My first impressions of LXDE!

[Hoppipolla]

I love it! Thank you for providing me with a window manager that is stylish, quick to set up, and yet outstandingly fast!

You know, I was SO close to going back to Windows XP for this laptop (it's about 8 years old) - it was running normal Gnome like a dog, it was just unbearably slow and I've also found Ubuntu Lucid kinda buggy so far. I was wrestling away disabling daemons and background services to try to speed it up (admittedly I did have Compiz and stuff running, but that's never slowed it down before), and JUST when I was about to leave... I discovered LXDE!

I just can't believe the difference it makes, the only time it goes slow now is when I load up the Ubuntu Software Center or something. Other than that it's like lightning and looks brilliant

So thanks guys, and sorry this is a little off-topic as I know this is a help area, but I just wanted to voice my appreciation!

Oh, if I were to suggest improvements, I would say 1) is it would be great to have movable desktop icons (but if it means a slower desktop then I am happy with them being static!) and also it would be really cool if when I select the "icons only" option for the Task Bar, they can act like Application Launchers as well, kind of like the Windows 7 superbar. I know that's a bit much to ask, but it would be pretty cool as then I could remove the normal application launcher, and combine the two into one

Thanks anyway guys and keep up the good work!

Hoppi

[Marty Jack]

First of all, thank you for the compliments. We continue to work on making it faster and better.

I don't quite understand how we would overload the taskbar as an application launcher. But then again I have never run Windows 7. It would seem that it is not that helpful to be able to launch a second copy of something you already have running, and not be able to launch something you don't have running, but I don't know how a "superbar" works. And besides, both left and right click are already doing something totally unrelated to launching. Be happy to consider it though. I will see if I can play with 7 for a little while.

[Hoppipolla]

Yeah erm, it's not a biggie at all, and it is quite hard to explain! lol

It's kind of like a cross between a taskbar and a dock. So, you kind of have a set of launchers, and then when you click one, it gives it like an illumination or halo to show that it's currently running (a bit like the little arrows on the mac dock) and it then acts a bit like entries in the normal LXDE task bar when they're in "icons only" mode, including the ability to group windows belonging to one program. And then of course when the program is fully closed, it goes back to being a launcher for it again. Did that make sense? lol

I was going to grab a video of it off of youtube, but they all showed too much or too little, and I just wanted to try to convey the basic concept!

Anyway, it's very much an extra, maybe it's just because I've used Windows 7 a fair bit in the past so it's like when you give a Mac a go, and then sometimes find you crave having a dock! lol

Ah, and perhaps the largest liiiittle niggle, is the way PCManFM's handling of the desktop (which I believe it does well and attractively, so I don't like disabling it) seems to overlay or interfere with widgets such as screenlets or adesklets, so either you can't see the widgets, or they seem to have trouble grabbing the mouse. I'm really not sure why, but it would be great to have the option of layering Screenlets and things over the PCManFM desktop!

Still, sorry for all the constructive criticisms, overall I think it is wicked and I can see myself using LXDE for a very long time!