[gentoo-desktop-research] XFCE4 as a desktop environment

[Fabien Fivaz]

Hi,

A month ago, the xfce project (http://www.xfce.org) release the 4th 
version of this desktop environment. I read an article about it and 
decided to install it. I was pleased to see that it was already in the 
portage tree. Compilation took some time (and since I already had gnome 
installed, it didn't had to compile all the gnome libraries. But 
compilations was fast (on a AMD 2200+). I ran it now for about two weeks 
and realy like it. I decided to share my experience with the list.

Some of the listed advantages of xfce is that it doesn't use much 
memory, somewhat half the amount used by KDE or Gnome. Design is nice: a 
toolbar at the bottom of the screen and a taskbar at top (which I found 
a bit disappointing at the beginning, but anyway, you can change it). It 
is "themable" (I don't like that, but you can easily make it look like a 
MacOSX running machine!) The bottom toolbar shows icons for Mozilla, 
Mozilla mail, xmms, a file manager (that is a bit strange at first), 
lock and exit, clock, help, settings and some other things.

For the last to weeks, I didn't got back to KDE on the three machine I 
have (a laptop, a home and a work computer). I'm using the next tools as 
desktop applications :

- Mozilla for web and mails
- Gnumeric as a spreadsheet
- Abiword as a word processor
- RhythmBox for my mp3 databank (never used iTunes, but RhythmBox is 
somewhat alike)
- XMMS for mp3 that are not yet in RhythmBox
- Grip for CD ripping
- EasyTag for tagging
- Gaim for instant messaging
- And other things.

I think that for a Linux newbie, it's a great desktop, especially if you 
don't have a really powerfull machine. I was disappointed by the fact 
that xfce doesn't seem to be included in the GRP cds...

Comments are welcome and questions also.

Fabien



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