As a Debian devotee I think I've found my future home as I've been running Debian Squeeze with Gnome 2 for the eighteen months or so .... and it's a clean install of Debian Wheezy with XFCE. Taking the instructions from the url below, it's very easy to configure the top and bottom panels in XFCE just like Gnome 2. And since the XFCE project has been around since 1996 and has a small but robust team of committed developers, IMHO I have more faith in XFCE over the long term then MATE. With Wheezy still not Debian "stable" for a few more months, that gives me a window as long as well in 2016 to stay supported under Debian Wheezy if I wish too, compared to Xubuntu 12.04 supported to 2015 and Ubuntu & Mint to 2017. Bonus: my RAM footprint on bootup before launching any applications is 183mb, and the independence of Debian (compared to a Canonical or a Red Hat), as well as XFCE's independence as I think Red Hats exerts a lot of control over Gnome, Canonical obviously over Unity, and Mint over MATE. So for the technical and philosophical I just described, I like it. And now the link on configuring XFCE like Gnome 2: <br>
<br><a href="http://www.kirsle.net/blog/kirsle/xfce-for-gnome-2-refugees">http://www.kirsle.net/blog/kirsle/xfce-for-gnome-2-refugees</a><br> <br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 8:04 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:atllinuxenthinfo@techstarship.com" target="_blank">atllinuxenthinfo@techstarship.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
Ted W <<a href="mailto:ted@techmachine.net">ted@techmachine.net</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
>On 02/02/2013 11:46 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:<br>
>> Hi all,<br>
>><br>
>> I'm in the process of installing Mint 13 into a VM. I think I've<br>
>found<br>
>> my new Linux home for the next 5 years, since I have to upgrade from<br>
>> Ubuntu 11.04. I'm using Mate, so I have the major Gnome 2 features<br>
>I've<br>
>> always liked: an actual menu, panels - including my cpu monitor, min<br>
>max<br>
>> and close icons on the right side of the window, and menus within<br>
>each<br>
>> window. Since I feel betrayed by Ubuntu's UI fiasco, I now consider<br>
>> myself a Mint user, rather than an Ubuntu user, even though the base<br>
>> code is from Ubuntu. It was a nice ride while it lasted. When, I<br>
>get<br>
>> the time, I'll install this on all my systems.<br>
>><br>
>> Ron<br>
>><br>
><br>
>Aside from a few initial pains with Nautilus in Gnome 3.6 and some<br>
>issues related to my lack of ability to RTFM sometimes I have been<br>
>thoroughly happy running Ubuntu 12.10 with Gnome3. If you prefer the<br>
>panels there is a plug-in called "Gnome Shell Frippery" that returns<br>
>several pieces of the Gnome2 look and feel, enough so that I used it<br>
>while I learned the Gnome3 native interface and it felt almost<br>
>identical<br>
>to Gnome2.<br>
><br>
></$0.02><br>
>~ Ted<br>
<br>
</div></div>Hi Ted,<br>
<br>
It's good to know that I could go with Ubuntu if I had to. I'm pretty committed to trying Mint / Mate at this point. Even if I stuck with Ubuntu, I'd probably have to do a clean install rather than an upgrade. From running Mint in a VM thus far, I like it pretty well. We'll see how it goes going forward.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
Ron<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.<br>
Please excuse my potential brevity.<br>
<div class="im HOEnZb"><br>
(To whom it may concern. My email address has changed. Replying to former<br>
messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the wrong<br>
address. Please send all personal correspondence to the new address.)<br>
<br>
(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to<br>
call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy<br>
mailing lists and such. I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)<br>
<br>
Ron Frazier<br>
<a href="tel:770-205-9422" value="+17702059422">770-205-9422</a> (O) Leave a message.<br>
linuxdude AT <a href="http://techstarship.com" target="_blank">techstarship.com</a><br>
<br>
<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Don Kramer<br><a href="mailto:donkramer@gmail.com" target="_blank">donkramer@gmail.com</a> - email / 404-213-7738 - cell