[arch-general] [OT] Favorite/best desktop in archlinux

[Christian Klaue]

There is no "best enviroment" for everyone.

Ask for advantages / disadvantages. Check if the answers still apply
nowadays. Let's see for my personal opinion.

When I started with linux I started on cinnamon / mate since it is been
 most closely to windows. It's also been as buggy as windows. Back
then. I am sure / I hope it is much more stable nowadays.

I tried a few "basic" / "specialized" and "experimental" desktops. (No
offence to anyone!). None did fit my personal "one for all"
requirements. Other people can't follow my "I paid for a mouse I wan't
to use it" philosophy. With such a "noob" philosophy back then there
had been KDE, gnome and mate/cinnamon.

One aspect is important: no matter which decission you take (KDE or
another): GTK and QT can be very well be used in parallel. So an
argument like "if you go for gnome you can't use Kaffeine" is bullshit.
QT and GTK can coexistent and nowadays with the right themes you won't
actually be able to say which app is using what.

Back to the 3 major players:
. KDE looks close to Windows and fancy. QT is closed sw. In my personal
opinion KDE offers too many configurations  (early plasma) and is been
laggy (KDE 4).
. Cinnamon is been wonderful. Unfortunately very buggy. (appr. 3 yrs
ago)
. Gnome is ugly. Very ugly. Ever seen a "Adwaita"-themed window header?
(still valid)

Well: I stayed with Gnome. While writing this I still use QT-
applications (namely I watch TV using Kaffeine on my second screen).
Just give every DE a try and after u decided look out for themes and
customizations. There are plenty out there. In most cases for all big
players. Eg. yakuake for qt/KDE and guake for gtk. As for Gnome: I use
arc-theme and viola, it looks bautiful now. I added guake, dash-to-dock 
extension and a few other things. Nowadays I would not even consider
KDE. Anyway, yours may be still KDE. Or Gnome. Or Cinnamon. Or
Enlightment. Or any other. A friend uses enlightment and won't consider
any other. Let me know if u have a valid reason for one specific.

On Mon, 2016-11-07 at 16:58 -0600, David C. Rankin wrote:
> On 11/06/2016 04:12 PM, Maykel Franco via arch-general wrote:
> > Hi, what the best desktop envieronment for archlinux? Only is the
> > question.
> > 
> > I like very much kde plasma but he used a lot of ram and sometimes
> > it
> > is very heavy. Do you think?
> > 
> 
>   I agree with the remainder, the choice is yours. That said, I built
> TDE (KDE3) for Arch for years after chakra stopped building kdemod3,
> and
> that was (and still is) my all time favorite. .I've recently started
> using Plasma, and while it is a behemoth, it is relatively well
> behaved
> from a resources standpoint. Gnome, I thoroughly enjoyed gnome 2. My
> experience with gnome 3 was much like my experience with KDE4.
> 
>   It all boils down to what do you need your desktop to do? Do you
> rely
> on any of the apps unique to any one desktop? (e.g. I like
> kate/kwrite
> and I like the tabbed interface to konsole) Were it not for those 3
> apps, I could care less which desktop I use. I like fluxbox as a
> minimal
> desktop (any of the boxtop desktops are pretty much the same --
> sawfish
> is a little too bare bones for me)
> 
>   The midlevel desktop goes to XFCE, capable, relatively full suite
> of
> basic apps, but it too has experienced growing pains over the past
> two
> years.
> 
>   Gnome or KDE - take your pick. Both are essentially a moving target
> at
> this point. Both are more than capable and both provided just about
> all
> you need built in.
> 
>   Best/Favorite is in the eye of the beholder...
>