Ultimate UI Performance in FC3 - XFCE

[marcus-cat]

After installing FC3 I was disappointed by the user interface speed in KDE. I am not certain if it is because KDE and Gnome keep getting bigger and more bloated. I tried switching to Gnome but the speed just wasn't there either. In KDE Mozilla Firefox would load slowly and the UI was sluggish. KDE was eating memory like crazy if I left it run all day. Hmm, what was I to do? My system is a little old: AMD 1.4 GigHz, Nvidia G2 graphics, 7200 RPM drive, 512 MB RAM, Audigy sound, etc...

I saw an article on XFCE on the web which suggested users switch if KDE and Gnome are just too slow on your system. I took the plunge and logged into an XFCE window session. At first I was totally lost since it was so different.

Oh my God! What a rush of speed... All the window lag went away in Firefox, Gimp, Nautilus. It was amazing. The system was so responsive. You have to try it out.

I took a screenshot showing the Nautilus file manager, Real Player 10, Gnome Terminal, Firefox 1.0, Firestarter Firewall, Gimp 2.0 running under XFCE. What a combo: FC3 and XFCE; amazing you simply have to try it. At first I missed my desktop icons and KDE application menu but then I just added launcher icons to the bottom XFCE panel. This is almost a F***ing religious experience!

[j_baer]

Ok,

If one is to take this ride, what are the steps to installing XFCE and where are the RPM's?

Can one "YUM INSTALL XFCE"?

j_baer

[marcus-cat]

Originally Posted by j_baer

Ok,

If one is to take this ride, what are the steps to installing XFCE and where are the RPM's?

j_baer

I actually installed XFCE 4.2 RC1 by downloading the RPM's off of xfce.org. It is easy to do. Uncompress the 4.2 zipped archive. Pull up a terminal and log in as su. Then isuue the command rpm -ivh *.rpm from inside the XFCE RPM folder.

You can jazz up XFCE a lot by using icons from KDE or Gnome themes. I used ones from /usr/share/icons. I used the KDE Crystal SVG icons. So pretty to look at. ;-)

I wasn't crazy about the file manager in XFce so I set the file manager variable to 'nautilus --browser --n-deskop' to bring up a non-spatial natuilus file manager. Also set the Browser variable to Mozilla Firefox 1.0 if you have it installed. It picks up the XFce themes nicely being a GTK application. (yum install firefox).

-Mark

[marcus-cat]

If you have problems cutting and pasting between applications in XFce you can install the gnome clipboard daemon http://gnomedesktop.org/node/1614#comment-23279

I have it run at startup by Adding a folder called Autostart to the Desktop folder. Inside the autostart folder I have a script set to execute the daemon. You can also put other shell scipts in here and they will get run at startup.

[Jman]

Yes XFCE is in Fedora Core. There isn't a xfce package, I think

yum install xfdesktop

will install most XFCE components. It should be in the Add/Remove Applications tool too.

[Pollo]

Used XFCE before the only reason switched back to gnome was because I could not find a way to add a main menu to save me a soul that's the menu that brings all gui applications on gnome and kde.

[Psquared]

Originally Posted by Pollo

Used XFCE before the only reason switched back to gnome was because I could not find a way to add a main menu to save me a soul that's the menu that brings all gui applications on gnome and kde.

Ver. 4.2 has a menu now. You right click anywhere on the desktop. I don't know how to edit it yet, but you can edit the bar at the bottom by adding and removing items.

[stonecrest]

Originally Posted by Psquared

Ver. 4.2 has a menu now. You right click anywhere on the desktop. I don't know how to edit it yet, but you can edit the bar at the bottom by adding and removing items.

You can edit all menus graphically. Just open up xfce settings and it's under Desktop > Menu >Edit Desktop Menu.

[evans]

I just switched grom gnome2.14 to xfce4.2 and I am loving it! here's a screeshot with root-tail writing system logs directly to the -root display simultaneous with xfdesktop drawing the background. Something, I believe, nautilis will not allow!

[prog99]

Originally Posted by evans

I just switched grom gnome2.14 to xfce4.2 and I am loving it! here's a screeshot with root-tail writing system logs directly to the -root display simultaneous with xfdesktop drawing the background. Something, I believe, nautilis will not allow!

Looks nice

What are you using for the system monitor icons at the right hand side?

[evans]

thanks prog99 . that's gkrellm, "invisibility" theme and wifi plugin

[fpoole]

XFCE didn't run well for me... I much prefer Fluxbox as a light WM.