As someone who has always used KDE, I would like to say one thing...

XFCE IS FAST AS SH**

... That is all

Glad you like it. I don't even want to imagine what $^£%&£ words you'd use if you tried i3 window manager

You know I hear that a lot but I really don't notice much difference bewteen the two. If you disable all the unnecessary services in kde and change the default file browser... all feels about the same. It's just the hawthorne effect.

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Yeah, but that's the key. Disabling all the unnecessary fluff. MOST people don't do that, and so they see KDE as being rather sluggish. It doesn't help that just about every distro that defaults to KDE (Kubuntu, Fedora KDE, OpenSuse) ships with a "everything and the kitchen sink...and then maybe a few more things as well" mentality and throws EVERYTHING they can into it, so the casual user that just uses it the way it's preconfigured sees it as slow.

Yea, but that's kinda the point eh? XFCE runs like a rocket straight outta the box. I don't have to spend time removing fluff. There shouldn't be any fluff. It should be clean, straight forward, fast, and rock stable. Isn't that the point of using Linux?

Xfce 4.8 also works GREAT with Compiz, given the real transparency support in the panel and terminal...

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Not for me. The points of using Linux are (at least in my eyes) using free(as in speech and in beer) software and having the choice what to use. If you are fine with XFCE, well, good for you, run it. If that is even to heavy for you go with LXDE or one of the WMs. Or may be you are more the user that likes all the eye-candy, then go for KDE or Compiz or both. Or may you like the tablet-style, use Unity or Gnome 3.
If that all doesn't fit you, adapt the available resources to your needs. I, for example, use XFCE, but with Xmonad instead of xfwm4, and I am very happy with that. Before I used a "custom" DE made from Openbox, AWN and some other programs.
That are the points of Linux, as said at least in my eyes. Make from it what fits your needs.

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KDE 4.7 is the fastest version of KDE 4.xx yet to be released, but even after stripping out the evil triplets, Xfce 4.6.2 is still faster.

I've given up, for now, on Xfce 4.8. I've tried it, repeatedly, on two different boxes and problems continue to pop up. It is in need of serious work before it is stable enough to be included in a Slackware release.

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I agree XFCE is great but it's just not polished enough, YET.

KDE could be so perfect if the KDE team could stick a little more to the slackware mentality that less is more and quality is #1. It's a novel concept that can be applied to so many areas of life.

Indeed. I suppose you're right. I just sometimes get caught up in the idea behind Slackware. Power in simplicity and stability.

I used to use gnome. I switched to xfce maybe 3-4 years ago. But with every new release I always run kde on at least one computer for a couple of months to try it out. I always go back to xfce because kde is so much slower in my experience. For example, with 13.37 I installed on an office computer used by multiple users running their own kde sessions. I started with kde because I didn't have to install anything else to have that functionality. However switching between sessions was ridiculously slow, so much that I sometimes just killed sessions from impatience and re-logged in. So I installed gdm using slackbuilds.org, switched all the sessions to xfce, and switching between user sessions became very fast.

Where is a good guide to optimizing kde for speed?

Brian

I installed Robby Workman's version on my primary laptop about a month ago and have had no problems.

Brian

XFce is marginally faster at times over KDE, but KDE can use OpenGL extensions to assist with rendering, so in reality it can be about the same performance. However it really comes down to preference, and for some XFce is a bit more user friendly as a desktop and easier to migrate into.

I've switched to using Openbox WM rather than a full desktop. The LXDE desktop (based on Openbox) tends to run smoother on my netbook than XFCE. (note, I use Crunchbang)
It probably depends on a combination of hardware and personal needs as to which is best though.

Hardware can definitely affect many things. It really comes down to resources. Netbook is a good example of a system that needs less to do more.