Razor-qt Desktop Review on openSUSE 12.1: Fast and Functional. Better than LXDE? Part 2

As noted in part 1 of this review on Razor-qt, the lightweight environment works well with openSUSE 12.1's many components.  Razor-qt's speed in loading applications is mostly a hit rather than miss - there's definitely an improvement compared to KDE4's sluggish load times.  

However, Razor-qt suffered the same issue I found with Gnome 3 on small screens.  Buttons are cut off at the bottom, prompting a user to either minimize or maximize the window and even switch the bottom panel to the top panel.  Unlike Gnome 3, however, this occurred only when using the file manager in conjunction with Firefox.  I ran  KMyMoney, GCStar, Chrome, Thunderbird, Kompozer, Dropbox, VLC, Dolphin, and Okular and none of them had cut off dialog boxes or interface issues.  Besides the aforementioned scenario, Yast2 modules also suffered cut off buttons though this occurred in only some of the modules.

The Cancel and Upload buttons are cut off on this window.

The Razor-qt is a fairly new desktop environment and is currently in development so users will have to be aware that there are very few available plugins and widgets for the desktop and desktop panel.  This is fine for users like me who don't use widgets though I did add the Removable media plugin out of habit.

Users will also have to get used to not having a battery indicator nor volume controls on the system tray.  Users will have to use the multimedia applications' volume slider and controls directly.

No volume controls nor battery indicator.

Razor-qt has an edit desktop mode where widgets and plugins can be added.  However, aside from a Hello World plugin, Clock, and Icon View there aren't any other available plugins.

Longtime users of KDE and Gnome will also notice a slight lag time when opening the menu and ALT+F2 command window.  The menu's black and white helper labels don't always display properly also (which the devs could have removed).  However, any interface delays get better as the user runs the desktop.  Searching using the command window produces faster results as the system "recalls" previous searches.

Conclusion

Razor-qt has plenty of potential to be a hard-hitting desktop environment rivalling not only LXDE but Gnome 3 and Xfce as well.  It's not the sexiest desktop out there but serious users will appreciate its speed and functionality.  As long as the developers don't pad the desktop environment with too many features, Razor-qt will have a good future ahead of it and gain a wider adoption.  

Is it better than LXDE?  For my part, I'm too used to LXDE's implementation in Lubuntu and Knoppix to conclude that Razor-qt is superior.  Moreover, its functionality in openSUSE 12.1 may not extend well in other Linux distributions such as Fedora or Ubuntu.  I have a huge fondness for openSUSE's KDE4 implementation but on a netbook it just isn't a good idea - I will definitely be hanging on the Razor-qt on the 1000H for now.