Re: XFCE For Debian JR

On Thu, Jan 11, 2001 at 07:15:16PM +0000, John Gay wrote:
> 
> 
> I sent this before, but didn't get any replies so I'll cut-n-paste it here and
> then re-iterate my points.

It is bigger than the others.  I'm still "evaluating". :)  No need to
repost, it is in the list archives. In future, a simple URL to the post in
the archives will suffice when quoting a previous post in its entirety. 

> 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. 

XFCE does seem to interface to the standard Debian menu system too,
through clicking on the desktop.  However, what you see as a strength in
the menu configurability I see as a weakness.  I still don't think menus
are easy for young children to manipulate.  In any even, this deficiency
is clearly not sufficient to keep it off the list, as it has so many other
things going for it.  It's just a matter of distilling your rather long
review until a short, pithy few sentences to go onto the list.  Lengthier
reviews, I feel, should eventually be linked to the list, but my original
intent with the notes was just something brief to remind ourselves why we
put a given package in Debian Jr., and give other contributors a clue as
to what we are looking for as well.

> 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. 

Sure.  I'm also trying XFCE with my children, but we found that it soaked
up the colors really quickly on 8bpp and fell back to wmaker after a day
or so of use (it really messed up our xpilot & xblast games :)  This is
undoubtedly addressable by selecting low-color themes.  However, I found
browsing XFCE's themes tedious and gave up before I found what I was
looking for.  I'll have a second look this weekend if I can.

Ben
-- 
    nSLUG       http://www.nslug.ns.ca      synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
    Debian      http://www.debian.org       synrg@debian.org
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