Linux Mint Main Edition Continuing Xfce?

[rjrich]

I recall seeing an announcement that LMDE would be dropping KDE and Xfce versions and going with only MATE and Cinnamon. However, I thought I had also seen an announcement that the "main edition" of Linux Mint would be dropping Xfce as well, perhaps by the time LM 15 is released. Is this true or not? I have searched again for such an announcement and could not find one.

One reason I ask about Xfce is that I like "Gnome Classic", which emulates Gnome 2, but I wonder if it will remain available, given the lack of future support for it from Gnome and Ubuntu. Linux Mint also appears to favor Cinnamon over all other DEs, but I prefer MATE over Cinnamon because MATE is a fork of Gnome 2. Independent DEs such as KDE and Xfce would be expected to persist and remain available. However, I like Linux Mint Xfce right out of the box -- no tweaking is necessary to make it both aesthetic and functional. In contrast, I find that Xubuntu requires considerable tweaking to render the Xfce desktop presentable. Therefore, I do hope that Mint will continue to offer its own spin of Xfce in its main edition.

[Oscar799]

Mint Main Edition is continuing with Cinnamon,MATE,KDE and Xfce

[cwwgateway]

LMDE did drop Xfce (the KDE version never was official). Originally, Mint Xfce was switching completely to the Debian base (around the time of Mint 10/11 IIRC). Then the Ubuntu-based Mint Xfce came back with Mint 13, and LMDE Xfce was dropped recently.

With Gnome 3.8, Gnome Classic in its current form was dropped and replaced by a session that used Gnome Shell with some extensions. Mint actually currently recommends MATE to people because Cinnamon doesn't work on some hardware. I'd hope all 4 (Cinnamon, MATE, KDE, and Xfce) remain available, and they should for the foreseeable future. However, Xfce and KDE are established and functional, and they already had a userbase before Gnome 3/Shell.

I also enjoy Mint Xfce (although I was more a fan of LMDE Xfce), and I'm confident that the Ubuntu-based version will continue for a long while.