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Raspberry Pi Foundation Unveils New LXDE-Based Desktop For Raspbian Called PIXEL (softpedia.com)

Posted by msmash on from the raspberry-delights dept.

Raspberry Pi Foundation's Simon Long has unveiled a new desktop environment for the Debian-based Raspbian GNU/Linux operating system for Raspberry Pi devices. From a Softpedia report (submitted by an anonymous reader):Until today, Raspbian shipped with the well-known and lightweight LXDE desktop environment, which looks pretty much the same as on any other Linux-based distribution out there that is built around LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment). But Simon Long, a UX engineer working for Raspberry Pi Foundation, was hired to make it better, transform it into something that's more appealing to users. So after two years of work, he managed to create a whole new desktop environment for Raspbian, the flagship operating system for Raspberry Pi single-board computers developed and distributed by Raspberry Pi Foundation. Called PIXEL, the new Raspbian desktop offers a more eye-candy design with the panel on top (not on the bottom like on a default LXDE setup), new icons, new Applications Menu, and new theme. "It's actually surprisingly easy to hack about with the LXDE desktop once you get your head around what all the bits do, and since then I've been slowly chipping away at the bits that I felt would most benefit from tweaking," reveals Simon Long. "Stuff has slowly been becoming more and more like my original concept for the desktop; with the latest changes, I think the desktop has reached the point where it's a complete product in its own right and should have its own name."

34 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Panel on top is a feature? by l2718 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Features like "new icons", "new Applications Menu", "panel on top" etc requires hiring a programmer, there's something wrong with your desktop environment. These are all trivial configuration options which any user should be able to make for themselves.

    Does the fact that my configuration files differ from the default ones mean that I created a new desktop environment?

    1. Re:Panel on top is a feature? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well, he is a User Experience Designer, he designed how we will experience the result, if the job title makes sense. How can it be anything but good?

      With apologies to Simon Long, who may have done an excellent job as far as I know. It's just that the term "UX designer" makes me cringe, it's so full of hubris. You can design software, you can design a user interface, you can design quite a lot, do an excellent job, but jou can not design how a user will experience it, simply because you didn't design any user, let alone all of them. How they experience the result is something they contribute to the interaction.

    2. Re:Panel on top is a feature? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A UX expert is not (typically) a C programmer, nor would I want most programmers who can hack at window manager code designing the look'n'feel of a distro.

      I think the name is a bit over the the top (do other distros rebrand Gnome/KDE when they put a theme and a few tweaks on it?), its a marketing ploy to play off of Google and their reaction will be the real story.

      That said, and stupid name aside, whatever. Don't use it, stop whining.

    3. Re:Panel on top is a feature? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

      a more eye-candy design with the panel on top (not on the bottom like on a default LXDE setup), new icons, new Applications Menu, and new theme.

      Oh, look - the bar is now at the top of the screen and we've shined up the icons and stuff. Mac envy much? Not everyone wants eye candy cluttering up everything they see.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    4. Re:Panel on top is a feature? by buchner.johannes · · Score: 1

      Features like "new icons", "new Applications Menu", "panel on top" etc requires hiring a programmer, there's something wrong with your desktop environment. These are all trivial configuration options which any user should be able to make for themselves.

      Does the fact that my configuration files differ from the default ones mean that I created a new desktop environment?

      You also need to repackage that package, which is not trivial.

      --
      NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
    5. Re:Panel on top is a feature? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Does the fact that my configuration files differ from the default ones mean that I created a new desktop environment?

      Some window managers allow enough changes that they may as well be, for instance the Enlightenment window manager had themes that acted like Macs (until the lawyers swooped), NeXT, Irix, ms windows and so on.
      I'd say the changes were probably very trivial but "road testing" them was the important bit.

    6. Re:Panel on top is a feature? by by+(1706743) · · Score: 1

      True, but I think you're being a little too literal.

      Yes, everyone experiences everything differently. But that doesn't mean there aren't common features/tasks/workflows -- dare I say, experiences -- that affect many people.

      We've all been in terrible airports, and we've all been in airports that were actually pretty smooth; the "user experience" didn't magically become lousy in one and great in another, it was deliberately (not) thought out. That's not to say that we both agree 100% on which are the good airports and which are the lousy ones, but I'm guessing there's some overlap. It's similar with software -- we've all used programs that had about zero discoverability and were a pain to use, and we've (hopefully) all experienced software which was actually pretty well thought out from a user experience perspective.

      How a user experiences the result is something that the user does indeed contribute to the interaction -- but they're not the sole contributor.

    7. Re:Panel on top is a feature? by tigersha · · Score: 2

      > most programmers who can hack at window manager code designing the look'n'feel of a distro.

      And there, in one short sentence is why "Linux on the Desktop" is always 10 years in the future.

      --
      The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
  2. Sounds arrogant. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This guy sounds like a complete tool. He did a little artwork and messed with some of the configuration scripts and came up with a new name that brings to mind one of Adam Sandler's biggest movie flops and thinks we should all bow down and kneel at his feet? Puh-leeze.

  3. What's in a name by BradleyUffner · · Score: 1

    It is going to get really confusing soon with everything getting named and renamed to "Pixel".

    1. Re:What's in a name by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      Agreed! That is a dumb name.

      Make it unique so it is _searchable_.

      How am I supposed to filter out all the false positive??

    2. Re:What's in a name by alexandre_ganso · · Score: 1

      Like that little computer named "chip"?

    3. Re:What's in a name by dfsmith · · Score: 1

      How about "Sprinkles"? A topping for Raspberry Pi; with no nutritional value but sure makes it look more attractive.

  4. Needs more mobile focus by Jarwulf · · Score: 2

    I would be happier if the Raspbian/Pi team or whoever could concentrate more on mobile/touch and/or improving Android support. Things are starting to move in the right direction; fairly recently Raspbian simply had touch hacked on top of it and Pi could only run Android terribly if at all, but not fast enough for my tastes. Broaden support for homebrew/embedded mobile applications which is what the pi as a tiny computer inherently appeals to rather than continue to focus on the rather limited idea of it as simply a smaller replacement for a desktop computer.

    1. Re:Needs more mobile focus by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      Actually I haven't seen that much use as a desktop computer for the Pi. It's mostly used for things like KODI, Retropie, Robotic projects, remote projects such as weather stations and industrial applications. It's a hobbyist board that happens to have desktop capabilities. In some places I suppose it's nice to have a computer that will run off a cell phone charger but although I've fooled around with the desktop a bit on the Pi unless you have a Pi 3 it's not really very usable.

  5. Eye candy by dfsmith · · Score: 1

    Not everyone wants eye candy cluttering up everything they see.

    Totally true. I'm guessing only 95% of people want things to look nice.

    1. Re:Eye candy by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 1

      I use TWM you insensitive clod!

    2. Re:Eye candy by l2718 · · Score: 1

      I switched from twm (well, tvtwm) to FVWM a few years ago. In my experience, both twm and fvwm make things look very nice.

    3. Re:Eye candy by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Eye candy won't keep someone using a crappy system. Look at Vista with the Aero interface. Also, the larger the screen area, the less useful a menu bar that holds the menus for the currently active window becomes - it makes for a lot more mousing around. Application menus in application windows becomes much more usable. Most of the time the system menu/tool bar (no matter which side it's located on) can be hidden or shrunk.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  6. It needed fixing? by SeaFox · · Score: 1

    I wasn't aware there was anything wrong with LXDE. I bit plain, yes. But certainly not ugly and it was without confusing control widgets some other desktop environments have.

    1. Re:It needed fixing? by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      I wasn't aware there was anything wrong with LXDE.

      then you clearly weren't using it. ;P

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    2. Re:It needed fixing? by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      LXDE is synonymous with bland. Not that I care. On the Pi all I want in a desktop is more speed.

    3. Re:It needed fixing? by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      It mostly lack a selection of task bar themes, and sometimes you end up with black speaker icon on black tool bar. Sucks! But if you have low RAM (or "low" RAM such as 1GB and need every single last MB available for a web browser) it's great.
      The only other thing I dislike is Openbox doesn't have ALT-F9 and ALT-F10 hotkeys out of the box as in Windows 2.0, Motif, Mate and Xfce.

  7. Re:I don't get the point. by amiga3D · · Score: 1

    You're hilarious.

  8. Simon Long by trevc · · Score: 3, Informative

    UX engineer, cruciverbalist, slightly morose

  9. LGPL does not "infect" the same way by tepples · · Score: 1

    Needs a stable, standard, unencumbered, free GUI -- windows, menus, toolbars, widgets, mouse, touch, etc. It'd be lovely if it was open source and not a barely-masked invitation to buy a new Porsche for some lawyer, too. IOW, no GPL infection.

    Assuming that by "infection" you mean "causing [a larger work] to be distributable only under copyleft terms":

    Both GTK+ widgets and Qt widgets are under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). Because LGPL is a weak copyleft, use of an LGPL library in a larger work does not "infect" it. It does, however, require an application's object to be available to a licensed user without digital restrictions management, which rules out a port to iOS or major video game consoles.

  10. Google... by MasseKid · · Score: 1

    Google will probably be interested to learn about this, seeing as they own a trademark on "pixel" for "Computers; desktop computers; laptop computers; tablet computers; mobile phones".

    1. Re:Google... by Hadlock · · Score: 1

      It's no surprise that this got rushed out the week before the new Pixel phones / "Pixel" brand were/was announced

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    2. Re:Google... by Walter+White · · Score: 1

      Cease and desist from Google in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

      Unless of course they got permission from Google in advance. I have not heard that but it is possible.

      And regardless... LXDE? If it doesn't have a searchable menu I'm not interested. I've been spoiled that way. And no, I do not consider ALT-F2 and command completion to be a searchable menu.

  11. Re:Just give us a damned SATA port! by OrangeTide · · Score: 2

    eMMC is quick compared to SD, I wish they'd just throw a 4G eMMC on there. I assume it was because they wanted to meet the $35 price point.

    adding SATA is more expensive as the SoC they used does not have SATA, so they'd have to get an external controller.

    USB boot is possible on RPi, but it's kind of a pain to get working as it is not compatible with every USB storage device.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  12. Opened TFA... by xvan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are 2 pictures on TFA and I couldn't find a difference to LXDE besides the bar being on top.
    They probably made something else in those 2 years, but It's not mentioned on the resume and I'm too lazy to read the article.

  13. Re:Just give us a damned SATA port! by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    USB boot is possible on RPi, but it's kind of a pain to get working as it is not compatible with every USB storage device.

    Is this the case on the new Pis, or just on old ones? Every time I ask if the Pi foundation has got USB right on the newest Pi I get downmodded, even though they have fucked up USB again and again. The original Pi's USB craters under load and yes, compatibility is piss poor.

    Do the new Raspberry Pis have working USB? Or is it unreliable shit just like the first Pis? Let's see how quick this comment gets downmodded by the Pi Police for asking really a quite important question.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  14. Re:Just give us a damned SATA port! by OrangeTide · · Score: 2

    All the Pi's have the same USB IP, so I can't imagine there being any significant improvements between hardware versions. I believe only Pi3 can boot from USB, but the bootrom's USB drivers are not very compatible, especially with devices that are slow to enumerate. I do notice that the linux drivers have improved over the years and I am running with fewer problems from USB. The other big factor is sometimes people draw too much current from USB and instead of shutting down the device becomes unreliable, especially from USB harddrives. A bigger powre supply helps tremendously. And the new firmware updates now throw a little square in the corner of the screen when you are starting to get voltage sags.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  15. Just like the old one by ipb · · Score: 1

    If the pictures in the article are an example of the new layout, I'm confused.
    I don't see a difference.,
    All of my RPis that have screens already look like that and have the bar at the top. I've never seen anything else.

    Looks to me like someone published six months early.