GUI: which one is best?

[pnu]

I have a computer with limited resouces and I can't install KDE and GNOME and Fluxbox and other GUIs. what do you think of the diffrant GUIs is best? I am looking for a GUI with lots of apps but not a massise drian on resoures. Am I wishing for the moon?

[GaMMa]

Umm fluxbox uses nothing for resources, that's pretty much the lowest you can get. If you're looking for programs then you'll probably need KDE or Gnome, unless you want to get everything manually. Try WindowMaker

[pnu]

Thanks. which would you recommened KDE or GNOME? can you tell me more about WindowMaker?

[Xaphoo]

I strongly recommend Gnome2. It runs beautifully on the worst of machines (like mine, a 450 mgz, 128 RAM laptop), and it is solid as a rock. This doesn't come at the expense of eye candy; with the right configuration, it can look as good as KDE3 any day. Yeah, it uses more RAM than fluxbox, but when you have more than 64 megs, who cares? It doesn't use more than necessary.

KDE might be a bit more user-friendly, but only marginally. It's much slower and somehow, it just annoys me more.

Make your own conclusions, of course. Try them both.

--Xaphoo

[dubbac]

Or you can try the minimalist's approach...
blackbox

I like that one as well. If you've no need for bells and whistles and whoopdee f*kn doo type stuff, that'll be fine.

WindowMaker is my second choice for minimal desktops.

Right now though, I use gnome. If my machine runs it, I'll use it.
Gnome is where its at for me at the moment but I change my mind so often.
KDE is always my last choice....

[jglen490]

Try this site (http://www.xwinman.org/index.html) to research many different window managers and desktops. How you react to each one will be very subjective with slow machines (P120), medium machines (400 - 800 MHz), and fast machines obviously loading things at varying speeds. KDE is probably the slowest to load, but it has improved dramatically (IMHO) over the last few releases.

Up until last noght, I was using KDE 3.0.1 on my P120 lapptop. I tried IceWM (again) and found it to be pleasantly quick, but the apps on my machine loaded only marginally faster.

You just have to try different ones.

[kam]

IceWM is my favorite. :)
It is very fast (maybe not as fast as fluxbox), and it has a shortcut toolbar, multiple desktops, a taskbar, etc.

The only con is a text configuration, but its no big deal after you get used to it.

Check it out: icewm.org

PS If you're use to Windows, IceWM is a good choice because it acts in much the same way (if you want it to).

[pnu]

Thanks to all those who shared their views. My mandrake 8.2 installion (default KDE 2.2) ran very slowly. I will try some of the smaller GUIs you have recommeded. I will also load Gnome2.