Redemption: A long, super-enthusiastic review of Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa 64-bit edition with the Xfce desktop, covering live session, dual-boot setup with Windows 7, and post-install use, including look & feel, network support - Wireless, Bluetooth, Samba sharing and printing, multimedia support - MP3, HD video, Flash, smartphone support - Ubuntu Phone, Windows Phone, iPhone, partitioning and slideshow, package management & updates, Nvidia and Broadcom proprietary drivers, applications and extra software, resource usage, stability, performance, responsiveness, hardware support, suspend & resume, visual customization and tweaks, tiny bugs, and more. Have fun. http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-mint-rosa-xfce.html Cheers, Mrk
I'm also back with XFCE and it's great indeed. One of the thing I like is the "Deskbar" mode for the panel, which I put on the left side. Icons and texts are horizontal. With MATE, if you place the panel vertical, text is also vertical, which is somewhat ridiculous. That deskbar mode is great!
It's not great, it's brilliant. And so customizable; you can chose text or icons, number of rows, pixel width... Which is so useful on 16:9 ratios. It even makes sense having two deskbars (with larger monitors like 24 or 27 inchers), one on each side of the monitor, leaving vertical space free. @Mrkvonic thanks, you're one of the examples why Linux is different.
As a technically inclined new user to linux, I too prefer the XFCE desktop on mint. I find it sufficiently customisable to how I perceive a desktop should operate. Coming from from windows and its imposed limitations to the freedom of customisation, linux in general and specifically XFCE is to me the most logical and practical desktop environment. Cinnamon and mate is obviously good as well, its just XFCE suits my perception of a DE better. XFCE is perceived to be the most ugly, or a better description (less focused on aesthetics) of all the DE. However even with custom themes and icon packages plus little tweaks such as changing (tooltip colours, and clock font colour to suite dark themes). This turned into the most beautiful desktop environment. Even with these visual improvisations the resources usage is at 320MB on boot, but I have disabled certain unnecessary services to achieve this. Not a result of the increased RAM due to themes, but because I like tight ship. I also replaced certain applications that connect to online services such banshee and a few others I cant remember. Little things like custom keyboard bindings, window roll up, or only lift and focus on windows when clicked makes such a difference to a DE. ( I know its a Mint thing and not XFCE thing). My general Mint review. The Mint is partitioned along with windows on a SSD with 6GB RAM. It absolutely flies. It is a pleasure to use. I had no issues with drivers, Nvidia was auto detected and installed without error, my ancient Cannon printer/scanner worked without issues, Network and sound card all worked as well as expected. Great review Mrkvonic, completely agree with your assessment as a new user. I look forward to Mint 18, which I heard will allow upgrades from 17.X series. regards.
I do agree on XFCE. Even if I have a 16GB RAM machine so I could basically run any DE, I still keep using XFCE.
Zero-regression for the masses. Sweet! You must have been humming something like 'Tidings of comfort and joy' or 'Oh, happy days'. A pleasure to read, thanks for reviewing, Mrk. Cheers.
XFCE and MATE, my two most loved DE's. I like KDE too, but it's buggy ATM. Once it's finished and most bugs aren't present, I might use it more often than nowadays.
I have Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon alongside Windows7 Home Premium and have had it since May of 2016. I find I use Windows less and less and Linux more and more. Always, Wildman