Running Linux Mint Xfce on my Secondary Laptop, which has only 4GB of Ram, and has been running very well for a few years now. Linux Mint Xfce is the way to go for older PCs. Picked up all my Drivers automatically.
Awesome to hear! Just realized i had a prehistoric HP laptop with a pentium, hdd and 4gb of ram and wanted to try out Linux for the first time because Windows 10 just seems awful on that poor machine
I use XFCE and I love it its blazingly fast and very flexible. I put a copy of xfce mint inside my micro sd card just in case in trouble theres a lot much help from the community
I'm one of those people that likes MATE better than XFCE for a low resource PC, as I've had far less composting issues with older AMD APU chips vs. XFCE, but it's been a while since I've used either, as I mainly use Budgie, so I might give XFCE a shot again at some point on a spare machine when I get bored one day.
LIked and subscribed... good delivery, easy to understand, and not overly technical like some Linux videos tend to be. Good job... I'm convinced to try XFCE on my older laptop now. 👍👍
Your video was helpful to me. Thank you. I think I'll stick with what I have, version 20.3 Cinnamon. I like that the calendar etc, is integrated, as you say, while XFCE doesn't have the bells and whistles...
Thank you Bro for all your gear through the years. Yes Sir, I use the Notes to keep track of where I am in Word Time mp3s (Acts in Japanese...Hebrews in KJV...stuff like that). Starts heaps faster than Office docs! Peace, Man! (You had asked about Notes, and I didn't see any replies, so...)
See at the 6:30 mark, its one of the main reasons why I don't use xfce anymore, see how it renders windows, it will render the window decoration first and then fill in the rest of the window, it really bugs me, with firefox it rendered the window decoration and then literally took 1 second to fill in the contents of the window, lxqt is my go to desktop now, but I combine it with kwin, when you disable animations it renders windows instantly, you have all the advanced features of kwin, and it only uses 440M of ram.
I currently use the Cinnamon version of Mint. I have plenty of RAM and Processor Power, so choosing a version for the reason of limiting the load on my system would not be a strategy. I've always wondered about what I might lose or gain going with another version.
This is my doubt as well. There were a few back & forth tweets between kde & xfce devs about kde being lighter in some version a year or so ago. We need some detailed benchmarking.
@@alternatuber6698 Manjaro has its own package repository, which can be both good and bad thing, in terms of long-term support. Xfce on Manjaro is super smooth though
I installed Mint XFCE on an old laptop with 4gb of ram with a celeron N2830 (2.16ghz) CPU, and once it's inside it runs very good, (much better than w7 would) so I'm wondering if it could run MATE just as well?
Sticky Notes - a warning. Some years ago I used a similar application to put a note on my desktop - "Remember to compliment wife on new hair-do". Seemed a good idea at the time......except that my wife spotted it ! I paid for my temerity and foolhardiness........
My Logitech MX Keys keyboard would not connect via bluetooth with blueman so I had to abandon using mint as I used a cheap wired keyboard to complete initial install.
Gonna try it on my friend's old cheap 2 GB laptop. I love how Linux Mint comes with everything a normal (not techy) human beeing needs, yet the Cinnamon might be a bit too tough on that hardware. Might be a good compromise.
@@Ben-hg3bz i have a Core 2 Due intel with 2 GB Ram,and XFCE Mint Works Fine,and i use Google Chrome and its Runs Fast same way,because is Linux,but Firefox not run fast,it pingpongs a lot before open a homepage.
Used Cinnamon for a while, but prefer XFCE. Is lighter on resources, and easier to use, but that's just personal. On cold boot around 530 to 550Mb. But not using Mint. Using Debian XFCE.
I actually do use those notes, I’ve been learning with hackthebox, udemy, etc and I’ll copy and paste relevant notes and things I need to remember like commands and hotkeys.
My challenge is.... How to edit the motherboard boot menu. There are dozens of good Ubuntu derivatives - however no matter what Ubuntu based distro I choose - it just lists Ubuntu. Hard to identify the different drives - without a more unique name ?
They are pretty close. With this you will get more refined software and upgrade as Linux Mint uses their Mint Upgrade tool. I am not certain what Zorin uses for those, but there is not a standard tool for XFCE, so they possibly use Gnome Software which is not good, but you might check what they are using there.
i prefer blueman, my bluetooth head phones always run great with it, the other bluetooth they used before it disconnected and broke up while using my head phones.
Sorry for asking, but the Lenovo s21e you use with xfce is the 2gb ram version or the 4gb ram? The thing is that a have a Lenovo 100s (the 2gb ram) which has the same specs. I have fedora lxde there, but is kind of slow and I read lxde is slow. Also, lxde is kind of a pain to personalize, mostly because it bugs sometimes when doing it
A Linux distro based on Xfce does not require a lot of horsepower from your computer, which makes it a very viable option for people like me who prefer performance over aesthetics. Also, Xfce makes my Pentium D-based PC work like a charm.
No. Linux Mint has generally steered away from Wayland because it is not fully supported yet, but that will be comign sometime soon. XFCE will be steering toward wayland in the future.
I can't install gmusicbrowser in it, so not for me .I have to look for an other distro then Mint, which I used for years now, because Gmusicbrowser doesn't install in the 21 series. Cinnamon refuses too.
It means it will not do a system integration. You can setup any email client to work with them. You can set up Google in Evolution to manage contacts, calendars, and emails, just not system-wide.
If you run htop it shows about 600 MB of Ram usage, but if you run KDE system monitor it shows 1,1 GB. I love Plasma, but every application is way more complex and features reach if compared to XFCE. XFCE is way more responsive and you can do a test. Open 10 applications in Plasma and the equivalent apps in XFCE. You will notice a huge difference in resources usage.
@@shabang71 I think the KDE one includes SWAP and some cache for indexing. GNOME does the same. With file indexing and translucency disabled i've gotten Plasma 5 below 400MB. Haven't really seen any responsiveness issues since I've never run a machine with EEEPC specs
@@spicynoodle7419 I agree. Same experience here. Yes the KDE system monitor includes a lot of cache (not SWAP). However in a very low hand PC i noticed a sensible difference in responsiveness.
@@shabang71 Try lxqt with kwin, its more responsive than xfce, uses about 440M of ram, and has all the advanced features of kwin, its like a stripped down lightweight kde.
That's odd because yes I used to have problems with XFCE screen tearing as well until XFCE was migrated to the latest GTK code which matches Gnome's performance and I no longer have those issues. If you have an Intel graphics card there is a fix you can add to some file that I used to do and it helped a lot.
I'm unsure, but I would guess it uses more RAM in that it is still ubuntu-based iirc. If it still has an OpenBox file manager option, it may be about the same or a little better than PM in RAM usage. I haven't used ZOS since discovering PM in version 7, but I do hold it in high regard still and am not opposed to going back if PM ever becomes unbearable. I have installed PM 11 x86 on a netbook w/only 2 GB of ram and it seems faster than the prior PM 10, but I'd have to directly compare the RAM usage at some point. Hope this helps somehow.
I don’t like xfce because I had issues every time no thank you and it looks way too old and I now that you can change it but it takes way too many work I like cinnamon way better
Talk about MAJOR LET DOWN; eversince Ubuntu latest LTS dropped, literally every day I'd go to mint blog to check up on Mint 21... FFS the shade of orange of the firefox icon is still the same as Mint 17... it ain't cool to be THIS ASSBACKWARDS Though I love Mint and Cin, well loved, now I can't stand the sight of Mint's Cin, or Mint's skeleton. Fedora's Cin Spin is a superb experience, even Manjaro Cin Edition beats Mint's but I think ArcoLinux takes the cake; but I fqn hate rolling distros, Mint is also rolling, albeit rolling backwards, and Fedora Spins are point releases... THATS WHY LINUX SUX
Running Linux Mint Xfce on my Secondary Laptop, which has only 4GB of Ram, and has been running very well for a few years now. Linux Mint Xfce is the way to go for older PCs. Picked up all my Drivers automatically.
I have used xfce but I still find the mate faster and more stable...
Awesome to hear! Just realized i had a prehistoric HP laptop with a pentium, hdd and 4gb of ram and wanted to try out Linux for the first time because Windows 10 just seems awful on that poor machine
@@fiddledotgoth isn't XFCE supposed to be the lightest among the 3 variants? And isn't most lightweight DE the fastest? I'm new so I'm confused.
@@sifat-ullah123 No, in my experience Mate is actually faster and therefore a more lightweight...
i use xfce on my 64GB machine
XFCE works great on my dads 2002 laptop, I prefer KDE. I LOVE the level of customization attainable for the non technically inclined.
I have a 2006 machine and XFCE was too much for it. Maybe I’m just sensitive to sluggishness. I use window managers only on machines that old.
What is KDE
@@AlokProductions desktop environment
XFCE is always a good idea 🙏😌💖
Xfce is a way of life!
I use XFCE and I love it its blazingly fast and very flexible. I put a copy of xfce mint inside my micro sd card just in case in trouble theres a lot much help from the community
I'm one of those people that likes MATE better than XFCE for a low resource PC, as I've had far less composting issues with older AMD APU chips vs. XFCE, but it's been a while since I've used either, as I mainly use Budgie, so I might give XFCE a shot again at some point on a spare machine when I get bored one day.
You wont regret, sir 😎
While I like some of the extra features of budgie or kde, I tend to run into problems at some point and always go back to mate or xfce...
XFCE has a cooling looking Interface for Linux
XFCe is the snappiest of all.
LIked and subscribed... good delivery, easy to understand, and not overly technical like some Linux videos tend to be. Good job... I'm convinced to try XFCE on my older laptop now. 👍👍
Your video was helpful to me. Thank you. I think I'll stick with what I have, version 20.3 Cinnamon. I like that the calendar etc, is integrated, as you say, while XFCE doesn't have the bells and whistles...
I'm already using XFCE ;-)
Thank you Bro for all your gear through the years. Yes Sir, I use the Notes to keep track of where I am in Word Time mp3s (Acts in Japanese...Hebrews in KJV...stuff like that). Starts heaps faster than Office docs!
Peace, Man! (You had asked about Notes, and I didn't see any replies, so...)
Fun Fact for the wallpaper (3:50 thru 9:30) --> That's "Gardens by the Bay" in Singapore
See at the 6:30 mark, its one of the main reasons why I don't use xfce anymore, see how it renders windows, it will render the window decoration first and then fill in the rest of the window, it really bugs me, with firefox it rendered the window decoration and then literally took 1 second to fill in the contents of the window, lxqt is my go to desktop now, but I combine it with kwin, when you disable animations it renders windows instantly, you have all the advanced features of kwin, and it only uses 440M of ram.
I prefer the cinnamon desktop, you can deinstall applications if you right-click on the main menu.
I currently use the Cinnamon version of Mint. I have plenty of RAM and Processor Power, so choosing a version for the reason of limiting the load on my system would not be a strategy. I've always wondered about what I might lose or gain going with another version.
KDE Plasma isn't all that heavy anymore. My MX KDE installs come in at under 500 Mg. Plus, KDE has a more modern look and feel. JMHO, YMMV.
This is my doubt as well. There were a few back & forth tweets between kde & xfce devs about kde being lighter in some version a year or so ago. We need some detailed benchmarking.
Looks nice, i'd give Mint's XFCE another try. On KDE Plasma it idles at 450MB of ram. But I have to admit XFCE feels light and nimble which is nice.
That sounds pretty lightweight. KDE is the best balance of features and system resources.
After lxqt, xfxe is my favourite, used to be my daily driver
i really like Cinnamon but Thunar don't work very well in there (no 'open as root' and no 'open in terminal') and Nemo has no 'undo' 'redo' option.
Running Liquorix Kernel on my Mint 21 XFCE, my god it runs like a dream.
Thanks for the video 👍I love xfce
After running XFCE on Mint for years, I switched to XFCE on Fedora (via spin). I wanted something a little more updated kernel wise.
Manjaro XFCE, why not?
@@alternatuber6698 Manjaro always bad for me, arch better than manjaro
@@alternatuber6698 Manjaro has its own package repository, which can be both good and bad thing, in terms of long-term support. Xfce on Manjaro is super smooth though
At 9:57 he says XFCE is better "if you don't like the bells and whistles of online accounts". You can't have online accounts? That seems impossible.
I installed Mint XFCE on an old laptop with 4gb of ram with a celeron N2830 (2.16ghz) CPU, and once it's inside it runs very good, (much better than w7 would) so I'm wondering if it could run MATE just as well?
Sticky Notes - a warning. Some years ago I used a similar application to put a note on my desktop - "Remember to compliment wife on new hair-do". Seemed a good idea at the time......except that my wife spotted it ! I paid for my temerity and foolhardiness........
My Logitech MX Keys keyboard would not connect via bluetooth with blueman so I had to abandon using mint as I used a cheap wired keyboard to complete initial install.
you DONT need to use bluetooth to use that keyboard!
@@jimw7916 well if i connect it via the usb cable it still does not work on linux mint.
@@snickeas1 did u enable it in bios?
I ran into the same exact problem. I couldn’t solve it.
Why youtube recommend your channel just by now, anyway great content bro!
XFCE is the most logical choice,im on Mint 21 and it works fine.
Gonna try it on my friend's old cheap 2 GB laptop. I love how Linux Mint comes with everything a normal (not techy) human beeing needs, yet the Cinnamon might be a bit too tough on that hardware. Might be a good compromise.
Depending on your use case, I'd also try Solus mate; I find it faster and more stable for everyday use on my HP DM1 (amd e450 1.65 ghz, 4gb ram)...
2 GB of RAM may not be enough. I mean it's OK for XFCE but the problem is the web browsers: they use a lot of RAM
@@Ben-hg3bz i have a Core 2 Due intel with 2 GB Ram,and XFCE Mint Works Fine,and i use Google Chrome and its Runs Fast same way,because is Linux,but Firefox not run fast,it pingpongs a lot before open a homepage.
Used Cinnamon for a while, but prefer XFCE. Is lighter on resources, and easier to use, but that's just personal. On cold boot around 530 to 550Mb. But not using Mint. Using Debian XFCE.
What ever happened to Lubuntu? I never hear from anyone talking about it anymore.
Lubuntu was replaced with LXQT.
Believe it or not but I really use a lot the sticky notes on my computer, so this is a big deal for me
Is there GNOME Disks utility at the Live USB of this Linux Mint 21 XFCE?
I actually do use those notes, I’ve been learning with hackthebox, udemy, etc and I’ll copy and paste relevant notes and things I need to remember like commands and hotkeys.
My challenge is.... How to edit the motherboard boot menu. There are dozens of good Ubuntu derivatives - however no matter what Ubuntu based distro I choose - it just lists Ubuntu. Hard to identify the different drives - without a more unique name ?
How does Zorin OS lite compare to this?
They are pretty close. With this you will get more refined software and upgrade as Linux Mint uses their Mint Upgrade tool. I am not certain what Zorin uses for those, but there is not a standard tool for XFCE, so they possibly use Gnome Software which is not good, but you might check what they are using there.
i prefer blueman, my bluetooth head phones always run great with it, the other bluetooth they used before it disconnected and broke up while using my head phones.
Linux MInt XFCE 2.5GB ISO, MX Linux AHS ISO is 1.9GB.
Sorry for asking, but the Lenovo s21e you use with xfce is the 2gb ram version or the 4gb ram? The thing is that a have a Lenovo 100s (the 2gb ram) which has the same specs. I have fedora lxde there, but is kind of slow and I read lxde is slow. Also, lxde is kind of a pain to personalize, mostly because it bugs sometimes when doing it
2GB version
Thx 4 video
Beautiful Garden by the bay wallpaper :-)
A Linux distro based on Xfce does not require a lot of horsepower from your computer, which makes it a very viable option for people like me who prefer performance over aesthetics. Also, Xfce makes my Pentium D-based PC work like a charm.
I can't Install because my Notebook needs more Specs. I can only Install cinnemon edge
xfce/i3 ...my daily driver for years.
i don't use sticky not, i use gnote
i use mint Cinnamon in my AMD 5 5600X 32gb 306012gb PC & Xfce on my i3 8th gen 4gb ram laptop
Is there any chance this version support wayland by default? Afaik its based on ubuntu 22.04 which support wayland by default
No. Linux Mint has generally steered away from Wayland because it is not fully supported yet, but that will be comign sometime soon. XFCE will be steering toward wayland in the future.
I'd also recommend LXQT, even lighter than xfce.
I like lxqt in theory but haven't found any distros where it works well enough so I tend to go for mate on most distros...
@@fiddledotgoth Works great here on tumbleweed, I use kwin instead of openbox, kmix for volume control, its like kde but without the plasma desktop.
I can't install gmusicbrowser in it, so not for me .I have to look for an other distro then Mint, which I used for years now, because Gmusicbrowser doesn't install in the 21 series. Cinnamon refuses too.
i think i w'd have used xfce in my university/college years but i find it too simplistic nowadays (at my age)
32 bit? Like to try on a ASUS 900A Eee pc (1.6Mhz 2g ram 4g ssd) for just writing a book, internet use for dictionary / thesaurus and research.
MX Linux and Peppermint both support 32 bit.
What is the RAM consumption?
Usually around 750MB on install
XFCE can't even link to a file within GUI. Somewhat debilitating.
By not being able to attach a google account does this mean you cant run google or gmail on xfce?
It means it will not do a system integration. You can setup any email client to work with them. You can set up Google in Evolution to manage contacts, calendars, and emails, just not system-wide.
@@SwitchedtoLinux Thanks
Good review
XFCE or MATE?
(for Asus N61 and Aser Aspire One 722)
They would be about the same spec requirements, so it depends on what you like better.
Xfce is my favorite.
I use sticky notes once in while. Not perm, just like a 1-line reminder.
zorin lite is the best in appearance as xfce distro, no thing new in mint
Excellento!!! Thanks!!!
In a world of Plasma 5, XFCE is obsolete. Plasma uses the same or less resources while looking prettier and more coherent.
It is not as responsive, however.
If you run htop it shows about 600 MB of Ram usage, but if you run KDE system monitor it shows 1,1 GB. I love Plasma, but every application is way more complex and features reach if compared to XFCE. XFCE is way more responsive and you can do a test. Open 10 applications in Plasma and the equivalent apps in XFCE. You will notice a huge difference in resources usage.
@@shabang71 I think the KDE one includes SWAP and some cache for indexing. GNOME does the same. With file indexing and translucency disabled i've gotten Plasma 5 below 400MB. Haven't really seen any responsiveness issues since I've never run a machine with EEEPC specs
@@spicynoodle7419 I agree. Same experience here. Yes the KDE system monitor includes a lot of cache (not SWAP). However in a very low hand PC i noticed a sensible difference in responsiveness.
@@shabang71 Try lxqt with kwin, its more responsive than xfce, uses about 440M of ram, and has all the advanced features of kwin, its like a stripped down lightweight kde.
Its quite a nice DE, but every time on any distro, they never have fixed screen taring. SO, screw XFCE for that reason- catch up!
That's odd because yes I used to have problems with XFCE screen tearing as well until XFCE was migrated to the latest GTK code which matches Gnome's performance and I no longer have those issues. If you have an Intel graphics card there is a fix you can add to some file that I used to do and it helped a lot.
I'm a simple man. I just need it to work officelibre, play movies and watch videos online.
Is Zorin os lite xfce edition takes more ram or resources than other xfce distros like linux mint, mx linux, peppermint os
I'm unsure, but I would guess it uses more RAM in that it is still ubuntu-based iirc. If it still has an OpenBox file manager option, it may be about the same or a little better than PM in RAM usage. I haven't used ZOS since discovering PM in version 7, but I do hold it in high regard still and am not opposed to going back if PM ever becomes unbearable. I have installed PM 11 x86 on a netbook w/only 2 GB of ram and it seems faster than the prior PM 10, but I'd have to directly compare the RAM usage at some point. Hope this helps somehow.
Yes Mate has bugs specially in panel !!!!
I don’t like xfce because I had issues every time no thank you and it looks way too old and I now that you can change it but it takes way too many work I like cinnamon way better
No Wayland development in xfce!!
Actually I think they are starting to move into Wayland.
wiki.xfce.org/releng/wayland_roadmap
I'm a newbie
What is Wayland?
Miller Jason Martinez Helen Lee Larry
I use the Mint sticky notes
Always XFCE
thanks
I use mate
Noobs unite...! =)
Williams Brenda Smith Angela Jackson Patricia
Other than KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon & Pantheon all other DEs should be retired :)
Why not use XFCE? Simple, no wayland support.
Wayland is coming.
Talk about MAJOR LET DOWN; eversince Ubuntu latest LTS dropped, literally every day I'd go to mint blog to check up on Mint 21... FFS the shade of orange of the firefox icon is still the same as Mint 17... it ain't cool to be THIS ASSBACKWARDS
Though I love Mint and Cin, well loved, now I can't stand the sight of Mint's Cin, or Mint's skeleton. Fedora's Cin Spin is a superb experience, even Manjaro Cin Edition beats Mint's but I think ArcoLinux takes the cake; but I fqn hate rolling distros, Mint is also rolling, albeit rolling backwards, and Fedora Spins are point releases... THATS WHY LINUX SUX
What are you actually doing here? If anything sux it must be you.
Xfeces
LOL. Call it what you will, it's still the snappiest, comfy DE around.
Mine has 3.5