8

I am looking for a lightweight window manager/desktop environment similar to Unity, but not Unity/Unity-2D GNOME or KDE. Specifically, I'm looking for something light with the following features:

  • window buttons layout like in Unity.

  • side bar/dock on left with system tray, apps, devices & a menu of some sort.

  • or a top bar with system tray, apps, devices & a menu of some sort.

The reason I am looking for this is that my computer can't handle Unity & my development apps at once any more.

landroni
  • 6,011
zeitue
  • 2,226

3 Answers3

9

Xubuntu

You may also want to have a look at Xubuntu that comes with the lightweight Xfce desktop. This also includes a customizable launcher (here shown at the bottom) that can also be moved to the left side like in Unity:

enter image description here

Community
  • 1
Takkat
  • 144,580
2

Go for cinnamon !! I am currently using that and it works smooth and fast !!

Main Page - Linux Mint

It has all the good things from Gnome 3 plus thumbs up for performance !!

blade19899
  • 26,994
Aram Bhusal
  • 129
1

Xfce + metacity (12.04 - 13.04).

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop leafpad
cp /etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml && leafpad ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml

Replace 

<property name="Client0_Command" type="array">
         <value type="string" value="xfwm4"/>
      </property>

with

<property name="Client0_Command" type="array">
         <value type="string" value="metacity"/>
      </property>

in leafpad.

Save and log out. Then right-click on bottom panel and open Panel > Panel Preferences.

Set mode to Vertical and length to 97%.

LinGeek
  • 11