Xfce Forum

Jordi

Member

Registered: 2022-09-12

Posts: 6

Hello! And congratulations to the Xfce team!!

Hi,

I would like to greet all the members of the forum, and congratulate the Xfce developers for the great work they have done. I am really impressed by the progress and the good direction it has taken. I have installed 4.16 which comes with Debian 11.

Runs like a charm out of the box. With a bit of customization I think I now have the best DE ever. Very functional, adapts to my workflows and not the other way around. So fast that I was able to install it also on an abandoned Atom mini laptop, sync with my main PC using unison, and carry my full system in my bag!

After a scare with CSDs and thanks to the gtk3-nocsd library, it is now a visually consistent and nice looking DE.

I have used various DEs over the years. Even been serveral years without any DE, just using tiling window managers with dmenu and dzen2.

A year ago I returned to the DEs with GNOME. I found it awful at first, both in terms of its appearance, resource usage, and imposed workflows. After a lot of tuning and with several plugins I managed to make it more or less usable. However my frustration with GNOME got worse:

* CSDs are a terrible idea. Inconsistent behavior between applications and visual inconsistency. They force me to check the title bar every time I want to perform an action on it, forcing me to change the mental context, and losing concentration. A good DE/WM becomes invisible after few days of use.

* Removing classic menus is another terrible idea. Classic menus make it easy to find commands quickly. With the new GNOME applications I have to look for them in the window title bar, then in the button bar, then in the hamburger menu, there is even application functionality hidden in the absurd black top panel.

* Their dynamic workspaces force me to work with the workflow that they have decided, and that is not practical for me. I am much more productive with numbered workspaces, and moving between them with the keyboard.

* The absurd “overview mode”, and the black top bar taking up space without contributing anything.

After a year of GNOME frustration, I started again to test several DE alternatives. My winners are Xfce and herbstluftwm (which is just WM, not a full DE). Although very different, I think that both are very suitable for PC users who are a little more demanding and not limited to web browsing and office.

Thank you all very much!

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 10,990

Re: Hello! And congratulations to the Xfce team!!

Hello and welcome to the forums.

Hi,

I would like to greet all the members of the forum, and congratulate the Xfce developers for the great work they have done. I am really impressed by the progress and the good direction it has taken. I have installed 4.16 which comes with Debian 11.

Runs like a charm out of the box. With a bit of customization I think I now have the best DE ever. Very functional, adapts to my workflows and not the other way around. So fast that I was able to install it also on an abandoned Atom mini laptop, sync with my main PC using unison, and carry my full system in my bag!

Fully agree.

After a scare with CSDs and thanks to the gtk3-nocsd library, it is now a visually consistent and nice looking DE.

You'll be happy to know that when 4.18 releases, there will be a switch to optionally enable/disable the Xfce CSD windows that were added in a previous release. However, you will still need to use something like gtk3-nocsd if you want to remove CSD from non-Xfce apps.

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KBar

Moderator

Registered: 2021-11-05

Posts: 689

Re: Hello! And congratulations to the Xfce team!!

Hi! Thanks for joining us.

There's a reason it's called X Freaking Cool Environment!

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Remember to edit the subject of your topic to include the [SOLVED] tag once you're satisfied with the answers or have found a solution (in which case, don't forget to share it as well), so that other members of the community can quickly refer to it and save their time. Pretty please!

Jordi

Member

Registered: 2022-09-12

Posts: 6

Re: Hello! And congratulations to the Xfce team!!

You'll be happy to know that when 4.18 releases, there will be a switch to optionally enable/disable the Xfce CSD windows that were added in a previous release. However, you will still need to use something like gtk3-nocsd if you want to remove CSD from non-Xfce apps.

I would have preferred that the CSD possibility had not even been considered. I think it's a design flaw and an UX nightmare. I'm avoiding them like the plague. But yes, I'm glad devs let us choose.