Hari's Corner

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Xfce: the only sane desktop environment left on *nix?

Filed under: Software and Technology by Hari
Posted on Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 09:02 IST (last updated: Sat, Jan 26, 2013 @ 11:32 IST)

Here's a screenshot of the Xfce desktop (Debian) running on my laptop. Long time readers may find it very similar to the screenshot of my KDE desktop I posted years ago, in fact, way back in 2005. In fact, I have gone from KDE to Gnome, back to KDE and finally settled on Xfce as my desktop.

My Xfce Desktop

Obviously, I prefer the old style traditional paradigm desktops: those with the start menu with applications organized in groups, status bar and a standard desktop area which allow creation of shortcuts to apps and documents. Sadly it appears that the mainstream *nix desktops are slowly drifting away from simplicity and utility. Gnome has headed in a altogether different direction from the traditional paradigm by trying to force a smartphone/tablet-style interface on a computer, while KDE, always the 800 pound gorilla of *nix desktops, has increased in bloat with each release.

Having tried other lightweight desktop alternatives, I came back to Xfce because it is just a bit more feature rich, mature and stable than the alternatives. For me, Xfce hits that perfect sweet spot between features and simplicity, performance and stability while keeping the code base reasonably light. For obvious reasons I don't like the really lightweight Window Managers: those are too barebones for my needs.

I recently installed Ubuntu 12.10 on to my spare partition. Navigating through the mess that is Unity and the less sucky Gnome Shell, I understood how much Xfce just works for me, as I suspect it works for the average Linux user. To be fair, the Gnome 3 classic interface is traditional enough, but not as configurable as Xfce. Also I believe it is likely to be dropped in the near future, leaving Gnome users no choice but to use the Shell interface.

I sincerely hope the Xfce developers keep their heads amidst all the desktop mania happening in the Linux world and retain the traditional desktop interface that has served its purpose most adequately since the days of Windows 95 and continues to do so. Going by the history of Xfce, I think the hope is justified.

2 comment(s)

  1. "Xfce hits that perfect sweet spot between features and simplicity, performance and stability while keeping the code base reasonably light."

    Well said, I wholeheartedly agree with you !
    I used to love KDE back in the old days up to version 3.5. When 4.0 arrived, I switched over to GNOME. With GNOME going crazy at 3.0 I switched again - this time to Xfce. I've always liked Xfce for its traditional simplicity. Best trade-off for my everyday use. However, I also like Openbox as well as the i3 tiling window manager, the latter one being REALLY cool for developers. I think it all depends on the mission.

    Comment by Xfce user (visitor) on Thu, Mar 7, 2013 @ 14:12 IST #
  2. Thanks for your feedback, Xfce user!

    Comment by Hari (blog owner) on Sun, Mar 10, 2013 @ 07:53 IST #

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