Ok, I don't know what a DE or WM are. But it sounds like you're talking about
different desktop environments that can be downloaded from the repositories,
right?

Yes, and the easiest way is to install them via command line in the Terminal

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install xubuntu-desktop
sudo aptitude install lxde
sudo aptitude install fvwm-crystal

or whichever you want. All of them are quite OK

I myself think this blackening or "grey-out" is an isolated case but it
happened to me in Gutsy Gibbon (rarely), in Hardy Heron (sometimes) and
in the present Ubuntu 10.04 rather often.

Is there somewhere we can read comparisons of those environments? Those of us
not familiar with command line use would need a Ubuntu-like GUI.

http://www.xubuntu.org/

http://lxde.org/image_galleries/screenshots

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FVWM-Crystal

But they are available from download using Synaptic within Ubuntu. You can
select on restart which GUI will be default. Look for Metapackages, or search
for Xubuntu, Lubuntu or that last one. I like LXDE because it also gives you
Openbox, espically for older less RAM systems.

Sometimes in the past when a Ubuntu Live CD would not boot on a computer, I'd
try the other Ubuntu Live CDs and load the GUI that I wanted this way.

XFCE is the closest-looking to Gnome. I like LXDE a lot, but i do not
like the LXpanel. FVWM-Crystal or plain FVWM are good for me, but not
for my mother. To be sincere, FVWM-Crystal is not very comfortable.

There are others like Afterstep, but there one needs some skill and
knowledge to use it properly. It is beautiful but not for me. To me
Afterstep is twice as stressing as Windows XP.

I managed to install EDE, but its menus are not very good, it s fast
and lightweight but I had to do a lot of typing in xterm. But it is
beautiful and interesting.



The *box WMs are also good. I tried Fluxbox, Blackbox, Openbox. Not so
comfortable as XFCE, for a lazy person like me.

JWM, IceWM are good for me, not very comfortable, not good for my mother.

E17 is very beautiful and well-built, but after a few hours of using
heavyweight applications it gets messed up and.....I am going to try
REISUB for this one, also.

it might be just me but is the machine still the same one that all the blackouts
has happened to
same machine for gutsy gibbon hardy heron 10.04 or is it different machines??

It is the same machine. It has a 2.66 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM right now (I
had 512 mb, upgraded to 1.5 GB three years ago, then the 512 GB burned out and
now I have 1 GB left).
The problem happens only in Ubuntu's Gnome, especially when the effort done
by the computer is huge, especially with a lot of folders open, a lot of
pictures open, the browser open with several websites, Open Office Writer loaded
with a 100 mb file or larger, Picasa filled like a sponge with tens of thousands
of pictures.

root@aptosidbox:/home/alexzmeurarul# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.66GHz
stepping : 9
cpu MHz : 2659.647
cache size : 256 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge
mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe lm
constant_tsc up pebs bts pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl tm2 cid cx16 xtpr
bogomips : 5319.29
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 128
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

root@aptosidbox:/home/alexzmeurarul#

Is there any problem with my CPU ?

I would guess with only a single GB of memory and all of that open
you have run out of memory. How much swap space have you got?

Yes last night, (that is 23.00 in the UK) as I tried a reply to a
message my 10.04 froze, grayed, crashed, whatever you call it and I gave
up again and shut it down via the power button.

I am certain this is not caused by the computer because I have checked
it from back to front.

It is not caused by Gnome, unless there is a drastic change in this
version because all versions before this were OK.

Desktop environments and window managers are different things. GNOME
is a desktop environment. The window manager can be Metacity (default)
or Compiz, depending on whether you want to use compositing or not (3D
desktop effects). KDE is another desktop environment and its window
manager is Kwin. You can change window managers and still run the same
DE. Fusion Icon does this on the fly. You can use KWin in GNOME and
Metacity in KDE for example. What happens when you switch window
managers is that you get the decorations and themes for that window
manager in the other DE.

You need to be a bit careful, though. You can mess things up if you
don't know what you are doing. It is reversible, but it can be
confusing. For example, Nautilus is more than just a file manager. It
includes the GNOME desktop without panels. So if you run Nautilus in
XFCE or KDE you lose your XFCE or KDE desktop. It stays even after you
close Nautilus. You can get it back by logging out and back in or
opening the System Monitor and killing Nautilus processes still
running. If you launch Nautilus in another desktop Environment then
you should run it from Alt-F2 and use the --no-desktop switch after
nautilus. I learned this the hard way. :)

Ubuntu will be switching desktop environments with 11.04 from GNOME to
Unity. some distributions will stay with GNOME 2.x while others will
switch to GNOME Shell or GNOME 3. Unity's window manager will be
either Compiz or Metacity depending on whether you are using desktop
effects or not. You can install GNOME 2 (for the time being) or GNOME
Shell if that is your preference. GNOME Shell uses Mutter which is
what Unity previously used. Unity performance issues have been blamed
on Mutter which is a fork of Metacity and it has built in compositing.
I have a new computer with a 1 GB graphics card and lots of RAM and
GNOME Shell is choppy. I have tried to run it with Compiz and it works
better, but some strange things happen with colours bleeding through
windows. According to GNOME, GNOME Shell is ready. I am not so sure
that people are ready for it.

Linux is lots of fun because there are so many possibilities. You are
only limited by your own lack of willingness to experiment. I think
that this is the ideal time to check other desktop environments out,
especially if you are a GNOME user. Change is coming and you can only
avoid it for a short time. You are ultimately in control and do not
have to switch distributions if you are unhappy, just DEs. Try KDE or
XFCE for a week. If you don't like it then you can just switch back to
GNOME. It is just a matter of an extra mouse click at login.

I tried Unity and it is extremely slow and messy. Even Afterstep is better.
But it also has some interesting things. I uninstalled it, though.
Compiz can be used in XFCE and LXDE, also. But in XFCE you can mess things up
and then...a few minutes to repair it.

Here is good old Ubuntu with LXDE, Compiz and Avant Window Navigator:
sites.google.com/.../snapshots-of-linux-with-lightweigh\
t-window-managers-on-my-pc

Having done several Ubuntu installs using the Gnome desktop I've yet
to see this 'grey-out' feature so it's not something to be expected if
using Gnome in Ubuntu. Evidently it does happen but it's not as simple
a bug as it would appear to be. I'd love to get my hands on a system
that does this and dig deep - maybe I will one day

I don't have grey outs in Ubuntu on either my netbook or desktop computers.
I don't think that it necessarily goes with GNOME or Ubuntu's implementation
of it. However, I have lots of RAM and a decent video card on both desktop
computers but my netbook has only an Atom processor and 1 GB of RAM and full
GNOME works fine. No grey outs, stalls or freezes. It is easy to blame it on
the distribution or the desktop environment, but that does not fix the
problem and it may be giving a false picture when you just don't know for
sure.

If it was the distribution or GNOME then we would find the problem
widespread and that is not the case. I think that we are looking at isolated
cases.

What do you think about aptosid?

I could not agree more. I have found a screen goes gray when the
processor is doing the task the window is open for, but there is more.

If a popup window is opened by the window in question that expects a
response the window can also go gray. The tray may show a tab for a
window that may have opened up under rather than on top of the window
that opened it. If this happens the machine seems to be locked up but
it isn't.

Use the tab on the tray to bring into focus any windows under the window
that is gray. The only one that will come into focus is the popup
(dialog box) that needs an answer.

I may be wrong but that is what happens to me on occasion, when I act to
quickly.

I second this statement. The gray outs are a feature to let you know
the window that grays out is to busy to respond to your prompts. This
can be because the data entered is bogus or it is waiting for something,
like a website that is having problems. Sooner or later the program will
time out and you will gain control of the window again.

I like this feature because it lets me know that things are not locked
up, just busy. Other interfaces may just leave you wondering what is
going on.

I third this. The grey out is a nice feature that I have become very
used to.

I use to hate it, but after re-booting a couple times prematurely, I figured
out what was going on because of the nice graying, that is also my reminder
to sit back enjoy a beer, and relax for a moment!

Well, I understand, but it is not my way of doing things. For me it is not
enjoyable.