NETBOOKS: what Mint: LXDE or Fluxbox? (or KDE or XFCE)
 

I was wondering if someone could give us some guidance as to what is a better distrop for netbooks, offering efficiency resulting in speed, but without sacrificing usability, and which might even be used on bigger computers as well.

In the name of uniformity, which of these runs fastest, while still offering a good base of apps and a good software library to build upon that?

"Acceptable level of apps" meaning:
* codecs for everything - lets keep licencing and politics out of this, we're talking usability here
* support for webcams
* WiFi works out of the box (with WPA support)
* Abiword and Gnumeric or equivalent would be just fine
* Skype: more people use it, and are using it more and more, because it succeeds effectively in opening a path for clear uninterrupted voice through all your internet activities.
* an image viewer
* preferably Firefox4 or Chrome

Thanks in advance for your input, everyone. Please try to provide useful input here and don't just answer the poll and run: I am sure this will be helpful to many.

Edit 2020-20-16: I've made this message more compact and more straight to the point.

Fluxbox will be the most configurable as you just edit a couple files..

LXDE is nice but heard it is more resource hungry than xfce4
?

You should look into JWM too
Very nice and Lite
Icewm and JWM litest i think

I resemble that remark. My choice for that Netbook is JWM or IceWM. Macpup. AntiX 8.5. AntiX 8.2. Flies on it. E17 works pretty good on it also in Macpup.

I've already been looking at Jolicloud, EasyPeasy, Leeenux (a compacted EasyPeasy), AntiX, Moblin, Slax, Zenwalk...
but I posted this in the Mint sub-forum because I noticed that just recently Mint released some new colors... namely LXDE and Fluxbox.

I use Mint on my Laptop now, and am wondering now if I shouldn't be trying these new Mints... but before I do that I would very much like an expert's opinion (cause I'm not), as to which would be a better choice, with the criteria in mind initially mentioned in the first post.

The opposite is true, especially in Ubuntu-based distros (like Mint). LXDE is much lighter on resources than Xfce, but offers few of the way cool features.

Xfce in Mint8 Xfce edition is superb, bug-free, and fast. The LXDE version is lighter on resurces, but the current release candidate is buggy so far.

-Robin

your right; as after reading this article

http://www.bargincomputing.com/2009/...e-versus-lxde/

and heres info on "stacking" window managers like LXDE, fluxbox,icewm,jwm,etc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stacking_window_manager

and xfce4; which is a "compositing" wm like Gnome and KDE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compositing_window_manager

So, hands down a stacking wm will be best for low resources,etc

heres a comparo of wm's too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...indow_managers

http://xwinman.org/comparisons.php

http://www.internetling.com/2008/07/...h-screenshots/

http://www.nuxified.org/article/comp...which_best_you

What we are seeing so far is:
LXDE is real fast (on ubuntu based distros) and low on resources requirements, but it's still buggy on Mint8 (it seems other distros also have trouble combining LXDE on Ubuntu - just take the example of the Lubuntu project which is alpha quality at best).

So more eye candy with xfce... but did you guys notice that the stable release of xfce is on Mint7? Maybe it's even buggier and that's why it's not offered on Mint8? Or if it's just a question of development taking a little longer, we should, in all fairness, keep a watch and see how this picture evolves, if both become available on the same base.

If you go to LinuxMint.com in the downloads section, and notice that XFCE is lying on top of Mint-7 (and not Mint-8 as you were assuming), would you change your commentary?

In a general sense, LXDE is still rather fragile when compared to Xfce, Gnome, or KDE. It also has more things going on than in Fluxbox. LXDE is in very heavy development right now, I think this has to do with Lubuntu and the upcoming LTS release, but I'm not certain. Regarding most of the reported bugs for Mint 8 LXDE, I've been unable to reproduce most of them and I think a lot of them are upstream in LXDE and are being fixed for the LTS.

Mint 8 Xfce is currently in RC status as well.

That's because Mint 8 Xfce edition is still a Release Candidate. Mint 7 Xfce is awesome! I have been testing the Mint 8 Xfce Release Candidate all last week, and in my opinion it's ready for prime time.

It does ship with OpenOffice, but that is easily exchanged for Abiword/Gnumeric using Synaptic. Configured properly (which it is in the RC), Xfce is just about as easy on resources as it's much buggier little sister LXDE.

Robin

Actually I would say LXDE is only "buggy" in *buntu and Debian based distros

Its not buggy in my slackware or arch installs at all
nor is it buggy in 9.04 buntu

as far as the comparo in my last post; basically any "stacking" wm like LXDE is always gonna be more low-resource than any "compositing" like xfce4, hands down

+1

It's great in Debian Lenny and Debian Testing. I call it "the 'Buntu Bug."

Robin

FYI: since I posted this in the Mint forum, and am starting to figure out there are some minor unresolvable compatibility issues between LXDE and ubuntu 9.10 (some of you report not noticing, but I did: major freeze-ups on boot or running it), I have found and started to use Masonux 9.04 (9.04 referring to the ubuntu build it is based on plus LXDE window manager). It is small (ISO is 350MB approx), fast, stable.
***** EDIT ***** I have to recant... I'm running into problems with Masonux.

Could you please elaborate a bit more on these?
I think we'd all be very interested in adding these to the discussion thread.

It took longer for Mint 8 to be released because of all the Karmic bugs that had to be addressed, not anything to do with with Xfce. And by the way, Mint 8 Xfce was released yesterday. It rawks!

LXDE is lighter weight than Xfce, but the phrase "under heavy development" is best translated as, "Beta! Beware!"

I expect LXDE will be awesome - when things settle down and they're not re-writing major components of it from scratch (like the PCManFM). In the meantime unless you enjoy some risk, I'd stick with the tried-and-proven Xfce, Fluxbox, etc.

But I'm keeping an eye on LXDE - from a safe distance, so to speak - because I believe that in another year or two it may very well give the others a run for their money. It's just not there yet.

-Robin

I think Fluxbox is great, especially for laptops and netbooks. It is easy on resources and a big plus is that keyboard shortcuts are easy to configure. This is really nice since with netbooks your fingers are usually on the keys. No fumbling around with the touch pad to find a menu to click on.