Software Alternatives & Reviews

Xfce Reviews

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.

Social recommendations and mentions

We have tracked the following product recommendations or mentions on Reddit and HackerNews. They can help you see what people think about Xfce and what they use it for.
  • Only one of the four XFCE4's desktop/workspace got hung and now I can't use wallpaper
    Another resource for help might be xfce.org. It's a low traffic site, but responsive. - Source: Reddit / 8 days ago
  • A few problems/qustions that I personally have regarding linux as a noob user.
    That's neither a distro nor a linux question TBH and yes, of course you can remove a distro theme. Just use the configuration tools available. Documentation for the desktop environment can be found on the development websites of said DE's so kde.org gnome.org xfce.org etc.etc. Ad nauseam. - Source: Reddit / 10 days ago
  • A good day, and, a noob day
    Xfce: quite similar to Mate, but it has nothing to do with it or GNOME. It is also lightweight and you can also rearrange the panels and it's contents to what you like, but by default it has a top panel with a windowsy-like interface, but with a sort of dock on the bottom. Has bit more options and it is beloved by many becasue it is meant to be a modular system, meaning that the panels, window manager, panel... - Source: Reddit / 15 days ago
  • Need Mentorship
    Xfce: Developed by a worldwide community, it is a more modest and simpler desktop environment. It is designed to be lightweight, so it is perfect for older or low power computers (or to leave more room for your apps). It is also customizable (not as much as Plasma, but much more than GNOME). - Source: Reddit / 3 months ago
  • what desktop manager do you prefer?
    You can try xfce! It's a balance between customization and lightweightness Btw, it's not called a desktop manager, it's called a desktop environment. - Source: Reddit / 7 months ago
  • Everything is so small i cant read Ubuntu 20.04
    That suggests you may be running Xfce and not GNOME (the default desktop environment). AFAIR Xfce doesn't provide a scaling option in its settings. You'll probably have to use xrandr directly. - Source: Reddit / 9 months ago
  • Dracula theme problem
    This looks like either a bug in xfce's theme engine or a bug in the theme. I'd report this directly to both parties (the dracula maintainers and the xfce maintainers). - Source: Reddit / 9 months ago
  • First time using pure Debian
    So sounds like GNOME is one thing. Less / not applicable if you use XFCE ... Debian 11.3, the latest stable point release, has the latest XFCE 4.16. Https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/release-notes/ch-whats-new.en.html#idm120 Https://xfce.org/. - Source: Reddit / 10 months ago
  • New Submission
    { "id": 0, "name": "XFCE", "description": "XFCE mouse or Xue is a mascot of the XFCE desktop environment.", "website": "https://xfce.org/", "subreddit": "/r/xfce", "center": [ 66.5, 754.5 ], "path": [ [ 70.5, 751.5 ], [ 61.5, 752.5 ], [ 62.5, 757.5 ... - Source: Reddit / 12 months ago
  • What's the good window manager for a beginner?
    If you want a full-featured solution, you're talking about a desktop environment. You have several good options there: GNOME, Plasma, and Cinnamon are very popular (if a bit more resource heavy) ones. Popular lighter desktop environments include XFCE and MATE. - Source: Reddit / about 1 year ago
  • VirtualBox on Artix (Arch-based Linux): Install
    Well, let's start the application. In my desktop environment, Xfce4, the menu is in [System] - [Oracle VM VirtualBox]:. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Text/browser layouts too small. Solutions?
    Manjaro comes with 3 different desktop environments, so is yours gnome desktop environment, which looks like this: https://www.gnome.org/. Or is it kde, which looks like this https://kde.org/plasma-desktop/. Or is it xfce, and this one looks like this https://xfce.org/. - Source: Reddit / about 1 year ago
  • How good could Linux be if there was only one big distro?
    Don't like the desktop or windows manager? You can replace them with gnome, kde plasma, xfce or about half a dozen others. - Source: Reddit / over 1 year ago
  • What is the default theme
    If you take a look at XFCE's website, the default theme is Greybird with a mix of Adwaita and the proper Greybird as the xfwm4 theme. - Source: Reddit / over 1 year ago
  • What is the default theme
    Adwaita I believe is the default, that's what it looks like on xfce.org. - Source: Reddit / over 1 year ago

External sources with reviews and comparisons of Xfce

9 Best Linux Desktop Environments to Use in 2023
XFCE is compatible with a wide range of Linux distros. Xfce does not offer sophisticated modifications, yet it is the most performance-oriented desktop environment. It’s a compact desktop environment with a comprehensive user interface. XFCE can be installed on a variety of UNIX systems. It has been reported to compile on Ubuntu, NetBSD, Solaris, Cygwin, OpenBSD, and macOS X, as well as x86, PPC, Sparc, and Alpha...
The 8 Best Ubuntu Desktop Environments (22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux)
Cinnamon desktop is another fork of the GNOME desktop. It has a rather conservative design and is similar to Xfce. It is uncomplicated to learn and from this reason might be a good choice for someone who is new to Linux.
Top 10 Best Desktop Environments in 2020
Lightweight and Low-resource can be considered the same, but in this case, there’s a difference. XFCE is a lightweight desktop environment even with a whole lot of built-in customizations and UI perks. LXDE, on the other hand, is a DE that is built to be as low-resource as possible. You certainly can add animations, but they need to be downloaded separately.
The 12 Best Linux Desktop Environments
At first look, Xfce looks a bit older and boring, but we assure you that your mindset will change after unpacking it because it is one of the best Linux lightweight desktop environments available. Xfce is becoming one of the most reliable choices, but it has a comparatively small team for development that results in late updates. Nowadays, many users think that Xfce is an amazing alternative to MATE because Xfce’s...
The Best Desktop Environments For Linux (We Tested Them So That You Don’t Have To)
Xfce is light on resources but proves to provide a feature-rich user experience. If you need a performance-centric desktop environment without needing advanced customizations, Xfce is a great choice to go with.

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