Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

[MintyFresh2022]

I've recently found myself in a bit of a conundrum, trying to decide between Linux Mint Cinnamon, MATE, and XFCE as my preferred desktop environment. Each of these options has its unique features and advantages, making the decision-making process quite challenging. I thought it would be great to initiate a discussion here and gather insights from the community.

Linux Mint Cinnamon:
Starting off with Cinnamon, it's known for its sleek and modern interface. The desktop environment is built on top of GNOME and offers a user-friendly experience. The desktop effects and animations are smooth, and the overall aesthetic appeal is hard to ignore. However, some argue that Cinnamon might be a bit resource-heavy compared to its counterparts. Has anyone noticed any performance issues with Cinnamon on lower-end hardware?

Linux Mint MATE:
MATE, being a continuation of the GNOME 2 desktop environment, brings a sense of familiarity to those who were fans of the classic GNOME interface. It's praised for its simplicity, efficiency, and excellent performance on older hardware. The absence of flashy effects might appeal to users who prioritize system responsiveness over visual flair. How has your experience been with MATE, especially when it comes to customization and resource usage?

Linux Mint XFCE:
XFCE, known for its lightweight nature, is often recommended for older or less powerful hardware. Its simplicity doesn't compromise functionality, and it provides a clean and efficient desktop environment. XFCE is highly customizable, and users who prefer a more minimalistic approach might find it ideal. Have you encountered any limitations or issues with XFCE in terms of customization or compatibility with specific applications?

I'm particularly interested in hearing about your personal experiences with these desktop environments. How does each one fare in terms of stability, customization options, and resource usage? If you've switched between them, what motivated your decision, and what were the key factors that influenced your choice?

Here's some videos I found:

Cinnamon vs MATE: https://youtu.be/gVg6dBxAtPs
Cinnamon vs XFCE: https://youtu.be/5KWWuye8j_4
MATE vs XFCE: https://youtu.be/yvPc1oSmQbY

[JerryF]

I first started with Cinnamon. Yes, it's sleek, but I wanted to experiment with the other two desktop environments.

I then tried MATE. For some reason which I really can't explain, I did care for it much.

Then, I tried Xfce. I liked the interface and that you can customize the desktop easily.

Even though my laptop can easily run any of Mint's desktop environments, I prefer Xfce.

[MintyFresh2022]

I plan on looking at Compiz on MATE next. It looks neat.

[Schultz]

When I switched over to Linux, I tried all three, plus KDE. I chose Mate. Eight years later, I'm still on Mate.

[MintyFresh2022]

I think I'm about to jump ship to MATE as well. Thanks for the reply.

[Hoser Rob]

I used Xfce for some time. But this also meant I watched it get more bloated over time and really just as clunky to use. The only thing that really improved in function IMO was the file manager. However, Xfce now takes about 450Mb at boot. Which is pretty much the same as KDE, which is my daily driver and the most powerful DE I've used. However, Mint doesn't support KDE any more and if I want to use a DE I'm going to use a distro that supports it.

I ran Cinnamon for a while but I 't really like it. It just doesn't have the functionality I'd expect of something that uses so many resources. E.g. why does Cinnamon not have redshift built in? Even if you optimize/strip it down it's still no lightweight. IMHO its mostly sizzle and not much steak.

So for Mint I'd use Mate. It's refreshingly honest.

[wwblm]

Cinnamon just feels comfortable to me. Like XFCE as well. Doubt a person would go wrong with any of them. I'm still in the process of trying to get as much as I can out of what I'm using. As Cinnamon is the flagship, and I have such enormous respect for the Mint team, I'm going to stick with it as my DD. Hoping to set up a machine to run several things via QEMU/KVM soon. Will probably use XFCE for that unless I discover something even lighter that lets me get the whole VM thing sorted as easily as Mint does.

[billyswong]

The absence of flashy effects might appeal to users who prioritize system responsiveness over visual flair.

In fact, one of the major reasons I choose MATE is the availability of Compiz, which can provide more "flashy effects" than Cinnamon ever would. I set up Desktop Cube for workspace switching, a hotkey for exactly 2x magnification to the whole screen, another hotkey for scrollwheel-tuned opacity per window. The last feature is less used now after I upgraded my monitor from 1280 width to 1920 width, but still nice to have.

The codebase of Compiz is old enough that any modern iGPU is mightily powerful to it. So no responsivity problem so far.

[MintyFresh2022]

I used Xfce for some time. But this also meant I watched it get more bloated over time and really just as clunky to use. The only thing that really improved in function IMO was the file manager. However, Xfce now takes about 450Mb at boot. Which is pretty much the same as KDE, which is my daily driver and the most powerful DE I've used. However, Mint doesn't support KDE any more and if I want to use a DE I'm going to use a distro that supports it.

I ran Cinnamon for a while but I 't really like it. It just doesn't have the functionality I'd expect of something that uses so many resources. E.g. why does Cinnamon not have redshift built in? Even if you optimize/strip it down it's still no lightweight. IMHO its mostly sizzle and not much steak.

So for Mint I'd use Mate. It's refreshingly honest.

So I saw were switched to linux made a video to install KDE Plasma on Mint. Has anyone tried that? Wouldn't Discover fight with Software Manager or would you just need to choose which one you want to use long term?

[MintyFresh2022]

The absence of flashy effects might appeal to users who prioritize system responsiveness over visual flair.

In fact, one of the major reasons I choose MATE is the availability of Compiz, which can provide more "flashy effects" than Cinnamon ever would. I set up Desktop Cube for workspace switching, a hotkey for exactly 2x magnification to the whole screen, another hotkey for scrollwheel-tuned opacity per window. The last feature is less used now after I upgraded my monitor from 1280 width to 1920 width, but still nice to have.

The codebase of Compiz is old enough that any modern iGPU is mightily powerful to it. So no responsivity problem so far.

Yea, the desktop cube is awesome.

[Hoser Rob]

...So I saw were switched to linux made a video to install KDE Plasma on Mint. Has anyone tried that? Wouldn't Discover fight with Software Manager or would you just need to choose which one you want to use long term?

Nope. There are a ton of videos made by yahoos who can't get a real computer job but think they know more than the devs do. Using multiple desktops installed is a terrible idea. If you want to use KDE and like UBuntu based distros try Neon.

You can actually install KDE Plasma on ANY Linux distro AFAIK. Do not be impressed that someone did it in Mint. But that doesn't mean it's be a good idea.

[MintyFresh2022]

...So I saw were switched to linux made a video to install KDE Plasma on Mint. Has anyone tried that? Wouldn't Discover fight with Software Manager or would you just need to choose which one you want to use long term?

Nope. There are a ton of videos made by yahoos who can't get a real computer job but think they know more than the devs do. Using multiple desktops installed is a terrible idea. If you want to use KDE and like UBuntu based distros try Neon.

You can actually install KDE Plasma on ANY Linux distro AFAIK. Do not be impressed that someone did it in Mint. But that doesn't mean it's be a good idea.

ah, thanks for the input. I wanted to get Neon unstable, but kinda scared lol

[ajgreeny]

It's been Xfce for me since about 2010 or whenever it was that Ubuntu moved away from gnome 2 to Unity which I couldn't get to like at all.
I find Xfce very configurable and I can change its default look to something I like very quickly now.

I love its simplicity and though some people think it is old style looking, I find my highly configured desktop a delight to use and fast as well,as good looking though I accept that is very subjective and other users may not agree.

The new version of thunar file manager in Xfce 4.18 is a delight to me and I use many custom actions, and have done for many years. Its ability to turn into a twin pane view is also a huge leap forward as well, making moving things around in the GUI so much faster than previous versions

[Night Wing]

I have been using Mint with Xfce since 2013. It is very good for older machines, but it is great for newer machines as well.

I rebuilt one of my desktop towers discarding old hardware and replacing it with all new hardware inside of it which you can see below. Combined with my ISP's download speed of 925 Mbps and an upload speed of 25 Mbps using an ethernet cable, Xfce is a speed demon with 32 GB of memory.

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-89-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.4.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1
    tk: Gtk 3.24.33 wm: xfwm dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.2 Victoria base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: MAG B660M MORTAR WIFI DDR4 (MS-7D42) v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 1.20 date: 02/28/2022
CPU:
  Info: 12-core (8-mt/4-st) model: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700K bits: 64 type: MST AMCP
    arch: Alder Lake rev: 2 cache: L1: 1024 KiB L2: 12 MiB L3: 25 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 4657 high: 4926 min/max: 800/4900:5000:3800 cores: 1: 4894 2: 4907 3: 4800
    4: 4804 5: 4899 6: 4900 7: 4895 8: 4800 9: 4900 10: 4926 11: 4897 12: 4871 13: 4885 14: 4792
    15: 4862 16: 4906 17: 3803 18: 3796 19: 3803 20: 3801 bogomips: 144383
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel AlderLake-S GT1 vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: i915 v: kernel ports:
    active: none empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2, HDMI-A-3, HDMI-A-4 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:4680
  Device-2: AMD Turks [Radeon HD 7600 Series] vendor: PC Partner driver: radeon v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: HDMI-A-5 empty: DVI-D-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 1002:675b
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: ati,modesetting,radeon unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: radeon display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: HDMI-4 mapped: HDMI-A-5 model: ViewSonic VX3276-FHD res: 1920x1080 dpi: 70
    diag: 801mm (31.5")
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD TURKS (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.15.0-89-generic LLVM 15.0.7)
    v: 4.5 Mesa 23.0.4-0ubuntu1~22.04.1 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
    chip-ID: 8086:7ad0
  Device-2: AMD Turks HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6500/6600 / 6700M Series] vendor: PC Partner
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1
    chip-ID: 1002:aa90
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-89-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: N/A bus-ID: 00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:7af0
  IF: wlo1 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 4000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8125
  IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX201 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-14:6 chip-ID: 8087:0026
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 3.0 lmp-v: 5.2
    sub-v: 356b
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.52 GiB used: 24.69 GiB (2.7%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 870 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    serial: <filter>
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Samsung model: SSD 870 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.89 GiB used: 24.68 GiB (5.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdb1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 16 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
  Device-1: 1-2:2 info: Micro Star MYSTIC LIGHT type: HID driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 1462:7d42
  Hub-2: 1-3:3 info: Genesys Logic Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 05e3:0610
  Device-1: 1-3.1:5 info: Logitech Illuminated Keyboard type: Keyboard,Mouse
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 046d:c318
  Device-2: 1-3.2:8 info: Pixart Imaging Optical Mouse type: Mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid
    rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s chip-ID: 093a:2510
  Hub-3: 1-11:4 info: Genesys Logic Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 05e3:0608
  Device-1: 1-11.3:7 info: Realtek 3-in-1 (SD/SDHC/SDXC) Card Reader type: Mass Storage
    driver: ums-realtek rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 0bda:0153
  Device-2: 1-14:6 info: Intel AX201 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb rev: 2.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 8087:0026
  Hub-4: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 9 rev: 3.1 speed: 20 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
  Hub-5: 2-2:2 info: Genesys Logic USB3.2 Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.2 speed: 10 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 05e3:0625
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 27.8 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 32.5 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: apt: 2182
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com victoria main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
  Processes: 365 Uptime: 30m Memory: 31.13 GiB used: 1.71 GiB (5.5%) Init: systemd v: 249
  runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12 Client: Unknown python3.10 client inxi: 3.3.13

[Jymm]

I tried Cinnamon first and didn't like the panel applets. I tried Mate next and loved it. I had been a gnome 2 user and like the ease of personalization, the look and the themes. Never looked back. I find Xfce confusing for personalization.

[rickNS]

I plan on looking at Compiz on MATE next. It looks neat.

Long time user of Mint (since V.9 W. KDE) and MATE since V. 13 when it was introduced, (only used LTS versions) and of course compiz is my favorite window manager.

I like the useful "Enhanced Zoom Desktop" activated with KB shortcut CTRL + up/down arrows.
And I like the not so useful but nice "burn on close" with the right settings, seen here at about 2:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny5Uy81smpE
And of course the cube with transparency, and skydome picture on rotate,

In fact, one of the major reasons I choose MATE is the availability of Compiz, which can provide more "flashy effects" than Cinnamon ever would.

+1

[rickNS]

Some other reasons I prefer MATE over Cinnamon,

1, The menu
a, you can find a programs real name simply by right clicking on an app, and select edit properties. You can modify the launch command here to. In Cinnamon, you have to, as Root open /usr/share/applications, right click on the App, open with > text editor, and edit the .desktop file. Or edit the menu equally as long.

b, the MATE menu 'remembers' your location, say in the all category you used take screenshot, and want to use it again, when you open up the menu you are right there. In cinnamon it always opens at the top, and you need to scroll down.

2, Adding folders to panel, This question gets asked on here from time to time, with MATE you can just drag, and drop, done. Yes possible in Cinnamon, but quite a process.

3, MATE (and xfce) can use Compiz, cinnamon can not (a deal breaker for me). Cinnamons effects (eye-candy) really pale in comparrison to compiz.
And compiz is not just eye candy, we see many threads on this forum regarding window placement, e.g. someone wants application X to open in a certain location, with compiz this is very easy to do.

4, Scaling up text size, also see threads about this, with MATE you can control the DPI by increments of 1, Look in Appearance > fonts > Details.

[billyswong]

4, Scaling up text size, also see threads about this, with MATE you can control the DPI by increments of 1, Look in Appearance > fonts > Details.

I think this one is a mistake of Cinnamon GUI dialog. If one edit the backend dconf/gsettings, one can set arbitrary text scale factor in Cinnamon. In fact, the large text option in accessibility set the number to 1.25. However the font selection dialog restrict it to 1 decimal place and causes a unnecessary and harmful restriction.

[Hoser Rob]

I plan on looking at Compiz on MATE next. It looks neat.

Myself I wouldn't touch it. And according to this the 0.9 version maintained by Ubuntu is not an improvement on the 0.8 version: https://wiki.debian.org/Compiz

[Hoser Rob]

...So I saw were switched to linux made a video to install KDE Plasma on Mint. Has anyone tried that? Wouldn't Discover fight with Software Manager or would you just need to choose which one you want to use long term?

Nope. There are a ton of videos made by yahoos who can't get a real computer job but think they know more than the devs do. Using multiple desktops installed is a terrible idea. If you want to use KDE and like UBuntu based distros try Neon.

You can actually install KDE Plasma on ANY Linux distro AFAIK. Do not be impressed that someone did it in Mint. But that doesn't mean it's be a good idea.

ah, thanks for the input. I wanted to get Neon unstable, but kinda scared lol

WHy try the unstable version? The stable LTS version would be fine. Every bit as stable as Mint or Ubuntu.