this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Someone enlighten me. How many active desktop projects are there currently? (Not just window managers...)

KDE Plasma, Trinity (is it active? Fork of KDE 3.5)

Gnome, Mate, Cinnamon (fork all the things!), or "reskins" like Unity or Budgie?

LXQt, Xfce... Is enlightenment still active as a project?

Does anyone use Deepin -- appears to be a partial fork of KDE (kwin, etc.) with new desktop environment built around it rather than use Plasma.

Or Pantheon (Vala+GTK3?).

Cosmic is from the ground up, recent and active I guess.

Missing anything?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Here's a decent list: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Desktop_environment#List_of_desktop_environments

Arch based list obvs so won't include every single one but not too shabby.

Deepin was my long running DE for a while until they changed to be more windows like and I ditched it for budgie. Shortlived as it just wasn't being maintained and updated enough for my liking. Moved to Pantheon for quite a while but it got annoying having to fix it breaking with updates. I ditched it and was ginf to go back once they released the distro agnostic version. I don't know if that ever eventuated because I gave up waiting and have been happy with KDE for several years now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

The list is great! But it doesn't really tell us which ones are actively developed. Running historical DEs is fun sometimes. For example, LXDE doesn't really see a lot of development compared to its successor, LXQt. But once again shows the the Arch Wiki is the best ;)

I guess people do occasionally compile KDE 1.x just to see if it still runs on modern systems (it does, but obviously some underlying things have changed over the years, like the audio and graphics stacks). But that isn't the same as being actively developed :)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

Yeah that checks out.

I'm fairly new to this space so not aware of the more obscure or older ones but my list of popular Desktop Environments would be:

  • KDE Plasma
  • GNOME
  • Cinnamon
  • MATE
  • Budgie
  • XFCE
  • LXQt
  • Cosmic
[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Window maker is still being develop, I think

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Moksha Desktop as well

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Yay my new desktop :D

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (3 children)

I'm using cinnamon, but want to use the new plasma on a debian based distro. But nothing is supporting it out of the box just yet.

But yes, there are a lot

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

If your using debian: you can ig backport kde 6 from debian testing or sid,but just a warning you might sacrifice stability.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Yeah Debian and new don't usually go hand in hand unless you use one of those distros designed around Debian Sid.

If it's stability I suppose Fedora doesn't usually get much complaints in that dept. and they have much newer repos

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Am also very new and debating between Plasma and Cinnamon. KDE is generally more versatile, right? Idk.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

I would go kde plasma everyday. I always find little things that limit what I am trying to do on cinnamon.

Not big things, little trivial things. An example is wireless hotspot. I cannot change the password through the gui. Why? Dunno. Deal breaker? No. But those are the little things that kde has right.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Personally I found kde buggy and kinda ugly and outdated,cinnamon was a better experience + less ugly maybe cause of gtk.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

does it still use the same amount of ram as windows? :/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What are you doing that cinnamon uses that much Ram? For me it is like half the ram idle compared to windows 10. Maybe a bug?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

tbf it probably is still significantly less that windows, i was being a bit facetious...but it's still at like 1-1,5gb idling on a fresh boot (this is the whole DE, not just cinnamon)...

i did a fresh install with mate on an old machine though and it was a lot less (the usual 500mb or something) can't see anything suspicious running though - and yes I did check without any stuff running in the background like steam which is also stupidly intensive with their webkit nonsense

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

RAM is there to be used to make things faster.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

electron has entered the room