Do u like Xfce? or u have to use Xfce?

[maduranga]

hello... I have been a ubuntu user for a long time and I thought of having some experience with Xfce :) and yep.. it seems cool. though i'm still thinking of using gnome for my usual computing, i like the way of Xfce..

So Xfce users, do u use Xfce it is because u like it or u have to use it( Old Hardwares) ? if you have some time, pls give some ideas.

:biggrin:

[regomodo]

I started off using XFCE (xubuntu/slack 10) but i found it not worth my time and marginally quicker than gnome (if at all in Debian).

Gnome (possibly KDE) or *box for me. Seems xfce is stuck in the middle.

[Dimitriid]

I used it on a machine with only 256mb ram. Functionality wise its usable, if a little bit rough around the edges like mentioned. Speedwise is..meh. So So i say. I was expecting a lot more out of Xubuntu. Its not lighting speed, it just feels about as fast as regular Ubuntu. I guess that is the point of the distro but I was expecting ( admittedly overestimating ) performance like Puppy.

One huge beef on Xubuntu Feisty though: the installer tries to download some stupid language packages which might not seem like much but on a slow Cable connection ( 128k ) it took well over an hour and a half to download and breaks the installation if canceled who the hell though of that? You would think an installer would not abuse a present internet connection if its too slow :mad:

[monsieurdozier]

I use Xfce both because I have to, Old Computer, and because I actually like it.

*Right click* Menu. I just love that.

On my computer Xfce is definitely faster than Gnome.

Would I put it on a newer computer? Debateable. I'd definitely have to think about it.

Monsieur Dozier

[Lucifiel]

I use Xfce 'cos it's more responsive than Gnome. But sometimes, I just wish it had a decent search utility though Kfind is good enough.

[bigbrovar]

i use have both xfce and gnome on my system ..though gnome is my default DE . i someting try out xfce ..and one thing i like about it is that u can hide icons for mounted drives especially my ntfs partiton...beside that it doesnt seem as powerfull as gnome.

[LaRoza]

I used to use Xfce, see a thread called "Alternative DE and WM" or something like that, which I started, but have since moved on to Fluxbox.

I am probably going to stay with Fluxbox for a long time...

[Incense]

I have Xubuntu loaded on an older computer here with <256mb of ram. It run great IMO. I like how it comes with Abiword and Gnumeric over Openoffice. Zenwalk and Dreamlinux are both fun Xfce distros worth playing around with as well.

[fuscia]

xfce is like a unitarian, to me. it's not as light as a box and it's a little sparse to be a desktop. i've come to think of unitarians as atheists who don't have the nerve to stop going to church.

[Bart_D]

I find that XFCE runs distinctively faster on my desktop than Gnome. I have a dual boot of both xubuntu and ubuntu and the boot times are about the same(roughly 10 second differential in favour of xubuntu) but there is a definite edge, in favour of xubuntu, when it comes to system responsiveness. Xubuntu flies and is lightning quick. Mine is an older machine. I can't think of removing it. Xfce was also great on Zenwalk and Mint Linux(XFCE version) when I tried them out.

Having said that, I just canl;t live without Gnome either so I dual boot both.

[josys36]

Funny how you can change which desktop you love the most. If you had asked me this question a year ago I would have said XFCE. Now however, I prefer Gnome. I used to get frustrated with Gnome, but now that I know how to configure the items I was displeased with, my frustration is gone. So for now it is Gnome all the way, but I am also looking forward to seeing the new KDE.

Jason

[crimesaucer]

I started with xubuntu as my first Linux install, and I only have tried regular ubuntu for a day (and I felt that it was slightly slower than xubuntu).


I guess I learned Linux using xfce4, and am used to the way the file system is on it. I also learned all of the ways to write gtk-2.0 themes for "xfce", and all of the other ways to customize xfce4 so I prefer my themes to most others available in any other Linux DE.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/crimesaucer/Screenshot-28-14.png
Large View: http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/crimesaucer/Screenshot-28-12.png

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/crimesaucer/Screenshot-29-14.png
Large View: http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/crimesaucer/Screenshot-29-12.png


Plus, I like Thunar and my xfce terminal.

[capink]

I use xfce because I love it. The only thing I prefer in gnome is gnome-panel, so I use it instead of xfce4-panel. xfce is also more modular and allows you to change individual components easily.

[crimesaucer]

I use xfce because I love it. The only thing I prefer in gnome is gnome-panel, so I use it instead of xfce4-panel. xfce is also more modular and allows you to change individual components easily.

When you use gnome-panel, can you have it translucent while having the icons show at full opacity?


With my xfce4-panel, when I use the opacity setting, the icons also are translucent.


I wish that I could make my panel translucent, with my icons still regular...like an apple dock app, but still a full-sized panel...


I know there is some sort of patch/hack that you can do with xfce4-panel, but I never tried it because I read mixed reviews of it.

[HermanAB]

The KDE and Gnome window managers are just too sloooowww. I have been using IceWM for years, but setting it up myself is a chore, so I eventually gave up and now use Xfce.

I tend to mix and match things that work. Therefore I use Xfce as the desktop system, with KDE Konqueror as the file manager, mainly because of the fish:, smb: and ftp: IOslaves in Konqueror.

The tools i use most are a mix from Gnome, KDE and others:
K3B for CD burning
Konqueror for file and network browsing
Gedit for editing stuff
Konsole for the shell
Thunderbird for email
Firefox for web access
OOo, Scribus and Gnumeric for office schtuff

Cheers,

H.

[capink]

When you use gnome-panel, can you have it translucent while having the icons show at full opacity?


With my xfce4-panel, when I use the opacity setting, the icons also are translucent.



Yes, I have just tried that and it is working.

[Eddie Wilson]

i use have both xfce and gnome on my system ..though gnome is my default DE . i someting try out xfce ..and one thing i like about it is that u can hide icons for mounted drives especially my ntfs partiton...beside that it doesnt seem as powerfull as gnome.

You can hide the mounted drive icons in Gnome also. Just do it in the configuration app. I would tell you step by step but I'm at work now.
Eddie

[crimesaucer]

Yes, I have just tried that and it is working.

Thanks, I might try to install gnome-panel and give it a try.

[SunnyRabbiera]

XFCE is promising, but it needs work in some areas.
for one I wish thunar was more friendly with recycle bin type options, as when you delete something you delete it for good.
I still do things the windows way by sending my stuff to trash/ the recycle bin as this way if I accidentally send something to the recycle bin I can correct it instead of banging my head when I delete something I didnt mean to delete...
thunar should enable a recycle bin function at some point.
another issue I see is that XFCE has a lousy menu editor, its really hard to work with plus the menu itself is unfriendly with crossover which I use to run windows apps, now this might be more of an issue with crossover then anything but still if gnome can get crossover working then there should be nothing to stop it from working.
the menu editor definitely needs a major workover, I really hate it and think its crap compared to the gnome and kde menu editors.

[Calash]

My iBook uses Xfce, it runs faster on the limited resources than Gnome or KDE. It works well, and I can navigate it easily enough. KDE did have a better look on the iBook screen, but it would hang up now and then due to resource issues. Xfce is solid all the time.

[capink]

XFCE is promising, but it needs work in some areas.
for one I wish thunar was more friendly with recycle bin type options, as when you delete something you delete it for good.
I still do things the windows way by sending my stuff to trash/ the recycle bin as this way if I accidentally send something to the recycle bin I can correct it instead of banging my head when I delete something I didnt mean to delete...
thunar should enable a recycle bin function at some point.
another issue I see is that XFCE has a lousy menu editor, its really hard to work with plus the menu itself is unfriendly with crossover which I use to run windows apps, now this might be more of an issue with crossover then anything but still if gnome can get crossover working then there should be nothing to stop it from working.
the menu editor definitely needs a major workover, I really hate it and think its crap compared to the gnome and kde menu editors.

The first point: you can do this easily in thunar. if you delete using the keyboard just hold the shift key when deleting. You can also add a custom action to thunar right click that would allow you to delete files permanently. This is done through EDIT > Configure custom actions. Or if you don't know how just execute the following command:


sed -i 's_</actions>$_<action><icon></icon><name>Erase</name><command>rm %F</command><description>Delete Permanently</description><patterns>*</patterns><directories/><audio-files/><image-files/><other-files/><text-files/><video-files/></action></actions>_' ~/.config/Thunar/uca.xml

Now restart thunar and you will find an action called erase in the right click. That will delete with no trash.

Edit: It seems that you are asking for the opposite of what I thought at first. I was confused with your post because thunar does have a trash can just like windows recycle bin. It also can restore files from trash which I think cannot be done in gnome. If you are using xfce you can make a desktop icon for the trash can. But if you are using thunar outside xfce, you can access the trash by typing trash:/// in address bar.


Second point: I agree that the weakest link in xfce is the panel. Until they improve it you can do like me and use another panel. I personally use gnome-panel. If you want a lighter alternative lxpanel would be a good choice, but I think it does not have a menu editor.

[ahaslam]

I have modern hardware & use XFCE. I appreciate it's responsiveness, lightness, appearance, customisation & simplicity, it just fits my every need.

I can't stand waiting, especially as I've spent many hours overclocking my (already pretty quick) rig. Kde is too bloated, Gnome is unresponsive & I find myself running half of Xfce on top of openbox.

XFCE if prefect for me ;)

[kerry_s]

i use it because i like it, but i run debian xfce4 as it's more stable and faster than xubuntu . i do a custom install so i only put what i need. i don't like fancy so it fits me fine.

i run a etch/lenny/sid system

[HokeyFry]

I use xfce because im a performance junkie. honestly i dont see any difference between it and gnome, and if gnome uses more resources, well ill stick with xfce

[ahaslam]

I use xfce because im a performance junkie. honestly i dont see any difference between it and gnome, and if gnome uses more resources, well ill stick with xfce

+1 for being a speed junkie. Have you not noticed the difference in response, especially with application launch & icons within menus?

Anyway, as others posted a shot, here's how mine looks: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3441478&postcount=745

[SunnyRabbiera]

The first point: you can do this easily in thunar. if you delete using the keyboard just hold the shift key when deleting. You can also add a custom action to thunar right click that would allow you to delete files permanently. This is done through EDIT > Configure custom actions. Or if you don't know how just execute the following command:


sed -i 's_</actions>$_<action><icon></icon><name>Erase</name><command>rm %F</command><description>Delete Permanently</description><patterns>*</patterns><directories/><audio-files/><image-files/><other-files/><text-files/><video-files/></action></actions>_' ~/.config/Thunar/uca.xml

Now restart thunar and you will find an action called erase in the right click. That will delete with no trash.

Edit: It seems that you are asking for the opposite of what I thought at first. I was confused with your post because thunar does have a trash can just like windows recycle bin. It also can restore files from trash which I think cannot be done in gnome. If you are using xfce you can make a desktop icon for the trash can. But if you are using thunar outside xfce, you can access the trash by typing trash:/// in address bar.


Yeh but i am talking about using right click and sending things to a trash bin, XFCE is more "drag and drop"
this is fine but when right clicking I would like to see a "send to trash" function in the menu.

[mrbungle]

just built a brand new system and am using xubuntu. so much faster then gnome or kde. there's nothing i miss it's just perfect for me.

[Polygon]

i have xfce installed on another computer

i agree, the menu editior sucks. I open main menu and i cant even figure out how to add/revise anything....

lets see, i cant drag stuff from the menu to panels or the desktop....

i cant double click .desktop files to make them open the program that they are designed to open

and for some reason xfce4-panels no longer starts on startup, i have to alt+f2 (run program) and start it manually, and then the quit button doesnt work cause its disconnected from the session manager....


maybe i should just reinstall it lol

[crimesaucer]

i have xfce installed on another computer

i agree, the menu editior sucks. I open main menu and i cant even figure out how to add/revise anything....

lets see, i cant drag stuff from the menu to panels or the desktop....

i cant double click .desktop files to make them open the program that they are designed to open

and for some reason xfce4-panels no longer starts on startup, i have to alt+f2 (run program) and start it manually, and then the quit button doesnt work cause its disconnected from the session manager....


maybe i should just reinstall it lol

I agree that editing the menu is a pain...and to edit the "include" menu requires a special .xml hack...I think this is the page: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=421973&highlight=menu+edit+include+system


For your problem #2 (and I'm sure you know this already), using a launcher with a command and the path to the icon is the way, I guess drag and drop would be easier.


For #3, I've never used a desktop icon so I'm not sure about that one.


And for #4 about the xfce4-panel not working when you start your computer, have you tried this command in alt +F2:


xfce4-panel &

... the "&" sign added to the "xfce4-panel" is supposed to continue the process for the next session...


You probably already know all of these tips, but I thought I would share them if you don't, or if someone else doesn't know them.


And for the quit button... I also have problems with the quit button sometimes...I'll click it and it will do nothing, so I'll click it again and then I'll finally be able to log out... or sometimes it takes 3 clicks


...and just so everybody knows, the xfce-menu is different in gutsy...it has a "places" button, so hopefully menu editor will be different or better, hopefully.

[kerry_s]

i have xfce installed on another computer

i agree, the menu editior sucks. I open main menu and i cant even figure out how to add/revise anything....

lets see, i cant drag stuff from the menu to panels or the desktop....

i cant double click .desktop files to make them open the program that they are designed to open

and for some reason xfce4-panels no longer starts on startup, i have to alt+f2 (run program) and start it manually, and then the quit button doesnt work cause its disconnected from the session manager....


maybe i should just reinstall it lol

yeah, sounds like you got a boned install.
the secret to drag & drop application creation is xfce4-appfinder, you drag those where you wan them. for the panel you got to put a launcher first and drop the app's in the property launcher.

[capink]

Yeh but i am talking about using right click and sending things to a trash bin, XFCE is more "drag and drop"
this is fine but when right clicking I would like to see a "send to trash" function in the menu.

I don't know what version of thunar you are using. I use thunar 0.8 and when I right click and press delete, the file is sent to the trash an is not permanently lost.

[LookTJ]

I love XFCE because it's more responsive than KDE and GNOME imo. I use gnome network manager for my netwoking caps.

[RAV TUX]

hello... I have been a ubuntu user for a long time and I thought of having some experience with Xfce :) and yep.. it seems cool. though i'm still thinking of using gnome for my usual computing, i like the way of Xfce..

So Xfce users, do u use Xfce it is because u like it or u have to use it( Old Hardwares) ? if you have some time, pls give some ideas.

:biggrin:XFCE is nice, so is GNOME, KDE and Fluxbox but I prefer 'Enlightenment 17'.

[crimesaucer]

I don't know what version of thunar you are using. I use thunar 0.8 and when I right click and press delete, the file is sent to the trash an is not permanently lost.

I thought the same thing.

[kadath]

I don't know what version of thunar you are using. I use thunar 0.8 and when I right click and press delete, the file is sent to the trash an is not permanently lost.

I was going to say the same thing. There's even a shortcut to the trash in the sidebar by default in Thunar.

Anyway, Xfce is superior to GNOME in many ways. Thunar is worlds better than Nautilus, which seems to be one of the heaviest GNOME apps, sadly. I also find Xfce's panel to be far better than GNOME's, despite some people's complaints of no drag and drop launchers.

Xfce is improving all the time. New releases don't happen often, but that's because the amount of people working on Xfce is minuscule compared to GNOME or KDE.

Some of Xfce's default apps definitely need some improvement though. Xfburn comes to mind.

[crimesaucer]

I was going to say the same thing. There's even a shortcut to the trash in the sidebar by default in Thunar.

Anyway, Xfce is superior to GNOME in many ways. Thunar is worlds better than Nautilus, which seems to be one of the heaviest GNOME apps, sadly. I also find Xfce's panel to be far better than GNOME's, despite some people's complaints of no drag and drop launchers.

Xfce is improving all the time. New releases don't happen often, but that's because the amount of people working on Xfce is minuscule compared to GNOME or KDE.

Some of Xfce's default apps definitely need some improvement though. Xfburn comes to mind.

Yeah, I seem to ruin my CD's and DVD's unless I use Brasero... I like everything else in xubuntu.

[kadath]

Yeah, I seem to ruin my CD's and DVD's unless I use Brasero... I like everything else in xubuntu.

Yeah, it's a shame that the only GTK/GNOME CD/DVD burner still being updated in Brasero. I think even GnomeBaker is dead, IIRC.

Graveman was a promising GTK burner with no GNOME dependencies, but that's dead too :(

I rarely burn stuff (usually just backups) so I've been using BashBurn.

[SunnyRabbiera]

I don't know what version of thunar you are using. I use thunar 0.8 and when I right click and press delete, the file is sent to the trash an is not permanently lost.

yeh the ones i have used so far are probably older, but hey the future is open.
but the menu editor DEFINATELY needs some work

[akiratheoni]

I've used it, but never really got into it. My laptop runs GNOME with ~256MB of RAM fine. But maybe I should switch to xfce or fluxbox.

[santiagoward2000]

Hi everyone!
I've got started in Linux using Xubuntu almost a year ago (ALREADY?). As I'm using an old Toshiba laptop with only 192mb RAM, I decided to try Xubuntu (wanted to use the liveCD first, and was impossible with Ubuntu). Later on I tested both Ubuntu and Kubuntu on my desktop, but I had got so used to XFCE that it wasn't too nice. Now my XFCE looks so cool I don't want to change it.
I've left some screenshots on other threads, but in case you haven't seen them:

http://ubuntuforums.org/g/images/348163/medium/1_Screenshot.png http://ubuntuforums.org/g/images/348163/medium/1_Screenshot-1.png

http://ubuntuforums.org/g/images/348163/medium/1_Screenshot-2.png http://ubuntuforums.org/g/images/348163/medium/1_Screenshot-3.png

http://ubuntuforums.org/g/images/348163/medium/1_Screenshot-4.png http://ubuntuforums.org/g/images/348163/medium/1_Screenshot-5.png

http://ubuntuforums.org/g/images/348163/medium/1_Screenshot-6.png

[Gargamella]

too much faster than gnome on my laptop (quite new hrdwr), but I like it too to run it on old ones

[shrimphead]

yeah, sounds like you got a boned install.
the secret to drag & drop application creation is xfce4-appfinder, you drag those where you wan them. for the panel you got to put a launcher first and drop the app's in the property launcher.

That's awesome, I never knew that. One of the things that annoyed me about XFCE was having to add stuff to the panel manually

thanks