Which distro stays the most true to the default layout?

d3x · 2007-02-21 13:17:43

Greetings all smile

It's not an unknown fact that various distros adapt windowmanagers and desktop environments to suite their profile. What I am looking for is a distro that keeps Xfce the most vanilla. Hope my questions clear tongue Or rahter, my general wondering smile

MagnusBerg · 2007-02-21 14:37:53

I don't thing they put much effort in changning Xfce4 becuase they counts on that most people use KDE or Gnome.
I use Debian and here are no changes as I can see. But it can be interesting to hear hove Xfce4 looks in Xubuntu. Is there lots of Ubuntu logos that moves and rotates, or is Xfce4 as nice as Xfce4 chould be???

d3x · 2007-02-21 15:51:08

As far as I know I think they don't use the default layout of panels. Panels are put to imitate gnome, whick i don't like. At least this is what I can see from screenshots.

weibullguy · 2007-02-21 16:04:31

I'm not an Xfce developer and, IMHO, they would be the ones that could define what "vanilla" means. So, I'm not really qualified to answer the question, but I'll throw in my two cents anyway.

I use Xfce-4.4 on my Cross Linux from Scratch system. Everything is built straight from the tarballs except I apply the panel transparency patch. I don't use the installer. I guess that's about as "vanilla" as you can get. Comparing the look of my CLFS build to what I get when I use Xfce-4.4 on my Gentoo system, I'd say Gentoo is "vanilla" too. I've never looked at the ebuilds for Xfce-4.4 to see if there are any post-install actions that would change the "look."

Nick · 2007-02-22 07:41:45

AFAIK most Xfce related distro's don't patch Xfce. Xubuntu applies some (distro related) bug fixes and patches for nicer icons and such. Changing the layout of menus has nothing to do with 'vanilla'. So you're probably talking about a clean distro that runs Xfce. IMHO it's better to run a light/fast package based distro instead or a source based one (building all the packages needs extra dependencies).

So if you want good Xfce support, use Xubuntu and if you want a cleaner distro, use something else.

Glanz · 2007-02-22 14:12:20

d3x wrote:

Greetings all
It's not an unknown fact that various distros adapt windowmanagers and desktop environments to suite their profile. What I am looking for is a distro that keeps Xfce the most vanilla. Hope my questions clear Or rahter, my general wondering

I have used Zenwalk, All the Xubuntus including the RC candidates and Debian. IMO, Debian is the most faithful to Xfce "vanilla"... I have also installed via the installer on several Slack based distros for others, so I have a point of comparison. I am using Sid with Xfce-4.4.0-1 from experimental... , although Debian Sid has a slightly less up2date RC2... The experimental Xfce works perfectly. I enabled experimental repos temporarily to install but was careful not to go "shopping" for more random experimental stuff. Then after the install, I changed preferences in synaptic to not choose experimental by default but rather "use the highst version" which has the effect of making a Sid install choose the highest version from the Sid repos. Experimental is still in my sources.list, but APT doesn't automatically choose ex pkgs when upgrading so there's no danger. I kept the source because I want to know what's in Experimental, that's all.

Here's how I did it via Synaptic:
For Xfce RC (nearly 4.4.0), you can use APT or Synaptic to install it.
Synaptic is good because it gives a good visual overview of what you have and need and makes app "shopping" easier.

For Xfce-4.4.0, you can do the following.

~ apt-get update
~ do an "apt-get install synaptic"
~ mark all upgrades
~ apply
Now you can install xfce-4.4.0 via Synaptic like this:
~ Go to Settings > repositories and check "experimental"
~ Go to Settings > Preferences > Distribution and check "experimental" (last button)...
~ do a "reload" (the equivalent of "apt-get update") within the Synaptic interface...
~ Check off all the xfce4 stuff for upgrade to 4.4.0
~ GTK 2.0 and a few other things will be upgraded along with the necessary Xfce modules and utilities.
~ After installation, do another reload
~ hit "search"and search for "xfce" (name and description)...
~ get the stuff you missed, like xfprint4, xfmedia, etc...

You may be tempted to upgrade a lot of other stuff by the "shopping around method"... Be careful here. I went for GIMP 2.3 and aircrack-ng... I wouldn't do anything else if I were you, particularly with gcc and libraries other than the ones needed by xfce which are already probably installed. Do not update xorg while in "experimental" preferences. And for sure, do not do a general upgrade from experimental.

~ After the Xfce-4.4.0, go back to Settings > Preferences > Distribution and UN-check "experimental" Choose the "highest version" button on the top (the first button)...

~ Do another "reload" (apt-get update)
===============================
Another thing: if you want a painless way to install Debian SID that has not been deliberately crippled by free Soft Taliban, I highly recommend Sidux... (a "stable" unstable) http://sidux.com/Article116.html
The Sidux "LITE" ISO installs a lite, fully functional KDE desktop which you can totally purge after an Xfce installation. Don't forget to install GDM also.

new2linux · 2007-03-30 13:51:07

weibullguy wrote:

I'm not an Xfce developer and, IMHO, they would be the ones that could define what "vanilla" means. So, I'm not really qualified to answer the question, but I'll throw in my two cents anyway.
I use Xfce-4.4 on my Cross Linux from Scratch system. Everything is built straight from the tarballs except I apply the panel transparency patch. I don't use the installer. I guess that's about as "vanilla" as you can get. Comparing the look of my CLFS build to what I get when I use Xfce-4.4 on my Gentoo system, I'd say Gentoo is "vanilla" too. I've never looked at the ebuilds for Xfce-4.4 to see if there are any post-install actions that would change the "look."

I am curious as to how I would do a XFCE4.4 install from source? I am going to be installing Ubuntu Edgy Server edition on my old Pentium MMX 266mhz, 128mb ram, 4mb vid ram laptop and I currently have Xubuntu Dapper on it but it still seems slow so I want to go with the most minimum I can. I also like icewm but it's not all integrated like XFCE is. ROX-filer hasn't been that easy for me to figure out either?

So I am curious as to what I all need to do right after I finish the install of the Ubuntu Edgy Server Edition. obviously I need to install at the dependencies listed but I noticed it doesn't list X11? what is the command to get Xorg installed? Also, I can't use the graphical installer since I won't have a window manager to run it from! That's why I am asking how to do it from source. I have compiled proftpd from source but never something this large where I need to make sure I do the correct things with my configure command. also, there are tons of little sources, do I just follow the section labeled "Building from source" at this link (http://www.xfce.org/documentation/4.2/u … e4-install) I know that link is for version 4.2 but I figure compiling from source would be same from version to version?
OR
would it be easier for me to quickly install some kind of window manager so that I could run the graphical installer? any help would be appreciated. thank you

weibullguy · 2007-03-30 14:44:06

These are the instructions for building Xfce-4.4 http://cblfs.cross-lfs.org/index.php/Xfce. Any and all dependencies *will* be listed for each package. Bear in mind that these instructions have been "tested" on my CLFS build. I suspect they'll be sucessful on most any distro, but no guarantees explicit or implied.

new2linux · 2007-04-02 14:18:07

weibullguy wrote:

These are the instructions for building Xfce-4.4 http://cblfs.cross-lfs.org/index.php/Xfce. Any and all dependencies *will* be listed for each package. Bear in mind that these instructions have been "tested" on my CLFS build. I suspect they'll be sucessful on most any distro, but no guarantees explicit or implied.

well what is CLFS? I would be starting with Ubuntu Edgy Server Edition or heck maybe even Fiesty Server Edition, than adding XFCE. Is it true in thinking that doing it this way and then adding the individual apps I want will save me some bloat instead of just installing Edgy or Fiesty Xubuntu?

weibullguy · 2007-04-02 15:01:02

CLFS --> Cross Linux from Scratch

new2linux wrote:

I would be starting with Ubuntu Edgy Server Edition or heck maybe even Fiesty Server Edition, than adding XFCE. Is it true in thinking that doing it this way and then adding the individual apps I want will save me some bloat instead of just installing Edgy or Fiesty Xubuntu?

Dunno. Depends on what, if any, optional dependencies Xubuntu builds XFCE against. IMHO, if you have the time and inclination to run down and fix errors rolling your own can save some bloat. This is primarily because you don't need to build the optional features that a distro is more likely to include to satisfy an unknown and larger user-base.

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#1 2007-02-21 13:17:43

Which distro stays the most true to the default layout?

#2 2007-02-21 14:37:53

Re: Which distro stays the most true to the default layout?

#3 2007-02-21 15:51:08

Re: Which distro stays the most true to the default layout?

#4 2007-02-21 16:04:31

Re: Which distro stays the most true to the default layout?

#5 2007-02-22 07:41:45

Re: Which distro stays the most true to the default layout?

#6 2007-02-22 14:12:20

Re: Which distro stays the most true to the default layout?

#7 2007-03-30 13:51:07

Re: Which distro stays the most true to the default layout?

#8 2007-03-30 14:44:06

Re: Which distro stays the most true to the default layout?

#9 2007-04-02 14:18:07

Re: Which distro stays the most true to the default layout?

#10 2007-04-02 15:01:02

Re: Which distro stays the most true to the default layout?

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