Xfce Forum

Omnimaxus

Member

Registered: 2024-12-02

Posts: 19

My distrohopping just might be OVER (and a question) ...

Hi to everyone.  Just a quick note to say that my distrohopping days just *might* be over.  I am still using Debian 13 XFCE, and I feel "at home" with this distribution.  Yes, it took a little work at the beginning to get it the way I want (not just with XFCE itself, but also Debian 13 with some packages it installed by default that just weren't necessary in my use case, like the Thai X terminal and stuff like that - same for how I had to fix a power management issue on my own that will be fixed in Debian 13.2).  I know I already posted in the "Say Hello" subforum and shared a picture of my desktop, but that was a few days ago, and I haven't had any doubts or an urge to distrohop again.  I feel like this is "just right."  Kudos to the XFCE team for a good, functional desktop environment that allows users to customize it however they want.

I saw on the XFCE website there's an option to donate.  I will do that soon.  Question: Just curious - for anyone else, is XFCE the desktop environment that made you go, "wait; this is it"?  Honestly, I *might* try COSMIC when it comes out of alpha, but right now, this is it for me.  I can't see myself going back to GNOME.  Zorin OS almost got it "right" with GNOME, but even so, the fact they had to pack Zorin OS with extension after extension just to make GNOME usable was a bit concerning.  XFCE is an absolutely solid desktop environment.  I like how it comes with everything you need for a serviceable desktop.  Below is an updated picture of my desktop setup.  You can see how it's set up like GNOME2 (e.g., with the window list at the bottom).  It works for me.  Thank you to the XFCE team (are they active on this forum?).

P.S.: I also did try Debian 13 KDE - ehhh ... it's OK, I guess, but it's KDE.  "K" this, "K" that.  Ugh.  It's customizable, too, sure, but ... no.

EDIT: Just donated.  I encourage others to donate, too.  Let's keep this project going.

Last edited by Omnimaxus (Yesterday 14:31:03)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,189

Re: My distrohopping just might be OVER (and a question) ...

Sweet looking desktop.

Everybody has specific needs that they look for in a desktop environment. I'm the type of person that likes to roll up my sleeves and get my hands in the engine to tweak/fix things, and thats what Xfce gives me that I can't find in other DEs. It gives me enough of a framework to work with and then stays out of my way. I also like that I can tweak the look and feel with CSS. It doesn't mean the other DEs are bad in any way, they just don't suit my needs. I started my computer journey in the 90s on a SparcStation using CDE (Xfce's inspiration) and once I migrated over to Linux full time (early 00s), I started using Xfce around version 3.x something. Although I currently use Arch, IMHO the distro is almost irrelevant here - you can make Xfce work on any distro including the BSDs.

hank you to the XFCE team (are they active on this forum?).

Most Xfce developers don't regularly come here - Tamaranch posts the most here.

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Omnimaxus

Member

Registered: 2024-12-02

Posts: 19

Re: My distrohopping just might be OVER (and a question) ...

Sweet looking desktop.

Everybody has specific needs that they look for in a desktop environment. I'm the type of person that likes to roll up my sleeves and get my hands in the engine to tweak/fix things, and thats what Xfce gives me that I can't find in other DEs. It gives me enough of a framework to work with and then stays out of my way. I also like that I can tweak the look and feel with CSS. It doesn't mean the other DEs are bad in any way, they just don't suit my needs. I started my computer journey in the 90s on a SparcStation using CDE (Xfce's inspiration) and once I migrated over to Linux full time (early 00s), I started using Xfce around version 3.x something. Although I currently use Arch, IMHO the distro is almost irrelevant here - you can make Xfce work on any distro including the BSDs.

hank you to the XFCE team (are they active on this forum?).

Most Xfce developers don't regularly come here - Tamaranch posts the most here.

Thanks for replying.  See below ...

- Agreed re: "specific needs."  No argument there.

- Ditto about rolling up sleeves.  Yup.  Agreed, as well.

- Interesting re: CSS - I'll have to look into that further.  (Thanks.)

- Agreed re: other desktop environments not being "bad."  Yeah.

- Wow; you've been on XFCE for like forever.  Ha.  Awesome ...

- Agreed re: the distribution part, but with a caveat.  It depends ...

... on how a particular distribution implements a desktop environment ...

... Debian does XFCE pretty "vanilla," which I like ... that's an example ...

... but on the other hand, I don't like MX Linux's implementation of XFCE ...

... that's another example ... same for Peppermint OS ... more work needed ...

(Hope that makes sense?  Debian XFCE is more simpler and closer to what I like.)

EDIT: Also, gotcha about Tamaranch.  I'll have to look into how to submit feedback, etc ...

Last edited by Omnimaxus (Yesterday 15:00:44)

The Iron Wolf

Member

Registered: 2025-08-29

Posts: 2

Re: My distrohopping just might be OVER (and a question) ...

I am on Mint with Xfce 4.18, new to Linux.  I am impressed by KDE ecosystem overall, a lot of human effort in that.  My favorite tools are KDevelop, Konsole, Kate.  So by extenstion, I should like KDE Plasma, right?

But I did not.  I tried Debian 13 with KDE and, 90% (seriously) of the features there I simply do not need.  So rather than enjoying it, I was spending time turning stuff I don't need, off. 

Another issue, I prefer keyboard as much as possible.  But navigating rich, Plasma's very rich configuration UI is hard that way.  I hear there are some plugins for that, but, I didn't feel spending more time on shaping into something else.

Lastly, I was pushed away by 10-15 seconds splash screen.  I later read that it can be turned off, and DE should become visible immediately on fast PC, but in the moment that pushed me away, leaving bad aftertaste.

Now Xfce, I don't know how it does it, but it has exact feature set I need, I seriously do not miss anything feature wise.  It's like magic.  Since configuration is also very minimal, keyboard navigation is easy - which is a plus for me (except, does anyone know if it is possible to tab in and navigate tray area somehow?).  What I do miss is Wayland, I immediately noticed better scaling with KDE6.  I am looking forward to trying Xfce 4.20, a bit worried about reports of issues with keyboard shortcuts, but we'll see.  Eventually, things will settle and Xfce will be fully Wayland.

Speaking of tweaking - I have best experience ever regarding the focused item highlighting.  Someone helped me tweaking GTK3 theme, and I have items in focus clearly highlighted - yes, CSS actually is an advantage.

Last edited by The Iron Wolf (Yesterday 15:14:30)

Omnimaxus

Member

Registered: 2024-12-02

Posts: 19

Re: My distrohopping just might be OVER (and a question) ...

I am on Mint with Xfce 4.18, new to Linux.  I am impressed by KDE ecosystem overall, a lot of human effort in that.  My favorite tools are KDevelop, Konsole, Kate.  So by extenstion, I should like KDE Plasma, right?

But I did not.  I tried Debian 13 with KDE and, 90% (seriously) of the features there I simply do not need.  So rather than enjoying it, I was spending time turning stuff I don't need, off. 

Another issue, I prefer keyboard as much as possible.  But navigating rich, Plasma's very rich configuration UI is hard that way.  I hear there are some plugins for that, but, I didn't feel spending more time on shaping into something else.

Lastly, I was pushed away by 10-15 seconds splash screen.  I later read that it can be turned off, and DE should become visible immediately on fast PC, but in the moment that pushed me away, leaving bad aftertaste.

Now Xfce, I don't know how it does it, but it has exact feature set I need, I seriously do not miss anything feature wise.  It's like magic.  Since configuration is also very minimal, keyboard navigation is easy - which is a plus for me (except, does anyone know if it is possible to tab in and navigate tray area somehow?).  What I do miss is Wayland, I immediately noticed better scaling with KDE6.  I am looking forward to trying Xfce 4.20, a bit worried about reports of issues with keyboard shortcuts, but we'll see.  Eventually, things will settle and Xfce will be fully Wayland.

Speaking of tweaking - I have best experience ever regarding the focused item highlighting.  Someone helped me tweaking GTK3 theme, and I have items in focus clearly highlighted - yes, CSS actually is an advantage.

Thank you for chiming in and sharing.     EDIT: By the way, I agree with you re: KDE.  Exactly right.

Last edited by Omnimaxus (Yesterday 16:25:18)