5 ms·

Me too but I can tell you why. - Coherency: the way it works and is presented does not change much over the years. It's important for me. I don't want to adapt

Me too but I can tell you why. - Coherency: the way it works and is presented does not change much over the years. It's important for me. I don't want to adapt everytime a designer thinks he has a good idea. - Simplicity: it just works and is well configured out of the box - Efficiency: not the lightest Desktop Manager in the market but it is light enough so it won't eat resources for nothing - Right level of complexity: there is enough to configure it to adapt it to your needs but not too much to make it a mess. Take the xfce console for example: you can rename tabs, move them and search text in them. Last time I check these features were not available in Gnome Terminal. But at the same time I don't want much more than that. Coherency is really important for me: Xfce has been there when Gnome / Unity / Gnome 3 / Mate / Cinnamon were confusing me by offering all the same but not really the same. Edit: I wrote "consistency" instead of "coherency" but I guess the right term is coherency in this context.

iagovar 6y ago
I agree, XFCE is there when you need it. No weird experiments, always consistent.
- cies 6y ago
  Feels like Win98SE to me (that's a compliment). Love it for that, though back to KDE for my daily driver.
  - refracture 6y ago
    Chicago95 can take that a step further if you like. I'm running KDE lately too (Slackware-current finally got KDE5 recently so I'm trying it out), but XFCE is the old trusty default for me.
    - awiesenhofer 6y ago
      Wow, what a blast from the past. I always wonder though is anyone actually using themes like these as their actual daily driver? Link to the project with Screenshots: https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95
      - refracture 6y ago
        I ran it for most of 2020 before moving to KDE. I hadn't looked at the project recently until today and saw that it now has 'Chicago95 Plus! A tool to preview and install Windows 95/98/ME/XP themes'.. I'm going to have to try it that out. Of course, I'm probably an outlier in that I love the visual design of user interfaces from that bygone era.
      - kaszanka 6y ago
        I used XFCE with this exact theme for a few months and I loved it. The only thing I didn't like was that the light gray top "outline part" of the window decoration doesn't disappear when you maximize a window. I never figured out how to fix that.
      - Snortibartfast 6y ago
        I've used Memphis98 (similar to Chicago95) since it came out. Although just as a GTK-theme, not the entire desktop. Window manager is FVWM and taskbar/panel/session-manager is LXQt, so it's a bit of a Franken-desktop :) For Qt-apps I use the "Windows" style so they fit together nicely. Comparing Memphis and Chicago, there are some layout-bugs in Memphis, but I feel like it's overall a bit better balanced than Chicago. I think all new themes are too bright and flat, Windows 9X was perfect (at least in that regard).
        anthk 6y ago
        For a FVWM/Motif based theme, you may like the OL/Motif themes from B00merang. OpenLook https://b00merang.weebly.com/solaris-8.html https://b00merang.weebly.com/solaris-8.html Motif https://b00merang.weebly.com/solaris-9.html https://b00merang.weebly.com/solaris-9.html The Solaris 9 theme works great with FVWM.
      - _lffv 6y ago
        My grandmother's computer is an old Debian box with nothing more than `ly` (as a DM), xfce, Chicago95, and Firefox. She loves it, though I made a ton of tweaks here and there to make it easier for her to use (specifically a ton of website launchers on her desktop). She got lost in regards to how to use her computer back in the XP>8 transition so it was great to be able to bring her back to that style of desktop and have the system be easier to fix than Windows 8 or 10.
    - utxaa 6y ago
      it seriously takes me like 15 minutes to find a bug in KDE, although i haven't tried it for 3 years or so. is that improved?
      - cies 6y ago
        rock solid lately. also on par with XFCE in terms of resource usage, yet lot and lots more features.
agumonkey 6y ago
Same. We had this 2010s bubble of design space exploration and constant 'disruption' but in the end .. the good old paradigm is still way more than enough.
kieckerjan 6y ago
Wow, I just learned from your casual remark that you can actually search in the xfce console. Awesome!
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  You can search in gnome-terminal and konsole as well. It's a fairly common feature.
  - kieckerjan 6y ago
    I believe you. But those I don't use. :-)

iagovar 6y ago

I agree, XFCE is there when you need it. No weird experiments, always consistent.

cies 6y ago
Feels like Win98SE to me (that's a compliment). Love it for that, though back to KDE for my daily driver.
- refracture 6y ago
  Chicago95 can take that a step further if you like. I'm running KDE lately too (Slackware-current finally got KDE5 recently so I'm trying it out), but XFCE is the old trusty default for me.
  - awiesenhofer 6y ago
    Wow, what a blast from the past. I always wonder though is anyone actually using themes like these as their actual daily driver? Link to the project with Screenshots: https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95
    - refracture 6y ago
      I ran it for most of 2020 before moving to KDE. I hadn't looked at the project recently until today and saw that it now has 'Chicago95 Plus! A tool to preview and install Windows 95/98/ME/XP themes'.. I'm going to have to try it that out. Of course, I'm probably an outlier in that I love the visual design of user interfaces from that bygone era.
    - kaszanka 6y ago
      I used XFCE with this exact theme for a few months and I loved it. The only thing I didn't like was that the light gray top "outline part" of the window decoration doesn't disappear when you maximize a window. I never figured out how to fix that.
    - Snortibartfast 6y ago
      I've used Memphis98 (similar to Chicago95) since it came out. Although just as a GTK-theme, not the entire desktop. Window manager is FVWM and taskbar/panel/session-manager is LXQt, so it's a bit of a Franken-desktop :) For Qt-apps I use the "Windows" style so they fit together nicely. Comparing Memphis and Chicago, there are some layout-bugs in Memphis, but I feel like it's overall a bit better balanced than Chicago. I think all new themes are too bright and flat, Windows 9X was perfect (at least in that regard).
      - anthk 6y ago
        For a FVWM/Motif based theme, you may like the OL/Motif themes from B00merang. OpenLook https://b00merang.weebly.com/solaris-8.html https://b00merang.weebly.com/solaris-8.html Motif https://b00merang.weebly.com/solaris-9.html https://b00merang.weebly.com/solaris-9.html The Solaris 9 theme works great with FVWM.
    - _lffv 6y ago
      My grandmother's computer is an old Debian box with nothing more than `ly` (as a DM), xfce, Chicago95, and Firefox. She loves it, though I made a ton of tweaks here and there to make it easier for her to use (specifically a ton of website launchers on her desktop). She got lost in regards to how to use her computer back in the XP>8 transition so it was great to be able to bring her back to that style of desktop and have the system be easier to fix than Windows 8 or 10.
  - utxaa 6y ago
    it seriously takes me like 15 minutes to find a bug in KDE, although i haven't tried it for 3 years or so. is that improved?
    - cies 6y ago
      rock solid lately. also on par with XFCE in terms of resource usage, yet lot and lots more features.

agumonkey 6y ago

Same. We had this 2010s bubble of design space exploration and constant 'disruption' but in the end .. the good old paradigm is still way more than enough.

kieckerjan 6y ago

Wow, I just learned from your casual remark that you can actually search in the xfce console. Awesome!

stjohnswarts 6y ago
You can search in gnome-terminal and konsole as well. It's a fairly common feature.
- kieckerjan 6y ago
  I believe you. But those I don't use. :-)