Comparison: XFCE vs MATE (Gnome 2)
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 9:07 pm
Hello all,
I've been using various Linux distros for several years and I think I've found an acceptable desktop environment to complete my migration from the classic Windows DE - XFCE 4.8!
However, I'd like to hear from you Gnome 2 fans about what features you prefer or dislike relative to XFCE.
My primary migration criteria is to have a close look and feel to Win Classic (2K/ME). What I've been picky about is:
- themes that don't waste white space around text (IMO common in Gnome). Panels in the latest XFCE are no longer an issue.
- an organized and customizable application launcher (Start menu). In LMDE and Xubuntu organization looks good, customizability is lacking AFAIK. Perhaps there is a GUI package that can easily tweak all of those .desktop files into my preferred layout .
- a customizable 'document' launcher. Over the years I've used the easily customizable Windows menu to add folders with shortcuts to frequently accessed documents. Didn't find an obvious way in a Linux DE until I discovered the Directory Menu applet. Joy! I'll probably post more details in the Newbie forum.
BTW I decided to eliminate LXDE from consideration (for now) due to relative lack of customizability features and a few broken ones. Subjectively I feel that their dev team doesn't have the drive/vision that the LM and XFCE devs do.
Kudos to the LMDE team - the XFCE version has been quite stable and usable for me so far. As expected in a rolling release, the Mint specific tweaks seem to be minimal and/or unobtrusive. I haven't noticed that much difference between LMDE-X and Xubuntu.
Of course I'm looking forward to improvements in Cinnamon for the next Mint LTS release. Likewise, it's a 'wait and see' about what effects the XFCE migration to a GTK 3 foundation will be.
TIA!
I've been using various Linux distros for several years and I think I've found an acceptable desktop environment to complete my migration from the classic Windows DE - XFCE 4.8!
However, I'd like to hear from you Gnome 2 fans about what features you prefer or dislike relative to XFCE.
My primary migration criteria is to have a close look and feel to Win Classic (2K/ME). What I've been picky about is:
- themes that don't waste white space around text (IMO common in Gnome). Panels in the latest XFCE are no longer an issue.
- an organized and customizable application launcher (Start menu). In LMDE and Xubuntu organization looks good, customizability is lacking AFAIK. Perhaps there is a GUI package that can easily tweak all of those .desktop files into my preferred layout .
- a customizable 'document' launcher. Over the years I've used the easily customizable Windows menu to add folders with shortcuts to frequently accessed documents. Didn't find an obvious way in a Linux DE until I discovered the Directory Menu applet. Joy! I'll probably post more details in the Newbie forum.
BTW I decided to eliminate LXDE from consideration (for now) due to relative lack of customizability features and a few broken ones. Subjectively I feel that their dev team doesn't have the drive/vision that the LM and XFCE devs do.
Kudos to the LMDE team - the XFCE version has been quite stable and usable for me so far. As expected in a rolling release, the Mint specific tweaks seem to be minimal and/or unobtrusive. I haven't noticed that much difference between LMDE-X and Xubuntu.
Of course I'm looking forward to improvements in Cinnamon for the next Mint LTS release. Likewise, it's a 'wait and see' about what effects the XFCE migration to a GTK 3 foundation will be.
TIA!