Why XFCE?

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manyroads
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Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2018 6:33 pm

Re: Why XFCE?

#51 Post by manyroads »

richb wrote: Sat Apr 13, 2019 7:37 am [...]

So low RAM usage is not a consideration for me using XFCE. I like its configurability and the ease to configure it.
I think it shows there are different reasons why people use XFCE.
Hear, hear, @richb I agree. My machine has 24GB and I love xfce because of all the dials & knobs I can tweak. To my mind, no other DE comes very close except perhaps the old Gnome-Gtk2 child Maté. (I have to say I think Openbox wm affords incredible flexibility.)

I like the look I can achieve with Xfce, I like the tools MX provides to make the tweaking more 'user-friendly', I like its stability, and I even can make it look 'slick' to my old eyes. Oh and did I say I like its stability. Yes sir, I like its stability.... :bagoverhead:
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g3982
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Re: Why XFCE?

#52 Post by g3982 »

It works well on older hardware (Celeron laptop with 4gb ram). More 'visually advanced' desktops use significant cpu-ram and occasionally crashed the pc back to the logon screen. It's also minimalistic and passes my OCD filter so I like it anyway.

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Cavsfan
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Re: Why XFCE?

#53 Post by Cavsfan »

dreamer wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2019 7:47 pm
Cavsfan wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2019 6:22 pm FYI: Xfce 4.13 anything would be bad to install. 4.13 is a development version and the one we should get is 4.14.
On Arch Linux Xfdesktop went from 4.12.4-2 to 4.13.3-1 and everyone's compositing and transparency went away; the conky background went black.

The thread about that can be seen here: xfdesktop seems to be broken.

But, if you put xfdesktop on hold, everything works fine. 4.13.3-2 was released but, until 4.14 comes out we are pretty much keeping that on hold.
4.13 is a development version, but several distros have been using it for many months. Xubuntu uses xfdesktop 4.13 in both 18.10 and 19.04. Manjaro also uses 4.13. So the problem lies in Arch, not Xfce ;)
Doesn't matter Arch Linux is still Arch Linux using the 5.0.7.arch1-1 kernel.
All you have to do is put IgnorePkg = xfdesktop in /etc/pacman.conf and it will never update.
While updating via terminal, which is the only way to update Arch Linux, it also tells you the version that would be installed if it were allowed to.
So, when I see 4.14, I'll know it is time ;)

Low RAM usage or low system resource usage was never a consideration for me using Xfce. I use it because I like it the most of any DE I've tried.
Plus it's consistent across systems.
Creating a Custom Maintenance Free GRUB2 Screen Community Wiki for Legacy/MBR and UEFI/GPT systems
Intel Core i7-4770K, Mobo: ASUSTeK model: Z87-K, Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 16GB RAM, 1TB Western Digital Blue SSD, 480GB OCZ VERTEX460 SSD

nik.gnomic
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Re: Why XFCE?

#54 Post by nik.gnomic »

GuiGuy wrote: Wed Apr 10, 2019 10:13 am Thunar lacks a split-screen mode and can access only local files.
is split-screen mode any different/better than Thunar window tabs?
I didn't like using tabs in Thunar as i found it harder to keep track of files when moving things between folders, so still use two windows

not had problems with Thunar accessing remote folders via smb and ssh, and recently found it can also handle sftp too

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GuiGuy
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Re: Why XFCE?

#55 Post by GuiGuy »

nik.gnomic wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 5:23 am..........
...........
not had problems with Thunar accessing remote folders via smb and ssh, and recently found it can also handle sftp too
Anything reached via smb is not really remote: smb only accesses your local network.
If you can access truly remote servers with Thunar, please tell how it is done.

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deanr72
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Re: Why XFCE?

#56 Post by deanr72 »

What is really nice about Xfce is that it is the same on every distro. Mousepad, Thunar, the settings, pretty much everything is the same no matter what distro you happen to be on.

That's a good point - and one I hadn't considered.

nik.gnomic
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Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2017 8:56 pm

Re: Why XFCE?

#57 Post by nik.gnomic »

GuiGuy wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 7:25 am If you can access truly remote servers with Thunar, please tell how it is done.
first time i found out about sftp was by accident - pasted url from filezilla into thunar instead of firefox

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mxer
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Re: Why XFCE?

#58 Post by mxer »

As a user of the Fluxbox WM for many years, I find DE's cumbersome, but XFCE is the least of the beast, it is light weight, whilst still having a good range of extras OTB. MX is a good mid range Linux distro.

There are several light weight distros that I will use, but this is as 'heavy' as I'll entertain on my machines. ;)
(FOSS, Linux, & BSD since 1999)

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GuiGuy
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Re: Why XFCE?

#59 Post by GuiGuy »

nik.gnomic wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 6:35 pm.........
........ - pasted url from filezilla into thunar instead of firefox
Thanks: clever trick!

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Cavsfan
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Re: Why XFCE?

#60 Post by Cavsfan »

On my PC I've currently got Arch Linux (#1 in my book), Fedora 29, openSUSE TW (rolling), MX 18.1 (#2 in my book), Slackware Current (rolling), Xubuntu 18.04.2 LTS and 19.04 all with Xfce as the lone DE along with Windows 10.
I've had Sabayon Linux and CentOS installed also but they were not really made for a desktop system like I want.

MX has definitely impressed me. It asks for the sudo password to mount another system's partition, it has a working fusion icon, it works with all of my hardware and did I mention that it has a working fusion icon? :rock:

Arch Linux and MX are the only ones that have compiz 0.8, Emerald, the fusion Icon and that's one good reason I like them both. Fedora has a working Fusion Icon but, the conky version is not quite up to what I want/need.
You cannot use 'override' on Fedora like on every other system there is. OpenSUSE did have a working compiz and fusion Icon but, not any more.

I use Compiz, et al for more than just eye candy. I use the commands you can setup and several other things but, the eye candy is cool too.

Bottom line - Xfce is the only DE I'll probably ever use again and I don't even need a low resource system. I've got a 4th generation i7, 16GB memory and 2 SSDs - one is 1TB and the other is 500GB which is still a beast.

The ONLY downfall I see to MX is that, like all Debian based distros, while booting up sometimes the panels do not appear and you have to logoff or reboot if logging off is not an option to get the panel(s) to show but, it's not that big of a problem.
If I could, I'd go with Arch Linux, MX Linux and Windows 10 (for games mostly). But, I get bored and need stuff to play around with while learning about new things Linux.
Creating a Custom Maintenance Free GRUB2 Screen Community Wiki for Legacy/MBR and UEFI/GPT systems
Intel Core i7-4770K, Mobo: ASUSTeK model: Z87-K, Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 16GB RAM, 1TB Western Digital Blue SSD, 480GB OCZ VERTEX460 SSD

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