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Linux-DesktopEnv: Xfce Desktop Environment

 

Image from: https://logo-all.ru/4087-xfce-logo.html

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. Xfce embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and re-usability. It consists of a number of components that provide the full functionality one can expect of a modern desktop environment. They are packaged separately and you can pick among the available packages to create the optimal personal working environment. Another priority of Xfce is adherence to standards, specifically those defined at freedesktop.org.

— Xfce website

Xfce is one of the most beautiful and customizable Linux desktop environments available. It has many pre-built themes and many other themes to download from, even Zorin OS uses Xfce for its lite version. Xfce can be considered a mid-weight desktop environment (DE), compared to lightweight DEs (LXQt, LXDE) and heavier weight DEs (Gnome, KDE). 

    Xfce is based on the GTK toolkit and uses the Xfwm window manager. Its configuration is entirely mouse-driven, with the configuration files hidden from the casual user. Xfce does not feature any desktop animations, but Xfwm supports compositing.

    Applications From Xfce:

  • CD Burning application (xfburn) – A simple CD/DVD burning tool.
  • Dictionary (xfce4-dict) – allows you to search different kinds of dictionary services for words or phrases and shows you the result.
  • File Search Utility (catfish) – a versatile file search utility for the Xfce desktop
  • Image Viewer (ristretto) – Image viewer for the Xfce desktop
  • Media player (parole) – Media player for the Xfce desktop
  • Music Player Daemon (xfmpc) – A graphical GTK+ Music Player Daemon (MPD) client focusing on low footprint
  • Notification service (xfce4-notifyd) – Notification service for the Xfce desktop
  • Panel Profiles (xfce4-panel-profiles) – A simple application to manage Xfce panel layouts
  • Remote filesystem Utility (gigolo) – A frontend to easily manage connections to remote filesystems.
  • Screensaver Utility (xfce4-screensaver) – A simple, secure screen saver and locker.
  • Screenshot application (xfce4-screenshooter) – Take screenshots of your Xfce desktop
  • Taskmanager (xfce4-taskmanager) – Easy to use task manager
  • Terminal Emulator (xfce4-terminal) – Terminal emulator for the Xfce desktop
  • Text Editor (mousepad) – A simple text editor for Xfce
  • Volume Control & Mixer (xfce4-mixer) – A volume control application based on GStreamer & panel-plugin
  • Xfdashboard – Provides a Gnome shell-like dashboard for Xfce
    After testing out a few desktop environments, Xfce is one of the DEs that I am more comfortable with after I ditched LXQt and LXDE. Previously I used LXQt more for work-related and performance is more important than beauty. Especially it is easy to find a dark theme and easy to change wallpaper. 



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