This is an interesting thread. It is great to hear what works for other people. | From: Lennart Sorensen via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | And given all I want a linux desktop to do is display windows, let me | minimize, maximize and resize the windows in a normal way, and be able | to launch programs by hitting alt+f2 and typing the name, I tend to just | stick with xfce which is nice and lightweight. I don't want a file | manager of any kind nor do I care to have menus for launching things. :) I like Gnome, ignoring any load it adds to my machine. GNOME has a nicely sparse desktop. Good. If I wish to run a GUI program, I just type the Windows key and start typing the name. By the time I'm a few characters in, it shows me that it knows what I meant and I can type ENTER to start it. Surely easier than ALT-F2 (I almost never type function keys -- too far from the home row). I can cycle between GUI programs that are running using Windows-TAB. I have started to use the file manager (GNOME Files, a Nautilus descendent) in the last couple of years. I've recently incorporated its search capability into my workflow and find it more convenient than locate(1) or especially find(1). As far as the load GNOME adds to my machine: it seems to be in the noise. Even on my netbooks. Mind you, GNOME and Windows are miserable when loaded on a hard disk. On the surface, GNOME is simple. Underneath is a bit of a mystery to me. It sure seems complicated. That makes me a little uncomfortable, but only when something doesn't work or doesn't work the way I expect. I really like that Fedora comes out of the box in a pretty much usable state. I change a very few things. I just don't waste any effort creating the perfect desktop environment. Conceptually, I dislike large complex code bodies. But I feel stuck with them. - web browsers - video drivers - kernels - desktop environments - spreadsheets and word-processors - database systems I have a friend that turned his back on this and uses Plan 9. I don't have the energy for the simple life. I suspect Lennart is trying to only use things that he understands. I've mostly given up that requirement.