Linux Mint 21.2: MATE vs XFCE! Which is better for YOU? 🔥

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Check out my Toolbox to quickly Add/Remove programs, configure power settings, and system updates with the click of a button. github.com/TheLinuxITGuy/Toolbox

[@abaneyone]

Two of my favorate desktop environments. I choose XFCE for older harderware. Your choice of music in the video is excellent.

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Glad you like it!

[@markhawkes8006]

When doing a whirlwind tour of a desktop or window manager, I also like to check the ALT+TAB window switcher, anything resembling an overview/expose mode (to see all windows on all workspaces at a glance), and window snapping: SUPER+UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT. Cinnamon and Plasma get window snapping right IMHO.

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Great idea. I will add this going forward. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@gabriel360]

thank you for those videos :) I appreciate the fact that you are going straight to the point

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Thanks for the feedback and watching!

[@mickfreeley6054]

I stick with Xfce because MATE devs *still* can't add important panel widgets like an 'item list'. If you add a (near) transparent widget to the MATE panel you may never find it again. My needs are basic - use one panel for 'important' launchers and the other for monitoring/app/desktop switching. Why would resource usage be an issue today when memory is dirt cheap?

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Good points. Thanks for watching.

[@Octavus5]

@mickfreeley What's "item list"? I chose Mate because, 1. panel widgets can be dragged into place in any position. 2. prefer Caja over Thunar.

[@darknightmike10yearsago]

I like how the themes section in Mate shows previews of the themes, but XFCE doesn't. Mate also can find software from the software sources just from searching it in the app menu. So, Mate wins for me on Linux Mint at least, but Cinnamon is still better IMO unless you have a really old and slow system.

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Good points. Thanks for watching.

[@markhawkes8006]

XFCE is inconsistent with its coloring of the window title bars. Despite you setting the theme to dark mode, many/most windows show a light window title bar. MATE consistently showed dark title bars on all windows and dialogs. A small win for MATE ;)

[@keithryan9620]

great vid. thanks for the comparison. I'm mostly using my older laptop for tv use. running youtube and netflix pretty much exclusively. (and other browser sites) I need some basic things like "uncombine" tabs like multiple browser tabs. which would be better for that? cinnamon is way too sluggish and my fan is constantly whirring. there doesn't seem to be much difference between MATE and Xfce at idle. but what about when actually running applications and watching videos? does MATE actually hog that much more resources than XFCE?

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

XFCE should be fine. Check out the Brave browser and see what you think. I’ve really liked it.

[@cryptopelgrim4751]

Awesome video as always, i'll remain with cinnamon for now. P.s do you know btop? I personally like the looks better than htop :)

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

I've just always used HTOP. I'll give it a look. Thanks for watching.

[@samael9418]

It’s cool that those days to create a professional dev environment you only need to install Linux with some lightweight gui. You can add vscode, some needed tools, and basically you are ready to go.

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Thanks for watching.

[@Deathtome.]

I am about to switch over to Linux Mint permanently. I have always had my eyes on XFCE but Mate is second contender. All I want is XP Luna Theme. As far as I can see it is best supported on GTK3 and XFCE doesn't have a good XP theme in DESKTOP (site). I might try XFCE XP theme manually with a VM first, but if I can't have a nice XP theme almost indistinguishable from the real thing on XFCE I have to choose Mate (which I think works better due to GTK3 support). Or can XFCE use GTK3 themes too? Asking mainly for 21.3 Mint XFCE. If XP theme is too difficult I might be OK with 2000s theme. I won't ask you for a video of this, but could you explain a bit more how themes differ from Mate/XFCE.

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Nice! I'm not familiar with that theme, but maybe someone else can comment on it.

[@darknightmike10yearsago]

Both Mate and XFCE support GTX 3, so it should work fine on either desktops.

[@markhawkes8006]

If you want to replicate a classic Windows theme, from 9x to 10, Q4OS with the Trinity Desktop Environment is worth a look IMHO.

[@KomradeMikhail]

How about a Nobara vs. base Fedora comparison ?... Compare changes that make Nobara improved for gaming. Or similarly Pop! OS vs. base Ubuntu.

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Will do. Thanks for watching and the ideas.

[@spsf64]

Great video, I like these comparisons! Can you do a video on how to install Archlinux with the new archinstall and some ricing of cinnamon and xfce? TIA

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Will do. Thanks for the feedback.

[@tambuchalinux]

Xfce for the win! Not a big difference though. Nice video!

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Thanks for watching!

[@Leverquin]

how do you see devices in Caja?

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

File System showed under Computer for the MATE side.

[@TonyBurgess1969]

XFCE rocks.

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

It's snappy too. Thanks for watching.

[@tinicum54]

I have Linux Lite 6.6 on 1 PC from 2012 and Mint Xfce on an old laptop from 2009. With Lite, the optiplex 990 starts at 680 Mb of 12GB

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing and watching.

[@chrismcdonnell7448]

Excellent comparison video!

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching.

[@Artafp6003]

wich one is good for 2 gbs of ram

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Either should work fine. I’d suggest trying them both, and use the one you like better. Thanks for watching.

[@mohamad20zx34]

Thanks again can you compare Ubuntu And Ubuntu Unity Next time

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Wow. How'd you guess what comes out tomorrow? 😄

[@mohamad20zx34]

@@TheLinuxITGuy I just maybe a Lucky Linux user

[@Weslley-n2y]

MATE WINS

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Thanks for watching.

[@CodeG-qc6rc]

You really didn't do much. A side by side comparison is nice but you didn't really didn't make a useful video compared to others on youtube. But i will definitely give you a thumbs up for not being lazy and using a cheesy AI voice for this video. When i encounter that kind of laziness, the video absolutely get a thumbs down.

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

The AI channels are the worst. What would you like to see me do better in the vs videos? Thanks for watching and the comment.

[@CodeG-qc6rc]

@@TheLinuxITGuy Thank you for asking. Firstly, i should've worded my comment more accurately. Your video was useful - ESPECIALLY because of the side by side comparison. I just didn't expect you to end the video with "it's really up to me". Kind of felt like you left me hanging since your video title gave me a different impression. LOL.. I think I was expecting you to give examples of how one "flavor" vs the other might be better for me if I was expecting "this or that" as per the user interface &/or the strengths and weakness of one flavor over the other when choosing between Mate or XFCE as my "daily driver" - so to speak. { I am a windows user for many years & just starting using Zorin linux this year. } This truly is my gripe. Maybe unfair of me to have expected so much but that's the jist of it. Again - thanks for answering and for being humble in your approach. You did it the right way. And THANK YOU again for speaking with your real voice - as opposed to those lazy content creators that use a HORRIBLE sounding AI. You won me over, sir. I just subscribed!!

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Feedback like this is great. Maybe ending with a pros and cons list would be a good idea. Thank you so much for sharing and for the sub.

[@dnwatts55]

Cinnamon

[@TheLinuxITGuy]

Thanks for watching.