xfce vs. gnome

[RChickenMan]

I have traditionally been a gnome user, however I recently decided to give xfce a shot. I have always heard it is supposed to be a more minimal, less resource-intensive DE than gnome and kde. I am not sure whether I have experienced any performance gains, as I never really found gnome to be particularly sluggish. However, what I did notice is that there is really no reduction in functionality when compared to gnome. Also, the user interface is almost identical, and I would even say it looks a bit more "polished" in xfce. At this point it looks like I'll be making a switch. Of course, it's not like I absolutely have to commit to "switching" to one of them like one does with an operating system.

Can anyone else here relate to what I'm talking about? It seems to me that if gnome doesn't necessarily have anything to offer over xfce, and xfce is lighter on system resources, xfce would simply be a superior DE and therefor should be equally as popular (note this is not intended to be flame bait... read on!). I would like to hear from those of you who have had a similar experience to me, and also some of you who could inform me of what gnome has to offer over xfce that is worth the supposedly heavier resource usage. (it sounds as if gnome is foreign to me, but like i said, I've been a solid gnome user up until now. And yes, Linux is my only OS).

Either way, this is sparking a curiosity about desktop environments and I think I am going to play around a bit with what's out there. There's so many combinations of window managers, desktop environments, etc. that the right combination for me is out there somewhere and I'll probably never actually find it!

[doobit]

I really like XFce and It does work noticeably faster on my under-1 GHZ machines. As you play around with it you will find that it's a more transparent (to customization) desktop than Gnome. I like that because it makes it easy for me to customize. One problem is that it is also more modular than Gnome so you may need to open more menus to get the customization you want (i.e. user interface settings, desktop settings, window manager settings, panel settings).

[Koori23]

I like XFCE fine, My only problem with it is it's theme-ability is limited. For example, I can get Alphacube GTK controls in XFCE, but cannot use the Alphacube Window borders.

I know it's a dumb reason but, it's my reason.

[fuscia]

i'm a big fan of scrollable desktops and right-click menus, so that gives an advantage to xfce.

[doobit]

i'm a big fan of scrollable desktops and right-click menus, so that gives an advantage to xfce.

I agree!
After using Fluxbox, Enlightenment and Xfce, I keep trying to shut down my WinXP machine with a right click. Then I remember where I am...

[reacocard]

I like XFCE fine, My only problem with it is it's theme-ability is limited. For example, I can get Alphacube GTK controls in XFCE, but cannot use the Alphacube Window borders.

I know it's a dumb reason but, it's my reason.

Actually, you can. Just use metacity (or beryl+heliodor) instead of xfwm4. Of course, that negates some of the lightness of xfce, but its an option if you really want it.

[IYY]

I've traditionally used Gnome, KDE, IceWM and Fluxbox, but recently I see XFCE rapidly improving and becoming a solid desktop environment.

[happy-and-lost]

Maybe someone can enlighten me here.

My laptop (1.73ghzPM, 1gbRAM) runs and boots Xu and U in the same time, so there's no advantage to using Xfce on the resource front.

However... my desktop (3ghzP4HT, 700ishmbRAM) runs/boots Xu much MUCH (About half the time) faster than U. So I use half and half. I love them both.

[fuscia]

I agree!
After using Fluxbox, Enlightenment and Xfce, I keep trying to shut down my WinXP machine with a right click. Then I remember where I am...

if you kept right-clicking on your xp desktop, i bet it would shutdown eventually.

[hizaguchi]

Neither is really faster for me either. I prefer Gnome though because I think it looks nicer and I really like Nautilus. Plus, I've never found a really good icon theme for XFCE... not one that I like anyhow.