I know I've been creating some annoying threads. But I'm a newbie trying to migrate completely to linux from windows. So please bear with me.

I've tried Linux Mint and Ubuntu in GNOME and KDE. I find GNOME to be too ugly. It just looks like Windows 95 to me. Themes don't do it for me either.
KDE is much prettier but for some reason, full screen flash video doesn't work properly (only tried on linux mint 9 KDE) with both firefox and konqueror. Also, there is no sound for the flash videos.

So now I'm downloading Xubuntu. But before I try it out, I wanted to know if anyone runs xfce on a relatively new PC? I have a Intel core 2 duo @ 2 GHz with 4 GB RAM. Would it make sense using xfce on this?
According to a friend of mine (who is also a newbie), xfce is just a "watered down version GNOME". Is that true?
Also, what is unique about xfce?
I know I can google it all, but I find its much better to ask on a forum.

ALSO, I have another old PC : Pentium 3 800 MHz with 384 MB RAM
I want to use this computer to teach myself a basic linux distro like debian. Which desktop environment would be faster/better on this machine with debian? xfce or LXDE? I've heard that xfce isn't as lightweight as it claims to be.

Please help.

Hi,

Xfce is just one of the window managers out there. It is relatively lightweight and can run on just any pc. I've been using it for years. Currently on a machine with 2 dual core Intel's and 4G RAM. Over the years xfce has become less lightweight, but it still falls into that category, especially when you compare it to KDE and Gnome.

Xfce - homepage

If you are after a really lightweight WM try Fluxbox or Blackbox.

I find that Xfce is a nice balance between lightweight and functionality.

Hope this helps.

Openbox with tint2 is pretty good too. It's under 500KB including configurations on my system. I use it on my home PC and netbook.

Debian with Xfce or LXDE would be a fine choice for either of your computers. Lightweight desktop environments aren't just for old hardware; they are also for users who like a simple, uncluttered environment, regardless of hardware age.

Blackbox, WindowMaker, Fvwm, Enlightenment, Afterstep, Twm, Sawfish ...

@DJ Shaji: Why are these of interest and how do they compare to xfce?

Hate to seem like I'm nitpicking, but there's a difference between a desktop environment and just a window manager.

A desktop environment is a complete suite of software which includes a window manager, session manager, as well as a number of programs (e.g. productivity, games, etc.). Examples of these are Xfce, GNOME, KDE, etc.

A window manager is just that: there is nothing else with it. It just manages the window placement/overlapping and usually also provides a menu for accessing existing installed applications. No extra apps come with it, and session management is usually done manually (i.e. there usually isn't an option to "save the session", or whatever...not that I personally use that feature, but I'm just saying).

It's entirely possible to use a window manager in a desktop environment that is different from the one that came with it. One perfect example is Compiz: you can use it in GNOME, KDE, and yes, even Xfce (I do this myself ).

Hi,

True, on both accounts

Yep! And if you install only the core of say KDE you can also run programs like k3b from Xfce.

I personally use Xfce as a window manager I don't use any of the programs that come with it and like you I don't use the session thingy. Maybe I should switch to blackbox/fluxbox, but I'm so used to Xfce.......

I agree. What I do is use fluxbox, but I keep some apps from XFCE like the terminal and a few other things. You can also try LXDE like you said or icewm or just look around for others.

If your problem with Gnome is that you think it's ugly, reconfigure it! You can make it look like anything you fancy: see, for example, this
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/7168/desktopoq.png

Good point about Gnome; see http://gnome-look.org for some great examples of what is possible!

Please understand when comparing lightweight WM/DE options, once you reach a certain point, the difference in "footprint" is small compared with the applications you are running. In other words, you can make a bigger improvement by switching from OpenOffice to Abiword, or Firefox to Midori, than by switching from LXDE to Fluxbox (for example)

Not really. Xfce, like Gnome, uses the GTK widget toolkit - to create stuff like sliders and buttons and menus. (KDE uses the Qt toolkit.) And systems with XFCE frequently use a fair number of the same apps as Gnome


LXDE would be a great choice for that. You could consider it for your main PC too. It's no eye-candy fest, but it gives a sleek look with apps that do the important stuff without loads of options and features you need. There's an Ubuntu variant, Lubuntu.

A point to bear in mind about the *buntus: If you've installed one, you can easily add in other desktops. Install the "meta-packages"
ubuntu-desktop for Gnome
kubuntu-desktop for KDE
xubuntu-desktop for XFCE
lubuntu-desktop for LXDE
so you can have all four side-by-side, without needing to do a clean reinstall