What does your desktop look like?

[dedanna1029]

Interesting. F14's become my fastest distro now.

[viking60]

Goes to show that you might have done something wrong in your Arch setup. Fedora is way more bloated when you install it. But they are cutting edge so new technologies will be implemented there pretty fast. F15 has Gnome3. Arch is first of course but you have to do more yourself there. I like KISS. And I am spoiled with getting everything first.
Fedora has done a lot of work on nouveau and are the driving force in OS so we all need them. It just never appealed that much to me - mostly a look and feel thing. I have fedora 15 with Gnome3 in VB.

[dedanna1029]

I can not believe that YOU of all people, settle for defaults (meaning "when you install it") in any distro. Yeah, you want to run it for a day or so with them to test, but then tweak 'em! That "bloat" you're speaking of, is very easily taken care of, in about 20 seconds most, by installing and running:

Code: Select all

su -
system-config-services

Dude, wtf? You??? Default? Take some of that bloat out! I'm booted and loaded into F14 in the matter of 20 seconds, and that's with waiting 10 seconds at grub!

I can do the same with Arch, and do; but with this Gnome3 b.s. now, it's slow as hell (see thread about hard drive running like a sonofabitch when I load Gnome now in Arch, and that's without 3D!). KDE's even slower. I don't have to worry about that in F14.

Not to mention all the crap you can take out of Gnome startup in Fedora! Get rid of it! You don't need it! It's all too easy to do! Five seconds at best! And there's probably more I haven't thought of yet that I can take out!



It felt "bloated" and "off" and "I don't know" to me too at first, but with these two things, I've even managed to get rid of the bloat "feel" to it.

Install you some wallpapers! There's a GAZILLION of them in Fedora! Go to town with it! Do something different with it! I will say, I'm SO glad I kept it. I was going to get rid of it, 'til I went to town on it, did some reading up, and said "EFF THE DEFAULTS"! Install Emerald! Install interesting stuff! This is what it's all about, not just running it for a while to see how it will do on the "defaults" (again, meaning "when you install it")!

To be perfectly fair, I will say that Arch is very fast on boot as well. Until I sign into the desktop. I don't get that with Fedora.

[dedanna1029]

Well, you can't use Emerald in F15 (except in KDE), but you get my point. "When it installs" is only the beginning. It's by far not the end! This is the main thing that noobs don't get, and the word needs to get out on with Linux in general. The "Lookie what you can do with this and that if you don't like it the way it is! Take yer 'first impressions' and shove 'em!"

[viking60]

I am not settling for defaults. You get what you get with Gnome and KDE and you can adjust it in both. There is less flexibility in Gnome3 so I cannot move the panel from the top to the bottom and tell my favorite Windows fan that it is Windows8
That is not good enough and I think it will changed or be tweaked.
It boots fast here.
And you just gave a perfect explanation of why I prefer Arch to Fedora. I add the stuff I want rather than spending my time removing the stuff I don't want.
Gnome3 is good. It is different from Gnome2. So lets take a look at where we stand:
Gnome2 is on it's way out and will eventually disappear. The alternatives are Gnome3 and KDE4.6 (and Ubuntu Unity). I prefer Gnome3 but many will prefer KDE.
There is the conservative option to kling to Gnome2 but I am way to hip and cutting edge for that

[dedanna1029]

Well, I like living on the edge too, but I also like having something around that's stable when I need it. Right now, Arch just isn't. It was, 'til they effed up the sound. Then they put in the Gnome3 stuff to make it even less stable, and sound is still a bitch to play with in it here. So, I'm now spending more time in Fedora, doing interesting things with it.

Yeah, less flexibility in Gnome3 too. IMO, that sucks. They're taking away our open-sourcedness with it. That, I'm not pro.

[viking60]

Yes I can see your point. I just like the way it works - after a lot of testing. But I am not pro the "we have been thinking for you" attitude either. Still there are other open desktops to pick. As long as there is a choice it is a fair and democratic thing. I believe you had a link to one Fedora developer who stated that he would not ask the users - just tell them how it should be? So nobody is perfect.
But I do agree with you:
If Fedora does it for you and Arch doesn't then you should pick Fedora of course.
I just love Arch because it just works and is the fastest distro out there. And I can identify with the Arch way and KISS.
I have nothing negative on Fedora though - it just does not appeal to me like Arch does.

[dedanna1029]

It didn't to me either as well. Until Gnome 3. If you'll remember, I was going to can it. Then, I started playing with it more and more, finally got nvidia going after some system cleaning, and now I spend the majority of my time in it.

[viking60]

Yes I always had a feeling that you prefer Fedora. You have long RPM experience so that makes sense too.

[dedanna1029]

Actually, I happen to prefer Arch and FreeBSD. I just happen to be mad at Arch right now.

[dedanna1029]

I'm damn glad not to have it now on login, and to be able to start mutter or compiz either one manually, when I want it, and NOT when they want it!
<snip>
I've tried it each way, each step. This is the way it's best for me unfortunately, and I'm keeping it here. I'm done with it.

Goddamn right, I like it this way a LOT better. Told ya - Metacity for fallback ROCKS for Arch!

Compiz on Gnome3, with Emerald (God, I love these windows):



This is so HOT, I had to put a little water on to water the plants on my desktop with. No forest fires allowed here:



Something else, too. Compiz runs a LOT better for me on Gnome 3 than it ever has before! I'm not bogged down with it, it's not resource-hogging, nothing. Started it manually with fusion-icon, and I'm set.
Had I gone the other direction, with allowing 3D and gnome-shell to start on load, I'd be crashing like a train wreck right now; instead, this thing's ROCKING. Of course, updates will screw that up in a bit, I'm sure.

But damn, lookie dose winder buttons (where I put the arrow)! Ain't dey purty, Boss? Me loves.

Let's have one more shot at that cube, shall we, before updates screw them up (and it does look like I need to disable 3D windows again in CCSM)?



The only issue I'm having, is I have Cube Reflection & Deformation turned on, and it won't do the sphere or cylinder - it just does the cube when I initiate.

Even still, THIS is the life.

Edit: And guess what. Updates did NOT screw it up. gnome-shell is not running, btw (it can't run without mutter, and I tookz dat away from it lol). Thanks be to the source. it's Metacity itself, and that's it (until I kick compiz in).

Ooooooooo and lookie what else I haz. I haz my fav icons back on me desktop! Makes it SO much easier to get to them than all this switchin' 'round from window to window, trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing. It's all right there again now.


Here's how. That real cool tool you told us about:


And, just to rub it in, guess what else I haz? RIGHT-CLICK ON THE DESKTOP!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!!


*giggles - I luvz finding little gifties for da desktop.

Now, if I could just find startup applications again,,,, I just MIGHT be able to handle this full-time again (that is IF they fix notification-daemon/libnotify).

Also, if I could make the panels that same purple-green gradient that the windows are in Emerald... oooooooooo that would be SO purty!
Knowing that I can still do what I want to do with my Gnome desktop in Gnome3 is SUCH A RELIEF!

[dedanna1029]

HOWEVER,,, have just found a wee bit of a buggy here. The Places menu (see upper left), opens up in guess what.
















.... Konqueror.













WHATTHEHELLISPLACESDOINGOPENINGINKONQUERORINGNOME.