Why did you choose your desktop?

[hazel]

Many people use the desktop that comes with their distro. Those who don't often downgrade to a lighter DE or a bare window manager because they want their system to run faster. But there's a lot of choice out there. Why do people choose a particular WM?

I have been using various members of the *box family for some years now. I like the fact that *box allows you to name your workspaces as well as numbering them. I have a very tidy mind and like to have particular places for particular jobs. So I have called my workspaces "Default", "Internet", "System" and "Manuals". I also like the fact that I can change my workspace by using my mouse wheel so that I don't need a pager.

What is it about other WMs/DEs that people particularly like?

[nujinini]

Uuhhhh....

I would want to give the other DE a try sometime in the future. So far I just have actively used Gnome and had a little experience with KDE. Presently, all my OS are using Gnome. Basically because I got used to working with it already. Gnome was the first DE I tried and I just got stuck with that habit.

[oz]

I run Openbox because it's very lightweight, fast, and highly configurable.

My machine has more than enough power to easily run any of the heavy desktop environments, but I try to avoid the unnecessary clutter and all the seemingly endless dependencies that go along with them. It's sometimes hard to find really good applications that also avoid the gnome and kde dependencies, but once it's all setup and running it's worth the extra time and effort, at least in my own opinion.

[Cabhan]

I currently am using wmii, which I have been quite happy with. It's my first time using a tiling window manager, but I adjusted pretty quickly.

I chose it after a coworker saw that I use the Pentadactyl extension for Firefox (basically lets you use vi-like keybindings in Firefox, and run the whole browser with the keyboard). I wanted to be able to do more with just my keyboard, so he recommended wmii.

One cool thing that wmii has is the ability to assign multiple "tags" to a single window. Workspaces are then implemented as views of tags (so you have the basic numbered tags, but you can also have "email", "im", "music", etc.). And each window can have a different size and location in each tag that it belongs to.

[oz]

I was running wmii for a while a few years back on a standard size monitor and liked the window manager itself, but finally moved away from it due to screen size issues. Now that wide-screen monitors are available and common place, the tiling feature makes a great deal of sense, so I might give it another go some time in the near future.

[daark.child]

On Linux and FreeBSD I tend to stick with KDE because I like how it looks and the multitude of features.

[elija]

I have tried many different environments, Gnome, XFCE, Openbox, Fluxbox, Icewm and even KDE (3 and 4). Of the one I have tried, the only ones I didn't like were KDE 3 and 4. I can't say why I didn't like them because I don't actually know.

IceWM and the *boxes are pretty awesome but take too much setting up. I think this is where Hazel and I disagree on which simple is more important XFCE is fantastic (and my second favourite) but the one that ticks all my boxes is Gnome.

It can look great, is simple to configure, gives a complete desktop and on my hardware has minimal impact on resources.

I keep threatening myself with Rat Poison. The window manager not the chemical!

[hazel]

IceWM and the *boxes are pretty awesome but take too much setting up. I think this is where Hazel and I disagree on which simple is more important

I think it depends a lot on how often you are going to change things around. I get the impression that young people always want to find new ways of making their desktops look cool. Someone my age is more likely to configure a desktop once and then use it unchanged for several years, in which case the time taken for configuration isn't that important.

I keep threatening myself with Rat Poison. The window manager not the chemical!

Well, you could try Cabhan's wmii! I just googled it and it looks rather similar. Practically none of the standard GUI apps work properly on it. The developer says they're "broken" (which seems a bit arrogant to me) so he recommends lots of CLI programs. Now I love CLI for file management and general system work but I'm damned if I want a GUI from the dark ages!

[gruven]

Well, the distro I use doesn't come with a WM.

I have used them all over the years, but I have settled on KDE. I loved KDE 3 and am starting to love 4. Gnome never really has "done it" for me. It seems too much like a bunch of things thrown together to try to make a desktop environment out of them.

KDE just seems more integrated, the programs generally look nicer (my opinion), and to me it just flows better.

I do use xfce every now and then though.

[elija]

I think it depends a lot on how often you are going to change things around. I get the impression that young people always want to find new ways of making their desktops look cool. Someone my age is more likely to configure a desktop once and then use it unchanged for several years, in which case the time taken for configuration isn't that important.

I'm a young person? well you just made my day. Thank you I do like try new things often, it comes from having a short attention sp.. ooh shiny

Well, you could try Cabhan's wmii! I just googled it and it looks rather similar. Practically none of the standard GUI apps work properly on it. The developer says they're "broken" (which seems a bit arrogant to me) so he recommends lots of CLI programs. Now I love CLI for file management and general system work but I'm damned if I want a GUI from the dark ages!

The Rat Poison fascination is merely about finding out how efficient or otherwise a mouse-less GUI can be; nothing more or less than idle curiosity. I've pretty much settled on Gnome as my DE and unless Gnome 3 is a disaster, see no reason to change. I agree that the terminal is great for file management but whether I use that or GUI depends on what I am doing.