xfce vs. gnome

[gradinaruvasile]

I installed Xubuntu 9.10 on a Dell D630 (Core2Duo 2Ghz/2 GB RAM/Nvidia 135m) laptop a few days ago. I have a 9.04 Gnome install on it too. Xubuntu is far more responsive and snappier in general and its really obvious on this high end hardware too. The window rendering is faster in XFCE compared to Gnome (no compiz).
Advantages:
- The fact that you are not forced to use PulseAudio by default (and having the old style volume control applet) - anyway i installed PA and Blueman to use my Bluetooth headset, but the sound worked wery well with everything OOTB.
- No Evolution stuff hogging memory/running in the background - I never needed it anyways, better off with Seamonkey
- Full Gnome compatibility - You can install anything you can under Gnome...
- Snappy window rendering, very responsive system
-

Cons:

- Takes a time to configure the basics that you have in Gnome included - but still runs fast after configuring the gvfs support in gigolo that is supposed to work ootb but it requires some packages (gnome-mount and some i dont remember).
- Dont have that many configuration options than in Gnome;
- No easy way (that i know of) to customize menus;
- Some programs icons do not appear in the menus - Thats a big one, if u are a noob, u're toast...

All in all i like it very much. But some degree of knowledge of Ubuntu/linux is recommended when using it.

[Dragonbite]

Does Xubuntu 9.10 include UbuntuOne?

[yurx cherio]

If it doesn't you can install it. The important thing is - it works under Xfce.

[Praxicoide]

My vote goes for Xfce for modularity, customization and lightweight. Gnome does seem better for newcomers.

I will try Gnome 3, of course, but for now, I'm enjoying Xfce4.6 too much.

[ugmoe2000]

I had always heard good things about XFCE resource-wise and I just upgraded my father's old P4 1.8 Ghz, 256 mb ram machine from 8.04 - 9.10 only to find that Gnome had become WAAAAAy to slow on the same hardware.

I tried trimming Gnome down to a minimalist installation /w few running services etc to no avail... I figured I would have to move him over to a heavily customized fluxbox. For s&g I decided to try XFCE first, and I was very impressed. My first thought was "why am I not using this?"

I went through a Fluxbox phase that left me desiring a minimalist desktop with just a tiny-bit more usability. However I never got around to trying XFCE for one reason or another. After seeing it on my father's old machine I had to throw it on mine just to play and see if I could customize it. After one day playing I think I'll be using XFCE for at least the next few years. Even after gnome 3 is released I have a feeling it's going to be just a bit heavy/laggy so it looks like I found a new favorite.

[NightHawk877]

I'm a die-hard GNOME user. I tried, KDE and XFCE and didn't like both.

[XubuRoxMySox]

I went from Gnome to Openbox in a quest for speed, and whoa! I love it. Simple, minimal, powerful!

But I also run an older 'puter that lots of people share (kids mostly), so I needed a lightweight, graphical, "familiar-looking" point-and-shoot interface. LXDE fit that bill nicely and is uber-lightweight, but on my machines it has persistent bugs that finally drove me to give Xfce a shot.

It's kinda like "Gnome Lite" I guess. My first look at Xfce is Xubuntu Karmic, and omygosh! It matches Openbox for speed but it's easy enough for the kids to use without any coaching. Much faster and much less demanding on resources than Gnome. Heavier than LXDE to be sure, but I experience as much phenomenal speed and snappiness with Xubuntu 9.10 than I did with my homemade minimal Ubuntu/LXDE mixture.

-Robin

[~sHyLoCk~]

I am loving compiz. It's really fast and smooth when you are using it without any DEs like Gnome or KDE.

[monkeyKata]

Xfce seems to be the only big desktop that isn't trying to give us some kind of crazy new desktop metaphor that nobody asked for .

I like how you worded this!

[Zoot7]

I generally rather gnome atop openbox. Xfce I don't really find any faster and it's also missing some functionality I've grown used to like a tabbed file manager.
Sometimes I'll just use openbox alone, but I find it rather limiting and convoluted at times to use it 100% of the time, as I'd need a DE.