Xfce is simply awesome

[Canis familiaris]

I have been using Xfce for past few days, and to my pleasant surprise it did everything GNOME does and that too faster. It felt snappy and easy to use. Every program loads now a fraction of a second faster and it feels great. It even looks better.
I don't think Xfce is limited for slow computer's only it is great even for people who have faster PCs like me.
Now Xfce will stay as a default desktop environment for me.
Kudos to Xfce and Xubuntu-developers.

[jprophet420]

its nice and lightweight thats for sure. Gnome is my least favorite desktop for nix, I should change it but I'm lazy. I like flux too for when superlightweight is needed.

[prshah]

it did everything GNOME does and that too faster

Try using samba networking or bluetooth. These were two main reasons that had me switch back to Gnome.

[Canis familiaris]

Try using samba networking or bluetooth. These were two main reasons that had me switch back to Gnome.

I need neither... ;)

[Polygon]

it did everything GNOME does and that too faster.


except for customizing where icons go on the menu bars. They only go to the very left or very right, they cant hang out in the middle of the taskbar. I would think this would be trivial to add, but I guess not.

[Joeb454]

I have been using Xfce for past few days, and to my pleasant surprise it did everything GNOME does and that too faster.

Not true.

Try clicking & dragging to select multiple items ;)

[daverich]

and rectangle select on the desktop.

it really really really really bugs me that they haven't added that.

Kind regards

DAve Rich

[cookieofdoom]

except for customizing where icons go on the menu bars. They only go to the very left or very right, they cant hang out in the middle of the taskbar. I would think this would be trivial to add, but I guess not.

I think you might be able to resolve this with spacers. On another note: I'm trying out XFCE with Compiz Fusion on my laptop. It's running really fast. It loads up faster, and I think I get better framerates (though that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, I'll admit). I've yet to find any reason to return to Gnome, honestly. I don't think I'm sacrificing anything as far as functionality goes. I'll probably install Xubuntu on my desktop soon.

[gjoellee]

The difference between GNOME and XFCE is little, but I would still recommend GNOME because of few more features that makes your day easier!

[Canis familiaris]

Not true.

Try clicking & dragging to select multiple items ;)

That does not matter to much to me... ;)

[daverich]

That does not matter to much to me... ;)

it will. one day.

;)

Kind regards

Dave Rich

[Joeb454]

That does not matter to much to me... ;)

I don't often use it, but when I do XFCE gets a thumbs down

[Canis familiaris]

Well I am a speed Nazi and since Xfce is also somewhat similar to GNOME, which I'm familiar with unlike the *Boxes, IceWM so I'll stick with it.

[gn2]

Try using samba networking or bluetooth. These were two main reasons that had me switch back to Gnome.

Network browsing and file transfers are possible with Xfce, there's a link in my sig.

Bluetooth can also be made to work: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=669171

[chucky chuckaluck]

one thing i don't like about xfce is the inability to load a wallpaper from thunar (without some ugly hack). you can use all the xfce apps in openbox and use feh, in 'custom actions', to load a wallpaper.

[crimesaucer]

The difference between GNOME and XFCE is little, but I would still recommend GNOME because of few more features that makes your day easier!

I find that gnome makes the little things more difficult.


For example, default nautilus was constantly locking all the user folders and files that I downloaded or moved from my Vista partition, and I spent all this time having to open up a terminal to change the permission (recursively), or make them read/write.


Default Thunar doesn't do that. The only thing that get's locked is a root file.


Nautilus opening in all of those separate windows is a pain until you change it to the browser view, gnome terminal isn't that customizable (size), nautilus scripts are a pain compared to custom actions in Thunar, and changing the settings in gconf isn't as easy as changing settings in xfce4 (even though xfce4.6 is gonna have a xconf app just like gconf).

[crimesaucer]

Not true.

Try clicking & dragging to select multiple items ;)

What do you mean by this?


I click and select multiple items in Thunar, drag and drop, cut, copy, and paste with no problems.... maybe, I don't understand what you mean.


If you mean "on the desktop", then I never use it as a work place so I wouldn't know of any flaws that it might have.


My xfce4-compiz-fusion:

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/Screenshot-1-3.png

Large View: http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/Screenshot-1-2.png

[Steveway]

one thing i don't like about xfce is the inability to load a wallpaper from thunar (without some ugly hack). you can use all the xfce apps in openbox and use feh, in 'custom actions', to load a wallpaper.

The new xfconf allows other apps to set the wallpaper. So thunar will be able to do this soon if it can't do this allready in 4.6.

[Polygon]

I think you might be able to resolve this with spacers. On another note: I'm trying out XFCE with Compiz Fusion on my laptop. It's running really fast. It loads up faster, and I think I get better framerates (though that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, I'll admit). I've yet to find any reason to return to Gnome, honestly. I don't think I'm sacrificing anything as far as functionality goes. I'll probably install Xubuntu on my desktop soon.

ok, i can have icons in the middle, as well as the left and the rigt side of the menu bars. I want to place my icons wherever i want, i don't want to haev to deal with some ugly hack that are spacers.

and like other people said, no drag box clicking on the desktop

and a few other annoyances that i haven't thought of at the moment..

[Lazarus500]

I starting using Xfce with Debian (Net install) on an old slow box. I found it to be really snappy. I especially like getting a drop down list of apps with a right mouse click on the desktop. Thunar's nice too. I don't really miss Gnome very much (which I still use on my main box).

[smartboyathome]

One annoyance I had when I tried XFCE was that there was that the menu editor sucked. It wasn't nearly as good as Alacarte for creating new items and reorganizing menus. Another was that I couldn't change the panel background very easily (minor, but still I like my panels to blend in with the rest of my theme! :p).

[OrangeCrate]

I use Xfce over a full Ubuntu install, not an Xubuntu install, and it does everything I need it to do. Besides, I simply prefer it's looks to Gnome.

[crimesaucer]

One annoyance I had when I tried XFCE was that there was that the menu editor sucked. It wasn't nearly as good as Alacarte for creating new items and reorganizing menus. Another was that I couldn't change the panel background very easily (minor, but still I like my panels to blend in with the rest of my theme! :p).

You have to hand edit the menu.... I think it was this file? ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/menu.xml



Having a panel image in xfce4, I used a gtkrc-2.0, with a simple bg_pixmap image.... it still sucks for transparency though. Gnome panel is much better.

[cookieofdoom]

ok, i can have icons in the middle, as well as the left and the rigt side of the menu bars. I want to place my icons wherever i want, i don't want to haev to deal with some ugly hack that are spacers.

and like other people said, no drag box clicking on the desktop

and a few other annoyances that i haven't thought of at the moment..

I'll admit spacers are annoying. I don't like icons in the middle though, so I haven't been hit with that problem yet. Drag box for desktop... I turned off desktop icons. I find them annoying. I think every Window Manager has it's problems/annoyances. For me, I can deal with the XFCE ones. The great thing about Linux is choice.

[smartboyathome]

You have to hand edit the menu.... I think it was this file? ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/menu.xml

I know, its just a pain in comparison to Alacarte.


Having a panel image in xfce4, I used a gtkrc-2.0, with a simple bg_pixmap image.... it still sucks for transparency though. Gnome panel is much better.

Cool, I didn't know that. Though I do also like transparency (I use it in GNOME all the time for my panels). :(

[sisco311]

xfce4 compositor is super awesome.

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/081012/2916691491_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.png

[crimesaucer]

Cool, I didn't know that. Though I do also like transparency (I use it in GNOME all the time for my panels). :(

Here is my old gtkrc-2.0:



style "panel"
{
bg[NORMAL] = "#181818"
bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = "panel-crop-twice.png"
fg[NORMAL] = "#FFFFFF"
}

widget_class "*Panel*" style "panel"
widget "*Panel*" style "panel"
class "*Panel*" style "panel"



you just put this in the home folder like this ~/.gtkrc-2.0


Here is the image I used to match the xfwm4 theme called kokodi:

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/panel-crop-twice.png


This would match a xfwm4 theme that I made to be the same color and transparency. Basically, all you have to do is make a copy of the xfwm4 kokodi theme, and then change all of the .xpm files to the #181818 color.


(you can change those .xpm's to any color, and change the ~/.gtkrc-2.0 bg[NORMAL] = "#181818" to the same color to match.)

[smartboyathome]

I may have to give it a try again once they get a good GUI menu editor. :)

[crimesaucer]

xfce4 compositor is super awesome.

Looks good. Cool colors.

[crimesaucer]

I may have to give it a try again once they get a good GUI menu editor. :)

I've read that editing the xml file is a pain.... I think 4.6 is gonna fix that issue.

[init1]

Meh, to me XFCE is Gnome but without many of the useful features. For example, in Gnome I can right click on a menu item and send it to the panel. In XFCE I have to create panel launchers manually, which is very annoying. Of course, Fluxbox is way faster than either, so I use that.

[smartboyathome]

I'm gonna try XFCE 4.6 beta which is available in a PPA for intrepid. :D (see thread about XFCE 4.6).

[crimesaucer]

Meh, to me XFCE is Gnome but without many of the useful features. For example, in Gnome I can right click on a menu item and send it to the panel. In XFCE I have to create panel launchers manually, which is very annoying. Of course, Fluxbox is way faster than either, so I use that.

Meh, to me Gnome is a slower xfce4, with a bunch of features that I never need. For example, in xfce4 I can right click AND GET MY MENU, instead of having to "go to my panel, to access my menu, to right click and make a launcher"....


..... anyway, all of this above was just me joking around with you.... use what you want to use..... but xfce4 is lightning fast on my Archlinux.


For me, making launchers is done during the first few hours of a fresh install, and then maybe once a month.... Where as clicking on a drop down menu is done every other minute, a drop down right click menu is just more important to me than launchers.


As for fluxbox being THAT much faster than xfce4 when using the same apps like Thunar and Terminal, it doesn't seem like it would be that big of a difference.... gtk-engines like murrine, clearlooks, or the xfce4-engine aren't that slow, and if you have a xfce4 install with out a lot of extra crap then it boots up fast, stays fast, and if windows opened any faster then they already do, they would be open before I click the icon.


I've used Gnome, and I liked it, but I missed xfce4 the whole time.

[RiceMonster]

I like Xfce, and I'm using it right now. The reason I like it is because it reminds me of *box because I can scroll on the desktop to switch workspaces, or right click on the desktop to get the root menu (I can't live without that!). It feels like a *box thats a bit more automated and follows your gtk theme, which is nice. The complaints about not being able to select multiple desktop icons or easily create launchers don't bother me, especially for desktop icons, because I cannot stand having desktop icons and I don't use launchers on the panel either. Just a panel with a menu button, a pager, task list, tray and clock. In openbox, I don't even use a panel.

I don't like the way it places windows, though. Basically, I've only found out how to get it to place a window in the top right corner, in which the next instance will not overlap the current, or to have it place it in the centre and then have the next instance be placed directly over it. I want it to start in the centre, and then prevent overlapping. Oh well, that's not that big of a deal.

[crimesaucer]

"..... I don't like the way it places windows.....:

Yeah, I found one way to make all windows open in the center, it was in either the "Window Manager Tweaks" or "Window Manager Settings", and you make it to the setting of Large Windows.... that way Firefox opens in the middle center, and Thunar in the middle of that.

[psyBSD]

I may have to give it a try again once they get a good GUI menu editor. :)

That would not happen before 4.8, with 4.6 the menu-editor is removed all-together (since it does not work with the new menu-implementation)

With 4.8, the menu-impl will probably be extended with the functionality required for a menu-editor to work.

[antiloop]

Not true.

Try clicking & dragging to select multiple items ;)

Deal breaking for me.

Also what's with the always slow XFCE-terminal. Especially when I go fullscreen.

[regomodo]

#

[techmarks]

At first I liked Xfce, but I just don't like the Thunar file manager, it is slow.

That's not a big issue since you can install any other file manager and use it, but you still keep a Thunar link on the desktop.

The only way to get rid of it is to not have Xfce run the desktop which defeats the purpose of having Xfce at all.

Anyway I got rid of it. I still like it, but I'd recommend they use a different default file manager.

[kpkeerthi]

At first I liked Xfce, but I just don't like the Thunar file manager, it is slow.

....but you still keep a Thunar link on the desktop.
The only way to get rid of it is to not have Xfce run the desktop which defeats the purpose of having Xfce at all.

I can't believe you said "Thunar is slow". It can'y be. It never was.
And the link on the desktop can be hidden while still running xfce desktop.

[techmarks]

Ok, what I found is that usually it is quite fast enough.

Until you open a large directory (lots of files), or one with lots of graphics images, then it gets slow.

I don't think it's as light as some people claim, it does use less memory than Gnome but it still has quite a few Gnome dependencies.

[RiceMonster]

but it still has quite a few Gnome dependencies.

No it doesn't. Xubuntu does, but Xubuntu != default Xfce.

[ItsManaged]

and rectangle select on the desktop.

it really really really really bugs me that they haven't added that.

Kind regards

DAve Rich

If it did all these things it would be gnome and it would be slower...if you want a really fast operating system, load up dos 2.0 - blinding! Wonder if CPM for i386 is available.
I just want linux/BSD opensource (in any flavour/gui) - easy enough to switch from one to another....trying out opensuse tonight. Love the Freedom. So far ubuntu (with gnome) seems to be the best for my needs.

[handy]

I've only recently been using xfce, on Arch, where I had been enjoying using Openbox for months. I like xfce more than Openbox, as it is also fast, very easy to install, setup (though I enjoyed setting up Openbox) & use, I really like the rmb menu, of both Openbox & xfce. I'm using some light app's from my Openbox install as well as some from the xfce & the goodies installs. Thunar is fine by me, Mirage is my prefered image viewer, Nero, VLC, DVDshrink, Firefox, Mousepad, Vidalia, ePDFViewer, GParted, Zenmap, Xarchiver, Agave & Gcolor2 are just about it for me. I run a fairly light install, & xfce fairly flies on my 24" iMac.

I'm still refining my setup, as I find things that I'd like to or that need to be sorted out.

Xfce is a very comfortable place for me to be.

[daverich]

If it did all these things it would be gnome and it would be slower...if you want a really fast operating system, load up dos 2.0 - blinding! Wonder if CPM for i386 is available.
I just want linux/BSD opensource (in any flavour/gui) - easy enough to switch from one to another....trying out opensuse tonight. Love the Freedom. So far ubuntu (with gnome) seems to be the best for my needs.

would it slow it down that much? to have a draggable selection,- and an easy may to make launchers?

Kind regards

Dave Rich

[psyBSD]

would it slow it down that much? to have a draggable selection,- and an easy may to make launchers?

Kind regards

Dave Rich

You might want to try the beta. :D