Talk:Comparison of X Window System desktop environments: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:05, 8 October 2007

Revision as of 07:40, 19 February 2008

Line 107:

In response to the comments, I've made another major edit to the article. I hope the major crisis of DE versus WM was addressed in this edit. -- 13:32, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

:"Full Environments" and "Window managers only" split in the table is a fantastic solution to the long standing debate of DE versus WM. The article needs to be edited further to look encyclopaedic. The "five categories" is also my invention and should probably be removed. [[User:Artagnon|Artagnon]] 17:05, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

== Maybe tables could focus on objectively-measurable traits? ==

This is hard to do because window managers are a religious topic; thanks for trying.

This reminds me of a table very subjectively comparing the American Presidential candidates: [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/11/15/opinion/20071116_SCHOTT_FEATURE.html]

One way to make it easier to understand is to find a few objective data points that separate the different categories of desktop environment from each other:

* Installation size

* Includes application launcher?

* Includes configuration GUI?

* Includes Web browser?

* Includes visual effects?

Longer explanation could go beneath the table. References should be actual links (or references to books, etc.), not just a description of where you looked for the information (which you may want to put in the prose, or may not need at all). The table of applications corresponding to each DE/WM is great.

I'm not sure the topic is Wikipedian to address, because to even begin figuring it out you have to make some assumptions about the user's needs. (But again, thanks for the effort that went into writing and rewriting the thing and trying to be dispassionate.)

Incidentally, I got to this article because I'll probably soon be using Xfce on an ultraportable, storage-constrained laptop (the [[Asus Eee]]) and wanted to find out more about it. Maybe that application somehow rates inclusion -- that these smaller, less-known environments are practical for old, less-powerful, or storage-limited machines.