I remember that immediately after installing Debian Lenny, I wanted to test the LXDE environment that had just been integrated into Debian. I had no idea what it was, it was just a lightweight desktop environment and since I like to tinker, I gave it a try.
What is LXDE?
LXDE is a simple desktop environment, which normally uses open box as a window manager, just as GNOME uses Metacity. Let's say LXDE is the light competition of KDE, GNOME or XFCE (XFCE especially).
I thought it was installed by default on the system, but it was not, I had to install it from the repositories, however, downloading and installing it is not a problem, all uninstalled packages weigh 26 megabytes at most.
LXDE has a relatively simple structure, it has few programs of its own, but most of the programs that I use are not proprietary to GNOME so I did not have big problems, later I will go into details about which programs to use.
I like tinkering with Linux from time to time, once in a while I tried Fluxbox, a window manager that is the predecessor of Openbox, with the latter I was very pleasantly surprised, because although with Fluxbox I got along quite well, to be honest it is a system not very usable and that comes by default quite crude when you install it for the first time as well as its own programs that do not help much. Openbox follows its line of simplicity but it is much more usable, but much more, to begin with it does not come "raw" like Fluxbox (those who have used Fluxbox will understand why I say it comes "raw"), it comes ready to use and is still very configurable.
Why use LXDE?
What LXDE allows is to use a nice and visually pleasing window environment, very similar to KDE or GNOME on a PC with few resources or to introduce a distro on a pendrive saving a lot of space (in fact LXDE offers a Live version of Debian for CD and another especially for USB that weighs just under 500 MB).
In my case, LXDE has allowed me to use my PC quite calmly, the temperature is kept to a minimum using it, it does not bother, it does not tend to be easily misconfigured and, although it has few programs, but the normal programs of daily use work without problems. . It also turns on and off quickly.
Applications
By default, at least in Debian although it seems to me that it is always the same, use these programs for the most essential:
PC Man File Manager: A worthy Nautilus replacement, it's better PCMan than Thunar, it makes me feel like I'm actually using a file browser and not a cardboard system. (At Fluxbox I generally felt like I was using a cardboard environment that could load me up in two seconds if I wasn't careful.)
leaf pad: It's the text editor, very simple, so much so that I miss the highlighting, let's say it's a real "Windows Notepad" but on Linux. Its function is that there is at least something to read text files and that "something" is light.
Lxterminal: What is the LXDE terminal is lighter than the others and I use it instead of the others.
GPicView: It is the image viewer, practically the same as others in GNOME or Windows XP.
It fulfills its function.
As you can see, the LXDE programs are simple, compliant even if they are not a big deal.
What I mean by this is that you can do pretty much the same thing as in GNOME without GNOME and it works really well.
Speaking of specific programs, the GNOME "Screenshot" doesn't work for me, but I make up for that with scrot (a program with an ugly name but very useful).
Save resources
Using LXDE is supposed to save resources, so my recommended applications are:
If you want to save resources you can use Epiphany or Kazehakase instead of Firefox (although I use Iceweasel without problems)
Pidgin for everything that has to do with talking to people.
For Twitter ... Pidgin also with its plugin mbpidgin.
Documents? If it is about word processing do not choose OpenOffice, prefer Abiword.
To read the mail in the classic way I still use Evolution. I accept recommendations.
The rest is more or less the same and if you feel like using the old GNOME programs it is also possible.
Compiz at LXDE
A topic worthy of a new article, but let's say that it is possible to use it, I have looked for information and it ensures that it is possible to use it in this way, with the exception that the system may run somewhat slow (I imagine that when they refer to slowness, they refer old equipment incorporating this environment).
I do not know how it is implemented, perhaps it starts automatically, if someone has already achieved it, it is time to comment.
My conclusions about LXDE
This environment has helped me control the temperature, so I stick with it, also being a system that allows me to open the same programs as before and with the same or greater comfort.
How do I install LXDE on my distro?
Debian
In Debian Lenny it is enough to install the package "LXDE" so that everything is installed and we can start with it.
Ubuntu
De Ubuntu I have the information that in Intrepid Ibex 8.10 the procedure is just as simple as in Debian Lenny, but if you count with Hardy you will need to add a repository special to your Ubuntu:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/lxde/ubuntu hardy main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/lxde/ubuntu hardy main
Likewise with Gutsy changing "hardy" to "gutsy" in the same code as above.
SuSE
Through Zypper:
# zypper ar swyear # zypper in lxde-desktop
Fedora
Instructions here to install LXDE on Fedora
You didn't put my distro
The information is on the LXDE wiki
