Best desktop environments for gaming?

[Dolus]

I'm very new to Linux and was just wanting to know which desktop has the best overall performance with games (I have been told the default Unity is among the worst)...any input on this would be great but I am mainly looking at KDE and Cinnamon.....maybe Xfce too.

[Cosmo]

Originalmente postado por Kozec:

If you are new to Linux, just stick to Unity. It's actually pretty usable for new users that are not yet too accustomed to all good things that other DEs offers (and it has it's own pros too.)
But main point here is that Ubuntu and Unity are becoming main interface to the point where most of "linux" tutorials automatically assumes that you are using them. That's not a problem for advanced Linux user, but if you are new to this, there is no reason to make yourself additional trouble.

You can always switch later, it's like 3-4 clicks, but it's better to do so only when you know how to revert back without reinstalling entire system ;)

(Just to prevent some unnecessary flame, I'm on ArchLinux with highly modified Gnome2)

How hard would it be to install the Cinnamon DE onto Arch, do you think?, and does arch still use BASH - or is the command line highly different?

[blackout24]

How hard? Just as hard as installing any other package.
pacman -S packagename

Cinnamon is the official repositories:
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/cinnamon/

Arch comes with Bash but a lot of users install Dash and/or Zsh which doesn't mean that it doesn't use the standard UNIX commands. It's just a more advanced shell and offers better autocompletion etc.

https://www.archlinux.de/?page=FunStatistics

[Cosmo]

Originalmente postado por t.jp Arch:

How hard? Just as hard as installing any other package.
pacman -S packagename

Cinnamon is the official repositories:
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/cinnamon/

Arch comes with Bash but a lot of users install Dash and/or Zsh which doesn't mean that it doesn't use the standard UNIX commands. It's just a more advanced shell.

https://www.archlinux.de/?page=FunStatistics

Okay thanks - err, what sort of benefits might I get from doing that exactly? I understand that Arch is.. highly efficient in and of itself? Although I'm wondering how much difference it would really make, when cinnamon is intstalled ontop..

[Shark]

KDE if you game in fullscreen.

[blackout24]

Originalmente postado por xnuıן Marcos Cosmos:

Originalmente postado por t.jp Arch:

How hard? Just as hard as installing any other package.
pacman -S packagename

Cinnamon is the official repositories:
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/cinnamon/

Arch comes with Bash but a lot of users install Dash and/or Zsh which doesn't mean that it doesn't use the standard UNIX commands. It's just a more advanced shell.

https://www.archlinux.de/?page=FunStatistics

Okay thanks - err, what sort of benefits might I get from doing that exactly? I understand that Arch is.. highly efficient in and of itself? Although I'm wondering how much difference it would really make, when cinnamon is intstalled ontop..

What do you mean? Cinnamon is just a desktop enviroment like XFCE,LXDE, Gnome, E17 etc.

Arch doesn't have a default desktop enviroment that it forces down your throat. You can use whatever you want. If you want Gnome install Gnome. If you want Cinnamon install Cinnamon. If you don't want any desktop and just the core installation just install the "base" meta packages which only installs the Linux Kernel and some basic GNU programs like nano etc. That's the whole point of Arch Linux to have choice and control.

[Cosmo]

Originalmente postado por t.jp Arch:

Originalmente postado por xnuıן Marcos Cosmos:

Okay thanks - err, what sort of benefits might I get from doing that exactly? I understand that Arch is.. highly efficient in and of itself? Although I'm wondering how much difference it would really make, when cinnamon is intstalled ontop..

What do you mean? Cinnamon is just a desktop enviroment like XFCE,LXDE, Gnome, E17 etc.

Arch doesn't have a default desktop enviroment that it forces down your throat. You can use whatever you want. If you want Gnome install Gnome. If you want Cinnamon install Cinnamon. If you don't want any desktop and just the core installation just install the "base" meta packages which only installs the Linux Kernel and some basic GNU programs like nano etc. That's the whole point of Arch Linux to have choice and control.

Basically, I had vague recollection of arch being neat and all, but couldn't quite remember why, and as for benifits, I considered almost all the performance to come from the DE, resulting in little performance gain. I plan to use Arch Eventually, but I'm not sure when I should attempt to run it. I'm not entirely sure of my level of experience, and I'm wondering if I might some small problems trying to run steam there. - statistical likelihood of them arising. I don't know the stats though, I've only had one bug, and its been with controller input. Whilst this is preventing me from playing completely.. Well.. Eh. Idk, I'm tired xD

[blackout24]

Some of the performance comes from not installing bloat on your PC in the first place unless you install it yourself. Packages are constantly updated so you'll have a newer kernel than with Ubuntu. Gaming performance should be about the same if you have the same driver version and desktop enviroment as on any other distro. It has a very good documentation and wiki. You'll learn more about Linux in a day using Arch than you have with any other distro in your entire life. You don't need any skills to start of other than the right attitude. If you are willing to take some time and don't expect it to hold your hand and baby sit you through the installation everything is fine. Steam actually seems to have less problems on Arch. No matter what architecture you use simply install it with pacman -S steam. Nothing will complain about being unable to resolve dependencies and missing architecture i386 and so on.

[TeknoTroll]

I was actually messing arround with the DEs and arch today. Because cinnamon is a fork of gnome, arch documentation advises to install the gnome base too. I did it and got a day & night difference in terms of eye candy and functionality. Meaning it was bad compared to Linux Mint Cinnamon Ed. I have a problem with drivers as well. I got the nvidia drivers installed through pacman but the DE settings manager doesn't recognize anything and when I try to launch the "nvidia x server settings" it fails to load. Can anyone give me a hint? Speaking of fullscreen unrendering from the notes of the committ in gnome it's supposed to be mutter who's doing the unrendering. Apologies if I'm using the wrong terminology. Steam crashed on me earlier and I lot like 10 minutes of typing the message, %#@*!

[blackout24]

Did you do install them with pacman -S nvidia? Does pacman -Qs nvidia list the packages with their versions as locally installed? What does "nvidia-settings" say when you launch it from terminal? If you want more functionally in cinnamon simply install it.

[Cosmo]

Originalmente postado por t.jp Arch:

You'll learn more about Linux in a day using Arch than you have with any other distro in your entire life.

Well then!

I'll give a try over the weekend. Good thing I still havent got any real files in my Mint partition. xD

[Cosmo]

Originalmente postado por t.jp Arch:

Did you do install them with pacman -S nvidia? Does pacman -Qs nvidia list the packages with their versions as locally installed? What does "nvidia-settings" say when you launch it from terminal?

BTW, I may end up asking you a bunch of questions. No idea yet. xD

[blackout24]

Originalmente postado por xnuıן Marcos Cosmos:

Originalmente postado por t.jp Arch:

You'll learn more about Linux in a day using Arch than you have with any other distro in your entire life.

Well then!

I'll give a try over the weekend. Good thing I still havent got any real files in my Mint partition. xD

Give it a spin on a virtual machine first until you are comfortable installing it. Once you have set it up to you needs it's basically only installing new programs with pacman -S, removing them with pacman -R and updating the whole thing with pacman -Syu. Doesn't feel that different once you have your favorite programs and your desktop.

[TeknoTroll]

this is what I get when I type in the terminal

 nvidia-settings: error while loading shared libraries: libpangox-1.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory 

[shijtin]

Originalmente postado por fawkingsheet:

this is what I get when I type in the terminal

 nvidia-settings: error while loading shared libraries: libpangox-1.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory 

Try to install pangox-compat.

[Cosmo]

Originalmente postado por t.jp Arch:

Originalmente postado por xnuıן Marcos Cosmos:

Well then!

I'll give a try over the weekend. Good thing I still havent got any real files in my Mint partition. xD

Give it a spin on a virtual machine first until you are comfortable installing it. Once you have set it up to you needs it's basically only installing new programs with pacman -S, removing them with pacman -R and updating the whole thing with pacman -Syu. Doesn't feel that different once you have your favorite programs and your desktop.

Awsome idea. Thanks... I wouldn't be able to run games in the VM though, right? With the OpenGL graphics sturf.