Unusual Linux Desktops?

sparrow_hawk asks: "I'm doing a presentation on Linux, sort of a basic education about what exactly it is and isn't. One of the points I'm trying to hammer home is the idea that Linux can look and act pretty much however you want it to. I'd like to know what's the most unusual Linux desktop you've seen, preferably with screenshots -- the one that looks like the helm of an alien spaceship, or the one that mimics a 50's radio?"

Comments

themes.org

[paradesign]

Theres some neat-o themes there.

Ive been most impressed by the 'other' WMs though, the little guys. Some of the Fluxbox or icewm 'minimalist' desktops are cool.

Also dont forget that you can do most of this stuff to XP as well, with a few hacks that is.

Re:I have seen a WINDOWS THEME!!

[cybermancer]

Are you referring to XPde?

They did a series about it on Userfriendly.org a bit ago.

I'll list the obvious for you

[AvitarX]

Themes.org has tons of stuff that may be of use to you.

As far as looks go.

If you want funtionality differences some of the themes for KDE work (the B3 decoration in kde changes the way title bars look (only as wide as the title itself and can be dragged by holding shift. This allows for tabbing windows across the top). Then there is the button setting (I wish I knew what this was called, but I am at work and cannot check) where you can give it a marble theme. Or an SGI theme, or many others. It may be worth looking around for impressive Win and Mac clones, but the ones I have seen are obviously different even as a casual Mac user (I have spent 20 minutes on OSX and the aqua themes are lame) Most obvious difference is the buttons are on the right of the Window frame.

For serious functional differences scrap KDE and Gnome and go with some strait up window managers. I had one called WM2 that only allowed you to open Xterms (that you could launch apps from) and move windows and kill windows (no nice close of them, that was the apps job). Enlightenment is pretty cool. And quite unique. The one where you drage the clip around is popular, but I don't even know what it is. After step is kinda neat to look at, but probably shows it's age. Black Box (and probably Flux Box) can look really cool, but are minimalistic, and deffernt then windows and may work good.

Themes.org has Black/flux Box, KDE, and Gnome themes (if memmory serves) with screenshots. There are probably better theme sights with higher standards too (themes.org has some half done work).

Hope this helps.

PS.
just using standard KDE/GNOME with unique panel layout can be a good example.

I used to do an auto hide foot in the corner (for that really big one pixel start menu)with a clock always on top in the center bottum and a task bar somewhere I forget where, I switched to KDE and it wasn't flexible enough to do it for me. I was able to maximize my apps to fullscreen and the always on top stuff was stratigically placed to avoid key spots so it was not in the way. It adds about 5% to your usable screen.

PPS. The taskbar was across the top of the screen from 1/3 of the way (letting me see window titles) to about an inch and a half from the right edge (letting me use the frame buttuns if a window was maximized).

next to the clock I also had a few icon buttons and drawers for stuff I really liked.

look at different window managers

[BroadbandBradley]

do a search for window managers on google, or try xwinman.org a site about window managers. I find that while gnome and KDE look much like what most people would expect, some other window managers put a new twist on how you interact with the computer.
also look at 3dwm.org a 3d window manager that's used at the 3D-CUBE

another good one is the Mozilla based desktop over at OEONE.com

Ion

[EvilMal]

I use a window manager called Ion. The interface is divided up into frames instead of windows. The frames can be split and resized, and apps can be dragged from one frame to another.

Well, I think it's kinda cool, anyway.

Enlightenment v0.13

[hitchhacker]

Everyone remember the old enlightenment versions?

screenshot1
screenshot2
screenshot3

-metric

Here's one of mine...

[jonadab]

Here's one of mine, which demonstrates an unusual accessibility requirement (the soft tertiary colors -- my eyes are unusally sensitive to light; I CANNOT handle Evil Blinding Backgrounds or high contrast). It also demonstrates the left side panel full of launchers, drawers, and applets that I've grown to love. The only things on the bottom panel are the task list and the clock. If it matters, this is a Mandrake 9.2 system with Gnome (but I replaced Metacity with Sawfish (because I want features, darnit) and replaced Nautilus with nothing (because I do all my file management from the command line)). The top drawer (with the drawer icon) holds the foot menu and launchers for assorted utilities and configuration things. The next drawer down, the one with the gnome-terminal icon, holds launchers for gnome-terminal (with various terminal classes and commands -- e.g., one for MySQL, one that does ssh into the cgi server, one that does ssh into the router, and so on). The drawer below that holds launchers for browsers. Then you've got three launchers right on the panel because I use them a lot: OO, Gimp, Emacs. Below the blank space is the screenshot button, the run button, a drawer of audio stuff, a drawer of games, the show desktop button (which really I ought to remove; I never use it), the CPU, memory, and swap meters, and the log out button at the bottom, out of the way. (Does anyone else think the Gnome1 logout icon looked nicer, or is that just me?)

That Mozilla window has been open for some while; the first two tabs in particular have been open for a couple of weeks. This is typical.

One of the Emacs windows has eshell, which is running a telnet connection to the im2 multiplexer for the Perlmonks.org chatterbox. Another is Gnus. The third has open the Changes file for Net::Server::POP3, which is what I really ought to be working on instead of posting to slashdot.

Be sure to get a screenshot showing gdmflexiserver running with the Xnest option. That's a really cool feature. For bonus points, have a different desktop environment running inside the Xnest window than the one running outside it. Also try to get a shot from someone who uses ratpoison; there's no window manager more minimalist than that, especially when it comes to window decorations. Be certain to show off several interesting panel applets, especially if you can get one running in a tiny always-on-top panel. Get one showing something really cool being worked on in Gimp, too. And be sure to get an Enlightenment screenshot showing that weird dragbar thing about halfway up/down the screen. I don't personally like that, but it's innovative and different, and some people swear by it.

I run FVWM 1.24

[Tony Hammitt]

No, really. Every day, at work and at home. It's far faster than any "desktop" (it's just a window manager) and I like the insane amount of customizability. I've been using FVWM since 1993, (MIPS-based DEC workstations) even before I started using Linux.

My friends think I'm nuts but I really like it. If I need a readable terminal with 800 columns, no problem, I can just scroll over to the next desktop area while resizing the window. I have a button for raise/lower the current window right where the old windoze icon on my keyboard used to be. I can use the mouse wheel to change the volume on xmms by catching M4 and M5 buttons (i.e. the scroll wheel events) on the root window, which is very handy for headphones and downloaded MP3s.

It's about the most customizable thing ever written, and it's all in about 900K of pure Xlib, so I just compile it and run it anywhere I go.

If you want, I can send you some screenshots, just reply. I figure it's about as weird a GUI as you'll see.

careful

[Johnny Mnemonic]

I would be really careful about this. While the power of choice is attractive to geeks, it more often than not puts normal people off. I think that you stand to lose more converts than you gain by putting up extreme Linux desktops--normal people react with "this is a much too complicated thing for me", rather than "oh cool! I want to twiddle with my machine too!"

For proof, look no farther than how many Windows users have changed the default background on their machine.

Re:careful

[Brandybuck]

While the power of choice is attractive to geeks, it more often than not puts normal people off.

Where the heck did you get that factoid? From the Encyclopedia Slashdotica? It's clearly false. While some people abhor choice, the vast majority want it.

Go into MacDonalds and find twenty different kinds of hamburgers, plus chicken and fish sandwiches. Odds are they'll have a specialty sandwich for the month. A far far cry from the John Belushi "cheeseburger cheeseburger pespi" world. Restaurants have dozens of selections. Even those that cater to the non-geek.

Grocery store commercials advertise new larger selections. Automobile commercials advertise new makes, models and a huge range of colors and options. Ditto for just about any other kind of store I can think of. "LiquorMegaSuperMart! Now with three hundred of your favorite microbrews!"

"But," I hear you say, "it's different when it comes to computers!" Nonsense. I walk around my work and I see that at least nine out of ten Windows users have their own wallpaper.

not sure if this is unusual

[josepha48]

Mine is opera. That is it. I have configured the framebuffer device and start it with X & export DISPLAY=:0 ; opera.

That's the desktop. Nothing else but a web surfing station. Kinda like a browser terminal. This allows me to have a device with only 64 Megs of RAM and run a web browser that I can check email and my favorit sites. It allows for useing plugins and viewing video in the browser window. Oh when opera starts hit F11 key and it will go to full screen mode. I see this as the future of desktops. Simple to use.