XFCE For Debian JR
I sent this before, but didn't get any replies so I'll cut-n-paste it here and
then re-iterate my points.
<Cut>
I've used XFCE on my daughter's Mandrake system and got .debs from the XFCE site
to install it on my system. I haven't used it much, due to the extensive
configuration that is required to make it very usable It does not have a menu
system, per say. There are pop-up menus that have a few apps set-up, but it can
not access the regular Menu system that all the other W/M use.
Having said that, the configuration seems the be quite easy, and once set-up
should be very workable. I've had a bit of experience with CDE on HP systems,
which XFCE is based on. Again, the up-side is, this is a completely different
idea of what a DeskTop should be than what M$ would like us to think a DeskTop
should be. The down side is, this is a completely different idea of what a
DeskTop should be than what M$ would like us to think a DeskTop should be. The
little work I have done with XFCE has shown it to be extremely fast and
efficient, even on low-memory hardware. It flies on my daughters P133 with 16M
of memory. Also, having a completely different menu system, that is not based on
the standard Debian menus, it might be easier to set-up different menu
structures for different users. I.E. a menu for Parents, a menu for Teachers, a
menu for children, different menus for different classes in a school. I believe
the configuration is based on a config file in the home directory, so the set-up
is based on who logs in.
I initially saw this on a Mandrake system and got the .deb's so I could work
with it, but haven't spent much time. As I said, I have worked with CDE on a HP
system, so I know the basics of the idea. I could try to put some effort into
setting up a usable XFCE DeskTop on my system and get a better idea of how it
works and how usable it really is. The times I have tried it, it never crashed
or hung anything. Using it with a fully populated menu and trying all the
drag-and-drop features might turn up some limitations, but with my small
network, I can always telnet or rlogin from somewhere else and kill any
offending processes. Netscape has given me plenty of practice with that!
I just mention XFCE because it seems to be another DeskTop that everyone has
overlooked with the KDE-vs-Gnome flamewars raging away.
<Paste>
As I say, XFCE seems to be the only actual DeskTop to run fine for the 16M range
of PC's. I say DeskTop because it has actual Drag-N-Drop between apps like KDE
and Gnome. Window managers only support Cut-N-Paste to varying degrees. Also I
feel that XFCE's unique local config-based menu system also allows simpler
set-ups for different users having different menu options available. I.E. for
the young, simple games, drawing editing menus; for older children, more complex
games, advanced editors, some basic admin stuff; and for the
parents/administrators, full access to admin tools, mature games, and such.
I am hoping to get some time to have a closer look at XFCE for a Project for my
Daughters school. If anyone here is interested, I'll do some more digging and
post the results here. If anyone wants certain features, I can look into it for
them. Otherwise I'll just concentrate on what I need for the school.
Cheers,
John Gay
Reply to: