I'm ditching XFCE and installing MATE

dusthillresident · 2021-10-06 14:47:25

CSD was the last straw for me. I'm posting this because fuck it, I'm making my voice heard for once.

ToZ · 2021-10-06 17:20:27

I don't think you are going to get away from CSD with mate. They will still display there. Either you move to KDE or you use a package like gtk3-nocsd to remove them system-wide or a package like libxfce4ui-nocsd to remove them from Xfce components only.

CwF · 2021-10-06 17:56:31

Anything available now has a 4-5 year life ahead. It's not so bold a choice to stay stuck.

XFCE benefits proportionately to YOUR effort. I feel fortunate it can be what I want and get out of the way.

In 4-5 years, that will be the time to judge if xfce stays true for the do-it-yourself types.

There will never be a shortage of shiny new OOB people.

dusthillresident · 2021-10-08 13:42:37

ToZ wrote:

I don't think you are going to get away from CSD with mate. They will still display there. Either you move to KDE or you use a package like gtk3-nocsd to remove them system-wide or a package like libxfce4ui-nocsd to remove them from Xfce components only.

That's not the point.

The point is XFCE is redesigning their apps to use the CSD and don't provide an option to use normal sensible titlebars.
gtk3-nocsd is good and I've been using it about as long as it's been around, several years now.
But it's still just a hack that clunkily puts titlebars on top of something.

I'm objecting to the underlying design style change.

It seems clear that the trend in XFCE is to adopt the CSD 'headerbars' and I'm expecting them to start putting essential buttons and controls on them ala gnome, so that the CSD aren't simply just annoyingly large and nonstandard titlebars anymore.
I'm expecting they'll remove the traditional File/Edit/View/... menu bars in favour of gnome's ass backwards smartphone weird style of interface eventually as well.

That means Mousepad and other tools I've been using for years are about to become too unpleasant for me to use, even with gtk3-nocsd.

So I've switched to using Mate and the applications provided by the Mate project because I feel I can trust them to stick to a traditional design style that feels nice to use.

Last edited by dusthillresident (2021-10-08 13:57:01)

denyer · 2021-10-16 13:13:41

I tried Mate, but it was a little bit *too* basic in terms of configuring the desktop environment. Whereas with Plasma there are options for virtually everything, so if any defaults don't suit your workflow or taste it's very simple to get to something that does. KWin is also pretty powerful for forcing applications to conform with how you've got your environment set up.

Mellowbob · 2021-10-16 16:29:54

I, too, have been down this road. They are all problematic.

Plasma - a wonderful way to spend many, many hours doing the "perfect" config. Then, I make one little tweak and everything is buggered. Last time I had it running I hit a button promising a vertical screen rotation. It might have done that, but I ended up with a black screen. Totally unable to undo this I had to reinstall plasma. Not a fun time.

Mate - pretty much the same look and feel as xfce4. But, it really isn't as nice and I wonder how long it will be around? Seems that the mint folk are more (still?) focused on Cinnamon.

Cinnamon - Seems to have lots of options, but I find it slow and clumsy to set up. Could just be me ... I've been using xfce4 for a long time now.

Gnome/Ubuntu - sorry, I just don't understand the interface. It looks fine, but too many things are done behind my back. I can't seem to find running applications (yes, I know that this is an extension to do just about everything). I'm just not convinced that the developers know better than me smile

So, I'm sticking with xfce4.

callmejoe · 2021-10-17 13:01:22

Mellowbob wrote:

I, too, have been down this road. They are all problematic.
Plasma - a wonderful way to spend many, many hours doing the "perfect" config. Then, I make one little tweak and everything is buggered. Last time I had it running I hit a button promising a vertical screen rotation. It might have done that, but I ended up with a black screen. Totally unable to undo this I had to reinstall plasma. Not a fun time.
Mate - pretty much the same look and feel as xfce4. But, it really isn't as nice and I wonder how long it will be around? Seems that the mint folk are more (still?) focused on Cinnamon.
Cinnamon - Seems to have lots of options, but I find it slow and clumsy to set up. Could just be me ... I've been using xfce4 for a long time now.
Gnome/Ubuntu - sorry, I just don't understand the interface. It looks fine, but too many things are done behind my back. I can't seem to find running applications (yes, I know that this is an extension to do just about everything). I'm just not convinced that the developers know better than me
So, I'm sticking with xfce4.

perfectly summed up

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#1 2021-10-06 14:47:25

I'm ditching XFCE and installing MATE

#2 2021-10-06 17:20:27

Re: I'm ditching XFCE and installing MATE

#3 2021-10-06 17:56:31

Re: I'm ditching XFCE and installing MATE

#4 2021-10-08 13:42:37

Re: I'm ditching XFCE and installing MATE

#5 2021-10-16 13:13:41

Re: I'm ditching XFCE and installing MATE

#6 2021-10-16 16:29:54

Re: I'm ditching XFCE and installing MATE

#7 2021-10-17 13:01:22

Re: I'm ditching XFCE and installing MATE

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