Mint: XFCE vs LMDE

I was just curious how these distros are/how they compare. From my understanding, XFCE is more lightweight, while LMDE uses gnome. Is this true? Any other differences? Anybody run either of these and can share an opinion?

Thanks.

 

The new Linux Mint XFCE release is now based on LMDE. So, basically it's LMDE - Gnome + XFCE .

XFCE is lighter than Gnome but, like Gnome, is based on the same GTK libraries. In other words, your applications will look native whether you use Gnome or XFCE. Both are stable desktop environments. It just comes down to which one you prefer.

 

Can you give me a shortlist of the pros and cons of each? I'm not all that familiar with how they differ so I don't really have a preference.

 

All of the pros and cons will deal with the DE.

There isn't a whole lot of straight pros and cons for the DE's either. Try one and see how you like it. I like XFCE more then GNOME myself.

 

Like lupusarcanus said, you can't really compare DE's unless one is lacking severely in functionality, for example. The only differences between DE's are pretty much the default set of applications and how you interact with it.

The new XFCE 4.8 release is a huge improvement over the older XFCE 4.6 release. I'm not sure if Linux Mint XFCE includes version 4.8. XFCE is, by design, very customizable. That doesn't mean it's hard to use, though. XFCE is really straight forward while letting you change it to suit your needs.

Gnome's 2.xx releases were also very customizable, but with their new 3.0 release, they're aiming at new users and oversimplified things as a result (in my opinion). Many people complain about how little Gnome 3.0 can be modified. LMDE is based on Debian Squeeze, which contains the last Gnome 2.xx release, 2.32, and will probably continue to do so until the next Debian release.

You should download both of the DVD's and try them out for yourself. I live CD session is worth more than 1000 words . I personally use both XFCE 4.8 and Gnome 2.32, but I'm switching to only XFCE 4.8 because of the direction Gnome is heading.

 

Same. I have been using Debian Squeeze + XFCE 4.8 for about 2 weeks now, and their are few bugs but overall it is much better than it was previously.

Xubuntu + XFCE 4.8 is so fast on my notebook, plus I love the fact Thunar is the default file manager -- IMO better than Nautilus.

I'm not sticking with Ubuntu or any distro that goes the route of Gnome3 or Unity. I have been looking at Xubuntu 11.04 and it looks GREAT. I think that's going to be my new main distro. I know the linux snobs frown upon Xubuntu but it really is a wonderful XFCE distro.

 

Source.

I said nothing!
(I actually prefer XFCE, as I said before; but I was just emphasizing chenxiaolong's point.)

 

Point, counterpoint:

Open source identity: Linux founder Linus Torvalds

 

Ah, I never saw that. Well, all is even ground then. Thanks for that!

I'll just stick with what I said in my first post.