Any experience with LXDE?

[zvi]

Right now, I use Ubuntu, which occasionally feels a whee bit sluggish (particularly when I use FF, as I'm still using 3.0; I haven't quite wanted to do the upgrade to 3.5 before it was in the official repos. I am giving deep, deep thought to just switching to Chromium.)

I got a new-to-me laptop and put Xubuntu on it, which seems zippier, but frustrating to customize (Particularly the menus, I have to edit and create .desktop files, which is not exactly a barrel of monkeys, but not the least fun time I've ever had either.)

I was wondering if anyone were familiar with LXDE, how it is to use, whether it has a menu editor, where I would go for tips and tricks? Thanks for any help you can give.

Comments

[kerravonsen]

The only part of LXDE I've used is LXpanel; it's fine but fairly basic. The main reason I use it is because it can be used independently of its desktop environment (I use it with Fvwm just for the systray and menu). Unfortunately for you, in order to customize the menu in LXpanel, you have to edit the config file for the panel; there isn't a GUI for it.

I guess the first question of which desktop environment would suit you is: what features do you want? Obviously you want something zippier than GNOME, which means that KDE is out. I'm kind of surprised that you found XFCE4 (what Xubuntu uses) to be so frustrating; I rather like it. But then I don't tend to edit menus, I just go with the default.

Because of this, I can't speak to how easy or difficult menu-editing is with various DEs, but there are a couple of other lightweight DEs you might want to try out also: Enlightenment, and Fvwm-crystal. (Not Fvwm; it requires a lot of file-editing to customize, which wouldn't suit you. Me, I love it just because it is supremely flexible, but I like getting under the hood.)

[zvi]

The menu editing is probably the biggest thing for me; if I download a java app, I really much prefer to add it to the menu. (I try to avoid desktop or panel launchers.)

I've heard that Enlightenment is pretty fiddly, but I might see if there's ubuntu package for fwvm-crystal. Thanks.

[siliconshaman]

Mint XCFE edition is pretty zippy in comparison, and is a piece of cake to install and customise [even easier than Ubuntu]. Not sure what tweaks they did to it, but running it and Ubuntu 9.04 on the same [old] laptop pointed up the difference.

[zvi]

Does Mint XFCE have the mint menu? I'm having trouble figuring it out from the website info.

[jesse_the_k]

I was able to install Xubuntu, and customize stuff for the non-standard HP Mini 1000 screen all using GUIs (cause I don't speak command line).

[zvi]

Did you just customize appearance, or did you find a menu editor?

[draigwen]

I'm fairly sure there was a menu editor in XFCE last time I used it a year or two ago. Although back then the menu editor was broken so maybe they withdrew it rather than fixing it?

*checks synaptic* the xfdesktop4 package that I have as an option definitely says 'menu manager'.

[zvi]

I'm using the Karmic beta, and XFCE 4.6 has pulled the menu editor for severe brokenness, further research has revealed.

[jesse_the_k]

XFCE scatters its system-modification utilities like sand dollars on the beach, and unfortunately my netbook is out on loan right now so I can't be very specific.

So, in System -> Appearance or Accessories -> Settings or some darn place, there's a window with around 20 system-management utilities. One permitted me to define which applications would go in which category of the panel's Applications menu. It's *not* called "Menu Editor"—that one only changes what's available from the context menu in the file manager.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but it's why I'm sticking with factory-installed OSes.

[baggyeyes]

This may be outdated - but...

ubuntuforums: How to add items to main menu of LXDE

It does not appear that there is any GUI way to edit the menus in LXDE.

ETA Right after I post that, I find this: LXPanel I've never used it, so I can't vouch for its stability.

(Sorry about the multiple edits.)

[zvi]

drat, that's pretty much the same as xfce. :(