From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1NmDke-0003w9-0u for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:06:08 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 43FD3E0CCF for ; Mon, 1 Mar 2010 22:06:06 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-bw0-f211.google.com (mail-bw0-f211.google.com [209.85.218.211]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 069D7E0A59 for ; Mon, 1 Mar 2010 21:19:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: by bwz3 with SMTP id 3so1026720bwz.29 for ; Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:19:56 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:from:to:subject:date :user-agent:references:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:message-id; bh=J1yw9pjOx5Of05c11oZvlZteAgdKLTryvwGzH3amWbY=; b=N/5t3zeXi1ey/lljOpJLmgRlE1blsJvhn+ar+MgE5IEN/UGNK9o8vZoldIBDRO8WFp 7pPNsEypNUSrD3m9v5YBVYAf+hlE7sEs1iy+wgnMf/PW3E/9OBTwpYDepq7pYLgPys7V JOIHXeIE9op12PB5csazB7gHnLFo+DXQYVN4w= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=from:to:subject:date:user-agent:references:in-reply-to:mime-version :content-type:content-transfer-encoding:message-id; b=qsWlRywKReuzfFj7o+YwNIpoEORh5AuXO7AeXdCbnJhSCSXQEtNyIGJDj2hxE7J9ce yRbsWDkBtmFPoMAAPkuBMtSxUvSCT7z/bW829GkjCs+/0xwakAC9McFtO6PyMmd7tCzD AFU8XThMUmORFy7rndEJ5wdarfWXQmCdeN0XM= Received: by 10.204.8.5 with SMTP id f5mr3487848bkf.59.1267478395971; Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:19:55 -0800 (PST) Received: from nazgul.localnet (196-210-238-8.dynamic.isadsl.co.za [196.210.238.8]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id e18sm841012bkd.2.2010.03.01.13.19.54 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:19:54 -0800 (PST) From: Alan McKinnon To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] KDE? Get me out of here! Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 23:17:23 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.13.0 (Linux/2.6.32-zen6; KDE/4.4.0; x86_64; ; ) References: <9acccfe51002231827q26e94e64s7f29ec46b6675156@mail.gmail.com> <201003012122.29314.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> <201003012028.54948.michaelkintzios@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <201003012028.54948.michaelkintzios@gmail.com> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <201003012317.24181.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> X-Archives-Salt: 6c7d9fdd-3da2-46a7-840f-b8b980c77dc0 X-Archives-Hash: 31e2f5e5111777ef9790a3325e359ea1 On Monday 01 March 2010 22:28:42 Mick wrote: > > My pet peeve is Desktop. I have two monitors at work and use two X > > screens. KDE wants to create a Desktop and a Desktop-1 directory. I want > > it to just > > > > use the same set of files for both - background, icons, plasma widgets > > must be the same on both monitors, but actual app windows running there > > independent. This seems perfectly reasonable to me - e17 does it out the > > box - but thus far I have not found the magic voodoo spell that makes it > > happen. > > How does e17 compare in terms of resources to other WMs/DEs like *box, > LXDE, xface, these days? I had a look at it when it was all the rage > back when, but it looked too Gnomey to me at the time and I couldn't find > a reason for preferring it over say fluxbox. As of right now, I really couldn't say. About 6 months ago the e17 devs started ramping up for a release that was supposed to happen round about last xmas. Then Samsung and a French manufacturer of set-top boxes got in on the action, as a result the code changes faster than Paris Hilton changes her knickers. It stopped reliably building from one hour to the next ... :-) So I switched to KDE to get some stability and haven't tried again since. e17 has to be evaluated on it's own merits, like all other software. it's not "like" anything ... except perhaps e17 itself. It's claims to fame are twofold: 1. Themeability. If you have every written a KDE or Gnome theme engine you will know what a serious ball-ache it is. Code mixed in with specs mixed in with image files.... e17 does it a different way with .edj files. You write an .edc spec file in a declarative style (as in you say *what* you want, not *how* it is done - that's the engine's job to figure that out) and supply your images to be used on the widgets. Then run it through a mini-compiler to produce an .edj, tell the wm to use it and voila! theme applied. It's not just a simple "replace all those .pngs with these .pngs" to get a different set of colours - you change the entire look and feel of the desktop and the engine just knows what to do with it. 2. Configurability. Everything that can possibly be changeable is so, including stuff that really shouldn't be :-) It makes KDE look minimalist. Fortunately, a lot of the advanced stuff can be hidden in the config dialog which improves things. Resources - it's hard to write a wm these days that isn't a resource hog in some ways. If you want transparency and composition, be prepared to sell some cpu to get it. Having said that, e17 runs blindingly fast on ARM mobile devices when configured appropriately. It's nowhere near as minimalist as *box, those wm's are in a class where if they suit your needs, then nothing else will come close, especially not e17 which is designed to showcase graphic effects to a large degree. *box is the polar opposite of that -- alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com