Lumina DE 1.3.1 x64
Posted: 28 Jun 2017, 06:39
First attempt to create a module for Lumina Desktop Environment.
My impression with this DE is that it's in an early development stage, although it's labeled as version 1.x.x, which seems a little bit odd when you compare with other DEs that are much more mature and are labeled as 1.x.x (Mate) or even 0.x.x (LXQt). Lumina runs over Fluxbox, just like LXQt runs over Openbox, and it comes with a set of applications written in C++/Qt. Since both Lumina and LXQt are modern DEs written in C++/Qt and share the philosophy of being light, I can't talk about Lumina without comparing it to LXQt.
First of all, Lumina is very easy to compile for Porteus. Just need to have Qt and both xcb util and xcb image. LXQt, on the other hand, needs tons of dependencies, being a pain to set everything and compile with success. Also, LXQt generates a big and messy file structure, but Lumina generates such a small and very well-organized file structure.
Lumina seems as light as LXQt. The full module (with basically the same extra apps, like SMPlayer, Qmmp, ePDFViewer, etc) occupies 43 mb, which is essentially the same as LXQt -- both compiled with Qt 5.9.0. And the same thing for the after boot RAM consumption: Lumina 230 mb vs LXQt 232 mb. Both spend approximately the same time to boot. The difference is that LXQt is ahead in terms of usability, functionality and harmony. It worths mention that during the loading process Lumina shows an ugly splash screen telling that it's powered by tons of coffee...
Lumina's file manager (called Insight), for instance, is so raw that we can't even see an icon when dragging a file/folder. Insight also lacks ssh support and the ability to run as root. I don't understand how archiver integration works, since there's an auto-extract option, but no option to compress a file/folder.
Switching between running applications with ALT + TAB is another example of bad GUI feedback, since you can't see the list of running applications as you'd expect from this functionality. This kind of thing goes on and on.
Clicking on 'show desktop' for the second time doesn't restore windows. You can't drag a file/folder and restore a window by simply putting the cursor over a window in the panel. The basic window buttons (minimize, maximize, close) are inherited from Fluxbox, being very (!) ugly and I have no idea how to change them from inside Lumina session.
The shortcut manager lacks support for multimedia keys. And it seems that you can't create a custom action unless using the very complicated Fluxbox editor.
The panel can't be set with right click or drag 'n drop, although it's easy to customize it inside panel settings.
Finally, it seems to have some issues with GTK applications. If you try to open any Porteus bundled application, it takes a looong time to open.
To be honest I didn't invest much time with Lumina, but all I can say at the moment is that I simply don't feel that I should. I prefer to wait until it gets more mature. So here's my list of advantages/disadvantages:
Advantages:
-Easy to compile;
-Boots quickly;
-Consumes few machine resources;
-Comes with a simple text editor, calculator, archiver and media player;
-Built in applications are very straight to the point, so no bloatware feelings here;
-Very easy to customize themes/icons/panel;
Disadvantages:
-Looks very unpolished;
-Lacks a lot of functionalities;
-Lacks an image viewer;
-A lot of functionalities are very hard to understand;
http://www.mediafire.com/file/9zm5vqvia ... lumina.xzm
(43 mb)
My impression with this DE is that it's in an early development stage, although it's labeled as version 1.x.x, which seems a little bit odd when you compare with other DEs that are much more mature and are labeled as 1.x.x (Mate) or even 0.x.x (LXQt). Lumina runs over Fluxbox, just like LXQt runs over Openbox, and it comes with a set of applications written in C++/Qt. Since both Lumina and LXQt are modern DEs written in C++/Qt and share the philosophy of being light, I can't talk about Lumina without comparing it to LXQt.
First of all, Lumina is very easy to compile for Porteus. Just need to have Qt and both xcb util and xcb image. LXQt, on the other hand, needs tons of dependencies, being a pain to set everything and compile with success. Also, LXQt generates a big and messy file structure, but Lumina generates such a small and very well-organized file structure.
Lumina seems as light as LXQt. The full module (with basically the same extra apps, like SMPlayer, Qmmp, ePDFViewer, etc) occupies 43 mb, which is essentially the same as LXQt -- both compiled with Qt 5.9.0. And the same thing for the after boot RAM consumption: Lumina 230 mb vs LXQt 232 mb. Both spend approximately the same time to boot. The difference is that LXQt is ahead in terms of usability, functionality and harmony. It worths mention that during the loading process Lumina shows an ugly splash screen telling that it's powered by tons of coffee...
Lumina's file manager (called Insight), for instance, is so raw that we can't even see an icon when dragging a file/folder. Insight also lacks ssh support and the ability to run as root. I don't understand how archiver integration works, since there's an auto-extract option, but no option to compress a file/folder.
Switching between running applications with ALT + TAB is another example of bad GUI feedback, since you can't see the list of running applications as you'd expect from this functionality. This kind of thing goes on and on.
Clicking on 'show desktop' for the second time doesn't restore windows. You can't drag a file/folder and restore a window by simply putting the cursor over a window in the panel. The basic window buttons (minimize, maximize, close) are inherited from Fluxbox, being very (!) ugly and I have no idea how to change them from inside Lumina session.
The shortcut manager lacks support for multimedia keys. And it seems that you can't create a custom action unless using the very complicated Fluxbox editor.
The panel can't be set with right click or drag 'n drop, although it's easy to customize it inside panel settings.
Finally, it seems to have some issues with GTK applications. If you try to open any Porteus bundled application, it takes a looong time to open.
To be honest I didn't invest much time with Lumina, but all I can say at the moment is that I simply don't feel that I should. I prefer to wait until it gets more mature. So here's my list of advantages/disadvantages:
Advantages:
-Easy to compile;
-Boots quickly;
-Consumes few machine resources;
-Comes with a simple text editor, calculator, archiver and media player;
-Built in applications are very straight to the point, so no bloatware feelings here;
-Very easy to customize themes/icons/panel;
Disadvantages:
-Looks very unpolished;
-Lacks a lot of functionalities;
-Lacks an image viewer;
-A lot of functionalities are very hard to understand;
http://www.mediafire.com/file/9zm5vqvia ... lumina.xzm
(43 mb)