Unity Vs Unity 2D Vs Gnome Vs Gnome Shell Vs LXDE Vs XFCE, A Face Change Over Performance

Unity Vs Unity 2D Vs Gnome Vs Gnome Shell Vs LXDE Vs XFCE, A Face Change Over Performance 15/05/2011

My first glimps of Linux's Desktop Environment was with KDE, 11 years ago on a RedHat Linux Distro. It was awkward, because of expecting something MS Windows '98 like and finds something much more different, something not flexible to user end. Then 2 years afterwards I met Gnome which felt different and gives curious in my eyes, Excited.

January 2011, I saw Unity and I look at something potential, heavy for my netbook but really got the looks, But I run back to Gnome because it's less resources hungry. 3 weeks ago I spot the lighter version of Unity, Unity 2D. Faster and lighter, a bit heavier than Gnome but it's OK. 4 days afterwards I saw Gnome Shell which gives more eyecandy to me (but quite disappointed of how not user friendly it was).

April 29th, I decide to put Unity 2D in Ubuntu 11.04 and stick to it, but it seems to be a lot heavier than before when using Ubuntu 10.10 with Unity 2D. I look everywhere on how to get more performance boost to my dear netbook.

Today (May 15th), I decide to give XFCE a try.

I did Install AWN on Unity 2D before because I don't agree to concept of looking over all software for the right one by scrolling far away or typing it's name. I found the old Gnome Menu would be better and a lot faster compare to what Unity had done to us Ubuntu user (lessen the energy we use to pick the right software in need by category). Why I don't use Docky or any other dock is because AWN is lighter and have lots of applet that eats less resources than other dock has.

After I install XFCE using Synaptic Package Manager, I pick the blank panel, not the standard panel and I use AWN as the main window manager while using the blank panel of XFCE as taskbar. Here is the result:

The AWN panel is on the left side and on the lower right side of the screen. The one sits on the bottom is the XFCE panel which serve as taskbar. The AWN is in auto dodge mode so it hides when a window place over it. The XFCE panel is using the standard hide methode.

Ubuntu with XFCE running GoldWave using Wine:

Oh, almost forget, I did try LXDE, but I found some problem that I didn't find any workaround such as the missing nm-applet, why AWN was unable to run there and less customizable Desktop Environment compare to XFCE. I know some people said that LXDE is lighter than XFCE, and I do intent to look at it in later times. Right now, I'm just happy using XFCE.

Finally (June 3rd) I landed on the land of Openbox where everything is customizable according to your needs and wants and it'll be lighter compare to Unity, Unity 2D, Gnome, Gnome 3 (in comparison to "great desktop looks vs performance")

Comments

Shiliarr95z link

12/06/2011 01:11

My other journey to seek the most good looking and light Desktop Environment/Window Manager :

1. http://shiliarr95z.weebly.com/2/post/2011/05/my-own-windoze-95-xp-7-look-desktop-environment.html?

2. http://shiliarr95z.weebly.com/2/post/2011/05/my-awn-desktop-look.html?

3. http://shiliarr95z.weebly.com/2/post/2011/06/netbook-launcher-efl-awn-tint2.html

4. http://shiliarr95z.weebly.com/2/post/2011/06/openbox-another-face-change-over-performance.html