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Xfce is great

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Re: Xfce is great

#231

Post by ivraatiems »

XFCE and LXDE are saviors for old machines. I frequently install Xubuntu and Lubuntu on old Chromebooks (e. g. HP Chromebook 14 from around 10 years ago, 2GB RAM, Celeron processor), and you can quickly get a fully functional, usable system. I'm not writing code on them, but you can easily use them for all the things the average person needs on a daily basis from their computer.

It's great that these projects have not given into "the times" or tried to become things they're not. They're great at what they do and I hope they remain that way.

Re: Xfce is great

#232

Post by stock_toaster »

mikkupikku wrote: post #157
liotier wrote: post #124

I used to love Xfce, when KDE felt clunky to me and Gnome went in directions I found insane. Since then Gnome remains Gnome, but KDE has matured to a stage where most of the defaults feel like they were designed for me - and any that doesn't can be easily changed. After a period of using more and more K* applications, I realized I might as well switch desktop... Xfce is now a fond memory, and the times have moved on.

I want to like KDE, but it's just too unreliable for me. My last foray was about a year or two ago, I had to stop using it because an update something in KDE's power management broke and my laptop no longer reliably suspended when the battery was low (manually triggered suspends still worked fine.) I've been repeatedly having experiences like this with KDE, each time I fall back on LXQt with kwin and everything looks…

Could also be packaging issues. Kde has been pretty stable for me on debian 13.

Re: Xfce is great

#233

Post by gtest »

Many people praise KDE. But to me, KDE is extremely ugly.

Admittedly, I use Gnome. I have few requirements for a DE and most existing DEs meet my need[1]. Many in the Linux community hate Gnome (not sure what the short comings are). I use it mainly because it is the default in most cases.

But KDE is extremely ugly out of the box: the panel at the bottom. The window frames, the mouse pointer, the menues. It takes some work to make it reasonable.

What are the features that people actually use on KDE that are missing on Gnome (or require some work to get on Gnome)? I mostly see only the argument that KDE is "extremely customizable" compared to Gnome. I agree, but what is the actual customization that one does that make the difference, which are more work to achieve (or impossible) on Gnome? I am genuinely asking: I can live with ugly DE if I am missing something I don't know.

[1] my needs: ability to switch windows, ability to press super key to search for an app, ability to display time.

Re: Xfce is great

#234

Post by Nursie »

rich_sasha wrote: post #98

I used to be on Gnome when it was the old interface (windows XP style), then moved to MATE. Never used Xfce. How does it compare to MATE? I remember mate being ever so slightly unstable (not sure if it was HW compatibility issues).

Xfce and MATE are fairly similar in a lot of ways. Back in the day Xfce had more emphasis on being lightweight than Gnome 2 did.

In terms of being able to put your UI elements wherever you want, being simple, configurable and non-opinionated, it's all very similar. I would assume (could be wrong) that Xfce is under more active development than Mate.

I made the switch when Gnome 2 was killed overnight, and Mate didn't yet exist. My Xfce desktop looks a lot like my Gnome 2 desktops used to. I've never felt the need to switch to anything else or 'back' to Mate.

Re: Xfce is great

#235

Post by MrDrMcCoy »

mikkupikku wrote: post #157
liotier wrote: post #124

I used to love Xfce, when KDE felt clunky to me and Gnome went in directions I found insane. Since then Gnome remains Gnome, but KDE has matured to a stage where most of the defaults feel like they were designed for me - and any that doesn't can be easily changed. After a period of using more and more K* applications, I realized I might as well switch desktop... Xfce is now a fond memory, and the times have moved on.

I want to like KDE, but it's just too unreliable for me. My last foray was about a year or two ago, I had to stop using it because an update something in KDE's power management broke and my laptop no longer reliably suspended when the battery was low (manually triggered suspends still worked fine.) I've been repeatedly having experiences like this with KDE, each time I fall back on LXQt with kwin and everything looks…

Things have come a long way in the last year or two ;)

Re: Xfce is great

#236

Post by MrDrMcCoy »

alextingle wrote: post #133
liampulles wrote: post #108

I'm a longtime fan of XFCE. I try all sorts of DEs from time to time on spare computers, but I reliably come back to XFCE, which is really just a fairly low-resource, stable embodiment of the classic GNOME feel. I used mainline Ubuntu for a few years until they released GNOME 3 (which I hated then and hate now) and then I switched to Xubuntu and was happy again. I made a conscious decision a few years ago (after tryi…

Wayland just seems really unstable to me. I try it occasionally, but glitches, freezes or crashes quickly drive me back to X.

Here's a nickel, kid. Get yourself some non-Nvidia hardware.

Re: Xfce is great

#237

Post by MrDrMcCoy »

laxis96 wrote: post #166
liampulles wrote: post #108

I'm a longtime fan of XFCE. I try all sorts of DEs from time to time on spare computers, but I reliably come back to XFCE, which is really just a fairly low-resource, stable embodiment of the classic GNOME feel. I used mainline Ubuntu for a few years until they released GNOME 3 (which I hated then and hate now) and then I switched to Xubuntu and was happy again. I made a conscious decision a few years ago (after tryi…

I'm genuinely wondering why everybody hates modern GNOME. I have long been running Linux on headless systems but Windows on my daily, and only recently switched to dailying a Linux desktop. I started with Kubuntu LTS, it was easy to switch from Windows (shortcuts, UX) but it felt too "complicated" and distracting, not very good looking OOTB and had some graphical glitches here and there (w/ nvidia). Now I'm on Fedora…

There are many reasons to dislike GNOME:

1. Very little can be customized. 2. Extensions that let you customize things are unlikely to work in the next release because the APIs keep changing. 3. GTK apps have enormous padding around everything that eats my precious screen space. 4. It's heavier and slower than KDE. Probably thanks to all the embedded JavaScript. 5. Its' "my way or the highway" approach to workflows is abrasive.

Re: Xfce is great

#239

Post by aorth »

gtest wrote: post #233

Many people praise KDE. But to me, KDE is extremely ugly. Admittedly, I use Gnome. I have few requirements for a DE and most existing DEs meet my need[1]. Many in the Linux community hate Gnome (not sure what the short comings are). I use it mainly because it is the default in most cases. But KDE is extremely ugly out of the box: the panel at the bottom. The window frames, the mouse pointer, the menues. It takes some…

> Many people praise KDE. But to me, KDE is extremely ugly. > > Admittedly, I use Gnome.

Same. To each their own, but I also prefer the aesthetics of the GNOME and GTK ecosystem. Though I use Sway as a WM the past few years, I always opt for GNOME and GTK apps when there are options. I've been using Linux since about 2000.

Re: Xfce is great

#240

Post by dangus »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #215
dangus wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The least they could do is provide a “traditional desktop” toggle in settings to restore more sane padding values that don’t burn 20% of my non-touch 12” ThinkPad’s limited screen space for no good reason. The thing is that Gnome has numerous desktop environment alternatives and nobody is stuck with it. Linux desktop environments are free to be opinionated because they know that their users can just use something e…

Even if that’s true, the stock GNOME apps and third party GTK3/4 apps (which tend to follow GNOME design philosophy) work more smoothly under GNOME than those built with Qt or other frameworks, and so deviating makes for a materially worse experience. And yes you can switch between multiple installed DEs and I have done so in the past, but that makes for a messy experience with many redundant apps that the user must…

Shrug, I run Gnome apps in KDE all the time. They run smoothly for me. I’m sure the inverse is perfectly fine as well.

I certainly don’t expect most users to switch between desktop environments but there are so many of them that complaining about one is a waste of breath.

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