| Eric at Lucii.org on 1 Dec 2012 07:26:56 -0800 |
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| Re: [PLUG] Cinnamon desktop? |
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 About 6(+-) months ago I installed Mint (64-bit) with Cinnamon on my main Linux workstation. I quickly switched to KDE, not because of Cinnamon per se, but because of performance. It seems that the 64 bit version is a really poor performer on my system (Athlon 64x2 system with 4GB RAM) and Cinnamon demanded too much. KDE helped but I believe I need to go back to a 32 bit system. That switch is on my "free time" list :-( On my laptop I upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 this week (in steps from 10.10) and found that I truly detest what Unity has become. It may be the greatest thing since canned beer (debatable standard) but I found it to be hell. I'm now running Xubuntu on the laptop and it works well. I don't love it though... but for the most part it does what I need and it does it rapidly. With Ubuntu 10.04 and Compiz I was able to craft a customized system that was quick and efficient. For example, if a chat window from my daughter appeared it automatically was the top window on all desktops. I plan to re-try Mint with Cinnamon in the 32 bit form as soon as I can. Eric On 11/30/2012 11:48 PM, JP Vossen wrote: > Is anyone using the Cinnamon desktop in Mint or Ubuntu? Thoughts? > > While I like Unity on some form-factors (like the Mini9) and for some users (non-power), I'm not sure it's what I want on my personal large-screen workstation, or for the kid's laptop. And with the 2013-04 deadline getting closer, I need to finally finish upgrading from 10.04 to 12.04 (I'm sticking with LTS). > > For me, it seems like Unity really wants to run most things full-screen, and that's just too much and too ugly on a big screen. I know you don't *have* to run full-screen, but... I also really like the Gnome2 interface, it just makes sense to me in way that Windows (and KDE) never did. XFCE and LXDE are nice too, but lubuntu-desktop is *very* Windows-like (good for switching Windows users though), and I'm just not thrilled with xubuntu-desktop. (And annoying, Lubuntu 20.04 is *not* LTS.) > > > So, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MATE_%28desktop_environment%29 is nice, but it's just Gnome2 forked with some minor changes, EXCEPT, no "Indicator Applet Session" in top right. I could use that or--for 12.04 LTS anyway--"Gnome Classic" (handy: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PreciseGnomeClassicTweaks)... But... > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon_%28user_interface%29 is *really* cool. It's a Gnome3/shell fork that still looks a lot like Gnome2, but the menu is actually *much* nicer and cooler, and it combines the best of both worlds with menu discovery and typing speed. I don't care that much about "pretty" or eyecandy, but that's all there if you want it. > > The default Cinnamon has everything at the bottom (like Windows/Lubuntu), but you can easily change that in the Cinnamon control panel, and it's already 2-panel (Gnome2-like) by default in http://sourceforge.net/projects/cinnamon-remix/. > > Another nice thing about MATE and Cinnamon is that they track indicator messages for you! Why Unity doesn't do this is beyond me; if you miss it it's gone. Forget about trying to read it, copy and paste from it, etc. It's just there and gone. MATE and Cinnamon let you get 'em back and read 'em. Duh... > > Linux Mint itself looks really nice, but--like Lubuntu--the default looks far too much like Windows for me. That's easy enough to change, of course, and Mint is 95% Ubuntu anyway, but for now I think I'd rather run Ubuntu + Cinnamon. For one thing, it's then really easy to just 'aptitude install *-desktop' for something else. > > Cinnamon on Ubuntu 12.04 # http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/09/20/install-cinnamon-1-6-in-ubuntu-12-04-lts/ * sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable * sudo aptitude update * apt-get install cinnamon > > I know why they did it, but the window controls on the left still really bugs me. Unity and Gnome Classic still do that, all the others have them on the right by default, but Cinnamon is cool because it's really easy to move them around (nice GUI conf, no gconf-editor). > > I have a test laptop with a bunch of this stuff installed on Ubuntu 12.04. I'm not sure it's an entire hour, but I could bring that and demo this stuff at the next PLUG W/N meeting(s) if nothing better presents itself. > > And by the way, how cool is this? With a Mac or Windows, you are just stuck with whatever crap the vendor gives you. (And I don't care what you Mac people say, I hate the Mac GUI.) With Linux, and to be fair the BSDs and some other systems, you can find something that works well for you, and then change it as needed. 'aptitude update && aptitude full-upgrade', not having to worry about licenses, and above all, all this freedom of choice... This is why I can't understand why anyone uses anything else. (Yeah, yeah, games and Windows-only crap... We're getting there... :) > > Later, JP ----------------------------|:::======|------------------------------- JP Vossen, CISSP |:::======| http://bashcookbook.com/ My Account, My Opinions |=========| http://www.jpsdomain.org/ ----------------------------|=========|------------------------------- "Microsoft Tax" = the additional hardware & yearly fees for the add-on software required to protect Windows from its own poorly designed and implemented self, while the overhead incidentally flattens Moore's Law. ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > > - -- # Eric Lucas # # "Oh, I have slipped the surly bond of earth # And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings... # -- John Gillespie Magee Jr -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with undefined - http://www.enigmail.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAlC6IY0ACgkQ2sGpvXQrZ/72nQCdGZfM2tXNjQmETBe8P7YskY4C 2sMAoLHNisJUx16PyNCylZwI65NV3yNo =Y1dR -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug