Which window manager? Metacity+/Xfwm4+/Compiz ?!?

[BowWow]

Using latest XFCE 20.1 linux mint and wondering which window manager to pick from the pull down menu in Desktop Settings?

I was having really bad screen tearing and unable to even install from the live USB until I reset it from "Xfwm4 + Compositing" to anything else.

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=325027&p=1952467#p1952467

I'm wondering though which of the available options is best? Not a gamer but do watch videos and usually use the laptop for email, browsing, etc.

Here are the options available to me:

• Metacity
  
  Metacity + Compositing
  
  Metacity + Compton
  
  
  Xfwm4
  
  Xfwm4 + Compositing (can't choose this as it result in tearing)
  
  Xfwm4 + Compton
  
  Compiz

Thank you in advance

[Hoser Rob]

As a start I'd set it to 'Xfwm4', which is the window manager with no compositing.

Hard to really say with zero hardware info, though. Paste the text output of inxi -Fxz run in the terminal. Always do this when asking support questions.

[BowWow]

Sorry, forgot to include hardware data, here's the output of inxi -Fxz

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-60-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa 
  base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 3505 v: 1.2.0 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Dell model: 05HPX6 v: X01 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.2.0 
  date: 10/08/2020 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 24.7 Wh condition: 42.0/42.0 Wh (100%) 
  model: BYD 0x48,0x30,0x41,0x45,0x6A,0x02,0x0012 status: Discharging 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3450U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx 
  bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen+ rev: 1 L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 33536 
  Speed: 1371 MHz min/max: 1400/2100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1344 2: 1334 
  3: 1349 4: 1337 5: 1222 6: 1222 7: 1348 8: 1364 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Picasso vendor: Dell driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
  bus ID: 04:00.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: amdgpu,ati 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD RAVEN (DRM 3.35.0 5.4.0-60-generic LLVM 11.0.0) 
  v: 4.6 Mesa 20.2.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Dell 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 04:00.1 
  Device-2: AMD Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor vendor: Dell 
  driver: N/A bus ID: 04:00.5 
  Device-3: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 04:00.6 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-60-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Dell 
  driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 02:00.0 
  IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter 
  vendor: Dell driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 03:00.0 
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  Device-3: Qualcomm Atheros type: USB driver: btusb bus ID: 3-2.4:3 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 267.77 GiB used: 65.34 GiB (24.4%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: KBG40ZNS256G NVMe KIOXIA 256GB size: 238.47 GiB 
  ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB vendor: Generic model: Flash Disk size: 29.30 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 159.46 GiB used: 12.62 GiB (7.9%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 36.9 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 36 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 0 
Info:
  Processes: 258 Uptime: 14h 31m Memory: 5.76 GiB used: 1.81 GiB (31.5%) 
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 
  inxi: 3.0.38 

[MrEen]

I learned early on to just use Xfwm4 from Pjotr's site as I had a weak system with no GPU. I've not had any issues or feel like I'm missing out on anything using this. But I don't play games other than gnome type games. If you want to play stuff on Steam, I don't know if this'll be good enough, but watching videos is fine this way.

[Pjotr]

I recommend Xfwm4 + Compton (preferred option) or plain Xfwm4 (fallback option).

[DraganTheMighty]

My cpu is Pentium G5400 with integrated graphics UHD 610. I tried all of them and had no problems on desktop usage with any of them. On watching video in some cases light tearing occured to all except Xfwm4 + Compton.
Avoid Compiz It's a monster with many settings and many things that can fail.

[rossdv8]

I tried them all then reverted to Compiz because on my system it gives me the smoothest and slickest overall performance, and I like to play with 'stuff'. Compiz does stuff very well.
I suspect that might change if Xfce goes the Wayland route though.