Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

StephenH · 2011-09-10 01:02:00

Hello everyone,

I am, as the title says, a refugee from Gnome 3. It isn't that it does not look nice or that it does not have some nice features. With some of the extensions, it has actually been not too bad an experience (I absolutely hated it at first since it upset everything I had been doing with Gnome 2 for a number of years). However, it has some "random features" that require me to look elsewhere. I have looked at a couple of different options and have settled on XFCE.

Why? because I need a system that flat-out works. I don't need a shell that makes my quad-core Phenom operate like a 286 (and yes, I am old enough to have used one of those plus its 8086 predecessor along with a Commodore 64 and (military hardened) Apple II). Why should a working environment have noticeable hesitations when I want to do something? More importantly, when I am in a document in Libre Office, why must I see the text break up and have to guess at times where my cursor is? I am a seminary student, and use my computer extensively. I need a working tool, not a play-toy.

That is why I am here now. Until things settle down for Gnome 3 and they get these bugs worked out, I will not go back. Who knows? I may just decide to totally ditch Gnome once and for all since the developers seem more intent on making it usable on tablets than enhancing the usability for people who still prefer a keyboard.

Anyway, enough of a rant. I am glad to find these fora. I have been active on Fedora Forums for some time, but had not really used XFCE until recently.

StephenH

ruionwriting · 2011-10-14 17:03:59

+1, we need to setup a refugee camp tongue soon.

After 2 months using Gnome 3 I've reached my patient limits with all the desktop limitations, buggy shell extensions, etc. It looks nice, isn't slow as some talk about, but it's not practical for users that like having full control over the desktop.

In my case the most annoying 'un-features' is the fact that we don't have control over the notification area and also multi-monitor is so bad, you cannot get control over the notification area that goes always to the 2nd screen.

Last edited by ruionwriting (2011-10-14 17:07:50)

octessence · 2011-10-30 12:09:08

And yet another one here. I spend an evening trying to get the latest ATI drivers working properly with full 3D acceleration so that I could try out Gnome 3. I hated it at first but decided to give it some time before making a final decision. After a couple of weeks I still felt like I was trying to work with one hand tied behind my back so I stopped using it. After that I spent some time back on KDE which I had stopped using a few years back in favour of Gnome 2. I really found it very slow and unresponsive. I have a pretty high end laptop with 8GB RAM too.

Having now discovered xfce I have to say I love it. It's fast, responsive and still has all the functionality I need right there on the desktop. Even things like Firefox just feels a lot snappier.

John_Jason_Jordan · 2011-11-13 23:24:18

One more refugee from Gnome 3.

Jeandré du Toit · 2011-12-18 23:26:00

Thanks to all the devs for the great DE.

Unity, GNOME shell, and MATE made me give up on GNOME; and I like Xfce so much in Xubuntu 11.10, that I'm now also using 4.6.1 instead of GNOME 2 on my old PC with Ubuntu 10.04.

Dirk · 2011-12-19 12:20:04

And still anothre one. I used to be lucky with KDE for several years, having been a MS Windows user before. Eventually KDE4 came along and I switched over to GNOME. Now GNOME3 came and I was lost in space. Having tried several guis over the years alongside to KDE I already knew xfce, but it seemed not to run very well with my SuSE installation. But meanwhile I had switched over to Debian. Thus I now gave xfce a chance and now I am quite lucky with it.

Of course there are some things I still miss. Most of all that I want to be able to define different locales for the several users of my system. I prefer a Dutch working environment, my wife prefers a German one. With KDE and GNOME this was very easy to configurate, but I still haven't found a way to do this with xfce.

The other thing is that I use several virtual desktops and like to have different wallpapers for each one.

But you will agree that these are less important items. I think I will stay with xfce, it is a real handy environment.

Groetjes uit Arft, Germany

Dirk

efx · 2011-12-21 00:23:43

welcome StephenH!

I agree with your interest in having a DE that works well.

I like that xfce offers a reasonably featured desktop that one can adjust according to preferences.

xet · 2012-01-13 08:21:31

Hello, Xfce forum! I'm here too, because of gnome 3...

RobbH · 2012-01-21 22:02:34

My brief experience with Gnome 3 on a new installation of OpenSUSE 12.1 leaves me thinking there's a lot of promise in the new design, but it's not yet ready for my prime time! And I couldn't take the bloat of KDE4.

XFCE looks good so far. It seems to be doing most of what I want it to do. So here I am, making my first post and settling in.

portsample · 2012-01-29 06:15:31

Another Gnome3 refugee.
I'm afraid I'm addicted to having a vertical floating panel on my desktop.

samy · 2012-02-04 22:34:39

Hi all,

went from unity (hate it) to mint 12 with mate (didn't like the look) to gnome 3 with frippery (buggy flickering), to lxde (settings didn't change) and finnally xfce,

I'm very happy right now, the battery live went up everything runs smoothly and i like the look and feel very much.

xfce ftw!

gigaday · 2012-02-07 19:29:40

Me too. After more than a month of Gnome 3 on Ubuntu 11.10 I have had to look for an alternative. I got almost what I wanted with Gnome Shell Extensions but I couldn't find any that would give me both right-click/close from the windowlist/taskbar AND show LibreOffice in the taskbar. But no matter whether I tried different shell extensions (MGSE, Frippery, Cinnamon) or went back to a version 2 of Kernel - I was getting random lockups about 3 times a day and this on a laptop that has been running Ubuntu for the past 6 years!

So, Hello XFCE. It's taken me a few days to get to the desktop layout that I want and there are a few little icings on the cake that I am saying "goodbye" to: system monitor live in the top panel, thumbnails of images and videos on the desktop, drag launchers to the top panel - not much else I can think of.

But on the plus side it works fast, nice and simple, flexible and so far - _no_lockups_.

Chances are that now that I am onboard that I won't go back to Gnome even if it gets over it's teething troubles - the last month has reminded me of my earliest excursions into Linux 10 years ago. I use Linux to be fully functional and reliable - Gnome 3 Shell didn't give me that.

Iamwithin · 2012-02-14 00:09:37

So this is where the refugees all go. :-)
Yes, count me in too. The reason I left windoze was becasue of the CHOICES linux gave me, and I also like being able to play with the desktop and eye candy and gadgets and cairo dock and compiz stuff. I tried gnome 3, unity, blah... I even thought Cinnamon would work and designed a couple of themes, but then I thought, "I wonder what Xfce has been up to." So last week I installed, Xubuntu 11.04 (I then installed Emerald Theme manager with Compiz) and then updated to Xubuntu 11.10 and voila! I have the best of all worlds. Xfce which is quick and responsive, AND any theme my heart fancies, and all the compiz goodies. THANK YOU Xfce for saving my sanity and allowing me to get some work done. Work pays the bills so I can play.

StephenH · 2012-03-24 01:22:41

I took a quick look back at Gnome 3 (had to do a reinstall, so I figured, why not?). It was enough to convince me that my move to XFCE was the right one, at least for my desktop.

On my netbook, it is a different story. I have an Acer Aspire One 722 which lacks any sort of indicator for the status of capslock. While there is a source for a panel plugin, it is just source and must be compiled. That means one must chase down and download a number of development packages in order to do so. LXDE, on the other hand, has a panel plugin already. I found ways to tweak both XFCE and LXDE to be about what I want. The issue is that LXDE seems a bit more unstable. I get a number of ABRT popups complaining about pcmanfm, the file manager. I really would rather go with XFCE on the netbook as well, but the lack of a capslock indicator makes it difficult. I am going to try compiling it in a virtual machine on my desktop and then copying the compiled files over to my netbook to see if I can get it to work that way. I have the spare HDD space on the desktop to play with. I don't want to load up either my main desktop or my netbook with development packages which are only needed to compile this one little plugin.

One other thing that is a problem. On my desktop, xfce4-xkb-plugin works great for switching keyboard layouts between English, Polytonic Greek, and Biblical Hebrew. However, on my netbook, the keyboard settings are forgotten every time I close the lid to suspend and then later resume. Unfortunately, this is a show-stopper. I could concievably work around the lack of a capslock indicator, but having to reprogram my keyboard layouts and switching combination every time I suspend and resume just won't work. In LXDE, I can set my preferences in .bashrc, and it works through suspends. However, there is no option I have found to get this to work in XFCE. sad This has been a long-standing problem from what I can see by looking at the bug reports. It really seems like this is something that should have been fixed a long time ago. However, there seems to be no movement toward finding a solution to this rather significant bug. sad

Alternately, if I could figure out how to get the keyboard layouts and capslock indicators working, I would be a solid XFCE user on both systems.

Last edited by StephenH (2012-03-24 02:12:23)

rhansen · 2012-03-25 02:35:21

Same here. I'm running on a relatively old computer and Gnome 3 is just too bulky. When Ubuntu stopped offering Gnome 2 through the repos, I came here. I finally have a desktop I'm happy with, both visually and functionally!

oodavid · 2012-04-06 11:54:59

I'm a refugee too :-)

StephenH · 2012-04-06 12:54:37

oodavid wrote:

I'm a refugee too :-)

Looks like the refugee camp needs to expand. smile

I like the way these forums have helped me with various topics like having a background wallpaper that changes periodically. I would attach a screenshot, but it does not look like there is a way to do so.

Anyway, I have my desktop set up with one panel across the bottom and a second panel set up vertically on the left. The left panel is set to auto-hide. There is where I have launchers for my most-used applications and utilities. I have compositing turned on. The bottom panel is set to partially transparent so that the black text of the clock shows up better (basic color set to white). The left panel is set to fully transparent so that only the icons are visible when I mouse over to the left edge and it pops out. It works quite well this way.

oodavid · 2012-04-06 13:51:19

StephenH wrote:

I would attach a screenshot, but it does not look like there is a way to do so.

Dead easy!

install screenshooter:
sudo apt-get install xfce4-screenshooter
assign a shortcut to the printscr button: Menu > Settings > Keyboard > Application Shortcuts
Add a new shortcut with the following command and shortcut:
- xfce4-screenshooter -r
- Print

the -r flag is for "mouse selection" which is my preference :-)

StephenH · 2012-04-06 14:00:58

oodavid wrote:

StephenH wrote:
I would attach a screenshot, but it does not look like there is a way to do so.
Dead easy!
install screenshooter:

I don't have any trouble taking a screen shot with GIMP. Your method is okay too. However, that was not what I was saying. I was saying that I don't have a way to attach one to my post here. There is no option to do so, and I can't paste one into the text block as I enter a message. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Last edited by StephenH (2012-04-06 14:01:27)

cmc · 2012-05-04 22:14:05

Another.... found Gnome3 unconfigurable for me.

jitenderdogra · 2012-10-09 14:14:21

Hola!
Another one here.

I find gnome 3 too heavy. It does not come with as many new features as the weight added to it.
If you want heavy, why not KDE, which is so much better. Gnome guys have really done it this time.
My laptop can play the heaviest of today's windows games, but when I am on linux, I want something that looks simple and works straight. (hate the dashboard).

archmonk · 2012-10-09 17:17:35

Gnome 3 is way beyond useable limits. I started with Gnome 3, waited patiently to see if Gnome would do anything about it till Gnome 3.2.X and now I am running out of patience. It just doesn't cut it when it comes to doing proper work sad . It like you pointed its just a toy. XFCE is way way better. Simple plain and yet fully customizable that's I liked about Gnome 2.3.x too and also not bloated with stuff I don't need. ArchLinux + XFCE and the control is back to the user smile .
sad that Gnome, Unity, KDE don't get this sad
I am really hoping that XFCE continues to go in this route and doesn't take a detour and follow other DE's tongue

xenobit · 2012-10-12 18:46:29

Another refugee is here. Xfce is an old friend so I already feel at home.

Xfce Forum

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#1 2011-09-10 01:02:00

Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#2 2011-10-14 17:03:59

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#3 2011-10-30 12:09:08

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#4 2011-11-13 23:24:18

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#5 2011-12-18 23:26:00

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#6 2011-12-19 12:20:04

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#7 2011-12-21 00:23:43

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#8 2012-01-13 08:21:31

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#9 2012-01-21 22:02:34

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#10 2012-01-29 06:15:31

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#11 2012-02-04 22:34:39

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#12 2012-02-07 19:29:40

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#13 2012-02-14 00:09:37

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#14 2012-03-24 01:22:41

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#15 2012-03-25 02:35:21

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#16 2012-04-06 11:54:59

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#17 2012-04-06 12:54:37

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#18 2012-04-06 13:51:19

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#19 2012-04-06 14:00:58

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#20 2012-05-04 22:14:05

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#21 2012-10-09 14:14:21

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#22 2012-10-09 17:17:35

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

#23 2012-10-12 18:46:29

Re: Yet another refugee from Gnome 3

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