Entries Tagged 'Desktop' ↓

Xfce the light-weight desktop environment and the latest version 4.4 was released two days back. It has been a favorite desktop for many users and the latest version has numerous features like Desktop icons, File Manager, text editor, removable drives or media. Read about the many features in this version in this tour.

Popularity: 34%

For many days I wanted to try Enlightenment after reading and seeing many screenshots about it. Yesterday in the LUG meeting I saw it live and was impressed by E. Enlightenment is an open source window manager for X Window system which can be used alone or in conjunction with GNOME or KDE. It has extensive theming support and advanced graphics without sacrificing system performance. This window manager is fully configurable making it the best one out there
The latest stable version is 0.16.8.5 but the development release 0.17 also called DR17 is pretty usable and nice. I have installed DR17 on my Edgy. Here are the steps.

First you have to add a few repositories to your sources.list.

In terminal type sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following repositories to the file

## E17 repository "edevelop.org"
deb http://edevelop.org/pkg-e/ubuntu edgy e17
deb-src http://edevelop.org/pkg-e/ubuntu edgy e17

You can replace edgy with dapper if you are using Ubuntu 6.06.

Then type the following lines to download the gpg keys and to add it

wget http://lut1n.ifrance.com/repo_key.asc
sudo apt-key add repo_key.asc

After the repositories are added, do a sudo apt-get update to update the packages list.

Then finally install e17 by issuing this command. sudo apt-get install e17

You have successfully installed e17 and can now logout of GNOME and again login by changing the session as Enlightenment.

Popularity: 100%

Linux users can now boast of a better 3D desktop because of efforts from Novell. Novell is contributing a new graphics subsystem called “Xgl” and the associated “Compiz” compositing manager to the granddaddy of all Linux and UNIX windowing infrastructures, X.org.

This move has brought the interest of various graphics chip vendors like Intel, ATI and Nvidia.
Xgl enables *nix systems to fully take advantage of 3-D acceleration hardware. Xgl according to Novell’s description is the X server architecture layered on top of OpenGL. The new enhancements enable a long list of capabilities for Linux that include improved 3-D capabilities and more fluid “fancy” desktop animations and transitions.

This new Xgl will run below KDE or GNOME (the two most popular desktop environments). It is just the X framework with added 3D features. This will provide better driver support from the various chip vendors.

novell, xgl, x, x.org,kde, gnome

Popularity: 21%

Check out these video demonstrations of Novell Desktop Linux 10. Transparent Video, being dragged around the screen, while playing, and the window “Wobbles” while you drag it. Also switching virtual desktops looks cool (does a 3D cube affect). Looks like Alt-Tab switching is cool, and looks like it has “expose” type affects like Mac OS X.

Popularity: 22%

Koobox is a sub $300 GNU/Linux desktop released by Mirus which runs on Linspire GNU/Linux. Though Ubuntu has an OEM installation, I still haven’t used Linspire GNU/Linux.

There are three models that are available with Koobox.

1. Essential: $299
2. Multimedia: $399
3. Performance: $499

Currently it is available only in US and I wonder when it will be available in India. And how much successfull it could be here.

Popularity: 32%

People are now providing free remote KDE desktops via NX. I think this is a really cool idea by CosmoPOD, where they provide

Free 1GB online to store and edit your emails, office documents, calander, organizer, photos and files, chat to friends play games surf the web even faster and more from any computer on your own personal online desktop and access it from anywhere in the world.

This is a real boon to people who frequently travel and have access only to a computer with internet connection and are unable to install their favourite operating system.

Popularity: 24%