A better GUI

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
N

nss000

Distinguished
Apr 18, 2008
673
0
19,010
While working to rebuild the power-supply on my vintage Hanns-G_28" monitor I've had time to appreciate the lagging performance of my nominal GNOME3-classic/FireFox GUI on my Xeon/Auria_27" system.

Allow me to lump GNOME and browser together, as most casual Linux lusrs see & treat it that way. Anyrate ... that system is non-'sparky', constantly over-writes various web-pages(THW login is one!) , ill-proportions buttons & slides, often generates page displays leaving most of the screen blank, eats HUGE amts of vertical screen realestate with 1/3 used toolbars and gives no-way to rotate toolbars to-the-side. GNOME EXTENSIONS whatever they are... are to this-lusr a Chinese box.

MATE looks like an anorexic 13-yo.

I run robust high-value hardware ... in YOOL 2014 why do I have to suffer with Poettering/Cannonical visuals and florid front-ends that would embarrase a DrDOS lusr from 1986? Honest-2-gawd available GUI are every bit as careless, self-serving, feature-starved and ill-considered as the self-advertizing drool I get from my AT&T DSL provider.

Please ... no adverts for a Mac: I did that in 1981!
 
Solution
skittle
Honestly I think you should give XFCE another look. It looks great and is very fast.
http://www.xfce.org/

http://elementaryos.org/
is pretty nice looking too
Sort by date Sort by votes
N

nss000

Distinguished
Apr 18, 2008
673
0
19,010
BigAL:

Nothing needs to be designed. GNOME-2.x was smart, clean, workmanly perfection. It required only a yearly "waxing" to preserve the glow. Or are you the type who would repaint LOST ON THE GRAND BANKS every 20 years just to (sic) keep the canvas fresh ?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
N

nss000

Distinguished
Apr 18, 2008
673
0
19,010
I installed Xfce with no problems. It's a very clean, straightforward GUI. Sadly the first thing I tried ... entering text in-TERMINAL failed. I get a nice black rectangle(with function-bar) into which **no typed-text** or copy/past may be inserted. Nothing/nada/nix! The black rectangle just sits there DARING you to insert anything.

That's a bad sign ... when (the 1st) randomly chosen usrland function fails-to-function. Perhaps there's some terminal "prep" that needs to be performed ... like a foreign traveler sacrificing a chicken to the local village-goddess before you can drink from the local water-well.
That's why some people choose cruise-liners for a vacation. I really don't like being surprised!



 
Upvote 0 Downvote
skittle

skittle

Splendid
Dec 27, 2006
4,036
3
23,960
Can you confirm your xfce terminal color is correct/ usable? Edit->preferences-> colors

Personally this why I don't care for Debian/Ubuntu based Linux. I don't trust the magic auto configuration.

Much prefer Slackware/gentoo/archlinux which give control to user.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
N

nss000

Distinguished
Apr 18, 2008
673
0
19,010
Just made PANEL#2 go-away; trivial. That panel carried redundant icons, and buys another 1/3" space on either top or side. So DISCOVERY is easy for lusrland in Xfce. I am really liking it !

IDIOT! In terminal --> edit --> profile preferences ... I unchecked the **use colors from systems theme** box and expected text appears in the terminal. Pretty obscure eh, but right in front of my face! You hit that nail right on the button; thanks a ton BigS!


The TERMINAL task bar functions, a color-palette shows, but the controls are "greyed" out -- non-functional -- that is to say I CANNOT choose a SCHEME, TEXT or BACKGROUND color.

Kinda makes sence ... if I cannot pick a display or background color then of-course I can see nothing. It's 1/2 true, but, the TERMINAL area IS black (background color??) and I can choose transparent!



 
Upvote 0 Downvote
N

nss000

Distinguished
Apr 18, 2008
673
0
19,010
Yep, I'm totally impresed with Xfce and intend using it in-place-of GNOME ... which has its own biz-nazi problems. Anyrate I will use Xfce always ... except on this site! Toms HardWare page displays are totally messed up 9(?) different ways ... over-written and unreadable text, chopped-off pages and overlayered sections. I can't even login !

So for THW I use GNOME-CLASSIC ... for everything else I use the superior kitty-kat friendly Xfce which even lets me create pea-soup green VERTICAL panels making best use of my 27" Auria monitor and reducing eyestrain(?) Wish Toms would hire a coder ..... but I guess if something works for GNOME and Win7 you can't complain.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
skittle

skittle

Splendid
Dec 27, 2006
4,036
3
23,960
Am curious, did you install just 'xfce' or 'xubuntu-desktop' package?
"xubuntu-desktop" should provide a more polished experience coming straight from ubuntu. may have solved some of the transistional hickups you are experiencing.

btw when xfce 4.12 is finally out of beta (4.12 has been "beta" for 2 years already) you may enjoy it even more! 2 years of polishing and needed features like tabbed file manager, an already great desktop enviorment means a lot of work has been done to improve things (and not like gnome2->gnome3 ;) )

toms renders just fine on xfce 4.10 on archlinux
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
N

nss000

Distinguished
Apr 18, 2008
673
0
19,010
BigS:

I'm using "pure" Xfce, not the xubuntu-package desktop for fear of bringing in junk. Yes I have got frustrated a couple times, but the DISCOVERY factor(?) for Xfce is very high; the no-nonsense layout helps. Even a casual linux lusr can install, poke around and 'discover' desirable behaviors and features of Xfce W/O 100% pro support. Yes yes I know a pea-soup green vertical task-bar may not SEEM like much , but it's more than I could ever imagine generating in GNOME and ... it was kinda fun doing it !!!

Yes I TRIED to read the docs ... //rant/endrant//... Anyrate all the basics **just-work** and bet there's other stuff I can discover seat-of-my-pants.



 
Upvote 0 Downvote
N

nss000

Distinguished
Apr 18, 2008
673
0
19,010
"Server not found"
HAHA !! Snatched GOODIES from the UBUNTU repository! Now I have a VERY cluttered toolbar !!!




 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom