4 ms·

I love the idea of a minimal desktop environment, but I've never tried XFCE. Are there any themes that folks here would recommend to make it much prettier? I fi

by Reubend 9mo ago

I love the idea of a minimal desktop environment, but I've never tried XFCE. Are there any themes that folks here would recommend to make it much prettier? I find the screenshots on their homepage very intuitive but a bit ugly.

andrewflnr 9mo ago
Are you sure just switching up the colors and background image wouldn't do it for you? I just looked at the homepage to see if it was anything different than I see on my machine, and if anything it looks nicer there. It's certainly nothing fancy, but I feel like there's hardly enough there to really count as "ugly". It all fades into the background quickly when you're doing actual work on it. But YMMV I guess.
erikw 9mo ago
My reflexive response was "xfce is ugly, and that's by design", but actually, this looks pretty slick: https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/13k5p5o/xfce_my_xfce_points/ https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/13k5p5o/xfce_my_x...
voidfunc 9mo ago
> Are there any themes that folks here would recommend to make it much prettier? You're probably not the target audience then. It's not a DE that prioritizes prettiness. If you want something that looks like the 90's desktop metaphor, it's exactly that and it's really good at that.
- avadodin 9mo ago
  > It's CDE-conformant, I know this!
ntnsndr 9mo ago
Remove all the xfce design elements you don't like. Ytou can even use a borderless theme, eg https://github.com/ushioichi/borderless-xfwm-theme https://github.com/ushioichi/borderless-xfwm-theme I added i3 so everything is on the keyboard. XFCE is great because it lets you put it in the background. The GUIs are there when you need them, but it is just as happy if you don't.
- loughnane 9mo ago
  This is precisely my point of view as well.
Nursie 9mo ago
I like the greybird and greybird-dark themes, I think greybird is the default with xubuntu. (edit - there are a ton of themes out there: https://www.xfce-look.org https://www.xfce-look.org Though personally I would avoid using their app)
ZYZ64738 9mo ago
If you are a dark mode addicted like me: go for NORD theme https://github.com/EliverLara/Nordic https://github.com/EliverLara/Nordic and I love this icon set (white) https://www.xfce-look.org/p/1277095 https://www.xfce-look.org/p/1277095 for more NORD integration have a look here: https://www.nordtheme.com/ports https://www.nordtheme.com/ports have fun
- anthk 9mo ago
  I'd choose Zukitre better. No dark theme or a light one blinding your eyes. Pretty neutral, gray. As for the icon theme, Elementary XFCE works perfectly well with Zukitre. If not, ePapirus or Papirus itself. Simple and flat but contrasted, the opposite to a good chunk of flat themes today, where you can't guess where the buttons start and end. Once you get used to that theme the Night Mode it's useless as I you can just spawn sct 5500 #or xsct at daytime, or sct 3500 at night time. xsct/xsct will work with any window manager, too. And the Zukitre themes blend really well with minimal window managers as CWM, i3, DWM and the like, as it has neither curves nor gradients.
rcarmo 9mo ago
https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2022/04/12/2330 https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2022/04/12/2330 is what most of my XFCE desktops have looked like for the past few years. I carry the theme around.
internet_points 9mo ago
I use Arc-Dark with elementary-xfce-dark icons (but have a script to switch to toggle dark-mode, where light mode is Adwaita with elementary-xfce icons). TBH I typically run things fullscreen, so the only part of xfce I normally "see" is a thin task bar at the bottom with open windows and clock and such. Well, except for when I use Thunar, which is a nice enough file manager.
porridgeraisin 9mo ago
Arc-darker GTK and Kvantum (if you use QT apps) themes. Qogir-dark icon theme. Whisker menu, application icon+ labels and the system tray thing in the bottom panel. Basically, it looks like windows 7.
theandrewbailey 9mo ago
Not sure if you think Windows 95 is pretty, but I'm compelled to drop a link to this on every Xfce post: https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95
- zozbot234 9mo ago
  https://github.com/B00merang-Project/Windows-Classic https://github.com/B00merang-Project/Windows-Classic (and other repositories under https://github.com/B00merang-Project/ https://github.com/B00merang-Project/ ) includes a GTK+ 4 theme that works quite well with Chicago95.
steanne 9mo ago
it's a lot to go through, but this is a great resource https://www.xfce-look.org/browse/ https://www.xfce-look.org/browse/
pkb 9mo ago
I use XFCE since 2000. It run great on 8 MiB of RAM on a diskless 486, with hard drive mounted over Ethernet. It is my robust daily driver. For dark mode, try: - in 'Appearance': set Adwaita (dark), - in 'Window Manager': set 'Default', - in 'Panel': set dark mode. This works in Debian 12 (running XFCE 4.18) and looks beautiful. Easy on the eyes, readable, comfortable. For other themes look at xfce-look.org. You install these by decompressing tarballs into ~/.themes/$(theme_name) folder and then selecting these in settings manager.

by Reubend 9mo ago

andrewflnr 9mo ago

Are you sure just switching up the colors and background image wouldn't do it for you? I just looked at the homepage to see if it was anything different than I see on my machine, and if anything it looks nicer there. It's certainly nothing fancy, but I feel like there's hardly enough there to really count as "ugly". It all fades into the background quickly when you're doing actual work on it. But YMMV I guess.

erikw 9mo ago

My reflexive response was "xfce is ugly, and that's by design", but actually, this looks pretty slick: https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/13k5p5o/xfce_my_xfce_points/ https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/13k5p5o/xfce_my_x...

voidfunc 9mo ago

> Are there any themes that folks here would recommend to make it much prettier? You're probably not the target audience then. It's not a DE that prioritizes prettiness. If you want something that looks like the 90's desktop metaphor, it's exactly that and it's really good at that.

avadodin 9mo ago
> It's CDE-conformant, I know this!

ntnsndr 9mo ago

Remove all the xfce design elements you don't like. Ytou can even use a borderless theme, eg https://github.com/ushioichi/borderless-xfwm-theme https://github.com/ushioichi/borderless-xfwm-theme I added i3 so everything is on the keyboard. XFCE is great because it lets you put it in the background. The GUIs are there when you need them, but it is just as happy if you don't.

loughnane 9mo ago
This is precisely my point of view as well.

Nursie 9mo ago

I like the greybird and greybird-dark themes, I think greybird is the default with xubuntu. (edit - there are a ton of themes out there: https://www.xfce-look.org https://www.xfce-look.org Though personally I would avoid using their app)

ZYZ64738 9mo ago

If you are a dark mode addicted like me: go for NORD theme https://github.com/EliverLara/Nordic https://github.com/EliverLara/Nordic and I love this icon set (white) https://www.xfce-look.org/p/1277095 https://www.xfce-look.org/p/1277095 for more NORD integration have a look here: https://www.nordtheme.com/ports https://www.nordtheme.com/ports have fun

anthk 9mo ago
I'd choose Zukitre better. No dark theme or a light one blinding your eyes. Pretty neutral, gray. As for the icon theme, Elementary XFCE works perfectly well with Zukitre. If not, ePapirus or Papirus itself. Simple and flat but contrasted, the opposite to a good chunk of flat themes today, where you can't guess where the buttons start and end. Once you get used to that theme the Night Mode it's useless as I you can just spawn sct 5500 #or xsct at daytime, or sct 3500 at night time. xsct/xsct will work with any window manager, too. And the Zukitre themes blend really well with minimal window managers as CWM, i3, DWM and the like, as it has neither curves nor gradients.

rcarmo 9mo ago

https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2022/04/12/2330 https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2022/04/12/2330 is what most of my XFCE desktops have looked like for the past few years. I carry the theme around.

internet_points 9mo ago

I use Arc-Dark with elementary-xfce-dark icons (but have a script to switch to toggle dark-mode, where light mode is Adwaita with elementary-xfce icons). TBH I typically run things fullscreen, so the only part of xfce I normally "see" is a thin task bar at the bottom with open windows and clock and such. Well, except for when I use Thunar, which is a nice enough file manager.

porridgeraisin 9mo ago

Arc-darker GTK and Kvantum (if you use QT apps) themes. Qogir-dark icon theme. Whisker menu, application icon+ labels and the system tray thing in the bottom panel. Basically, it looks like windows 7.

theandrewbailey 9mo ago

Not sure if you think Windows 95 is pretty, but I'm compelled to drop a link to this on every Xfce post: https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95

zozbot234 9mo ago
https://github.com/B00merang-Project/Windows-Classic https://github.com/B00merang-Project/Windows-Classic (and other repositories under https://github.com/B00merang-Project/ https://github.com/B00merang-Project/ ) includes a GTK+ 4 theme that works quite well with Chicago95.

steanne 9mo ago

it's a lot to go through, but this is a great resource https://www.xfce-look.org/browse/ https://www.xfce-look.org/browse/

pkb 9mo ago

I use XFCE since 2000. It run great on 8 MiB of RAM on a diskless 486, with hard drive mounted over Ethernet. It is my robust daily driver. For dark mode, try: - in 'Appearance': set Adwaita (dark), - in 'Window Manager': set 'Default', - in 'Panel': set dark mode. This works in Debian 12 (running XFCE 4.18) and looks beautiful. Easy on the eyes, readable, comfortable. For other themes look at xfce-look.org. You install these by decompressing tarballs into ~/.themes/$(theme_name) folder and then selecting these in settings manager.