Is XFCE better than GNOME?

[Raccoon1400]

I have been playing with XFCE on arch for a couple days. I find it much more configurable. There are some things I don't think it has, like the ability to change the colour of the panel.
I may use it on my laptop for reasons other than performance. Anyone else feel the same as me?

[Raccoon1400]

I meant to put this in community cafe, not recurring discussions. Feel free to move it.

[Joeb454]

I think you put it in the right place - it is a recurring discussion after all ;)

[Raccoon1400]

I think you put it in the right place - it is a recurring discussion after all ;)

Haven't seen it here before, but then I haven't been here much.

[Artificial Intelligence]

I moved it to recurring, it's the place for "vs." and "beaten-a-dead-horse" threads.

[Raccoon1400]

I moved it to recurring, it's the place for "vs." and "beaten-a-dead-horse" threads.

You were fast, then. I though I put it there by accident.

[atomkarinca]

I guess XFCE means yes :) It is a recurring discussion. I think it's a matter of choice. I personally prefer XFCE over Gnome any time.

[cardinals_fan]

I like dwm and Openbox more, but Xfce beats GNOME by a lot.

[LaRoza]

They are the same. GNOME, Xfce and KDE are all the same.

wmii (and friends, including ratpoison) all the way.

[ubuntu-freak]

I find GNOME very configurable, you can even move the title bar buttons around, or delete them (gksudo gconf-editor).

Xfce is diet GNOME, so I don't see how it's more configurable, maybe those options are just more hidden in GNOME. Wasn't it only since last year that you could have icons on the desktop in Xfce? Or am I thinking of another WM?

Nathan

[cardinals_fan]

Wasn't it only since last year that you could have icons on the desktop in Xfce? Or am I thinking of another WM?
Yes, and it hasn't been the same since. I don't like desktop icons :)

[RiceMonster]

I don't like desktop icons either. Desktop icons make everything cluttered and ugly. I especially hate it when people have their desktop filled with a whole bunch of crap they never use. They just download everything to their desktop and leave it there. Gives me a headache.

[ubuntu-freak]

I like having temporary desktop icons for when I'm busy working on something, then they get deleted or moved.

Nathan

[ErwinC]

I'm 'downgrading' ;) from KDE (6.04-7.04) to Gnome (7.10) and now to XFCE (8.04)
I find XFCE much faster responding than the other desktops.

PS: I don't like KDE4 at all.

[Eisenwinter]

I don't like desktop icons either. Desktop icons make everything cluttered and ugly. I especially hate it when people have their desktop filled with a whole bunch of crap they never use. They just download everything to their desktop and leave it there. Gives me a headache.
+1.

Desktop icons are useless (to me at least).

I find myself rarely ever looking at the desktop from about 5 seconds after I boot.

[Paqman]

Surely your answer to this question hinges largely on what you understand "better" to be. As I see it:

Gnome = more features
XFCE = lighter

So one will be better on one machine, the other on another.

[cardinals_fan]

Gnome = more features
XFCE = lighter

The only feature GNOME has that Xfce doesn't (that I can think of right now) is the ability to change a panel's color.

[dizee]

You can change the panel colour but you need to edit the .gtkrc-2.0 file. Probably the only area where xfce doesn't give you a graphical interface to configure it (vs gnome's myriad of options being tucked away in gconf-editor). It is only diet-gnome in the sense of being lighter, not that it is less configurable.

I personally prefer it to gnome, but the question of which is "better" is subjective. They both have their uses.

[pcybill]

I agree with dizee in that it is a personal preference. Much like your favorite colour or do you prefer your coffee with cream or sugar or both.

For what I do on the computer Xfce is better for me

[karellen]

are apples better than oranges?

[ErwinC]

I agree with dizee in that it is a personal preference. Much like your favorite colour or do you prefer your coffee with cream or sugar or both.

For what I do on the computer Xfce is better for me

+1
:guitar:

[Bruce M.]

They are the same. GNOME, Xfce and KDE are all the same.

wmii (and friends, including ratpoison) all the way.

The same? Come now, that can't be true.

Maybe the kernel is the same and some underlying "system" files (read: GNOME), but not the same surely. Can't say anything about KDE I've never tried it.

XFCE comes without: GNOME desktop (hence no compiz or metacity), evolution, Open Office Suite to name a few.
XFCE comes with XFCE desktop (faster to load) Thunderbird and AbiWord to name a few again.

So right there is isn't "the same", it is faster on this old computer than GNOME is.

I am using XFCE because it's faster here than GNOME, since Gutsy, before that it was GNOME.

I have GNOME apps installed (gedit for one) and KDE apps installed (kate) because kate does things gedit doesn't do. I open AbiWord once in a blue moon since most of my "doc" type files are actually .TXT files. I have some that take forever to load in AbiWord and clock in at over 400 pages.

I'd also make gedit my text editor of choice if I could ( probably can, I just don't know how, and it's not really a BIG issue) as mousepad is kinda lame. That's just an opinion folks!

Is XFCE better than GNOME?
Matter of opinion, choice, equipment and what you do with your equipment.

What do you prefer and why? would have been a better question I would think.

I like both, but use XFCE today. :)

Have a nice day.
Bruce

[Quillz]

After using both for a while, I think I'd rather stick with GNOME. XFCE is pretty and functional, but I just didn't like certain things about it.

[smartboyathome]

After using both for a while, I think I'd rather stick with GNOME. XFCE is pretty and functional, but I just didn't like certain things about it.

Same here. I like how I aranged it on the LFS livecd, but I prefer GNOME on my laptop, and E17 on my desktop. :p

[djahma]

Now that users are kind of forced to use tablet OS for their desktop (gnome3 and Unity which I equally hate) the choice for a desktop OS is seeing Gnome leaving.
KDE? never used.
LXDE: I had a nice experience with it, one year ago. It was more responsive than gnome 2 however it lacked the customizability my eyes deserve;-)
The real thing now, is XFCE! It's very neat, responsive, customizable (although not as much as gnome2). I especially like how panels can be tailored to one's desires. On my 13' laptop, I made them autohide to maximize screen use with a shortcut to make them visible. I am so used to gnome2 I designed my panels to look alike, but you could mimic any desktop environment you want!
What's also very pleasant with XFCE is that it is lightweight with plenty of possibilities to beef it up. So you get a sharp and fast desktop environment because it's lightweight, and you can add eye candies without noticing a hit because computers are pretty fast nowadays. Thus, I installed compiz to show off when friends are around;-) and I work on xfwm4 because it is sufficient for my daily use.
Combining XFCE and compiz is also a smooth way of setting the flow(navigation) in the desktop just the way you want it. I personally love xfwm4 flow because it is well designed and it is easy to get things done, but it feels like a skeleton compared to what compiz allows you to do.

I hope Xfce will get plenty of support in the near future as people start to flee gnome3 and unity. It's already close to getting better than gnome2, so I can dream of it becoming the new standard!hehe

[forestpiskie]

Closed - necro'd