Guide to install Gnome instead of XFCE?

Hello!

I'd like to install Gnome instead of XFCE on top of Linpus - is that possible? Just doing it through the software-tool isn't possible, because then a tool complains and so on.
Have you got a solution?

Thanks!

 

Which bit of gnome do you want? There's already quite a bit of gnome stuff on the One. Do you mean that want a gnome window manager (e.g., metacity?) Have you tried `sudo yum install metacity'? You'll need to fiddle about with the xinit scripts to get it to run instead of xfce, however.

Personally, I'm not sure what good this would do. XFCE seems about right for a machine of this sort. But each to his own, I guess

 

i'd like to have the whole gnome user-experience, XFCW is a bit a mess in terms of usability (I'm a Mac-User )

Maybe i'll try from scratch and give linpus-xfce a last chance

 

I think it would be relatively straightforward to install the Metacity window manager, but if you want the whole `gnome experience' you'll need in addition the nautilus file manager and all its plugins, the gnome taskbar panel+plugins+applets, the various gnome desktop utilities, the gnome config management system, gnome printing support, etc., etc...

My gut feeling is that installing and configuring that lot would be more difficult than just installing a different Linux distribution from scratch. But maybe somebody here as actually tried it and can comment? Personally, I would rather run Windows on my One than gnome. I think you'd lose all the advantages of Linux if you installed the monster that is gnome on this little machine. I suppose with more RAM and a bigger disk (or any disk ) you might get away with it.

Just my opinion, of course.

 

How about KDE?

Code:

$ sudo yum install kdebase

With kdebase only, it's much better than XFCE. No need different distribution since Linpus base on Fedora
--
Redhat user since 1999

 

From a terminal:

Code:

yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment

I've been running GNOME on my AA1 (120GB HDD WinXP version) since day 2. Before that, it ran fine on my 512MB Averatec 3250H-01 (4GB for / with my photos on a separate partition). Currently running Fedora Rawhide and the latest Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex alpha on the AA1. Fedora and Ubuntu 2.6.27 kernels don't recognize xD cards, but seem otherwise ok. The ath5k driver in the 2.6.27 kernel works, but the latest madwifi drivers are much better and well worth installing if you haven't already.

 

Apart from being more like what you're used to (I imagine), I'm curious about what practical benefit running the Gnome desktop brings on a One. Not that being more like what you're used to is a bad thing, of course -- but is there more than that? Installing Gnome (and Ubuntu et al.) seems like hacking for the sake of hacking to me. Which is interesting, of course, but doesn't pay the rent.

Just curious.

 

It's not quite hacking for hacking's sake, but close. I personally just do not like the look of the LL desktop, so the question is, what do I use instead? I run Fedora and Ubuntu on my desktop PC, so they were naturals for my AA1. I've got no major complaints about XFCE, and have used it on and off since version 3, but I do prefer GNOME. With XFCE on both Fedora and Ubuntu (and their derivatives), there is so much extra GNOME cruft just because they're GNOME-centric distros that I've always ended up using GNOME. Now, if I had the 8GB SSD model, I'd seriously look into installing Puppy Linux - it just needs the new madwifi drivers to make it as usable as Fedora or Ubuntu.

 

Fair enough, I guess. The look of a computer screen isn't something that I pay much attention to, to be honest. I'd install a different Linux distribution in a flash if I thought it would make my use of the AA1 more productive; but I've not heard anything to convince me that it would.

The amount of gnome cruft in Linpus doesn't seem excessive to me. I find it useful to have those bits in place, because NetworkManger and gnome-ppp are so useful. And in fact most of the Linpus distribution doesn't seem to be eaten away by gnome -- a huge chunk of the installed size is OpenOffice (which I use), fonts and languages (most of which I've removed), printing support (which I use), and the standard apps (some of which I've removed).

I can see the appeal of something like Puppy on a small machine, but my gut feeling is that unless you want to to _everything_ at the command line, by the time you'd installed all the additional bits your need for day-to-day use, you'd end up with a distribution the same size as Linpus. It would be interesting to try, but productivity favours buying a 16Gb SD to keep the overflow on, at least for me.

 

I tried using the given command "yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment" under terminal as root but it did not work, do i need to install some other packages that gnome uses aswell?

Thanks

 

If this is your first use of yum, then you'll want to run

Code:

sudo yum check-update

first. This will cause yum to download the files that tell it what currently in the repository.