Xfce Forum

tigernassau

Member

Registered: 2011-05-16

Posts: 8

First xfce experience for veteran linux user

With Ubuntu's move to Unity (more candy, pain in the butt to use)  and Gnome's decision to eliminate session save (why don't they ask / poll users about these kinds of decisions ?)  I tried out XFCE (actually xubuntu desktop though use xfce session) 

My first reactions:

1) nice!!  sessions get saved.  multiple workstations are easy to specify and use

2) Thunar:  missing a few often used features of Nautilus:  a) extract here b) ability to change owner under permissions, select a bunch of files and archive  (yeah these can be done on command line, just easier, faster thru gui)

3) touchpad issues - touchpad is really jumpy - tried the "tpconfig" approach but dialog does not appear - edited the /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf => add Option "TouchpadOff" "2" - seems better so far

4) some nice themes - but why not cut down number (like 20 varieties of blue) and concentrate on making more consistent / simpler between background, menus, toolbars, dialogs, ....  ps:  favorite themes are mist and olive

5) gee, no mono ? 

6) the move to the popup tab rather than right scrollbar in dialogs is harder to use (I think this is gnome stuff - again, did anyone ask users about this "feature" ?

Thank you to all contributors and core team for providing this excellent alternative desktop !!

wkr

Member

Registered: 2011-01-01

Posts: 88

Re: First xfce experience for veteran linux user

Thunar:  missing a few often used features of Nautilus:  a) extract here

You can add whatever you want in "custom actions" (Edit> custom actions). You will find some examples here

vrkalak

Member

From: Santa Fe, NM, USA

Registered: 2010-03-05

Posts: 63

Re: First xfce experience for veteran linux user

Welcome to the Xfce Desktop Environment and the Xfce-Forums.

If you really want to experience Xfce, instead of Xubuntu, try a Linux-distro that uses Xfce as a 'stand-alone desktop.
Xfce was made to run as a 'stand-alone' desktop and not installed over Gnome.

Xfce, by itself, is lighter than Xubuntu and light on resources and super fast.  The new Xfce-4.8 version is great.

You might have a look at some of the other popular distros that use Xfce as default.

Last edited by vrkalak (2011-05-16 20:13:02)

jere2001

Member

Registered: 2011-02-24

Posts: 12

Re: First xfce experience for veteran linux user

Xubuntu 11.04 with XFCE4.8 rules!!!

tigernassau

Member

Registered: 2011-05-16

Posts: 8

Re: First xfce experience for veteran linux user

Thunar:  missing a few often used features of Nautilus:  a) extract here

You can add whatever you want in "custom actions" (Edit> custom actions). You will find some examples here

wow, that wiki page is great - really nice how-to snippets including extracting files

@vrkalak - until natty, we've been quite happy with ubuntu since we depend upon a lot of apps (even some kde stuff like kate) and it's been pretty solid for development.  I think Xubuntu might be a good compromise for us.   However, what are some of the distro's that default to xfce ? 

however, I have encountered a critical bug - system hangs on trying to return from the linux opengl screensaver

ps: is there a way this forum can be delivered to email (ie like google groups)

herd

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2006-05-18

Posts: 143

Website

Re: First xfce experience for veteran linux user

Xubuntu seems to become the escape route of choice for Unity refugees - the more, the better!

In various order:

You can still mix xfce with nautilus. Just tell it to not render the desktop (gconf-editor ) and in xfce-settings-manager, select nautilus as file manager on the preferred applications setting.

Having a look at Zenwalk may be in order. Or starting over with a bare command line system and only installing the xfce-desktop package without the xubuntu-desktop package. Using Debian stable can give you gnome classic for several years on end with almost everything from Ubuntu without the cruft, but also without the eye-candy.

If you prefer mailing lists over forums, why not use them instead - have a look at the wiki.

Use the compositor, try checking "Display fullscreen overlays directly" in Window Manager Tweaks for the screensaver problem.

hth,

herd

Last edited by herd (2011-05-17 17:06:53)