The Mint Desktop Environment Drag and Drop Shoot-out

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I originally made the following post on the Linux Mint forum in response to a user asking which of Mint's four main desktop environments he should consider (Cinnamon, MATE, XFCE or KDE). In another thread, I summarized it like this:

Anyone who develops Linux software ought to seriously consider MATE. I recently did an in-depth comparison of the various Mint DE's to see how they compared with regards to drag and drop implementation, and MATE not only stole the show, it got a perfect score. That said, I'm sure that not all software developers would agree as to what constitutes the "ideal" productive workflow and no doubt some might even argue that drag and drop is of little value to them personally, but why let your DE decide the matter for you? Why let your DE limit your choices?

See: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=198525

I figured that you Ubuntu MATE users might also like to know where MATE really shines (of course, I assume that UM's drag and drop implementation is no different than that of the MATE edition of Linux Mint). Enjoy,..

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Very nice article. Thank you for that.

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You’re welcome Steve. I hope it helps those who are in the process of deciding which DE to use to make a more informed decision.

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This is a great piece which should be better known than hidden away in a forum (I would offer it to Phoronix, which publishes the most arcane pieces about the Linux kernel against which this piece is actually comprehensible!)

20 years ago I worked with someone who ended up at Sun Microsystems and being one of the principal user interface designers of GNOME 2 (and, in particular, the Human Interface Guidelines).

He was highly competent and I knew he would do a good job, but this is the first time I’ve seen it demonstrated formally.

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Please feel free to copy the post elsewhere if you like. I feel the same as you, which is why I posted here, a link to the original post. I figured it would receive a bit more attention from Ubuntu folks… That’s interesting about the Gnome 2 interface designer. Whoever is responsible for the drag/drop implementation of MATE–be it the MATE devs or the Gnome 2 devs before them (or both)–certainly deserves our respect and admiration for having done such a comprehensive job.