xfce on LM12 64bit? Good or bad idea?

[hanzo23]

I'm running LM 12 64bit. This ia my work desktop so excessive downtime is no good. I recently decided I wanted to install xfce. I would like the option of the leaner desktop over cinnamon & gnome. I would like to avoid a full wipe of hard drive to install LMDE. Is this possible? Is there a meta package to install all the xfce goodness?

[tdockery97]

Only LMDE would have a Mint meta Xfce package now, as an Ubuntu based Xfce spin no longer exists. However, don't let that stop you. There are still the Ubuntu based packages in the Mint 12 repos, as many of the repos are actually Ubuntu repos. You want to look for xfce and browse the list of packages. You'll find everything you need to have a complete Xfce desktop on Mint 12. A couple of the main packages are xfce4 and xfce-goodies which will bring most of everything with them.

[DrHu]

I assume you don't like the desktop style/theme that Gnome uses or its options for applications etc..
--otherwise I couldn't see why using a lighter desktop, especially on a 64bit system would be necessary

But, if I was doing it, I might be tempted to try the straight xfce desktop from their own site..
http://xfce.org/download
http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/building
--instructions on compiling..

http://forum.xfce.org/
http://forum.xfce.org/viewforum.php?id=3
--forum for that desktop..

[hanzo23]

I would be looking to get away from gnome apps where ever possible. I am not running on an under powered machine. I just want to run things as lean as possible wherever possible.

I recently used a different machine with much less muscle than my desktop (running xfce) and did a few routine desktop tasks and it was quite a bit snappier than my cinnamon setup.

I would like the option to switch back if need be, in case the xfce install does not go smoothly.

[jjaythomas]

Me too..

I just prefer XFCE. Not because of lightness (I usally use some Gnome and even KDE apps their anyways)

J.Jay

[hanzo23]

I just wanted to follow up. I installed xfce4 via aptitude. I also selected a few plugins that looked interesting. So far everything seems good.