Original Article by by Charles E. Craig, Jr., published on http://www.renewablepcs.com/

In Linux, there are so many choices, and this includes the desktop environments and window managers. Four of the most popular desktop environments in Linux are GNOME, KDE, XFCE, and LXDE. All four offer sophisticated point-and-click graphical user interfaces (GUI) which are on par with the desktop environments found in Windows and Mac OS X.

When you ask different people which of these four is best, you will likely get many different answers. So which is the best between GNOME, KDE, XFCE, and LXDE?

Well….. it is largely a matter of opinion, and the capabilities of your computer hardware can also be important in deciding. For example, users with older computers will be better served to choose XFCE or especially LXDE, while users with newer hardware can get more desktop effects by choosing GNOME or KDE. My recommendation would be to try all four of these desktop environments and decide for yourself which one works best for you. GNOME, KDE, XFCE, and LXDE are all excellent and to varying degrees each can be customized in a number of ways. My personal favorite is GNOME 2.x which is slowly being replaced by GNOME 3, though (very fortunately) GNOME 2.x is still being kept alive in Linux Mint and some other distros. Of the most recent desktop environments, my favorite is the newly-released XFCE 4.8.





A Brief Description of GNOME, KDE, XFCE, and LXDE:

GNOME [1] – Currently, GNOME (GNU Network Object Model Environment) is in the process of transitioning from version 2.x (which is still used by a large number of distros that offer GNOME) to version 3, which was recently released. Beginning with Ubuntu 11.04, there is also the Unity shell that runs on top of GNOME 2.x. So basically, GNOME at the moment finds itself in three major manifestations: the old GNOME 2.x, the new GNOME 3, and Unity. Both GNOME 3 and Unity (in my opinion) are moves toward more aesthetically pleasing, yet in some ways more cumbersome desktops. While this is my opinion, GNOME 3 and Unity are nice overall and should appeal to many people. It should be mentioned that GNOME has a wealth of applications which are designed for its desktop, but they can also be used in the other desktop environments as well; click here to see a list of them [2]. Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, and CentOS are major Linux distos which use GNOME in their main editions. Following are descriptions of GNOME 2.x, GNOME 3, and Unity:





GNOME 2.x





Now in the process of becoming the “old school” GNOME, 2.x has dual taskbars, known as “panels.” One panel is located at the top of the screen in the form of a menu bar and an additional panel is found at the bottom of the screen. Because of this, some people would say that GNOME 2.x more closely resembles the Mac OS X operating system in appearance than it does Microsoft Windows. While this may be true in its default settings, GNOME 2.x can be configured to more closely resemble Windows. Regarding system resource usage, GNOME 2.x requires less RAM but more CPU than GNOME 3, and less RAM and CPU than Unity or KDE but more than XFCE or LXDE. GNOME 2.x has a menu at the left of the menu bar (top panel) which is very simple and easy to use, and unfortunately, this extremely nice menu does not exist in either GNOME 3 or Unity. GNOME 2.x is still my favorite desktop and it pains me to see it potentially fade into the sunset. It is my personal hope that it will be kept alive and/or forked. So far Linux Mint has succeeded in keeping GNOME 2.x alive.







Click on the picture above to see a larger screenshot of the “Classic” GNOME 2.x desktop in Ubuntu 11.04. Recommended System Requirements for GNOME 2.x Required RAM 384 MB Required CPU 800 MHz http://linuxreviews.org/software/desktops/ [3]





GNOME 3





The newly released GNOME 3 is a drastic change from the “classic” GNOME 2.x. While GNOME 3 is fairly intuitive, for someone who is accustomed to GNOME 2.x, or any other desktop environment for that matter, there will be a considerable amount of adjustment. In GNOME 3, there is only one panel located at the top of the desktop, and there is no longer a traditional menu. To open programs, users click on “Activities” found on the left side of the panel, which then gives the options of a program launcher that appears on the left side of the desktop, an “Applications” option found on the upper left part of the desktop (which is the closest thing to a menu), or they can search for programs using the search box on the upper right of the desktop. Additionally, when clicking on “Activities,” a desktop switcher appears on the right side of the desktop. Another change involves the buttons on the windows; in GNOME 2.x, and practically every other desktop environment or window manager, there are at least three buttons found at the top of each window: one to exit the window, one to maximize the window, and one to minimize the window. However, in GNOME 3, there is only one button which is used to exit the window, which really takes some getting used to. Overall though, GNOME 3 is a very simple, clean, and visually pleasing desktop, but it is also quite cumbersome.



Click on the picture above to see a larger screenshot of the GNOME 3 desktop in Fedora 15.

Recommended System Requirements for GNOME 3 Required RAM 768 MB Required CPU 400 MHz http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora [4]