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Xfce: Alternative to GNOME/KDE

Posted by Hemos on from the the-more-the-merrier dept.

tintin writes "While GNOME and KDE get most of the attention from the user and distributions, other alternatives should not be left out. The interview with Olivier Fourdan of Xfce points out one lightweight alternative, XFce. To get more information on Xfce, go to xfce home page"

2 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Er, so what's the point? by JabberWokky · · Score: 5
    that's just one of the flaws with the open source, model I guess -- we have dozens of teams reinventing the wheel and none building the car.

    Actually, given the nature of open source, each time somebody reinvents the wheel, it just gives another option for our car.

    Or, to put it in precise, real-world terms: each time somebody writes a new window manager, we have another option for our desktop.

    I've been using KDE 2.0 since the early alphas. The very early versions (out of CVS) were buggy, and a buggy WM can knock you out. (POI - I was using some KDE 1.1 apps, some KDE 2.0 apps - they coexist just fine).

    So, what did I do? I switched the Window Manager to BlackBox, a very nice lightweight WM that works wonderfully. I'll stay in it until KDE 2.0 is officially released, and possibly afterwards: I happen to like it.

    Of course, most people would agree that the KDE Window Manager is much more advanced... it allows fancy theming (BlackBox just allows some nice color gradiants), and a nice launch bar and other such "modern" GUI features.

    But tastes vary, and I happen to have gotten used to BlackBox, and may very well keep using it one KDE 2.0 final comes out.

    To use your analogy: I bought a KDE car... but tricked it out with nice custom alloy wheels.

    --
    Evan

    --
    "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
  2. Re:Er, so what's the point? by teraflop+user · · Score: 5

    For me, the point is that it is small.

    While I like GNOME a lot, and KDE 2 looks great, if I had a machine with less than 48M I wouldn't try to run either. Windowmaker, Afterstep, and XFce are all good options in such a case.