XFCE vs LXDE

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1

I’ve recently installed oS 12.2 in an old celeron test machine, so that I chose LXDE. It’s a nice DE, very adequate. I should have set more test partitions, but didn’t, and I’m seeing many posts of people using XFCE, but I don’t have a machine available right now to test it.

From screenshots XFCE looks a bit like gnome 2 (at least the panel is on top) while openSUSE’s LXDE does feel more like KDE IMHO.

Could someone comment on how they compare in terms of resource requirements (I understand both are light), usability, “tweakability”, etc.?

I know this is somewhat subjective, but I’d appreciate any comments/opinions on the subject.

TIA

2

I have experimented with both. Of the two, I prefer XFCE. And yes, it is a bit like gnome 2, though lighter.

I would guess that the resource requirements are not greatly different. Perhaps more disk space for XFCE.

You can have the XFCE panel on top or bottom - maybe that’s also true of LXDE (not sure). With opensuse, XFCE will start with the panel at the bottom.

And no, LXDE does not seem KDE-like in my opinion.

I was able to do more tweaking with XFCE (compared to LXDE) to get things the way that I like. But that might depend on what you want to tweak.

Note that I currently have KDE, Gnome, XFCE and LXDE installed here, though I mainly use KDE.

3

I use a bit of LXDE but since I am used to using xfce I am favoring it against LXDE
For me it is more customizable. I stll have a P4 machine with openSUSE 12.1 with
Xfce and LXDE and I don’t see much difference in quickness. Like the above post
Xfce takes more disk space than LXDE. With the panel, you can have as many panel
as you want and position it anywhere. On my newer machine I installed Xfce and mix some
kde stuff like kwin and a few apps.

Edit:
You can also run plasma with Xfce :wink:

4

Well, you do what who want with the look and feel of your desktop They both use gtk2 and can look pretty much the same (while KDE uses QT and Gnome3 GTK3).

I did compare the amount of RAM they use a long time ago (it was before Gnome3 time):

http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/install-boot-login/445611-would-like-confirm-problem-fact-bug.html#post2217138

I vote for LXDE … actually I vote for icewm. XFCE is a cheap - but very cheap Gnome - It hasn’t been ‘lightweight’ for years. I like to compare it with sparkling wine. It makes you sick but is not even Champagne* and is still too expansive for what it is. But, as you noticed, it is subjective. XFCE also works for sure, and some people are perfectly happy if they can get drunk with sparkling wine. I set up a lot of wms - and so I have to use them too - but when it gets to serious things and I have to concentrate of what I am doing, I just start icewm. I like openbox as well. LXDE actually uses openbox as window manager. Notice that some people use openbox instead of kwin with KDE … not sure how wise it is though.

  • Either drink Veuve-Clicquot … or lemonade. I guess I’m just a little too snobbish to really enjoy XFCE.
5

brunomcl wrote:
> I’ve recently installed oS 12.2 in an old celeron test machine, so that
> I chose LXDE. It’s a nice DE, very adequate. I should have set more test
> partitions, but didn’t, and I’m seeing many posts of people using XFCE,
> but I don’t have a machine available right now to test it.

Why do you need another machine? Just install XFCE on that machine and
select the session type when you login.

I use LXDE because it does just about enough and gets out of my way.

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Hi, thanks for all replies. They were helpful.