Linux Mint Forums

hi

Is LXDE2 faster than XFCE4 and what about stability?

LXDE is a lighter and faster desktop than XFCE.

I use LXDE a lot and don't have stability issues. It's a very simple and small desktop, less code to have bugs.

If you like LXDE, give Peppermint a go. It's a Mint-like distro that comes with LXDE. Of course, you just install LXDE in Mint.

veggen wrote:If you like LXDE, give Peppermint a go. It's a Mint-like distro that comes with LXDE. Of course, you just install LXDE in Mint.

Thx, Peppermint seems to be a very interesting distro, but based on Debian like Mint?

http://peppermintos.com/about-peppermint/

No, LXDE is not lighter and faster, at least not considerably. It saves roughly 20MB of RAM, but that's about it. XFCE on the other hand gives you a lot of additional features and customization options and much better looks (it even has a lightweight composition engine built into XFWM, you can activate it under 'Window Manager Tweaks').

XFCE goes back to 1999 and is the most stable and mature desktop environment you can imagine. I haven't tried LXDE lately but the last time I did (early Lubuntu version) it was not compelling.

If you really can't afford the extra 20MB, you should rather go for Enlightenment (Bodhi) or pure Openbox (Crunchbang) or a specialized distribution for old hardware like Damn Small Linux.

ccc wrote: Thx, Peppermint seems to be a very interesting distro, but based on Debian like Mint?

Yes, Peppermint is also Debian based, and borrows some tools from Mint.

THX

Both are fast and stable, but it depends somewhat on the computer's resources, I would think. LXDE feels lighter to me, probably is because it has less stuff. You just add what you use regularly. I like Peppermint 3 and WattOS for LXDE. I like Linux Mint 13 Xfce and Voyager, a really beautiful desktop in front of Xubuntu. All four work great.

ccc wrote:hi

Is LXDE2 faster than XFCE4 and what about stability?

veggen wrote:

ccc wrote: Thx, Peppermint seems to be a very interesting distro, but based on Debian like Mint?

Yes, Peppermint is also Debian based, and borrows some tools from Mint.

peppermint is based on ubuntu http://peppermintos.com/release-notes/

axel668 wrote: If you really can't afford the extra 20MB, you should rather go for Enlightenment (Bodhi) or pure Openbox (Crunchbang) or a specialized distribution for old hardware like Damn Small Linux.

DamnSmallLinux was since about 4 years no longer an active project, but it seems to be active again.

According to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damn_Small_Linux

Current status of the project:

Due to infighting among the project's originators and main developers, DSL development seems to be at a standstill, and the future of the project is uncertain, much to the dismay of many of the users. On July 6, 2012, a developer of DSL announced that a new release DSL is being developed. The DSL website, including the forums which was once inaccessible, is back. On August 3, 2012 DSL 4.11 RC1 was released.

axel668 wrote:No, LXDE is not lighter and faster, at least not considerably. It saves roughly 20MB of RAM, but that's about it.

So, LXDE uses less RAM but it's not lighter? The RAM saved depends on implementation, for Mint the difference is (within the same base) bigger and for slower computers with less RAM that difference is enough to make LXDE feel faster.

axel668 wrote:XFCE on the other hand gives you a lot of additional features and customization options and much better looks (it even has a lightweight composition engine built into XFWM, you can activate it under 'Window Manager Tweaks').

LXDE does everything I need it to do, why should I use something heavier and bigger to do the same? LXDE has enough features and customization for me and I like to do the maximum with the minimum possible, it's fun and a good way to learn.

axel668 wrote:XFCE goes back to 1999 and is the most stable and mature desktop environment you can imagine. I haven't tried LXDE lately but the last time I did (early Lubuntu version) it was not compelling.

You just proved you don't know LXDE. I tested several distros with XFCE back in 2000 and was much worst than early Lubuntu versions. Should I assume that it never got better and today still sucks? Not really a fair comparison, right?

You should test a recent decent version of both, Mint 12 LXDE was the last Mint LXDE edition and was fine. I showed here how to get Mint 12 LXDE use less than 50MB of RAM: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=96465. Can you get Mint 13 XFCE to less than 50MB? In that link I also praise XFCE (LMDE) for it's lightness but it's not as light as LXDE and I give some numbers.

axel668 wrote:If you really can't afford the extra 20MB, you should rather go for Enlightenment (Bodhi) or pure Openbox (Crunchbang) or a specialized distribution for old hardware like Damn Small Linux.

Nice distros, I would add AntiX and Puppy. LXDE is becoming a standard for easy to use light distros, both Lubuntu and Debian LXDE are good examples and several low RAM devices use Linux (Debian) with LXDE like the Nokia N900 with easy Debian and the Raspberry Pi with Raspbian.

LXDE is modular and it's very easy to fine tune to your needs, with a little tuning you can get any Debian based LXDE distro to become as fast as Bodhi or Crunchbang and Debian LXDE is lighter than both (less goodies). If that is not light enough just logout of LXDE and login to Openbox and customize your Openbox session.

LXDE is the closest DE to the KISS principle, like Einstein said "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” That's why I like LXDE and why many people don't like LXDE, it's a good thing we have choice.

zerozero wrote:

veggen wrote:

ccc wrote: Thx, Peppermint seems to be a very interesting distro, but based on Debian like Mint?

Yes, Peppermint is also Debian based, and borrows some tools from Mint.

peppermint is based on ubuntu http://peppermintos.com/release-notes/

Yep, you're right. When I said it's Debian based I was going for "uses DEBs", since I figured that's what the OP meant (they said "based on Debian like Mint").

nunol wrote:... http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=96465. ....

Very nice link and thanks for linking to Seppalta's site. That's a must read.

aes2011 wrote:... thanks for linking to Seppalta's site. That's a must read.

Yes it is!