ex window users best friend, but I never liked the Windows UI so i never gave KDE a real chance.
I will not give a rating for this as it would not be fair, but give it a try and make you own opinion.
Now, that's pretty much the staple environments. Yes, this is not all the environments out there, and there's a lot of ones which are particularly interesting. but I will blog about these when I use them.
Some I am interested in trying though are;
Budgie - Seems inspired by Chrome OS
Pantheon - Seems inspired by Mac OSX
Feel free to add your own comments or views about any of the listed or non listed environments. Full Story |
