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S. Wong

Weaksauce
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Nov 26, 2007
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Going to be installing linux on a Thinkpad T61 soon, and was looking around for recommendations on a modern linux GUI. Any recommended distros are welcome too.

Last time I ran linux as a home computer, it was back in the days of Gentoo 2, so KDE and Gnome were... primitive.

Generally when I work on Linux, its on servers and CLI, so I have very little experience in a xwindow/desktop environment.
What I have seen on a lot of screenshots are GUIs that look really sharp.

What I'm used to:
Windows 7 + Classic Shell + Areo gives a really nice look to windows, but I'd like to give linux another chance after 15 years
 
Although I have used gentoo daily for 12+ years now (as part of the day job and at home - my main server / htpc runs on gentoo) I would recommend ubuntu for most windows users.
 
Just to be clear, this will be a spare computer, so learning a new interface isn't terrible.

I worked on an Ubuntu environment years ago, the GUI was only ok.

The most annoying thing to me was that to do anything I had to sudo.
sudo mount /dev/usb0 /mnt/usb0
sudo chmod 777 /mnt/usb0
was really annoying to get files off my thumbdrive instead of being able to drag & drop from the GUI ala windows
 
Linux Mint. Less fucking around making things just work versus Ubuntu and their bizzarro Debian-based ideology regarding proprietary codecs.
 
Just to be clear, this will be a spare computer, so learning a new interface isn't terrible.

I worked on an Ubuntu environment years ago, the GUI was only ok.

The most annoying thing to me was that to do anything I had to sudo.
sudo mount /dev/usb0 /mnt/usb0
sudo chmod 777 /mnt/usb0
was really annoying to get files off my thumbdrive instead of being able to drag & drop from the GUI ala windows

sudo su - that problem solved. Also I think you can install automount also for *buntu (unless it's by default these days) which makes USB work like in Windows.
 
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If you want a customized system, I think Arch distro is the way to go. It does have a learning curve, however it's not that hard, specially with the help of the Arch Wiki. After the install, you will just have the base system and then you can choose and configure your Window Manager and Destop Environment.

My Arch x86_64 + Openbox + Tint2 + Conky (I really like old school look with modern shadows and lines.)
http://i62.tinypic.com/33uu068.png

Here, other Arch setup from my laptop.
http://i59.tinypic.com/atm3ic.jpg

Other distros that are more user friendly and I think you may like: Mint (Ubuntu or Debian based), Manjaro (Arch based), Deepin (Ubuntu based).

Desktop environments compatibility:
Mint: Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE, MATE, Xfce.
Manjaro: Cinnamon, Enlightenment, Fluxbox, GNOME, KDE, LXDE, MATE, Openbox, Xfce.
Deepin: Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE). It's based on HTML5 technologies and this distro is build with an OSX like interface. Really nice, give it a try.
 
Skripka, thanks for the info on Linux Mint. If I'm doing this, I want to avoid proprietary :)

Nightmike, thanks for letting me know about Arch & Deepin.
I haven't heard of XFCE, Flutebox, nor LXDE.

I'll be checking all of those out
 
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Sorry for the thread necro but for my money, Centos 7 is the right choice. That's mainly because I run Red Hat and the like so working on Centos give me more time with it. The desktop has been heavily upgraded since the 5.x or 6.x days and it's frankly really good looking. YMMV, of course. Nothing wrong with the other options presented in this thread, but we all have our favorites.
 
I'm a fan of Gnome. It gets hate in some groups, but 3.14 is amazing. Also an Arch fan due to the wonderful AUR, but IMO distro doesn't really matter as long as you can get your patches/packages.
 
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