XFCE - amazing desktop environment for Linux

Why choose XFCE as your Linux desktop environment? There are so many to choose from. XFCE focuses on speed, rock-solid performance, basic functionality and staying the same. If you want all the bells and whistles, you might like KDE. If you want simplicity, you might go with GNOME. But those sacrifice on performance in comparison. Lastly, what about window managers? Let's talk about it.
Thanks for watching! You can also find me in ‪@TheFlickLabpodcast‬ talking about international cinema with my colleague Henrik Telkki.

[@linuxlodge]

What's your favorite desktop environment / window manager?

[@folksurvival]

MATE

[@fredrikhansen75]

Qtile for sure, landed happily on Qtile due to configurability and a minimalistic approach. Running on a 48 core Threadripper / 64G RAM / RTX4090, 65" 8K monitor. Working with IT so spending all days in front of this machine, hence the high specs.

[@johanb.7869]

Xfce which is default DE for MX Linux.

[@folksurvival]

@AdventuresInDolphintown Not a desktop environment or window manager.

[@arturofatturi9490]

LXDE or Openbox.....

[@BrokenKanuck]

KDE Plasma 6 is far, far less crashy. It might be worth revisiting your experience.

[@jimw7916]

DISAGREE 100% plasma is totally unreliable and Xfce is the opposite!

[@Tatar_Piano]

The only annoyance with xfce is absence of easily usable wifi hotspot integration, gnome and kde do it better

[@summerishere2868]

XFCE is great because of all the reasons you mentioned! Fast, super stable, customizable... What more could you want?

[@Ash_18037]

XFCE was quite good when I tried it lately, but to answer "what more could you want": a desktop env. UI that looks half decent without needing serious customization (good that it supports customization though). An actual plan to support wayland for those of us who expect/require support for multiple monitors with varying resolutions and refresh rates (you know like Windows). Much simpler wifi setup for hotspots etc. Having said this the way it supports desktop wallpapers for multiple monitors is by far the most intuitive and simple I have seen on any OS.

[@summerishere2868]

​@@Ash_18037 I understand your points. The ugly default ui for me personally is not a big issue since I already have some cool themes (modified to my liking). Regarding wayland, they already have a plan and are working on it afaik. Wifi setup never gave me major problems, but the component is not part of XFCE itself, I use the network-manager-gnome. One thing that I would like to be improved would be scaling though. It works now but it needs some fiddling, especially if you want it to work on all kinds of apps.

[@RicardoGarciso]

Hi LLodge, Thanks for your Video. Allways have worked with Xfce (Linux Mint 21) and very happy with it for reasons stands out. Whenever I install an OS virtual or contained I select it if available.

[@jimw7916]

GREAT VID ....thanks

[@BiserAngelov1]

Regardless of being a lightweight desktop environment, the features and capabilities of XFCE are closer to Gnome and Plasma, than to the other lightweight alternatives. And a top spot for stability and reliability as well!

[@lrobuck]

For the desktop environment I prefer Gnome. For a window manager I prefer DWM.

[@VeitLehmann]

You have your Xfce configured almost like a TWM. One of the many great things about Xfce is its modularity, so I guess you could switch from XFWM to a TWM and keep the rest of the Xfce desktop environment. One thing that's missing from Xfce to make it usable for me is working fractional scaling. And Wayland support is not there yet. But both are in the works, so I'm always keeping an eye on Xfce and playing with it in VMs from time to time.

[@rursus8354]

The original reason for me choosing xfce was that it was not designed to be fantastic, novel, have supercool effects or animations, and lets me make efficient use of the machine, by configuring like good ole XP (that I only used for a short time) and get things available. It happens that xfce was much more flexible than anything Microsoft ever could come up with so instead of 1 panel I have 4 panels: one for the ordinary stuff, one for the nine work spaces, one for the system status and a clock/calendar, and one for fast program/tool access. And the system is much less in danger of being kidnapped or attacked by virus and malware. Windows is just one big inconvenient security risk that I need for a few tasks, Linux is the serious working tool.

[@fredmckinney8933]

I've been using Linux for close to 20 years now. I've used quite a few desktop environments, and I'd have to say that Xfce is my favorite. Even though I have 16 GB of RAM on my desktop box, that's what I use -- Debian Stable w/ Xfce. On my laptop, OTOH, in order to keep memory usage as low as possible and thus conserve battery life, I use Openbox on my laptop (again, Debian Stable), although several of the utilities / accessories apps on there are from Xfce. Oh, and Wayland? I personally see no need for it. Thus, that's not important to me. PS -- subscribed!

[@johanb.7869]

User since 2017.

[@linuxlodge]

Great minds think alike! I have Openbox on my older 2007 Dell laptop as well.

[@johanb.7869]

Xfce is great, but no Wayland yet if you prefer Wayland over Xorg. Arc dark IMO still the best dark theme. Dark, but not to dark. Papirus dark icons my favorite icon theme.

[@Henry-sv3wv]

I like the xfce alt+mousewheel zoom, every desktop should have that to support my eyes

[@folksurvival]

It's good but I prefer Mate.

[@JudyCupat]

👍

[@veterantruthtube3298]

YEAH YEAH YEAH

[@mostrealtutu]

im getting old now, and i cant be arsed anymore to rice my linux to some new color sh1t every day :D XFCE ticks all the boxes and i get shit done. gruvbox theme is all i need. love you bye.

[@veterantruthtube3298]

i believe

[@Jhon_0]

Excelente video, efectivamente XFCE es excelente para nuevos, es el sistema perfecto para cualquier usuario en mi opinión. KDE es un poco inestable por el exceso de funciones innecesarias, Gnome al ser muy carente de personalización nativa y con un consumo de recursos innecesario, XFCE es la alternativa perfecta ya que no tiene excesos ni carencias.

[@linuxlodge]

Gracias

[@JohnCrawford1979]

Honestly, desktops and window managers are not foreign to Windows or Mac users. The difference is that everything in Mac and Windows, as far as the OS goes, is generally all created by Apple and Microsoft, respectively. They might have different names, with slightly different ways of doing things, which was the joke people had a laugh over when, during the XP era, Apple would boast an incredible new feature for Mac OS that Windows users had as a common feature for years. Trying to explain a desktop or windows manager to both Mac and Windows users is kind of on par with that joke. We've been there, done that. Now, what makes Linux unique and worth saying goodbye, mostly, to closed source, commercial OSes. That's where open source and the communities come in. Because Linux is not one huge monolith thing, but many things with many people part of the project.

[@ZorencenR]

Could you share the wallpaper? ❤

[@linuxlodge]

Yes! All credit goes to this fellow by the name m_h_o: www.reddit.com/r/debian/comments/htw9ld/i_had_this_wallpaper_idea_and_here_it_is_so_glad/ HQ links in the comments.

[@linuxlodge]

(ok, at least partial credit goes to, because he/she edited an existing wallpaper :) )

[@RobertJohnson-lb3qz]

I’m not sure of the terminology. Is Xfce a window manager or desktop environment?

[@user-lv5qp3ks3j]

Desktop environment

[@RobertJohnson-lb3qz]

@@user-lv5qp3ks3j Thanks man for the clarification. 👍 Sorry, I should have googled it first...

[@Mikesco3]

Great subject. I also prefer Xfce. I realize you're just starting, however It might help you to script the videos or at the very least clip the repetitive parts. Specially if trying to deliver a joke, if it's sort of funny the first time, it will rarely be funnier the second time (not to mention it it wasn't that funny the first time)... That being said l, good luck with the channel!

[@linuxlodge]

Oh, wasn't trying to deliver a joke, but guess I got that phrase stuck in my head. Noted.

[@Martin-lc1sk]

XFCE uncluttered and customisable, KDE looks great but cluttered IMHO Gnome, somewhere in between Try a few, see what suits you, there is no right desktop environment

[@jonnyspeed8974]

no global menu