4 ms·

Chicago95 is a theme for XFCE. I run XFCE with i3wm on a SSD and it is insanely, perversely fast. Most of the default apps bundled with XFCE start instantly. Th

Chicago95 is a theme for XFCE. I run XFCE with i3wm on a SSD and it is insanely, perversely fast. Most of the default apps bundled with XFCE start instantly. The system boots within seconds, no need to consider any type of fast boot, hibernation etc. Native apps boot within seconds. Electron apps are slower, because Electron. A typical XFCE system on startup will allocate around 500MB of RAM, but with the way memory management works on Linux I think it doesn't really need all of that and lets go of it if something else does. It is kind of a barebones desktop environment, but certainly has a lot more stuff packed in than Win9x did and for a little extra disk space you can cherry pick whatever Gnome and KDE utilities you want anyway. So I think this phenomenon of slow modern desktops is a Windows/Mac problem, if you want one that's lightning fast, they're out there.

stavros 3y ago
I do want one that's lightning fast, thank you. If it launches a terminal and a browser, I'm good. I'll try this for my new NUC, thanks for the tip!
- pocketarc 3y ago
  I'll second the parent's experience, it's actually kind of insane how fast XFCE is. With the Chicago95 theme, the feeling you end up with is: "how fast would Windows 95 be if you ran it on modern hardware" It is actually just astounding, to the point that you end up feeling "jesus is my hardware really that fast?".
  - stavros 3y ago
    Is it stock XFCE, or do I need anything else? Can I just install xubuntu-desktop and that's it?
    - KronisLV 3y ago
      Xubuntu was mentioned, which is nice. Some folks might also enjoy the Linux Mint XFCE version, which I personally run: https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=307 https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=307 (more or less Ubuntu sans snaps, though their Cinnamon desktop is also reasonably okay, even if not quite as snappy as XFCE)
      - stavros 3y ago
        I can never grok the differences between Mint, Pop!_OS, and elementary OS. What do you like about Mint?
        KronisLV 3y ago
        > What do you like about Mint? The big one is desktops that I like, working out of the box: Cinnamon, XFCE or even MATE (can install more, of course, but these ones are supported and tested). XFCE is really snappy and lightweight, whereas Cinnamon is pretty polished and will also be familiar to folks coming from Windows (nice distro to recommend for that, for people with limited Linux experience). Another big thing is not having snaps forced down my throat like Ubuntu increasingly seems to do. In that regard, Mint is closer to Debian, although if you want to, there is nothing holding you back from using AppImage, Flatpak or anything else (even snaps). Compatibility that is otherwise pretty close to Ubuntu, as well as a long EOL period: after the demise of CentOS, Ubuntu remains one of those distros that you can just "install and forget about" (hopefully with regular updates), both locally on your workstation and in any of your servers. I can even base my containers on Ubuntu/run it on servers (pretty much every provider has support for it) but use Linux Mint locally and have pretty much everything work. Now, frankly I could also opt for Debian without too many issues (they also have an LTS variety, albeit less advertised), but Mint is basically Ubuntu without some of the things that annoy me - boring and dependable, mostly just works. Only annoying thing: if you ever need to setup an apt repo that points to packages that are compatible with Ubuntu and the script for doing that gets the release codename, it might get one that doesn't correspond to the correct Ubuntu release, but instead will grab the Mint name. Sometime need to fix that manually in the apt repository list with a text editor.
    - safety1st 3y ago
      I install the system using the Xubuntu ISO. Presumably if you install the xubuntu-desktop package on some other flavor it will be similar but if for instance you installed it on top of e.g. Kubuntu you might still be getting KDE services loading when you log in.
- dharmab 3y ago
  I use i3wm + kitty abd it's instantly responsive. Such a refreshing experience.
  - stavros 3y ago
    Thanks, I also use kitty as my main terminal. I'll give i3wm a go, even though I'm not a huge fan of tiling window managers (but maybe I should be).

stavros 3y ago

I do want one that's lightning fast, thank you. If it launches a terminal and a browser, I'm good. I'll try this for my new NUC, thanks for the tip!

pocketarc 3y ago
I'll second the parent's experience, it's actually kind of insane how fast XFCE is. With the Chicago95 theme, the feeling you end up with is: "how fast would Windows 95 be if you ran it on modern hardware" It is actually just astounding, to the point that you end up feeling "jesus is my hardware really that fast?".
- stavros 3y ago
  Is it stock XFCE, or do I need anything else? Can I just install xubuntu-desktop and that's it?
  - KronisLV 3y ago
    Xubuntu was mentioned, which is nice. Some folks might also enjoy the Linux Mint XFCE version, which I personally run: https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=307 https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=307 (more or less Ubuntu sans snaps, though their Cinnamon desktop is also reasonably okay, even if not quite as snappy as XFCE)
    - stavros 3y ago
      I can never grok the differences between Mint, Pop!_OS, and elementary OS. What do you like about Mint?
      - KronisLV 3y ago
        > What do you like about Mint? The big one is desktops that I like, working out of the box: Cinnamon, XFCE or even MATE (can install more, of course, but these ones are supported and tested). XFCE is really snappy and lightweight, whereas Cinnamon is pretty polished and will also be familiar to folks coming from Windows (nice distro to recommend for that, for people with limited Linux experience). Another big thing is not having snaps forced down my throat like Ubuntu increasingly seems to do. In that regard, Mint is closer to Debian, although if you want to, there is nothing holding you back from using AppImage, Flatpak or anything else (even snaps). Compatibility that is otherwise pretty close to Ubuntu, as well as a long EOL period: after the demise of CentOS, Ubuntu remains one of those distros that you can just "install and forget about" (hopefully with regular updates), both locally on your workstation and in any of your servers. I can even base my containers on Ubuntu/run it on servers (pretty much every provider has support for it) but use Linux Mint locally and have pretty much everything work. Now, frankly I could also opt for Debian without too many issues (they also have an LTS variety, albeit less advertised), but Mint is basically Ubuntu without some of the things that annoy me - boring and dependable, mostly just works. Only annoying thing: if you ever need to setup an apt repo that points to packages that are compatible with Ubuntu and the script for doing that gets the release codename, it might get one that doesn't correspond to the correct Ubuntu release, but instead will grab the Mint name. Sometime need to fix that manually in the apt repository list with a text editor.
  - safety1st 3y ago
    I install the system using the Xubuntu ISO. Presumably if you install the xubuntu-desktop package on some other flavor it will be similar but if for instance you installed it on top of e.g. Kubuntu you might still be getting KDE services loading when you log in.
dharmab 3y ago
I use i3wm + kitty abd it's instantly responsive. Such a refreshing experience.
- stavros 3y ago
  Thanks, I also use kitty as my main terminal. I'll give i3wm a go, even though I'm not a huge fan of tiling window managers (but maybe I should be).