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[itxaka]

Alright Linux GAF am I crazy for sort of wanting to start a Linux or maybe an Ubuntu Tumblr blog? lol

It's funny cause I'm a n00b, probably no use for one, and tumblr isn't even open source like say Drupal or Wordpress. I already have a Tumblr account though, and Tumblr seems to be the best blog hosting service that is free (for now... how they are making enough money I have no idea! LOL). I might end up just saying fuck it, and create one later anyways. LOL

If you do, be sure not be be ubuntu only oriented. There is plenty of those already. something like webudpt8 which covers both.

Also, muhc better wp or drupal than tumbler. As I understand tumbler is more directed to pics and such isn't it?

Hey guys, I have a quick question that maybe someone here can help me with.

I just bought a brand new computer a month ago and planned to dual-boot it with BackTrack. During the installation process however, I noticed that my hard drive has a Windows Vista partition, but my OS is Windows 7 Home Premium. Does anyone know what the reasoning behind this could be? I'm wondering if BackTrack is incorrectly reading the OS on the partition, or if HP tried to pull a quick one and pretty much gave me Windows Vista with a 7 "skin" if you get what I mean. I just don't understand why only 208MB would be towards 7 and the rest Vista.

Pic: http://i.imgur.com/VOxsB.jpg

Any insight would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

The small partition at the start of the HDD actually contains the boot files. MS copied the idea of having a separate small partition for those important files. So that is why there is a small partition there.

The 15Gb is the recovery partition.

The naming is probably because the computer came with vista by default and they upgraded it to Win7 at the retailer. So you got Win7 installed and probably the recovery partition has Win7 as well but they didn't bother to change the partitions name.

 

[Vanillalite]

Also, muhc better wp or drupal than tumbler. As I understand tumbler is more directed to pics and such isn't it?

WP and Drupal are better, but they'd require me to either self host or pay for hosting + domain name. WP.com which will do a freebie for you sucks cause they cap everything you can do. Then you have to pay to say post videos, or if you run out of your like measly amount of space (which can go fast with higher res pics). Tumblr lets you do that shit for free for now.

Granted I don't know how Tumblr actually makes enough money to stay solvent and not go out of business, but not my problem.

 

[itxaka]

WP and Drupal are better, but they'd require me to either self host or pay for hosting + domain name. WP.com which will do a freebie for you sucks cause they cap everything you can do. Then you have to pay to say post videos, or if you run out of your like measly amount of space (which can go fast with higher res pics). Tumblr lets you do that shit for free for now.

Granted I don't know how Tumblr actually makes enough money to stay solvent and not go out of business, but not my problem.

Dreamhost set ups and gives you a subdomain for free, they even install drupal, mediawiki, wordpress and such automatically for you. No idea if they have any restrictions but that is what I use for testing and such.

http://www.dreamhostapps.com/free-wordpress-hosting.html

Actually it seems that they don't do it anymore :/

 

[Vic]

I'm impressed with CUPS. It was easy to configure (thanks partially to the ArchLinux wiki), it's very easy to use and the printed pages looks better than the results I've obtained with Windows 7. I always avoided printing with Linux because the prospect of configurating the service seemed daunting. It's actually way simpler than with Windows 7 as my printer only had Vista drivers/utility software and it was tricky to get around that.

 

[Vanillalite]

Dreamhost set ups and gives you a subdomain for free, they even install drupal, mediawiki, wordpress and such automatically for you. No idea if they have any restrictions but that is what I use for testing and such.

http://www.dreamhostapps.com/free-wordpress-hosting.html

Actually it seems that they don't do it anymore :/

I actually had real dreamhost before for an older blog I made with a buddy. It was a legit blog I made and used them for hosting and the domain a few years back.

I just was trying to do this on the cheapie

 

[ThatObviousUser]

It's been 6 months since I began using Ubuntu, and I don't regret it. Especially since NTFS support has been good.

Oh, and is it me or Unity kind of suck ?

Spoiler

GNOME & Xfce are awesome though

Not just you.

I wish GNOME 3 started shaping up more quickly. It's promising but severely lacking.

 

[Vanillalite]

Speaking of Unity.... Unity finally got a ton of shit implemented into the 11.10 release cycle as of late!

 

[Melhisedek]

Is 11.10 available for download (alpha I mean)

 

[dodonpalex]

Is 11.10 available for download (alpha I mean)

You can download the latest alpha here or if you've already got an ubuntu system installed you can run the command "sudo update-manager -d" from a command line to upgrade that system to 11.10.

 

[Melhisedek]

Installing Ubuntu just for fun (perhaps learning some programing stuff). I think I'll go with 11.04 for now
How stable is alpha?

 

[Vanillalite]

Installing Ubuntu just for fun (perhaps learning some programing stuff). I think I'll go with 11.04 for now
How stable is alpha?

It's past Alpha 3 and the next release is Beta. Alpha released August 4st, and the beta is September 1st.

 

[Jerk]

You know, there is only one thing I dislike about Arch: Kernel upgrades.

 

[Vanillalite]

You know, there is only one thing I dislike about Arch: Kernel upgrades.

Why is it that big of a pain in the arse?

 

[itxaka]

Why is it that big of a pain in the arse?

Maybe because instead of adding a new entry on grub and staying side to side with the old kernel it just overwrites it? Thus if the kernel is broken you end up with a borked system.

That is the only thing I can think of.

 

[Vanillalite]

My Tweet: "You know you're a nerd when it's Friday night bored and decide to update to the best named version of #Ubuntu ever Oneiric Ocelot! #Linux"

My GF went to bed early cause she's been staying up late preparing for school on Tuesday, and after a few round of Magic the Gathering 2012 on steam I decided fuck it. My buddy who I started Vindictus with last night wasn't on so I rebooted into Natty determined to run the sudo update-manager -d and try out the alpha.

PS: For some reason Alt +F2 and typing sudo update-manager -d didn't work... so I just ran the terminal instead like a true nix head!

PPS: I'll post impressions later for those who care. Though I doubt anyone besides me cares, and there are probably more than enough Ubuntu sites and blogs to read that kind of info anyways.

 

[Elfforkusu]

I'm impressed with CUPS. It was easy to configure (thanks partially to the ArchLinux wiki), it's very easy to use and the printed pages looks better than the results I've obtained with Windows 7. I always avoided printing with Linux because the prospect of configurating the service seemed daunting. It's actually way simpler than with Windows 7 as my printer only had Vista drivers/utility software and it was tricky to get around that.

CUPS is disarmingly easy.

After fighting with wireless/video/touchpad drivers when getting your system set up, you figure "oh god, what's it going to take to print something???" ... and it's like 10 seconds of minor effort.

(and yes, much easier than on Windows)

 

[Solaros]

Dude had your exact problem so he uploaded it since the website is down while they redo it and get ready for 2.0 to release!

Link!

Thanks so much, man.

I picked up a book on Metasploit and I need some vulnerable images!

Thanks again, really.

 

[Vanillalite]

Thanks so much, man.

I picked up a book on Metasploit and I need some vulnerable images!

Thanks again, really.

No problemo! I aim to please! If you need anything else don't hesitate to ask as Linux GAF is rather cool!

PS: Presetup done... Downloading the major files now... Got like 10 more mins on that (getting ok speed but hardly my max)... Chillin' listening to music on my google cloud while I browse GAF on my phone.

 

[Jerk]

Maybe because instead of adding a new entry on grub and staying side to side with the old kernel it just overwrites it? Thus if the kernel is broken you end up with a borked system.

That is the only thing I can think of.

This. In part.

The other issue are the various modules that sometimes are added to the Kernel. While some of them come with hooks that will recompile the module to work with the new Kernel, others (like the wl module) will remain useless untill manually recompiled (or re-installed).

The former is my current annoyance though. With the new Kernel upgrade, KDE4 and my Catalyst driver are not playing nice.

What it comes down to is me wishing that I did not have to manually fix stuff sometimes when I upgrade certain components. But I suppose this is the price for bleeding edge (one that I gladly pay).

 

[Melhisedek]

My Tweet: "You know you're a nerd when it's Friday night bored and decide to update to the best named version of #Ubuntu ever Oneiric Ocelot! #Linux"

PPS: I'll post impressions later for those who care. Though I doubt anyone besides me cares, and there are probably more than enough Ubuntu sites and blogs to read that kind of info anyways.

I sure am interested in impressions And I think I might opt for O. OCelot as well

 

[Vanillalite]

LOL Feel asleep during the install, and completed this morning. Shit is hella borked even post update running. My two panels aka the top panel and the left panel have this weird black bar over it all, and it's just fubar. Might be because I went experimental and opted for LightDM over GDM during the install. Might try and see if I can go back to GDM and if that fixes things.

Oh well so goes Alpha testing!

 

[MrHicks]

WTF is up with all these linux torrent clients using kib/s as a speed indicator
(qbittorrent)

i actually had to google it
"A kibibit per second (Kibit/s or Kib/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to 1,024 bits per second. The word "kibibit" is not capitalized, but the abbreviation "Kibit" is."

what the fuuuck
wheres my kilobyte KB/s option for fucks sake

why does linux always have to act so retarded ugh

 

[Angelus Errare]

WTF is up with all these linux torrent clients using kib/s as a speed indicator
(qbittorrent)

i actually had to google it
"A kibibit per second (Kibit/s or Kib/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to 1,024 bits per second. The word "kibibit" is not capitalized, but the abbreviation "Kibit" is."

what the fuuuck
wheres my kilobyte KB/s option for fucks sake

why does linux always have to act so retarded ugh

Kilo = 10^3 = 1000. The word kilobyte is incorrect since it's 1,024 bits = 1 byte not 1,000 bytes.

Kibi = 2^10 (as you can see it was made to measure digital data, power of two, etc etc.)

Linux isn't acting retarded, it's being correct and fixing YEARS upon years of laziness / idiocy that became common place and the "standard" even if its wrong.

 

[MrHicks]

Kilo = 10^3 = 1000. The word kilobyte is incorrect since it's 1,024 bits = 1 byte not 1,000 bytes.

Kibi = 2^10 (as you can see it was made to measure digital data, power of two, etc etc.)

Linux isn't acting retarded, it's being correct and fixing YEARS upon years of laziness / idiocy that became common place and the "standard" even if its wrong.

really don't care about that techical jizzm
want my kilobyte like 99% of the internet

 

[zoku88]

Kilo = 10^3 = 1000. The word kilobyte is incorrect since it's 1,024 bits = 1 byte not 1,000 bytes.

Kibi = 2^10 (as you can see it was made to measure digital data, power of two, etc etc.)

Linux isn't acting retarded, it's being correct and fixing YEARS upon years of laziness / idiocy that became common place and the "standard" even if its wrong.

Bits/bytes aren't SI units of measure, so saying that kilo MUST mean 10^3 is incorrect. It can mean whatever the historical usage dictates it to mean.

 

[Angelus Errare]

really don't care about that techical jizzm
want my kilobyte like 99% of the internet

Dealwithit.jpeg =P

But no seriously, if harddrive manufacturer and well anyone who advertises storage used KiB, we wouldn't have thread upon thread upon thread of "I bought a 40GB HDD and I only got 37.14GB!! WHERE IS REST!"

 

[Angelus Errare]

Bits/bytes aren't SI units of measure, so saying that kilo MUST mean 10^3 is incorrect. It can mean whatever the historical usage dictates it to mean.

Everyone (computer users) know bit/bytes aren't SI units of measurement which is WHY we have the problem we have. Computers work in powers of 2 aka binary, aka on/off. Humans are more comfortable working in units of 10. The problem is people tried to apply the units of 10 to something that doesn't work in units of 10.

Kilo means 1,000, when people see 1KB, people assume it's 1,000 bytes which is...wrong, it's 1,024bytes, and while it may not seem like a big deal when you get to the "gigs" area. The average person becomes confused wondering why they bought a HDD advertising XXXGB and they are "missing" a few hundred gigs. (Granted that's solely on HDD manufacturers manipulating the system.) Kilo will always mean 1000 but in the computer field it's become accepted that it also means 1,024 / 1 kibi.


I used kilo = 10^3 (that and the prefix Kilo means 1000) because that's the closest SI unit of measurement (kilo) can get to 1,024.

 

[Vanillalite]

So I'm not 110% sure or anything, BUT from skimming the Ubuntu web forums it appears one of the latest updates might have borked something for a lot of people. Maybe 11.10 isn't a smallerish bug, but something that might be fixed soon. I'm just gonna leave it, and try and reboot in to 11.10 in the middle of the week. Hopefully there are a good number of updates pushed by then, and one of those fixes shit for me.

PS: It blows my mind that my most used thing Linux wise isn't say an Android phone, Ubuntu, or say Cent OS for a server. No it's Chrome OS as I use my CR-48 all the time now.

 

[Flying_Phoenix]

Speaking of Unity.... Unity finally got a ton of shit implemented into the 11.10 release cycle as of late!

Hell yes! This is already looking great!

 

[Elfforkusu]

The KB/KiB thing isn't new or Linux-specific. Windows calculates stuff the same way. HDD manufacturers wanted to be able to claim "1 TB" in powers of 10 VS the traditional (in computing) powers of 2... because it's less bytes. That greed is the entire impetus for the confusion.

My biggest complaint with "kibibyte" and "mebibyte" are that they sound completely stupid. I'll usually just say "base 2 kilobytes" if there's any confusion.

 

[Vanillalite]

Hell yes! This is already looking great!

Definitely seems like some nice additions. I'm not sure if that's exactly what people hated about Unity from the people who were satisfied in the 1st place though.

 

[Vanillalite]

Haven't done anything yet, but I grabbed my url and my blog name for my Linux blog last night.

Hope Linux GAF doesn't mind that I ganked the thread title from this thread, and titled my blog "Linux Noob Blog of Linux Noobs" LOL!!!

 

[RoaringHawk]

Kilo = 10^3 = 1000. The word kilobyte is incorrect since it's 1,024 bits = 1 byte not 1,000 bytes.

Kibi = 2^10 (as you can see it was made to measure digital data, power of two, etc etc.)

Linux isn't acting retarded, it's being correct and fixing YEARS upon years of laziness / idiocy that became common place and the "standard" even if its wrong.

Sorry for being way off-topic, but I can't let this go.

1024 bits = 128 bytes.
8 bits = 1 byte.

 

[Jerk]

Sorry for being way off-topic, but I can't let this go.

1024 bits = 128 bytes.
8 bits = 1 byte.

I am guessing he meant to say Kilobyte?

 

[Vanillalite]

Can I just say while I get the numbers and the math behind them... it's always a pain in the ass when reading, typing or discussing this type of stuff cause people always get stuff confused because of just how it all works, it laid out, nomenclature etc...

 

[Vanillalite]

Quck Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha status update from well me aka Brettison:

Booted in and installed the updates from the last day or so. Lots of updates, but my session is still borked.

THAT being said... they fixed the login as before I could only type my password. Now I can log in as a guest, and I can click on the gear and change the session type. It has recovery console, unity, and unity 2d (something else to but can't remember what? LOL). So I just chose Unity 2d as I had heard on the Ubuntu forums this MIGHT be a fix. Bam everything loaded up without the issues. I'm currently posting from 11.10 with Unity in 2d mode right now.

I guess the deal is some recent updates borked the 3d version (I'd assume something with the graphics drivers for 3d?) and I guess I'll just have to wait for an update! I can poke around Unity 2d which while not as flashy is definitely speedy!

 

[Cow Mengde]

Guys, I'm a complete linux noob and this thread is too huge to read through to find the answer. I'm thinking about buying a laptop and installing linux, but I have a couple of questions.

1. Now there is such such thing are a custom built laptop like you do with a PC, can I buy a Windows Desktop and install linux into it? And if so, do I have to worry about the hardware components that came with it not working or drivers not compatible with linux?

2. Is there a Chinese language pack for Linux? I'm actually thinking about letting my parents use this laptop because I don't have to worry about them fucking around online and getting viruses and malware up the wazoo.

3. I've heard of partitioning the harddrive, would it be wise to partition it so I can boot up both windows and linux whenever I want?

 

[Fantomen]

Guys, I'm a complete linux noob and this thread is too huge to read through to find the answer. I'm thinking about buying a laptop and installing linux, but I have a couple of questions.

1. Now there is such such thing are a custom built laptop like you do with a PC, can I buy a Windows Desktop and install linux into it? And if so, do I have to worry about the hardware components that came with it not working or drivers not compatible with linux?

2. Is there a Chinese language pack for Linux? I'm actually thinking about letting my parents use this laptop because I don't have to worry about them fucking around online and getting viruses and malware up the wazoo.

3. I've heard of partitioning the harddrive, would it be wise to partition it so I can boot up both windows and linux whenever I want?

1. I don't really know, just a few or none att all.

2. I can't confirm right now, but they have many languages pre-installed, so it's a big chance chinese is included.

3. It's your decision, i have never installed Windows after Linux (because Windows come with most laptops), but installing Linux after Windows is really easy and you can decide how big the partition will be.

 

[angelfly]

Guys, I'm a complete linux noob and this thread is too huge to read through to find the answer. I'm thinking about buying a laptop and installing linux, but I have a couple of questions.

1. Now there is such such thing are a custom built laptop like you do with a PC, can I buy a Windows Desktop and install linux into it? And if so, do I have to worry about the hardware components that came with it not working or drivers not compatible with linux?

2. Is there a Chinese language pack for Linux? I'm actually thinking about letting my parents use this laptop because I don't have to worry about them fucking around online and getting viruses and malware up the wazoo.

3. I've heard of partitioning the harddrive, would it be wise to partition it so I can boot up both windows and linux whenever I want?

1) The only problem occurring that I can think of is wifi drivers but I think even now it's nowhere near as bad as it was.

2) Many desktop environments and applications have Chinese localization.

3) If you need Windows then by all means partition the drive.

 

[Vanillalite]

Guys, I'm a complete linux noob and this thread is too huge to read through to find the answer. I'm thinking about buying a laptop and installing linux, but I have a couple of questions.

1. Now there is such such thing are a custom built laptop like you do with a PC, can I buy a Windows Desktop and install linux into it? And if so, do I have to worry about the hardware components that came with it not working or drivers not compatible with linux?

2. Is there a Chinese language pack for Linux? I'm actually thinking about letting my parents use this laptop because I don't have to worry about them fucking around online and getting viruses and malware up the wazoo.

3. I've heard of partitioning the harddrive, would it be wise to partition it so I can boot up both windows and linux whenever I want?

Wubi is your friend!

What is Wubi you ask?

It basically is a windows installer for Ubuntu (one if not the most popular regular desktop user version of Linux). Basically no partitioning or anything is needed. You just download the installer, and then run. Choose which flavor Ubuntu (just go with stock) and it'll download it and then ask you to reboot and install. It installs Ubuntu just as it would any other program in Windows. You can just go to add/remove programs and uninstall Wubi and Ubuntu if they don't fit your needs!

After you reboot you'll go through the quick self explanatory Ubuntu install, and yes Ubuntu has language packs! It'll even install the updates and stuff if you want before the install is done!

Upon boot you'll be able to just select between the two installed OSes and you're good to go! I HIGHLY recommend reading through my link. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

 

[Cow Mengde]

Wubi is your friend!

What is Wubi you ask?

It basically is a windows installer for Ubuntu (one if not the most popular regular desktop user version of Linux). Basically no partitioning or anything is needed. You just download the installer, and then run. Choose which flavor Ubuntu (just go with stock) and it'll download it and then ask you to reboot and install. It installs Ubuntu just as it would any other program in Windows. You can just go to add/remove programs and uninstall Wubi and Ubuntu if they don't fit your needs!

After you reboot you'll go through the quick self explanatory Ubuntu install, and yes Ubuntu has language packs! It'll even install the updates and stuff if you want before the install is done!

Upon boot you'll be able to just select between the two installed OSes and you're good to go! I HIGHLY recommend reading through my link. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Oh I forgot to mention, the reason I want to install linux is because my parents wants to go online. I know linux is safer and won't (or won't likely) get infected by viruses. Wubi will give me the same advantage if I make them boot up that to browse the internet, right?

 

[Vanillalite]

Yeah wubi is just an easy installer to help get more people to try out Linux. You'll still get all the features though. Ubuntu comes with Firefox preinstalled though you can install Chrome or Opera if wanted (chrome person here).

 

[Vanillalite]

So Puppy Linux confuses the fuck out of me in terms of their distributions. There's Wary which they just updated with a lower version number than Lucid which is also currently out, but not being worked on anymore. Instead Slax is being made instead or something.

IDK it all confuses the fuck out of me.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Posted? Interview with GNOME 3's designer. Going through it now but I'm already more positive on where the project is heading.

 

[Vanillalite]

Posted? Interview with GNOME 3's designer. Going through it now but I'm already more positive on where the project is heading.

Hell I'm a Ubuntu guy, and that puts me into the Unity camp. Yet I still new they were heading in the right direction. Problem is people in the Linux community tend to sort of take how something is when it launches, and just take that as how it's always gonna be. I mean KDE 4 was a cluster funk at a half, but it's great now at 4.7. A lot of people hate on it like KDE is back on 4.2 or something though.

People just need to separate their current feelings about the current product (which should matter most) verses putting that on how the product is always gonna be without trying it first!

 

[Plywood]

Does someone have a list of must have programs for Linux?

Just installed Ubuntu 11.04.

Also what is the best choice for firewall/antivirus/etc?

 

[Vanillalite]

Does someone have a list of must have programs for Linux?

Just installed Ubuntu 11.04.

Also what is the best choice for firewall/antivirus/etc?

No real need for antivirus... though there is always clam av.

Personally I like most of the default programs, but here are some alternatives.

Instead of transmission you can try deluge

Instead of banshee you can try rhythmbox

Instead of mplayer you can try smplayer kmplayer or vlc

Instead of firefox you can try chrome/ium or opera

Instead of empathy you can try pidgin

Personally I use chrome + sync, transmission, empathy, banshee, vlc, gimp, dropbox, and mangler as my main programs.

 

[Tribes of Trusty]

Are hard drive disk imprinting still in place ? Cause I had great trouble to install Ubuntu on my HP Laptop, and knowing HP, I wouldn't put it past them to imprint.

Anyways, I tried several desktop environments, and my opinion is :
Gnome is sleek and have a lot of eye candy, but is a bit heavy.
XFCE is awesome, fast and useful. My only gripe with it is the login panel after waking up the PC, it's uggggllyyyyy.
XLDE is even faster and quite enjoyable to use. However it does not have the crucial appletsworking : battery level..
Openbox/GNOME out of the box is...minimalistic, to say at least.

If I were to choose, as a linux noob, I'd use GNOME on my desktop PC, and XFCE on my netbook (and XLDE when it'll have the applet that I want).

 

[Vanillalite]

So my 2nd favorite distro released a new version last friday, and that's Puppy! Granted I still get confused seeing as their are different version of Puppy, but I'm taking what has been released as the latest in the mainline puppy. Puppy Linux 5.2.8 aka "Lucid" Puppy which pulls stuff from Ubuntu packages has the usual bug fixes and driver detection updates as well as C and FFmeg libs optimized for i686 instead of beingbased on the i386 stuff. Nice for everyone running a 64bit setup.

On the separate subject of desktop environments it was announced a fork of Gnome 2.32 has been made (just for arch for now) called Mate. Not sure how much I care though because if it's not got the normal full on gnome support I'm sort of meh. Not that 2.32 isn't great still, but rather XFCE has come so fucking far I see no reason to stick with the smallerish team working on maintaining 2.32 when XFCE is so pimp now.

Biggest and best surprise for me in the past year Linux wise would have to be just how polished XFCE 4.8 end up really being. It's basically everything Gnome 2.32 was for people just without some of the extra frills because gnome was the default for such big distros. Yet while you might not have the frills you get AMAZING performance.

I wish I could get Puppy to switch to LXDE though it might not be small enough to fit Puppy's requirements for their main line (I know Wary would be out of the question). Plus I feel like Joe's desktop environment is at a dead end. I can't name another major distro off the top of my head that uses JWM, and it's been years since we got a new stable (I know I know this isn't always a bad thing but still!).

PS: Minor quirk, but I HATE that the next version of XFCE is 4.10 in terms of version number. Just a personal nitpick, I dislike the .9 --> .10 and prefer you just roll on up to the next whole number. Naming as shit has been come a huge cluster fuck in general though in tech as of late see linux kernel, chrome, firefox etc...

 

[Cheeto]

Are hard drive disk imprinting still in place ? Cause I had great trouble to install Ubuntu on my HP Laptop, and knowing HP, I wouldn't put it past them to imprint.

Anyways, I tried several desktop environments, and my opinion is :
Gnome is sleek and have a lot of eye candy, but is a bit heavy.
XFCE is awesome, fast and useful. My only gripe with it is the login panel after waking up the PC, it's uggggllyyyyy.
XLDE is even faster and quite enjoyable to use. However it does not have the crucial appletsworking : battery level..
Openbox/GNOME out of the box is...minimalistic, to say at least.

If I were to choose, as a linux noob, I'd use GNOME on my desktop PC, and XFCE on my netbook (and XLDE when it'll have the applet that I want).

You should give KDE a try, it might give you some perspective on how "heavy" gnome is.