Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Forum rules
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
mintnoob

Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Post by mintnoob »

I just wanted to share my reasons why I left Xfce to help future improvements of it.

First off, I was mostly pleased with it. It was fast and stable.

Main reason I left was:
- my wifi mouse for my laptop had difficulty when trying to select lines of text, or drag&drop files. My touch pad, or usb mouse had no problems with this though. This was just driving me crazy and didn't want to give up my wifi mouse for my laptop.

Some minor things I didn't care for:
- having files not automatically erase from the desktop when dragging them into a fold was kind of annoying.
- the look of the panel (solid color only) is boring. LXDE's panel is sweet looking and almost converted me for that reason alone!


I'm trying Mint KDE right now because Gnome didn't work on my laptop too well and LXDE is missing a few features that I prefer.

I'm sure everyone agrees is important to find the Linux version that works best for you and your computer. Hope this thread is helpful to the future of Mint Xfce. Peace!
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Robin

Re: Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Post by Robin »

All those settings (desktop and panel) are easily configurable. My Xfce panel is kinda-sorta translucent, which I think is wicked cool. If I try to make it completely transparent like you can do in the LXpanel, the icons disappear along with the panel! But I can "hide" the panel so that it only appears when I mouse over it. And I like my li'l applets and stuff like the weather and an analog clock. You can edit the desktop settings not to show icons on the desktop, and do all your dragging-and-dropping in Thunar if you wish (I like a nice clean desktop too). I think I like PCManFM better than Thunar thus far, and it's no problem using it in Xfce either.

Dunno about the wireless mouse thing though.

I think LXDE will rival Xfce someday for functionality, but still be lighter weight. It's still buggy on my 'puter, but I will revisit LXDE once in a while to see how it's getting on.

Enjoying all this exploration,
Robin
richyrich

Re: Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Post by richyrich »

Xfce is boring ? ? ?
Screenshot.jpg
mintnoob

Re: Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Post by mintnoob »

Robin wrote:I think I like PCManFM better than Thunar thus far, and it's no problem using it in Xfce either.
One of the reasons I didn't like LXDE was because PCmanfm didn't have a video thumbnailer. I read how a lot of people who use LXDE install Thunar instead. PCmanfm's maker should include a video thumbnailer.
mintnoob

Re: Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Post by mintnoob »

richyrich wrote:Xfce is boring ? ? ?
That looks sweet! I was only complaining about the panel décor. I couldn't figure out how to change the color to a non-solid color design. See here in the Xfce section where I asked if you could integrate LXDE's cool looking panel's color scheme.

I take it your cool looking panel is just part of a theme?
Robin

Re: Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Post by Robin »

mintnoob wrote: One of the reasons I didn't like LXDE was because PCmanfm didn't have a video thumbnailer. I read how a lot of people who use LXDE install Thunar instead. PCmanfm's maker should include a video thumbnailer.
It really wouldn't be lightweight if it did. I gained 20 MB of disk space by removing thumbnails from Thunar. Since the goal of LXDE and all it's components is to be as lightweight as possible, it doesn't make sense for them to pack it with features like that.

Still experimenting,
Robin
richyrich

Re: Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Post by richyrich »

Hi Robin, looks like your experimenting is taking you in very interesting directions . . :D

mintnoob, all downloaded from xfce-look.org. The Fuzzy theme, once installed, is available in both appearance/style (which includes the panel), and the window manager style. I changed the font in the window manager theme - personal preference :mrgreen:
Xfce-desktop.jpg
EDIT : Forgot to mention, that I do not have ANY compositing turned on.
mintnoob

Re: Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Post by mintnoob »

I just want to say that I don't think Xfce was the reason my wifi mouse wasn't working good on it. I think it's just my wifi is getting old (or just sucks).

Because files on the Xfce desktop don't automatically erase after drag&dropping them to a folder just aggravated my problem caused by my wifi mouse.

As I stated in my OP, Xfce worked solid and is a great distro which I would gladly go back to if the other DE's I'm trying out don't work for me.

If any Xfce developers are reading this, one other little grumble I had was adding apps to the panel was a pain. I know drag&drop to the panel might add too much weight to it's speed, but it could really use an easier method of adding apps to the panel.

I'm using KDE right now and its method of right-clicking on an apps icon to add it to the panel is really convenient. That method doesn't seem as resource-intense as the drag&drop method on Gnome, but I'm not a developer, so what would I know?!
vrkalak

Re: Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Post by vrkalak »

mintnoob wrote: If any Xfce developers are reading this, one other little grumble I had was adding apps to the panel was a pain. I know drag&drop to the panel might add too much weight to it's speed, but it could really use an easier method of adding apps to the panel.
I am a member of the Xfce Forums and, also, subscribe to the Xfce Mailing List ... the Xfce Devs are well aware of this. Hopefully, they listen to their members and read all the 'bug' reports. :?
We'll see what changes and developments, the new official release of Xfce 4.7 brings? I think the newest development release of Xfce, is at 4.6.3?
cyberfella

Re: Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Post by cyberfella »

i loved the linux mint 7 xfce community edition, it was solid as a rock, never crashed or did random weird things and everything worked. 8 doesn't. i've lost my "start button" off the panel, the screen goes blank and hangs the session, and theres no "skip all" option in thunar when merging lots of files, unlike gnome. gutted. i love xfce, but its back to gnome for me cos 8 doesn't behave itself.
mintnoob

Re: Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Post by mintnoob »

vrkalak wrote:I am a member of the Xfce Forums and, also, subscribe to the Xfce Mailing List ... the Xfce Devs are well aware of this. Hopefully, they listen to their members and read all the 'bug' reports.
I hope they do. It would be really beneficial to Xfce.
mintnoob

Re: Left Xfce - respectful reasons why

Post by mintnoob »

cyberfella wrote:i loved the linux mint 7 xfce community edition, it was solid as a rock, never crashed or did random weird things and everything worked. 8 doesn't. i've lost my "start button" off the panel, the screen goes blank and hangs the session, and theres no "skip all" option in thunar when merging lots of files, unlike gnome. gutted. i love xfce, but its back to gnome for me cos 8 doesn't behave itself.
Why not just go back to 7 Xfce? Unless Gnome works good on your computer. I had problems with it on my laptop for some weird reason. Otherwise I liked Gnome's features.
Locked

Return to “Xfce”