MATE 1.22 Released - Inching Towards Wayland Support, Better Systemd Integration

[Markore]

I started using Xfce in year 2006 and that were my comeback to Linux, when I received Ubuntu via Mail on CD. but I downloaded Xubuntu 7.04 CD ISO via 56K modem. It seemed to give nice configurable environment that was considered light-weigth compared to GNOME and KDE but giving much of the functionality compared to less equipped DEs. (Were still using P III-733 with 384MB at a time , soon upgraded to 2GB AMD 3600+ X2 on 64bit Xubuntu)
Today is year 2019 and I still use Xfce under Xubuntu on 8GB RAM 4Core machine. Same as before it is stable, lighter and it is working great and able to configure it's panels however I like. And with none obvious observable bugs to speak of in regular work.
And I also used MATE extensively on an laptop with Openindiana/illumos (not Linux ) for quite some time in between (upgraded from GNOME 2)
So, you won't make mistake if you choose aether MATE as great DE or Xfce as lighter choice where everything works as you like to configure it.

[Vistaus]

I personally really like Deepin, it feels very mature for only being 3 years old. Sure it has some bugs, but in many way feels more modern and more usable compared to some other DE's. Given some time I think it will be a serious contender (if it isn't already).

I agree. I think it's partly because the devs are working on it full-time and are very mature (the previous Deepin was a modified GNOME Shell, so technically, they are coding for much longer than 3 years now).

[stingray454]

And except Deepin and Enlightenment (yes, I know E is technically a WM, but in practice, it's basically a DE).

I personally really like Deepin, it feels very mature for only being 3 years old. Sure it has some bugs, but in many way feels more modern and more usable compared to some other DE's. Given some time I think it will be a serious contender (if it isn't already).

[jacob]

As long as you don't mind using a DE that hasn't even had a bugfix update in over 4 years.

That doesn't matter, of course. You can always count on our friend debianxfce to preach his religion and explain to you what you should be using.

[Baguy]

Yes, better use a bug-ridden crap that gets a massive amount of bug fixes every week, which means at any given week you're using something infested with bugs.

Something to be proud of, for sure.

KDE has been as stable as XFCE for me on AMD hardware (small issues like system tray icon bugs happen occasionally, but that happened even in XFCE). In the latest git releases none the less. Sure, some settings panels break from time to time, but they are fixed within hours. XFCE takes practically twenty years to release a bug fix or feature release. We're still just getting 'Soon TM' from the XFCE 4.13 gang. LXQT is even outstripping XFCE in releases now. There's nothing wrong with XFCE, but don't say it's the perfect desktop or that it's bug free or. It never was, and it never will be at this rate (sure, perhaps it has less bugs than gnome, but it's also taking years to release feature updates and it still has multiple major issues that need to be fixed). I'm not saying the others are perfect either, but at least the bugs they have are fixed in a timely manner and new features are released at a set schedule or at least a stable roadmap. Further, KDE has a LTS release which just got updated to 5.12.8 and will get 5.12.9 in September. I hate to say it, but even gnome now with all it's bug fixes and performance improvements is starting to become pretty stable and fast. I'd say minimal desktops are numbered in their days with most hardware nowadays being much more powerful (and having tons more space... another 200-400 MBs isn't going to matter much for all the extra features and integration you get) than even just ten years ago.

[Vistaus]

Xfce 4.13 is available and fixes many of 4.12 bugs.
https://packages.debian.org/experimental/xfce/

Funny that you even acknowledge that Xfce 4.12 has bugs. I though you'd reply with something like "what bugs? there are no bugs".

[Vistaus]

Yes, better use a bug-ridden crap that gets a massive amount of bug fixes every week, which means at any given week you're using something infested with bugs.

Something to be proud of, for sure.

Yes, we're all proud of Xfce being the perfect, bug-free DE...

[Vistaus]

The too few developers issue seems to affect all DEs except Gnome and KDE.

And except Deepin and Enlightenment (yes, I know E is technically a WM, but in practice, it's basically a DE).

[calc]

Xfce 4.13 is available and fixes many of 4.12 bugs.
https://packages.debian.org/experimental/xfce/

So use an alpha release since they can't plan properly for stable updates? There's a reason that 4.13 is in experimental.

I guess if you don't care about stability, but then why not just use Gnome then. 🤔🤣

[calc]

Yes, better use a bug-ridden crap that gets a massive amount of bug fixes every week, which means at any given week you're using something infested with bugs.

Something to be proud of, for sure.

Definitely no long standing bugs in XFCE that haven't been fixed since no updates have come out in over 4 years....

Oh wait, there are lots.

XFCE hasn't had an update due to lack of release management, not due to lack of bugs needing to be fixed.