[olug] xfce and the other guys

[Eric P]

Scott Jones wrote:
> On Tuesday 13 December 2005 10:29, thelarsons3 at cox.net wrote:
> 
> 
>>But I've also noticed that XFce isn't mentioned nearly as much. 
> 
> 
> The lack of PR is a decision on the part of the developers.  Gaining a large 
> userbase such as Gnome/KDE have is not one of the goals of the project.
> 
> 
>>As I'm again using a Linux desktop (and one fast enough that I'd like to
>>try a DE not just a bare WM) I'd like to know its merits in comparison to
>>the other two.  Any non-ranting commentary gratefully appreciated.  ;)
> 
> 
> ObDisclaimer: I've been using Xfce as my sole desktop for about seven years 
> now, since shortly after Olivier switched from XForms to gtk+.  I've also 
> been the binary package manager for the Xfce-Goodies subproject (which has 
> since been folded into the Xfce svn repository), as well as providing Xfce 
> RPMs for SuSE 8.x.  Still, I'll try to remain objective or at least avoid 
> ranting.  No guarantees about this being snark-free, though.
> 
> Xfce is lightweight and modular.  Use the whole thing, or only the parts you 
> like.  Don't like the panel?  You aren't forced to use it.  Kill xftaskbar if 
> you want.  Ignore the iconbox to your heart's content.  Use a different 
> window manager if xfwm4 doesn't suit your needs.  It's your choice.
> 
> Xfce is fast.  Okay, so this is more subjective.  On my machine (K6-2 500, 
> 256MB RAM, fixed-frequency S3 Savage3D w/o hardware accel), Xfce starts and 
> runs quickly.  Window redraws/refreshes are hardly noticeable.  The only 
> thing that slows down the startup time is the fact that I have Xfce's session 
> manager preload some Gnome and KDE stuff, which is completely optional.  I've 
> had it perform acceptably on lower spec machines, as well.  Running on more 
> modern machines, it is quite fast.
> 
> Most importantly (to me), Xfce is *developer-driven*.  The goal isn't to 
> become the One True Desktop.  The developers' goal is to create a set of 
> tools for themselves.  If other people like it, that's just a nice little 
> bonus.  Features aren't added based on how many users want them, but on 
> whether the developer feels it will enhance the the overall product without 
> affecting resource usage and ease of use.
> 
> Don't know if this is what you were looking for, but feel free to ask more.  
> Don't forget that Xfce also has a general discussion list.  Go to 
> http://foo-projects.org/mailman/listinfo/xfce to subscribe or view the 
> archives.  On IRC, there is #xfce at irc.freenode.net.  Some of the devs can 
> be found hanging out there on occasion.
> 

Scott, maybe you can answer a few XFCE questions for me.  I've tried
a few times to switch to XFCE over the last 2-3 years, but I've run
across a few obstacles that maybe you can help me with.

#1.  I like keyboard shortcuts for everything, but XFCE's solution
for bringing up the app menu and context menu via keyboard shortcut
is/was buggy (i.e., there is a line you can enter on the command
line to bring up these 2 menus, but it didn't work correctly once
tied to a shortcut).  Any ideas?  Also, IIRC the apps menu would
show up near wherever your mouse was on the screen.  This isn't very
helpful either.  the apps menu should come up from a fixed location
like Gnome/KDE/IceWM/WindowMaker/etc.

#2.  The number of arbitrary apps/commands you can tie to a keyboard
shortcut is limited to 10 I believe.  Is there a way to increase
this?  I don't need that many more than 10, but somewhere around 15
seems to fit my current work flow.  I believe I remember someone
suggesting xkeys as the only solution to this limitation.

I've been waiting for XFCE to correct these issues as I do like
everything else about this DE (mostly that it's fairly
responsive/gtk based).

Thanks for reading,
Eric