At first there was wanting to make things look very familiar, like Windows…

After all, Linux is not Windows.

Because it was just really easier to get to go back to old ways or stick with something that’s comfortable. Comfortable is good enough for some people. But you see, it really depends on several factors:

• How lazy you could get. The comfortable might not be the best user interface for you. But you just haven’t thought about it yet. And you don’t really want to think about it anymore.
• How comfortable you really are and how you’d like to start getting comfortable with something new. You’d like to be more comfortable first and then you are open to other options later on. You just don’t want to panic while interacting with a new system yet.
• How overwhelming the choices are. There are too many options and too many choices, but they all look weird and you don’t like feeling weird. And you’re getting too lazy to check everything out there.
• How you are guided throughout this migration process. This is related to all of the above given points. After all, some people who have had friends closely keeping tabs on their migration process have someone who can/will answer questions. If not, they have someone who will experiment on new Linux desktop environments along the way.

If you think about it, migrating to Linux might feel scary or very uncomfortable. But others might think it’s something good and exciting. I guess that the key here is an attitude of learning. Someone who’s more of a learner could turn apprehension into an opportunity to have new experiences by experimenting on different user interface paradigms that’s available in the various window managers and desktop environments.

There are many guides and screenshots on the internet. Some of them might look interesting but too different from Windows. That’s ok. After all, Linux really is different from Windows. And the desktop environments and window managers that are available make it more interesting that way. At the same time, you could take a look at which one really is more suited to your needs. Even if you have no one that’s physically beside you to hold your hand in the process, virtual hand holding from online friends and those who are in the community help too. But remember this: Don’t panic. It will cause you more stress and difficulty if you do that. Exploring all these things could be fun and I hope you’d start enjoying the process too.

Post from: New Linux User

For me, Docker seems quick to load, light and simple. I like using Docker because it also acts like a system tray for me, especially because I want to see if my Dropbox is getting updated, what apps I am running that have icons on the tray. At the very least I am clued in.

The Berkeley LUG even listed down what they think are the best docks for Linux out there. They listed the following:

• Avant Window Navigator – This dock has a lot of plugins and it is configurable. I haven’t really been using this because my computer’s graphics card seemed to have issues with this dock.
• Kiba Dock – This dock seems to keep having reviews about how awesome the graphics is. I’ve never tried it so I think that’s a hint.
• Cairo Dock was with me for a short while but I was not comfortable with having a dock that has too many things on it. The fancy effects of hovering over the icons got a little too corny for me after a couple of days. But it’s true that it’s nifty in the sense that it has the list of apps I am using and those that I could easily run.
• Docky – This is Gnome-Do’s optional interface. So imagine Gnome-Do as a search bar and launcher. This would be something interesting to use and I haven’t tried it yet. Could this meet all my search and docking needs? I would suppose. However, I do encounter some problems with Gnome-Do crashing suddenly crashing sometimes.

What’s your take on this topic?

Post from: New Linux User