Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

SoFL W · 2011-08-03 20:26:55

Apparently Linus was disappointed enough with gnome3 to switch to xfce.

I'm using Xfce. I think it's a step down from gnome2, but it's a huge step up from gnome3. Really.

*LINK* to the rest of the discussion.

Last edited by SoFL W (2011-08-03 20:28:43)

ToZ · 2011-08-04 02:24:59

A step down from gnome2!?

With all due respect Mr. Torvalds, I have to disagree. XFCE is the perfect combination of functionality and minimal bloat.

Ha-ha. I disagreed with Linus. First time or everything, I guess.

smile

Nick · 2011-08-04 06:41:47

It is sad (and also not the intention of Linus I hope) that when 1 users switches to a new desktop environment, the whole world starts a flame-war. What he does is using the "power" of Linux: switch to something else when you're not happy and see if that suits your needs.

And what nobody needs is osnews (and maybe other sites) posting this as "news", that is only a lame way to get a lot of comments on a topic.

xf∞ · 2011-08-05 13:50:22

I agree, that somewhere gnome2 is better, but I prefer simple desktop, easy to understand(how to repair bugs). lightweight. and several awesome things.
Also I see tendention to use xubuntu 11.04 instead ubuntu 11.04 on old computers.

Nick · 2011-08-05 20:16:42

The affect of all this talk on the Xfce website server.

Havoc · 2011-08-09 16:00:35

Impressive spike there. Might attract a few more devellopers that way.

xfcelav · 2011-08-10 17:53:42

With the advent of Gnome3, I'm sure Xfce is the ideal choice for many users as Linus, looking for a simple desktop environment, fast and friendly.

But from my point of view, there are still things missing Xfce to be up to Gnome. Simple things such as:

- Have an option to format USB flash drives.
- Proxy for the system overall.

What are things that the user will make life easier. In particular, I look forward migration Gtk3 and hope that come loaded with 4.10 Xfce news....

Nick · 2011-08-11 07:07:34

Migrating to gtk3 won't happen soon, soonest will be in 4.12, so roughly 1,5 years from now. Although gtk3 is a good step in the right direction for gtk+, it does not bring any advantages for applications. Focus for the next release is improving/polishing the desktop for the users.

Tal · 2011-08-11 18:00:18

Ha ha... I'm not Linus Torvalds but I made my migration like him... Xfce is better than gnome for me, except tree things:
* Suddenly media keys doesn't work(I'll try to fix this).
* GNOME calendar applet is better than Xfce Calendar plugin.
* Auto-hide panels doesn't work very good for vertical panels, and non-docked panels.
But Xfce is better. It easier to develop panel plugin than GNOME.

TheOldFellow · 2011-08-12 13:46:16

Tried Ubuntu 11.04, sad
Tried Kubuntu 11.04 sad
Tried Arch + Gnome 3 ........ gave it a good month long go.... sad
Read about young Linus, and his views, usually I can't stand anything these newcomers to computing say. but, I tried Xfce anyway.
Now running Arch + Xfce 4.8 ..... smile so far. Not everything is easy, but everything works the way I expect.
TOF
(screwing up computers since 1968)

beyboo · 2011-08-14 17:59:37

I've been on Ubuntu 11.04 since its release. Each day went by adding hate to the unity desktop. Don't get me wrong, it has it merits, but its not for power users. I read about Linus moving to XFCE and decided to give xubuntu a spin. I had tried it before during the Gnome 2 days, but was not too impressed.

4.8 takes things to a new level. I am loving many things which are better than Gnome 2 and many things which are wanting, but so far its pretty much my DE for some time to come !!

Last edited by beyboo (2011-08-14 18:00:29)

shevegen · 2011-08-18 13:02:17

I switched to XFCE too.

My favourite WM is still fluxbox, but for DE, XFCE now takes my personal preference, then enlightenment.

I am fed up with KDE4 and GNOME3. GNOME3 because the arrogant developers think of the user as a stupid sheep. KDE4 because they use so much propaganda ("it will be the best") when I STILL CAN NOT COMPILE THIS DAMN THING FROM SOURCES VIA CMAKE. I compiled kde3 from sources, it works beautifully. I finally gave up - KDE4 shows that developers do not give a damn about users anymore.

I'll try my best to help make Xfce GREAT.

But please, do not stab me in the back by pulling a move like KDE4 or GNOME3 - developers need to be IN THE SAME BOAT AS THE USERS, and not create a division.

Transitions should always be to EXTEND the user experience, not to BREAK IT (like KDE4 and GNOME3 did)

angstrom · 2011-08-19 00:16:49

I'll try my best to help make Xfce GREAT.

Cool !!

Transitions should always be to EXTEND the user experience, not to BREAK IT (like KDE4 and GNOME3 did)

Totally agree !!!

I never use Gnome ... I'm an ex-KDE since KDE4. I only saw videos about Gnome3. It's not that bad. I think it will be very competitive with Mac because they always do Eye-candy things. For a familial/home desktop : it will be great.
BUT ! It screw up anyone who were working with Gnome2 !! For them it's like : today, the dev-team of your DE is disbanded. There won't be any new release. We are sorry and wish you good luck !

Last edited by angstrom (2011-08-19 00:19:13)

otbros · 2011-08-21 01:06:51

D'accord. I agree.

I was a long-time gnome2 user. When gnome3 came along, I lost the ability to "turn things off and do it my way." It also was slow on my older machine. I didn't even know about xfce. I basically wrote it off as one of those ancient windows managers that looked ugly and were impossible to do anything in unless you hard-wired them in coding. I was wrong. I use xfce now. I am having some problems with the keyboard shortcuts that don't seem to "stick" the next time I get on, but all in all, I'm pleased with xfce.

Same thing with video games. I loved the Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. However, when Grand Theft Auto Four came out, it was bound with Windows Live, and it sucked. I didn't even want to play it.

Many other newer video games are overhead-heavy and that takes the fun out of it.

Z_Tagr · 2011-09-09 22:57:21

Here's a little something for you from my own experience with xfce!

When I installed my very first distro, (Slackware 13.37), I installed that on a pretty fast dual-core machine, and I left KDE as the DE by default . Everything worked great, and I very quickly fell in love with Linux as an OS. Then, taking stock of the situation, I installed Slackware in the SAME WAY (KDE by default) on my Toshiba notebook (another dual-core, 64-bit processor system). Again just great!!!

However, I still had two other, older, single core processor machines running Windoze, and decided to try Slax on these two machines as well. Thats where things went a little South...; I found that those two machines were so "bogged down" that I really could not hope to get any real work done on them. I was (to say the least) disappointed!.

I tried several other distros on these two machines, some of which would NOT EVEN INSTALL! And here I thought that Linux was supposed to run pretty good on "older" hardware (that's what I was thinking then...). I finally got CentOS 5.6 / Gnome to work, and it worked quite well, but now I had two different distros to deal with (not my preferred situation!).

Only after I "discovered" xfce4 BY ACCIDENT did I get suspicious as to whether or not it was KDE (and NOT Slackware) that made my two older machines run like "dogs"! So, I "wiped" CentOS off of one, and installed Slackware on that machine once again, but this time chose xfce4 INSTEAD of KDE during installation...; voila! Slackware runs JUST FINE on BOTH of those machines now, and I am even MORE pleased with xfce4!!!

So, whatever xfce4 "can't do", it sure beats having to use two different distros due to a "bogged down" KDE desktop environment!

At least, that's my humble opinion!

Still loving xfce4,
Andre.

canin · 2011-09-25 12:29:10

ok one last bump some days later:
i tried and used gnome after win xp, am a normal guy without any knnowledge and realized, that i use xfce applications in gnome .
switched before gnome 3 was public available, and love xfce.
something other is better? nope.
thx for xfce and its intelligent, superb, fast, easy, wonderful, great usability offering tools!
smile

dhodson · 2011-12-26 05:34:16

New XFCE user here -- long time GNOME user...

I tried, I promise I really did, try to like GNOME 3... but while I found it somewhat interesting, I was simply spending to much time navigating to find anything (reminds me of my phone!). So why organize my information on 24" 1900x1200 pixel monitor the same way as a small touch screen phone?

So I tried Unity -- seems better, but yet again, wasting to much time simply finding things (why such big icons??? - I'm a "power" user, just give me some text and I'm ok).

Then after giving up on that, I moved to KDE. I've tried KDE a number of times in the past and generally I believe it's a tease -- looks great, but just "too much" and simply not stable enough (why provide 100 options to do something when 10 carefully selected ones will do?).

So, I'm here now -- XFCE. Wow! XFCE straddles that fine line between "not enough" and "too much" very well. Personally, I think it looks better than KDE and functions better than GNOME. The best of both worlds.

I think I'm here to stay.

Doug

farinet · 2011-12-31 14:03:25

xfcelav wrote:

. . .
Have an option to format USB flash drives . . .

I' ve Xubuntu 11.10 here on a netbook and there is "usb-creator" ??? And even on a Mac G4 PB running Debian squeeze and Xfce 4.8 there is "imagewriter" (to format usb devices).

xendistar · 2011-12-31 22:08:10

I started off with KDE back in the days of 1.** but have not been able to get on with KDE4, then I changed Distros (from Mepis to Mint) which came with Gnome, I always found gnome a little flat and boring but it was simple to use and did what I wanted it to do. I had come across XFCE from xbuntu when I installed it on a low spec laptop for my son. Then mint started doing thing I did not like plus there was all this talk of gnome3 so I decided to try xfce. I have never got on with *buntu so I decided on a debian base and xfce and have not looked back since. It is now on three of my PC's soon to be four. Just remember Kiss!!

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#1 2011-08-03 20:26:55

Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#2 2011-08-04 02:24:59

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#3 2011-08-04 06:41:47

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#4 2011-08-05 13:50:22

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#5 2011-08-05 20:16:42

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#6 2011-08-09 16:00:35

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#7 2011-08-10 17:53:42

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#8 2011-08-11 07:07:34

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#9 2011-08-11 18:00:18

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#10 2011-08-12 13:46:16

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#11 2011-08-14 17:59:37

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#12 2011-08-18 13:02:17

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#13 2011-08-19 00:16:49

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#14 2011-08-21 01:06:51

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#15 2011-09-09 22:57:21

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#16 2011-09-25 12:29:10

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#17 2011-12-26 05:34:16

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#18 2011-12-31 14:03:25

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

#19 2011-12-31 22:08:10

Re: Linus Torvalds dumps gnome for xfce

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