XFCE, or KDE4 is not my choice

After struggling with KDE4 and it's bugs (I wrote about that in my last post, in Russian) I had a dilemma - continue using so loved window manager (I started with KDE1) or find an alternative that would just work, run faster, probably be not so reach for features, but still offer me nice look and feel.

Gnome

On of the most popular window managers ever. I tried it years ago but dislike - there are too many panels, they occupy space on top and bottom of desktop. Trying to combine everything on a single panel takes too much to spend on such a stupid thing.

LXDE

There were many advices to try this window manager out, and at first glance it looks great. But after X session restart the panel started blinking so I had not other choice killing X server. My plan was to find a replacement for KDE, fixing bugs was out of scope. Sorry, next time maybe...

XFCE

Well, looks good but with issues - multimedia buttons do not work, seems not many settings (after KDE of course). But wait, I need a panel, multiple desktops, and nice look and feel. Want it be as cool as possible, but run fast, really fast. Will it?
Now we will pass through configuration steps and check whether result is what we expect. I can say I'm just happy with it :)
XFCE offers configuration tool that allows configure themes, keyboard layout, shortcuts, window and mouse behavior and so on. Let's try to configure them to look and feel like we used to. I skip many steps like looking through a list of window themes and choosing the best one, to save our time.

Autostarting application

This is one of the most important features KDE provides. Many of window managers (including Gnome?) do not save which applications were started in the session and run minimized into tray bar almost all the time. Applications like skype are good targets to be started on session startup, but if they don't itt looks annoying.
We may configure all the applications to start automatically on "Application Autostart" page. For example, skype is what I have on my laptop.

Shortcuts

KDE has many well defined shortcuts that we want to have on XFDE too. Unfortunately on KDE3.5 on Debian I had some multimedia keys, like Mute, unrecognized so extra work with xmodmap was required. In XFCE the issue does not exist so will just assign them to applications/actions.



On "Application Shortcuts" page of "Keyboard" configuration tool I assigned Amarok to be launched on "Music" button press, Opera browser on "WWW", tvtime on "Video":

amarok <-> XF86Music
opera <-> XF86WWW
tvtime <-> XF86Video

Volume and mute control keys presses handled with amixer application. At first I thought popup window with volume % bar would be great but later changed my mind - when control volume/mute from TV tuner remote so do not get bored with popups. Also XFCE mixer plugin handles mixer control events properly and changes icon in system tray accordingly. amixer has many commands and options, so probably you will want to change some:

amixer -q -c 1 sset 'Master',0 10%- <-> XF86AudioLowerVolume
amixer -q -c 1 sset 'Master',0 10%+ <-> XF86AudioRaiseVolume
amixer -q -c 1 sset 'Master',0 toggle <-> XF86AudioMute

Launch application

The applet behavior at first glance looks too simple - there is no autocompletion by executable file name, instead it saves command history and gives a choice from it. Simple, but works. Also, like Gnome, it fails running applications, like Synaptic, that require root privileges. I'm not sure how KDE handles this, even for Gtk applications, but it does. So looking for a command in main menu is the only way if you do not want to play with $DISPLAY and xhost.

Window decoration

Compiz ... uses 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management (thanks to Wikipedia :) ). It creates really cool effects which combined with XFCE give you a replacement to KDE and it's graphic features (btw Compiz can be used with KDE as well).
To configure Compiz use configuration settings manager:

ccsm

Just select effects you like and then launch Compiz daemon:

compiz --replace

Add this command to "Application Autostart" so next time you login Compiz is launched automatically.







I should say that THERE IS life out of KDE, and if you are tired dealing with bugs, lost settings, and slow UI, give XFCE a chance.

More official screenshots here