trixie... xfce

[Fymgee]

I just installed debian 13 trixie and I actually love it!!!!!!!!

I runs flawlessly on my pc and with the xfce de it's pretty much perfect

Though I have curiosity on testing other vanilla de's that debian offers: I think I haven't tried MATE ever before so in a couple of days or months I might check that out.


What I think about it? It's pretty sweet! it really gets the job done but I don't understand why the volume slider *doesn't work by default. I had to go all over to the menu and from the panel open the "PulseAudio" thingy so I can be able to turn the volume up or down.

Also the lock screen is kinda weird, as it kinda lags, goes black (like if I'm logging out instead of just locking the screen to do something quick and then come back to use my machine).

And I'm not mad. It's just interesting to see a desktop environment that despite being simple and pretty much lightweight I think that on some parts the "simple way of doing things" might went out of their hands, maybe a little overkill. I guess, I don't know, that's just my personal opinion.



*I actually figured out that on the "panel preferences" you can add the "PulseAudio" plugin on it and it let's you turn the volume up and down like plug and play. AWESOME 100%

 

[Condobloke]

Well done.

Have you discovered Timeshift yet ?

Saving a few snapshots to an External drive with Timeshift can save you a mountain of stress (in case you break something while you are experimenting)

We can tell you how to set it up if you need to.

 

[KGIII]

And I'm not mad. It's just interesting to see a desktop environment that despite being simple and pretty much lightweight I think that on some parts the "simple way of doing things" might went out of their hands, maybe a little overkill. I guess, I don't know, that's just my personal opinion.

There are many combinations of desktop environments and window managers out there. Some popular, some less so. Some with a rabid following, and some I've never heard of.

Enjoy and explore!

You don't need to install a new OS to try the various options. You can install a DE, and it will be available during the login process as a drop-down menu item (usually, and assuming a GUI login).

Here's a good starting point:

Linux desktop environments

Linux desktop environments. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

gist.github.com

 

[Condobloke]

Is there a Software Manager in XFCE ?

Found the answer:
Trixie does not come with a pre-installed software manager, but you can install one like gnome-software or Discover to manage software through a graphical interface. These tools allow you to browse and install applications from the repositories and Flatpak.

Only install what you need.

 

[Fae3iSUx]

I just installed debian 13 trixie and I actually love it!!!!!!!!

I runs flawlessly on my pc and with the xfce de it's pretty much perfect

Though I have curiosity on testing other vanilla de's that debian offers: I think I haven't tried MATE ever before so in a couple of days or months I might check that out.


What I think about it? It's pretty sweet! it really gets the job done but I don't understand why the volume slider *doesn't work by default. I had to go all over to the menu and from the panel open the "PulseAudio" thingy so I can be able to turn the volume up or down.

Also the lock screen is kinda weird, as it kinda lags, goes black (like if I'm logging out instead of just locking the screen to do something quick and then come back to use my machine).

And I'm not mad. It's just interesting to see a desktop environment that despite being simple and pretty much lightweight I think that on some parts the "simple way of doing things" might went out of their hands, maybe a little overkill. I guess, I don't know, that's just my personal opinion.



*I actually figured out that on the "panel preferences" you can add the "PulseAudio" plugin on it and it let's you turn the volume up and down like plug and play. AWESOME 100%

Excellent choice!
That's what I am running as well! Not Debian but Devuan fork, but same old XFCE. Works perfectly well for my needs!

Regarding lock screen, this could be either your Window Manager login screen, or XScreensaver.
On mine, I've disabled Xscreensaver, and I use it with Slim Window Manager, not using LigthDM which you may have installed on your Debian. Slim is very simple and works for me.

 

[wendy-lebaron]

xfce 4.16 was ok with me.

after that it became, let's say interesting.

i have debian "bookworm" with xfce 4.18 desktop. thinking about doing away with it entirely. because it's slow as a hog. nothing at all like the previous version. which jumps to log-in on my computer. compared to anything else i have.

then the idea of forcing wayland into it. using some soon-to-be-outdated technologies. last year i wanted to stay with opensuse "tumbleweed". got the big iso which was 4.5gib. disappointed to discover it didn't come with mate! installed with xfce. because i had every intention of getting mate instead. maybe that's why it borked itself. in an attempted system update soon afterward. was going so well. it was my failed plan to avoid debian "trixie" completely.

the other day. i downloaded catfish "anylinux" appimage. quite a nice program. but i press for a text file export. of the file list it produced from a search. but that's just me. i also acquired ristretto in that way. i could deal with a few of the xfce apps in other desktops. but not the desktop environment itself on debian nor ubuntu anymore.

 

[wendy-lebaron]

Though I have curiosity on testing other vanilla de's that debian offers: I think I haven't tried MATE ever before so in a couple of days or months I might check that out.

do not try "gnome classic"! it's not like mate! you will like the panel top and bottom. and other things you will expect to modify on mate.

lxqt could be even better than xfce. because it uses "xfwm4", the window manager of xfce. but i don't know if in "trixie". it could support wayland. i could speak only for one linux os installation i have. which is debian "bullseye" with lxqt. before it reached version 1. now it should be 2.2 or so.

cinnamon should more or less. look like linux mint from a few years ago. but nemo is a major put-off. very slow and sometimes ignores keystrokes. have to use the mouse all the time to do things with it.

could install it with cinnamon. then get budgie desktop via "apt". it's nice in its own way. but inherits many of gnome's annoyances. but don't take my word for it. that should support wayland. as the budgie desktop authors had been promising for years. i did this with spirallinux. but i had a performance problem with "libmutter". as i've said, an annoyance inherited from gnome.

 

[craigevil]

XFCE is the way.

 

[Thunderpants]

As a long time user of Xubuntu, I've recently switched to Debian 13 (also with XFCE). I've been satisfied with the change so sticking with it.

To suit personal taste, I've deleted the second panel at the bottom of the screen, installed the Whisker menu and set the background to solid black

 

[Alexzee]

I've been running the Mate DE on Debian since Debian was 11. Zero problems-
Of course the theme and the icons are custom in my screenshots. My vision isn't what it used to be as I had to go get them and install them.

 

[KGIII]

I've been running the Mate DE on Debian since Debian was 11.

Your background looks like an AI rendition that's a mix of Konigsegg, McLaren, and Pagani.

If it's a real car, I don't immediately recognize it. Though that'd be true for a lot of cars. There are too many to possibly know all of them.

 

[Fae3iSUx]

Your background looks like an AI rendition that's a mix of Konigsegg, McLaren, and Pagani.

If it's a real car, I don't immediately recognize it. Though that'd be true for a lot of cars. There are too many to possibly know all of them.

It that were a real car then a single coin dropped on the road would destroy it, it is that ridiculously low

 

[Fae3iSUx]

I just installed debian 13 trixie and I actually love it!!!!!!!!

I runs flawlessly on my pc and with the xfce de it's pretty much perfect

Though I have curiosity on testing other vanilla de's that debian offers: I think I haven't tried MATE ever before so in a couple of days or months I might check that out.


What I think about it? It's pretty sweet! it really gets the job done but I don't understand why the volume slider *doesn't work by default. I had to go all over to the menu and from the panel open the "PulseAudio" thingy so I can be able to turn the volume up or down.

Also the lock screen is kinda weird, as it kinda lags, goes black (like if I'm logging out instead of just locking the screen to do something quick and then come back to use my machine).

And I'm not mad. It's just interesting to see a desktop environment that despite being simple and pretty much lightweight I think that on some parts the "simple way of doing things" might went out of their hands, maybe a little overkill. I guess, I don't know, that's just my personal opinion.



*I actually figured out that on the "panel preferences" you can add the "PulseAudio" plugin on it and it let's you turn the volume up and down like plug and play. AWESOME 100%

Well done!
I also moved my main PC with Devuan to XFCE after years of KDE use. KDE is becoming bloated and more and more complicated, fast.

 

[Fymgee]

Have you discovered Timeshift yet ?

No, I think I didn't but I do know that there's this thing called "Deja-Dup" that you can use to backup your personal data. I read about it on the debian's beginners handbook, though I don't know if it does the same job as timeshift.

Actually timeshift sounds very alike to the one that apple macos has built-in on their os. LOL

 

[Fymgee]

We can tell you how to set it up if you need to.

Not for now but thank you very much. I don't think I'll need that for now. I'm very very careful to not do too much things outside of the box here on gnu/linux for that same reason, If I brick my computer I'll be very sad because right now I don't have enough money to purchase another one in case I need to.

 

[Fymgee]

You don't need to install a new OS to try the various options. You can install a DE, and it will be available during the login process as a drop-down menu item (usually, and assuming a GUI login).

I know! It's just that I quite don't like the fruit punch effect it give to my computer when I do so.

You see, last time I sorta this that what happened is that every other file manager, text editor, image viewer, browser, etc... from every other DE that has it's own derivatives was on the same DE I was using which was GNOME at the time and I didn't like that. It was very cluttered (I hated it, yuck!). So I re-installed debian from my bootable flash drive all over again and sticked to one DE per installation instead.

*this happened to me because when I was on the tasksel page from the debian classic-normal no UEFI installation I checked all DEs that were there for fun and to get to know the ones I haven't tried before, oh boy! That was a mess of a mistake I did there haha!

 

[deb_user]

XFCE is the way.

View attachment 32109

It's one way. There are others. It's my second-favorite DE, but it's way behind KDE Plasma in my list. YMMV.

 

[Fymgee]

Trixie does not come with a pre-installed software manager, but you can install one like gnome-software or Discover to manage software through a graphical interface...

That's true! I initially locked myself down to only use firefox and nothing else, since I was using the computer to practice some coding once again, eventually I went to flathub.org to set up flatpak and I was unsure to whether install gnome's software manager or not since I thought that xfce was supposed to not have that (I'm not expert on desktop environments) but I installed it anyways just in case. And I also installed it so I don't have to be doing this...

su -
password: *********************
root@debian:~#
root@debian:~# flatpak install flathub com.discordapp.Discord
...
root@debian:~# flatpak install flathub com.discordapp.Discord
...
root@debian:~# flatpak install flathub org.telegram.desktop

etc

...every time I wanted to install something from flathub/flatpak since If I'm not logged as root I get errors to complete the downloads and installations of the programs I want to install

 

[Fymgee]

Excellent choice!
That's what I am running as well! Not Debian but Devuan fork, but same old XFCE. Works perfectly well for my needs!

Regarding lock screen, this could be either your Window Manager login screen, or XScreensaver.
On mine, I've disabled Xscreensaver, and I use it with Slim Window Manager, not using LigthDM which you may have installed on your Debian. Slim is very simple and works for me.

So you can change the login-screen software too!?

ok, gnu/linux is pretty customizable OMG!

 

[Fymgee]

do not try "gnome classic"! it's not like mate!

Already did!

It's like the default-wayland GNOME DE that comes with debian gnu/linux with the panel top and bottom (as you mentioned) but I thought that it had the option to have desktop icons on the screen (which apparently it doesn't let you add those just like the non-classic version of it), so I didn't even used it for a whole day and went back to the DE I was already using at that time that was GNOME Wayland (the non-classical version of it).