LXDE Forums

Now that Gnome3 and Unity are here lots of users, like me, want to migrate to a more usable desktop. LXDE it's simple and fast. But not as good as we want.

I think that LXDE can attract a bunch of new users with some little changes, that make it look and feel more like Gnome2 (that was simply great):

Add a plugin for lxappareance that can change metacity (or xfwm4) themes, to give a chance to use it, instead of openbox. And also make it change the wallpaper.

Yes, LXDE is a fantastic Environment - I think its the best system, on the grounds that computers should be as efficient as possible and consume as little as they can.

Previously I was using it because I had an old laptop that wasnt a performer. Currently I have a hex-core PC. So I can afford to run the latest KDE. Which is great for showing off, but its not as important as resource consumption. Especially if your using the system all day every day (eg. for work). Don't get me wrong I still love KDE and GNOME, but when I think of all the computing devices in the whole world, collectively consuming excessive power, and contributing to CO2 emmissions - I immediately thank God for LXDE!

And today I just discovered the best LXDE distribution called "lubuntu". The consistency of the quality of themeing/branding is truly awesome! There has been 5 releases of that distro, and all 5 had clean, complete and impressive artwork/themes/branding. Its one thing to consume few resources. But quite exceptional to look good at the same time!

As to lxappearance changing metacity or xfwm4 themes. I think making it work like GNOME2 is also a good idea. One of the most impressive things you could do with GNOME2 is to use gconf-tool to alter the value of every registerd application with commands. "lubuntu" has the gconf-tool installed by default, and I think it must be possible to create a key for a LXDE application setting. However, by default gconf-editor doesnt seem to store any LXDE keys!
Also, just today I became aware of xfconf and xfce4-settings which do a similar job for xfce desktops. Some settings are accessible from LXDE like xsettings, displays, xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts, and finally xfce4-power-manager. But the one I want is xfce4-desktop which contains settings for the Desktop. I tried installing the xfdesktop4 package, and start it up, but got a SESSION_MANAGER error!
Which led me to this forum, where I found this command:
"pcmanfm --set-wallpaper /path/to/your/wallpaper.jpg" and I can confirm it does actually work. If anyone knows how change LXDE settings programmatically, Id like to know if this is possible with gconf-tool or xfconf-query or any other tool.

Finally I think your right about LXDE attracting a bunch of new users with small changes to make it look better. "lubuntu" definately does this. And thanks to openbox there is allot of great "conky" scripts that can make it stand out aswell. What I would like to see with LXDE is a next generation conky widget tool similar to "rainmeter" on windows machines. (examples here: http://customize.org/rainmeter ) Conky is efficient and if it had more support for animation, LXDE could use it to really compete with KDE and GNOME3.

))))))))))

I moved to Lubuntu with an old Dell Inspiron 1000 and now I have it on my netbook as well. The use of less resources and still getting the job done is fantastic. To make it attractive at the same time is a benefit that will attact more users (as you have already stated.) However, I'm not sure that the developers read this forum or are influenced by it. I believe that you have to get involved with the development for them to pay attention. Another option would be to post to Launchpad.

I think I may mildly disagree in that putting a lot of new controls for cosmetic widgets, etc in LXDE will just make it like Gnome, KDE and the others. I really like the flexibility and simplicity that LXDE offers. I've found with a little work, searching, trial-and-error, etc that I have been able to achieve every utility and cosmetic end that I've wanted. With bloated distribution it is often hard to find what to adjust to achieve a goal, or even where to start.

Changing wallpaper or replacing wallpaper with an image rotator is easy in LXDE: http://douwil7.100webspace.net/linux/Tuning.html#6.
Widgets can be achieved with simple pipe menus. If I recall correctly, the Crunchbang forum tells how to do this. I do not use widgets.