How am I supposed to choose between all these DE's?

Question

For the purposes of my post: DE = WM
Hey,
It's hard enough for me to choose which distribution to use. I think the next biggest decision for me is which DE I am to use.
It's most likely between:
- KDE
- XFCE4
- Fluxbox
- Enlightenment
KDE
Why I should use it: Loading some of my favourite programs is tremendously fast (kopete, amarok). I think Konquerer is really nice.
Why I shouldn't use it: It tries too hard, it's far too integrated. Some key sequences are stolen by KDE which would otherwise be used for other applications, such as switching between tabs with Ctrl+T in firefox.
XFCE4
Why I should use it: Looks cool, lightweight (despite having a moderately high-end computer, I'd much rather have a lightweight DE).
Why I shouldn't use it: Customization seems a little limited (though in fairness I haven't tried as much as I have with KDE/Fluxbox).
Fluxbox
Why I should use it: My favourite for customizability, it's lightweight, it only does what's neccessary. startx; wait 1ms; GUI
Why I shouldn't use it: Loading amarok, firefox, kopete is much slower in Fluxbox than it is in KDE.
Enlightenment
Having experimented with this enough to say anything nice/bad about it.
So, which DE (remember, DE=WM too) do you use, and why?
Tom

Answer 1

tomfitzyuk wrote:
For the purposes of my post: DE = WM
Hey,
It's hard enough for me to choose which distribution to use. I think the next biggest decision for me is which DE I am to use.
It's most likely between:
- KDE
- XFCE4
- Fluxbox
- Enlightenment
KDE
Why I should use it: Loading some of my favourite programs is tremendously fast (kopete, amarok). I think Konquerer is really nice.
Why I shouldn't use it: It tries too hard, it's far too integrated. Some key sequences are stolen by KDE which would otherwise be used for other applications, such as switching between tabs with Ctrl+T in firefox.
You can change keyboard shortcuts in kde control center. And the integration? It rocks. Make sure you check out dcop and the notification system (Settings > Configure Notifications)
XFCE4
Why I should use it: Looks cool, lightweight (despite having a moderately high-end computer, I'd much rather have a lightweight DE).
Why I shouldn't use it: Customization seems a little limited (though in fairness I haven't tried as much as I have with KDE/Fluxbox).
XFCE is pretty customisable.... what do you want to do? Take a look at xfce-look.org
Fluxbox
Why I should use it: My favourite for customizability, it's lightweight, it only does what's neccessary. startx; wait 1ms; GUI
Why I shouldn't use it: Loading amarok, firefox, kopete is much slower in Fluxbox than it is in KDE.
Configure XFCE to load KDE and GNOME services, and then run xfce-mcs-manager when you start Fluxbox. That should speed up programs and give  some other nice things.
If you dont know how to do any of that, looky here, My FAQ: http://iphitus.loudas.com/fluxbox.php
Enlightenment
Having experimented with this enough to say anything nice/bad about it.
So, which DE (remember, DE=WM too) do you use, and why?
Tom
Cant say anythin about E17 here either, havnt used it.
Which? I'd say try them all.
Most DE's, even KDE, are made up of components. So if theres bits you like of KDE, and bits of XFCE, you *can* mix and match them. I used to run GNOME with fluxbox as the window manager. Or Fluxbox, xfce settings daemen (xfce-mcs-manager). On one computer I have been running KDE with the xfce window manager. Currently, I am running straight KDE.
So you *can* swap and change.
iphitus