Replace Mate desktop with XFCE

[ilAli]

I would like suggest Linux Mint developers to consider replacing Mate desktop with XFCE.

I was a Mate desktop user in the past and have been Linux Mint XFCE user since 17.1 version.
as you may know, XFCE is user friendly, stable, familiar, light on system resources, and more suitable for week hardware comparing with Mate.

For users that are looking for classic desktop with windows Likeness, there are Cinnamon and KDE, although XFCE is simple and familiar too.
For users who are looking for a light weight desktop, XFCE is the best choice, it is lighter than Mate.

So, based on my experience with both of these two desktops, there is not any reasonable excuse to develop Linux Mint with these two desktops in parallel at the same time.

At the end, please consider in mind that with eliminating Mate desktop from Linux Mint variants basket, developers will have more time to spend on developing remaining Linux Mint variants.

thanks.

[MartyMint]

The Mint team is more closely affiliated with MATE developers and their team.

...and two things:

1. I'm not sure Xfce is as light as you might suspect

2. Xfce, while very comfortable to work with, has lagged a bit in the last few years as far as user experience innovations go.
Cinnamon, KDE and even GNOME have moved far afield and at a quicker pace than Xfce.

I like Xfce, I really do. I have it installed as my DE on my laptop running Ubuntu Studio, but it does feel a bit old...

[leskieurbiker]

I don't any any numbers to prove my point, and I'm not involved in the Mint development, but I can share my experience with Mate.

I have an old Toshiba Portege laptop (Pentium 4 1,5ghz, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB 5400rpm hdd), it's not what you could call "bleeding edge", to say the least!

I had Xfce installed on it for a few years and was very happy with it. But then I switched to Mate to give it a try almost a year ago, and I dont notice that it's any slower or more ressources-hungry than Xfce.

I'm not going back to Xfce, Mate is more up to date and modern.

May the better win! That's the way linux works!

[oxygenfarm]

I use and enjoy both Mate and xfce, on different computers with differing capabilities. Is there an accurate and objective way to determine which is 'lighter' w/o loading several systems on each machine?

[all41]

determine which is 'lighter' w/o loading several systems on each machine?

I installed the four Mints and screenshot resource usage with fresh installations on the same computer

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... er#p994189