Topic: Lightweight Linux Desktop Proves Popular with Netbooks

[sam]

sounds like the competition in the netbook age is about to get more intense... all the better for the end user :-D

http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Lightweight_Linux_Desktop_Proves_Popular_with_Netbooks

LinuxWorld is under way in San Francisco this week (see Wired’s coverage) and gOS, the Linux distro that made a splash after Walmart started selling gOS-equipped PCs, is back with a new release.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the new gOS is that the distro has adopted the newer, lightweight LXDE (which stands for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment), giving the old Enlightenment desktop the heave-ho in the process.

And gOS isn’t the only vender moving over to LXDE; the site lists a handful of others (including Ubuntulite, an Ubuntu derivative) that will ship or already are shipping with LXDE instead of Gnome or even Xfce.

Given that Linux has proved a popular money-saving choice for netbooks and low-cost, low-power internet PCs, it isn’t really surprising that venders are looking for a lightweight alternative to Gnome — something to reduce the hardware load.

Of course that’s not to say that LXDE is somehow less full-featured than Gnome, all the things you would expect — tabbed filebrowser, session manager, theme tools, terminal, text editor and more — are in LXDE, but the underlying framework allows for much lighter hardware requirements.

Indeed that’s part of the pitch on the distros’ website: “Not everyone on this earth is rich. There must be a nice desktop environment for those who can’t afford new fancy hardware, and we have the ability to help them.”

I’m curious to know if any Webmonkey readers have used LXDE. If so, let us know what you think in the comments. I’m planning on giving it a try (probably using Ubuntulite in a virtual machine) but if you have experiences with LXDE, let me know.

If you’d like to see some more screenshots, DesktopLinux has a few. The official LXDE website has several as well.

[Simon]

I was looking at one of those Eee PC things the other day, but it seems there are other brands about to enter the market, so I decided to wait a while and see what happens.

[sam]

I have an eeepc and its great.. though yeah worth looking around, none of the competitors seem quite as cheap (I had an article somewhere about the others ones.. but can't find it now).

[Simon]

Could I use it to go online, via bluetooth on my phone, even if my phone isn't wi-fi enabled?

[sam]

not sure, I have tried that... I'm not sure I've even checked if it has bluetooth, I never use it. I'll have a play later...

[Simon]

My next phone will be wi-fi enabled, but it's not out yet.