If someone gets by with Windows, they get by with Windows. Sure, things change from version to version now and then, but fundamentally, Microsoft stays true to itself. And companies don’t switch with every new version either. Consequently, the work PC remains familiar for years, and everyone can somehow operate it.
It’s different with Linux. There isn’t just one Linux, not even just one kernel. In the end, Linux stands for the kernel in its official form. What builds on that are the so-called distributions, which offer the user a specific package. Ubuntu stands for ease of use, while Manjaro and Garuda are geared more towards younger users with a focus on gaming. Arch Linux offers almost no limits, but it also comes with very little out of the box. Gentoo then takes customization to the extreme.
As if that weren’t enough, most distributions have heavily customized their system’s interface or even offer several different interfaces right away, tailored to the distribution’s vision, of course. But Linux wouldn’t be Linux if you couldn’t just throw everything overboard and set it up according to your own wishes. After turning my back on Manjaro and quickly realizing that Garuda wasn’t for me, I ended up with Arch Linux and had to decide on a desktop environment.
Gnome with and without Wayland
In my earlier excursions into Linux a few years ago, I used the major players at the time, KDE and Gnome. KDE always felt a bit less polished, though. You can customize more, but I always felt it lacked that final touch, and Gnome became my desktop of choice.
It used to be very classic: a taskbar like in Windows and a program menu, that’s it. You could stand out a bit with themes, and there were a few effects here and there. Nowadays, Gnome is going its own way. It looks much more modern, offers a dock like macOS, and is quite customizable, especially through extensions. The application menu is reminiscent of Windows 8 - but better.
Gnome also already supports Wayland, the new graphics stack that is supposed to replace the over 40-year-old X11. Someday, when Wayland is finally finished. For me, however, there were quite a few bugs. Effects were sometimes so slow that Alt+Tab was unusable. And switching from a game to the desktop is also a game of chance. According to reports, this is due to the Nvidia driver; everything would be better on AMD. That doesn’t help me, though, so back to X11. No problems there.
Sway aka tiling window manager
For a long time, macOS lacked proper window management, and program windows just floated around on the screen. Maximizing or dragging them where you needed them were the options. Modern interfaces, including macOS, now offer a variety of ways to arrange windows. They can all now snap to the edge and take up only parts of the screen.
The extreme version of this are tiling window managers. Here, windows never overlap. When you open a window, the screen is divided to make space for it. All other windows become smaller. With many windows, this can get extremely small, which is why you work heavily with virtual desktops. The advantage is that you don’t have to worry about window management and can operate the entire system with the keyboard. The disadvantage is that you always have everything open, and the space is forcibly divided.
Sway is one of the newer contenders and relies fully on Wayland. In principle, it seemed more stable than Gnome. But I couldn’t really get on board with the window management. And since Sway doesn’t work with Nvidia at all, I gave up on it.
Light, lighter, XFCE
But in all this experimentation, I noticed one thing: I don’t need much of a desktop environment. I launch programs with a “show menu” shortcut, type the program name, and hit ENTER. I switch windows with ALT+Tab, always. I pretty much do the same for resizing windows.
So why use a desktop environment that pushes itself to the forefront? Why not one that gives you structure and support, but no constraints? And on top of that, is fast, simple, and customizable? The answer is XFCE. Damn lean, fast, and resource-efficient. And it doesn’t come looking pretty out of the box. But you can customize it however you please. Panels, colors, themes, cursors, icons. Everything is customizable. On https://www.xfce-look.org you can find many pre-made styles that you can simply download and use.
As you can see in the screenshot above, I’ve reduced the interface to a minimum. One panel with the programs, task area, and that’s it. No dock, everything as small as possible. The only thing I still need to get used to are the workspaces, but I definitely see the advantage there. And it’s fast: under 1% CPU usage, under 150 MB of RAM. My Acer Swift 1 in particular benefits from this immensely, but it also feels right on my PC. Really fast, really simple, really clean.
Here is an overview of the themes used:
- Style: Nordic-standard-buttons-v40
- Icon: Nordzy-dark
- Font: Cantarell Regular
- Window Manager Style: Nordic-standard-buttons-v40
- Mouse: Nordzy-cursors
Have I settled on XFCE?
We’ll see…
I’ve invested a fair bit of time in XFCE now, and the desktop environment meets my needs perfectly. But will I stick with XFCE because of that? For now, yes. Knowing myself, though, I’ll get curious and start experimenting again soon. My idea, though, is that XFCE will remain the standard until something convinces me even more.
The downside is that XFCE currently runs exclusively on X11, so it hasn’t been adapted for Wayland yet. I would love to know how XFCE behaves under Wayland. The developers are already on it, and I’ll give Wayland another try with the final version.
If you don’t have much experience, pick a simple distribution like Ubuntu or Manjaro and one of the different desktop variants. You can always customize or switch later, and you will if you’re even moderately curious. I was, at least, and immediately changed everything to my liking. For now, I like my system this way, and this is how it will stay.