Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Chat about anything related to Linux Mint
Forum rules
Do not post support questions here. Before you post read the forum rules. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Hoser Rob
Level 20
Level 20
Posts: 11796
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:57 am

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by Hoser Rob »

You can reasonable expect many if not most users of a particular desktop to say it's the best. Why don't you just dl all 3 Mint desktop editions, burn to a boot stick, and test them all yourself? See which one you like yourself. Just don't boot them from a DVD, that's top slow to get a feel for things.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
haanpm
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2016 4:01 pm

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by haanpm »

>Has anyone noticed any performance issues with Cinnamon on lower-end hardware?

For some reason from LM 21, Cinnamon didn't work well with my Intel i7 8559u / Intel Iris Plus 655 setup. Video 1080p / 1440p is jumpy / laggy. Not smooth at all.

>How has your experience been with MATE, especially when it comes to customization and resource usage?

MATE has a bug which have been there for some time: if the panel is on the top, system will not react to mouse clicks when the mouse cursor is on the first horizontal line of the screen. In practice the situation occurs when user clicks some app button (e.g. firefox) on the panel and the mouse cursor is on the first line of the screen. The system will not react. It's pretty annoying because i keep panel on the top.

>Have you encountered any limitations or issues with XFCE in terms of customization or compatibility with specific applications?

For the reasons mentioned above, i am using xfce. It works best with my system.

Mint-Y-Dark theme also works nicely with Xfce and looks great, modern and the system is very responsive. Whisker Menu is also TOP and for me better than Cinnamon/Mate home menu.

Every DE has its + and -. For me xfce has been best overall with LM21.

During LM20.X i used Cinnamon, which worked smooth with my system. But they changed something, which made LM21 laggy with my GPU. So Xfce for now.
billyswong
Level 8
Level 8
Posts: 2239
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:02 am

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by billyswong »

haanpm wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 7:26 pm MATE has a bug which have been there for some time: if the panel is on the top, system will not react to mouse clicks when the mouse cursor is on the first horizontal line of the screen. In practice the situation occurs when user clicks some app button (e.g. firefox) on the panel and the mouse cursor is on the first line of the screen. The system will not react. It's pretty annoying because i keep panel on the top.
Strange. I have never encountered that. My mouse/cursor works on panel on top on the first line of the screen. My panel is 24 pixels tall, in case that matter.
haanpm
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2016 4:01 pm

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by haanpm »

> Strange. I have never encountered that. My mouse/cursor works on panel on top on the first line of the screen. My panel is 24 pixels tall, in case that matter.

Yes, it seems that the bug doesn't affect every system.

Here is something about it
https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/window- ... e/23791/12

They don't speak about first horizontal line, but on my system when mouse cursor visits there, it activates the unresponsiveness.
User avatar
Jymm
Level 4
Level 4
Posts: 270
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2021 6:03 pm
Location: USA

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by Jymm »

My only complaint about the Mate Desktop is the panel applet for the battery refuses to load often, crashes often, and disappears only to reappear with many instances. The indicator applet complete doesn't show the batter percentage or time unless you hover the cursor over it which is very inconvenient. This happened on every OS's installation of Mate I have used, Ubuntu Mate, Parrot Mate, Sparky Mate, Sprial Mate and Debian Mate. The only OS that has solved the problem is Ubuntu Mate. You can enable the battery power settings with the Ayatana power indicator, then use dconf to enable showing the percentage, the time or both so you don't need the extra applet on the panel. I have don exactly the same thing on Mint Mate yet the percentage and/or battery time does no show, which is very important on laptops.
battery indicator
battery indicator
Indicator bar complete.png (38.39 KiB) Viewed 1288 times
Maybe Mint can solve this too?
User avatar
MiZoG
Level 8
Level 8
Posts: 2395
Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2018 8:30 pm
Location: Athens, Greece

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by MiZoG »

Jymm wrote:...
Ubuntu Mate, among a few other things that give it an edge over the rest of Mate distros, has its own notification area implementation patched with code from the main version of Ubuntu which makes it more compatible with several types of tray indicators.
User avatar
Jymm
Level 4
Level 4
Posts: 270
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2021 6:03 pm
Location: USA

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by Jymm »

It's not just the panel, another Mate problem is the thumbnails (album art) won't show on music files in caja. While Mint and Ubuntu Mate have solved the problem, Debian, Spiral, Parrot and Sparky have not. I install Thunar on those OS's, and once you open Thunar those music files show the thumbmails will then also show in Caja.. As of yet I can't figure out what is missing in Caja that causes that. I do a lot with music, so it can be a bit annoying but is not a deal breaker.
Still Mate is the only desktop I will use.
Linux_n00b
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Dec 30, 2023 3:29 pm

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by Linux_n00b »

HI , here are my old personal experiences and opinions with Xfce looooooong time ago and it created some PTSD to me
which means anyone's experience may wary, and all Desktop Environments and Windows Managers may and can be customized, some hard way to locate all the necessary configs and the way they need to be changed (but the setting will last long), or through GUI with easy slider or check box ( but it may be only temporary till you restart or just doesn't work or it may be changed through different application which you may not consider that it depends on)

the Xfce seemed light and some kind stable
configuration of settings was mostly work through config files , when used with GUI the setting would not work ,work only temporarily or work (there was RNG involved for sure)
configuration of the look was weird, at least 2 different application changing look (like the window border or background color of window or the buttons on the window and so on) but both of them seemed to work only partially (overwriting each others settings i guess ?)

anyway it all came down to application if they used gnome 3 or kde they then override what the xfce was set up to :/
so suddenly you got white window in dark themed environment :x
xfce back then even was described as bunch of applications that worked together and not as whole united environment
icons were used from different styles ( it felt like all was slapped together ) but was light

when it comes to Cinnemon the experience seems better even tho it may be more heavy , but still got lot of weird bugs
like the calculator , having 2 rows of minimalise , maximalise and close buttons black weird (missing color ?) border (picture attached)

also some apps seem to be in conflict with what ever is cinnamon using or setting up and showing on weird places ( hint/ note / tip bubbles)
for example i got applet for the panel to check on my fan speed and temperature ( on windows i could even directly through the status bar control the fan speed but not here ) the pop up bubble window sometimes shows out of the screen with only part of it showing so have to re-hover over it again or reset that applet
sometimes even the menu shrinked ( guess dragging and click when going with the mouse over the menu icon it auto-magicaly detected as shrinking the popup menu ) with the new linux mint 21.3 havent happened yet but gonna look out for it

but guess that is the only properly supported for linux mint

Mate and Xfce seem dead ( well in the normal app world they would be seen as dead, in linux world they could be still alive .... may be ?)
sine both these project have like half a year or more of no info on their social media or web sites and only updates info is on their git ( hub/ lab ) pages, but still some(3,4,5 +) months old, and also Linux Mint didn't seem to update them in the newest 21.3 so ...

my amateur guess is, it all comes to apps what they are using and what their dependency is,if they choose gnome 2 which cinnamon may not have settings for then it would go with the default ( i guess ) which doesn't fit to the overall esthetic
same with mate if you got gnome 2 environment but apps gonna depend on gnome 3 or KDE you gonna have weird behaviors or have to set up all those environments separately like in Xfce
but also all environments will have some weird quirks and places where they don't fit ... damn even mega corp like Microsoft are creating weird stuff ... mega weird stuff
well except apple they just don't give any chances XD and you gonna pay for it

...there will be dragons, armor up
Attachments
Screenshot from 2024-01-16 20-46-26.png
Just some stupid Linux n00b, waste of time and waste of space. Can't learn properly, is too slow in the head. Too stupid to understand, and too damaged to learn.
billyswong
Level 8
Level 8
Posts: 2239
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:02 am

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by billyswong »

Linux_n00b wrote: Tue Jan 16, 2024 4:09 pm Mate and Xfce seem dead ( well in the normal app world they would be seen as dead, in linux world they could be still alive .... may be ?)
sine both these project have like half a year or more of no info on their social media or web sites and only updates info is on their git ( hub/ lab ) pages, but still some(3,4,5 +) months old, and also Linux Mint didn't seem to update them in the newest 21.3 so ...
Mate looks busy working on Wayland support https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-wayland-session

Similar story for Xfce https://www.phoronix.com/news/Xfce-Wayland-Roadmap-2023

Your calculator screenshot looks like some forced-SSD customization that you forgot to remove. If you boot up a live USB, such bug definitely isn't there.
Linux_n00b
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Dec 30, 2023 3:29 pm

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by Linux_n00b »

billyswong wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2024 1:15 am
Linux_n00b wrote: Tue Jan 16, 2024 4:09 pm Mate and Xfce seem dead ( well in the normal app world they would be seen as dead, in linux world they could be still alive .... may be ?)
sine both these project have like half a year or more of no info on their social media or web sites and only updates info is on their git ( hub/ lab ) pages, but still some(3,4,5 +) months old, and also Linux Mint didn't seem to update them in the newest 21.3 so ...
Mate looks busy working on Wayland support https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-wayland-session

Similar story for Xfce https://www.phoronix.com/news/Xfce-Wayland-Roadmap-2023

Your calculator screenshot looks like some forced-SSD customization that you forgot to remove. If you boot up a live USB, such bug definitely isn't there.
can you give a hint how to remove forced-SSD costumization ? preferably, without uninstalling applications
would be nice having windows properly showing their borders and buttons
Just some stupid Linux n00b, waste of time and waste of space. Can't learn properly, is too slow in the head. Too stupid to understand, and too damaged to learn.
billyswong
Level 8
Level 8
Posts: 2239
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:02 am

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by billyswong »

Linux_n00b wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:10 pm can you give a hint how to remove forced-SSD costumization ? preferably, without uninstalling applications
would be nice having windows properly showing their borders and buttons
Check if you have gtk3-nocsd installed. If yes, uninstall it.

https://github.com/PCMan/gtk3-nocsd This project is a lot more dead-like than the Mate and Xfce you discussed.
Linux_n00b
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Dec 30, 2023 3:29 pm

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by Linux_n00b »

billyswong wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:16 pm
Linux_n00b wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:10 pm can you give a hint how to remove forced-SSD costumization ? preferably, without uninstalling applications
would be nice having windows properly showing their borders and buttons
Check if you have gtk3-nocsd installed. If yes, uninstall it.

https://github.com/PCMan/gtk3-nocsd This project is a lot more dead-like than the Mate and Xfce you discussed.
Thanks for the tip , that worked
... but sadly some apps still seem be depending on this dead-like dependency
seems PaleMoon was gonna use that
( was hoping to test PaleMoon out, but couldn't bring it to not crash the display server or cinnamon or what ever it took down )
so gonna keep a look what other apps gonna break
Attachments
Screenshot from 2024-01-17 21-25-12.png
Screenshot from 2024-01-17 22-44-53.png
Screenshot from 2024-01-17 22-52-58.png
Just some stupid Linux n00b, waste of time and waste of space. Can't learn properly, is too slow in the head. Too stupid to understand, and too damaged to learn.
billyswong
Level 8
Level 8
Posts: 2239
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:02 am

Re: Cinnamon vs MATE vs XFCE

Post by billyswong »

rdepends is not showing the full picture.

Code: Select all

$ apt show unity-session
Package: unity-session
Version: 42.0-1ubuntu2
Priority: optional
Section: universe/gnome
Source: gnome-session
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Original-Maintainer: Debian GNOME Maintainers <pkg-gnome-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Installed-Size: 82.9 kB
Provides: x-session-manager
Depends: dbus-user-session, gnome-session-bin (<< 43~), gnome-session-bin (>= 42.0-1ubuntu2), gnome-session-common (= 42.0-1ubuntu2), systemd (>= 231-9git1~), unity, unity-settings-daemon
Recommends: gtk3-nocsd, rhythmbox-plugin-zeitgeist, session-migration, thunderbird-gnome-support, zeitgeist-datahub
Breaks: gnome-session-bin (<< 3.37.0-2ubuntu1~), hud (<< 14.10+17.10.20170619), unity (<< 7.5.0+17.10.20170619), unity-gtk-module (<< 0.0.0+17.04.20170918), unity-settings-daemon (<< 15.04.1+17.04.20170619)
Replaces: gnome-session-bin (<< 3.37.0-2ubuntu1~), ubuntu-session (<< 3.24.1-0ubuntu2)
Download-Size: 6,878 B
APT-Sources: http://free.nchc.org.tw/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64 Packages
Description: Unity session, previous ubuntu default experience.
 This package contains the required components for the Unity session.
 It can be started from a display manager such as LightDM.
gtk3-nocsd is just a "Recommends".

Your computer is extremely unlikely to have unity-session installed anyway. rdepends by default does not filter out packages that are NOT installed in your computer.

No experience in Palemoon though.
Post Reply

Return to “Chat about Linux Mint”