There is a place for graphically gorgeous distro’s, but when it comes to ease and speed, Xfce is just the best for me.
I started using Xfce when Xubuntu first came out and I switched to Linux Mint Xfce when that started. I did try other distro’s when others recommended them, but always switched back to Xfce.
I have an old Eeepc that runs so smoothly on the latest Mint Xfce despite being a senior in computer years.
And that’s why it was about time I gushed about Xfce on here 😀
I like XFCE. It’s the only DE that was just happy to run in my super weird setup without issues.
That is amazing. Great job!
There is a place for graphically gorgeous distro’s
As a current KDE user but extensive user of XFCE in the past, it may not come “pretty” out-of-the-box but XFCE can be a very aesthetically pleasing desktop environment. It can be configured just about every which way, and if I had to switch back to XFCE right now I could have things just about how I want them and be 100% as happy with my desktop as I am with KDE.
It’s got defaults that just make sense, doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel or the way we interact with our desktops, it’s light and fast and reliable. It’s associated default programs (Thunar, etc.) follow the same design paradigms and are a delight to use.
I Iove XFCE, and it will always have a special place in my heart.
“Simple” and “aesthetically pleasing” aren’t mutually exclusive!
Every time I try another DE I always come back to XFCE. Lightweight, stays out of the way, gets the job done. NEVER crashes. Ever.
You’ve never had a panel suddenly crash and disappear?
I have!!
…on KDE
Nope
I did, maybe 2 debian releases ago, though.
Can I just say that my favorite thing about Xfce users is that whenever the dumb “GNOME vs KDE” shit starts, you guys are all chill in the back being like, “let them fight while I drink my tea and move on with my life”.
I might be a very longtime Plasma user, but I appreciate the shit out of Xfce and what its capable of while being light as a feather. Other than Budgie, it’s the only DE I could actually see myself using if I absolutely had to ditch KDE for whatever reason. Although my reliance on Dolphin alone makes that very, very difficult. Thunar is pretty good, though. More file managers should have batch renaming built-in. Then I wouldn’t have to use GPRename or KRename for so much shit.
Xfce has been my main desktop for 15 years. I keep trying KDE and Gnome every now and then, but Xfce just delivers serious reliability and just enough configurability to make it great.
I remember installing XFCE on an old Pentium 3 tower some office had stored under the stairs. It was like magic - the system just… worked again?! It was the first time I successfully installed Linux and it felt so fast. With Windows the thing barely worked.
That became my younger sister’s first computer. The tower and monitor etc. all just stayed on the ground and we played games on it together. Eventually I found an ethernet card and learned how to plug it in. I ran an ethernet cable from our modem through the house along the floor. Then we could go on Myspace and send email to each other.
Can’t believe my parents were ok with tripping over all that stuff, ha!
Perhaps your parents recognized the valuable skills you were developing!
All XFCE needs is better defaults in terms of aesthetics.
The first Linux distro I used was Xubuntu and I’ve use Xfce primarily ever since. I’ve used a lot of different distros over the years but have almost always used Xfce. I think my only serious time away from it was using Plasma for a while before Xfce had hidpi support.
I main and ♥️ xfce. we are friends now 🤣 and anybody else that feels the way we do. 🫂
XFCE is the distro for getting stuff done. I run it even on new PCs. I know that whatever device I’m using, because of XFCE, my desktop is gonna be blindingly fast. I try to switch to other desktops sometimes but I always go back to XFCE because the speed and reliability are off the charts. Windows wishes it could be this (it kind of was, in the XP or 7 era).
Windows was never as zippy and stable as XFCE. And I hate to be a know-it-all, but XFCE is a Desktop Environment, not a Distro.
I just tried EndeavourOS with XFCE on a really old laptop and it works quite well. Xfce lacks some niceties that Gnome or KDE would provide, but its stability and reliability are unquestionable.
Xfce has been great at giving old PCs some extra life. I’ve got some people using a Pentium E2180/2GB Ram/Hard Drive machine for some browsing with Mint Xfce. It runs great and is quite reliable. I just hope that it does eventually gain support for Wayland.
If you ever run a “mostly server”, where you are mostly in the command line but sometimes want to pop into a GUI for whatever reason, XFCE. I have a computer from 2000 with Ubuntu server plus XFCE after the fact, and it runs great. Still.
Runs great on my raspberry pi 400. With rpios upgraded to Debian Sid.
