[PLUG] TUESDAY: October PLUG Advanced Topics: Living Desktop Environment-Free

Paul Mullen pm at nellump.net
Tue Oct 21 08:13:36 UTC 2014


On Mon, Oct 20, 2014 at 05:31:34PM -0700, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> On Mon, 20 Oct 2014 10:05:43 -0700
> Michael Dexter <dexter at ambidexter.com> dijo:
> 
> >KDE, Unity, even XFCE, are massive, complex software environments that
> >achieve simplicity of user experience through rigid adherence to a
> >given paradigm - and once you can write a shell script, they do
> >remarkably little for you. We'll discuss philosophy, tools, and
> >practical advice for simpler, more reliable, and more powerful
> >computing without a desktop environment, surveying everything from
> >non-annoying network profile handling to the wide world of mouse-free
> >window management and everything in between.
> 
> I can use a minimal desktop like Xfce, but I'm trying to imagine how I
> could function without any desktop at all, even if I was a master at
> shell scripts, which I most definitely am not.

I strongly suspect that the speaker is going to demonstrate life
without a desktop environment, such as Gnome, KDE, etc., and not life
without any graphical user interface, at all.  Such a desktop has the
usual X-compatible windowing system, window manager, GUI applications,
etc., but lacks the hundreds of megabytes worth of canned
applications, preference panels, automagic configurators, and more
that you get with desktop environments.

A desktop sans desktop environment appeals to power users and/or
minimalists that like to work a little closer to the moving parts;
dislike the software making assumptions for them; don't have the
storage or processor for all-singing-all-dancing desktops; etc.

(The terminology can be confusing.)


-- 
Paul Mullen



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