Hello everyone,
I use Ubuntu 20.04.2 with LXDE desktop. I prefer simplicity and functionality over eye candy and LXDE is the best compromise in terms of usability, features, appearance vs system resources consumption. KDE and Gnome3 are too heavy without adding much to functionality and usability.
There is an applet called “gnome-netspeed”. It shows the real time download and upload speed in “gnome-panel” and also a part of “mate-applets” package since MATE is based on Gnome2. Does anyone knows how to make the “netspeed” work with lxpanel? I’ve tried “conky” and a few others that work only in terminal emulator, but didn’t like any of them. What I am trying to achieve is to display the real time download speed in lxpanel in exactly the same manner as the “gnome-netspeed” in “gnome-panel”. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
It’s not an “applet” per se… it’s a Gnome Shell Extension…
I’ve never tried to run Gnome extensions on anything but Gnome - most places where I don’t run Gnome - e.g. XFCE - I use / install GTK+ and GTK 3 etc - most gnome things seem to work… Don’t run LXDE anywhere - too ugly for me - looks like Windows XP (which I used to always configure “down” to look like Windows 2000).
I’d suggest you google for something like : “lxde lx gnome extensions” - and you’ll probably need all the GTK libraries installed too…
I do use quite a few gnome extensions, and have the helper installed in Chrome and Firefox… be careful - there’s a few that are pretty dodgy… Had one chewing up my CPU a couple years back - took me a while to figure out what was eating my CPU too…
Most annoying thing I find with shell extensions - is the order they load in and display… My favourite shell extension is “Workspace Indicator” (not the “improved” one which doesn’t feel like an improvement to me) - and I always want it left most in my tray so I can easily switch between named workspaces without too much hunting… But others keep loading after it, and they get left-most position - so I have to disable “Workspace Indicator” in the Extensions manager applet, then re-enable it…
Just fired up Netspeed extension - looks cool - don’t really need it at work - but I might use it at home - thanks for bringing it to my attention mate 
Was having an argument with my missus on the weekend - her iPad was running slow - and she was blaming our net connection - and - I tried to show her the net wasn’t extra-slow, but “speedtest-cli” was broken on all the machines I run it on (I think I broke it by trying to get other speedtest CLI apps working) - so I had to fire up one of those speedtest web pages and show her our connection was “the same as it ever was”…
Thanks. The partial solution is to install “mate-panel” and “mate-applets” packages and replace “lxpanel” with “mate-panel” in lxsession default applications. It took about 100 MB of hard disk space and uses about 75 MB more RAM, but it works just fine.
The looks of the DE is a matter of taste, and LXDE looks perfectly fine for me. I cannot stand KDE with jumping icons or GNOME3 that slows down my system. I always disable all compositors and animations and prefer my apps and windows open instantly instead of looking at changing of shapes and colors, which I find simply annoying and distracting. My setup uses about 175 MB of RAM on boot with LXDE and about 250 MB with MATE panel. I like MATE DE as well. It looks more modern than LXDE, but LXDE is faster - apps open almost instantly in LXDE, which is why I prefer LXDE.