Debian Trying Out Xfce Over GNOME By Default

[mrugiero]

Mousepad can syntax-highlight source code and is really easy to use (unlike vi). It is IMO a perfect default editor to open text documents.

Oh, it can? I should look closer.

[pingufunkybeat]

In most ways, vi is better than Mousepad. It took way too long for Thunar to get tabbed browsing.

In most ways, vi is better than everything.

[mrugiero]

Well, I can say goodbye to gedit, now. For some reason I was convinced mousepad wasn't developed anymore.

[AJSB]

Best move they could do...

That ^^

I just love XFCE and i only use distros that have it by default.

[Hamish Wilson]

Thunar used to be a huge sore point but it has gotten better - the new tab support makes it a lot nicer to use, and I have gotten used to using Gigolo for managing SSH connections instead of the the file manager. My main concern at the moment is that I have no way of reliably generating video thumbnails with it - loading PCManFM will generate ones for MPEG files that Thunar will use but nothing seems to work for WebM - although this has more to do with tumbler being a pain than Thunar.

xfdesktop also used to be a huge pain as well but that has largely been resolved now that it saves the location of desktop icons and restores them on resolution changes. I also used to dislike the Xfce Terminal but after playing around with it I found out that this was misguided; it actually has some features that many of the others do not have, such as a very convenient toolbar. The fact that Xfce does not have a proper volume slider also used to be an annoyance, until I discovered pnmixer.

The main GNOME utilities I still rely on are gedit, thanks to its spell checker and better scripting support, gcalctool as none of the other calculators are as nice to use, file-roller archiver for the same reason, the GNOME Disk Usage Analyzer, and the GNOME disk utility which I use regularly to check the health of my hard drive. If anyone could suggest some non-DE tied or Xfce tailored solutions that work as well as any of these I would be willing to try them, but for now I still require their functionality. I also prefer the LXDE task manager over the Xfce one and to a certain extent Leafpad over Mousepad.

[Loafers]

How about Razor-qt?

[Alex Sarmiento]

The most honest answer would be : gnome-3 sucks.
Almost anything else would be better, including Unity in my opinion

[Alex Sarmiento]

Thunar used to be a huge sore point but it has gotten better - the new tab support makes it a lot nicer to use, and I have gotten used to using Gigolo for managing SSH connections instead of the the file manager. My main concern at the moment is that I have no way of reliably generating video thumbnails with it - loading PCManFM will generate ones for MPEG files that Thunar will use but nothing seems to work for WebM - although this has more to do with tumbler being a pain than Thunar.

xfdesktop also used to be a huge pain as well but that has largely been resolved now that it saves the location of desktop icons and restores them on resolution changes. I also used to dislike the Xfce Terminal but after playing around with it I found out that this was misguided; it actually has some features that many of the others do not have, such as a very convenient toolbar. The fact that Xfce does not have a proper volume slider also used to be an annoyance, until I discovered pnmixer.

The main GNOME utilities I still rely on are gedit, thanks to its spell checker and better scripting support, gcalctool as none of the other calculators are as nice to use, file-roller archiver for the same reason, the GNOME Disk Usage Analyzer, and the GNOME disk utility which I use regularly to check the health of my hard drive. If anyone could suggest some non-DE tied or Xfce tailored solutions that work as well as any of these I would be willing to try them, but for now I still require their functionality. I also prefer the LXDE task manager over the Xfce one and to a certain extent Leafpad over Mousepad.

Why people insist on the All-in solution for desktops environments ? Integration and consistency is nice but not the most important thing ever.

[dungeon]

The main GNOME utilities I still rely on are gedit, thanks to its spell checker and better scripting support, gcalctool as none of the other calculators are as nice to use, file-roller archiver for the same reason, the GNOME Disk Usage Analyzer, and the GNOME disk utility which I use regularly to check the health of my hard drive. If anyone could suggest some non-DE tied or Xfce tailored solutions that work as well as any of these I would be willing to try them, but for now I still require their functionality. I also prefer the LXDE task manager over the Xfce one and to a certain extent Leafpad over Mousepad.

For example you can try geany instead of gedit, gcalculator instead of gnome-calculator, gsmartcontrol instead of gnome-disk-utility .

[schmidtbag]

Alright. So there should not be any "ridiculously simple" apps on Linux, or their users should feel embarrassed. It's good to know.
Seriously, if we are going to be elitist, the CLI is usually more powerful for any kind of complex file management. Thunar is supposed to just be a simple tool, and user friendly (this includes newbie friendly). I agree that the tabbed interface is almost a must have, though, but I find Nautilus to have superfluous features I never use, for example.

It's not about being elitist, it's about having something to offer. XFCE is a nice DE, but thunar and mousepad are severely lacking compared to the defaults of other DEs. Even LXDE has a better file manager, at least in terms of features (it's worst in terms of stability). Nautilus today is probably more user friendly than thunar and while it may have some unnecessary features, it includes plenty that are very handy when you get used to them. Personally, my favorite browser is Dolphin (on my desktop). I use the majority of its features and find them immensely helpful.

Thuar is more suitable for GNOME and nautilus is more suitable for XFCE, if you want to categorize them by the consistency of the complexity of the environments.