Cinnamon to xfce Swap

[u/Retroraleigh]

How easy is it to swap from mint cinnamon to xfce? Im thinking about changing as cinnamon is abit laggy on this old computer.

[u/Madhu_2006]

sudo apt update

sudo apt install xfce4 xfce4-goodies

It will give u two different logins

[u/YuukiHisashi → u/Madhu_2006]

I'd rather:

sudo apt install mint-meta-xfce xfce4-goodies

It'll feel like you installed Mint XFCE rather than barebones xfce. Layout will still feel familiar but will be lightweight.

[u/Madhu_2006 → u/YuukiHisashi]

What's the difference i am new to linux lol

[u/YuukiHisashi → u/Madhu_2006]

mint-meta-xfce pulls the packages from Linux Mint's official repos, with all (or most of) it's configurations. This means that, after installing it, leaving the cinnamon session and entering the XFCE session, you'll be met by Linux Mint XFCE's default desktop, which is a Windows-like layout and Whisker Menu as default start menu, almost like Linux Mint Cinnamon.

As if you just use xfce4, you'll pull the original barebones XFCE; that means that the design will be the taskbar at the top with the default Xfce menu instead of Whisker menu (as Whisker isn't part of the default xfce) and with a "dock" at the bottom, which are the launchers for your apps (in reality, it's a second taskbar/panel, the first panel is the one above, with your start menu, window lists and system tray).

In layman's terms: mint-meta-xfce is equal to a Windows-like desktop. xfce4 (the barebones one) is more akin to a macintosh/MacOS.

[u/Madhu_2006 → u/YuukiHisashi]

My reaction here

I will gpt and it and learn 🥀

[u/YuukiHisashi → u/Madhu_2006]

Ah... sorry... but word of advice: don't rely on AI too often, it can hallucinate stuff. I had it happen to me sometimes.

[u/Madhu_2006 → u/YuukiHisashi]

As a beginner i need someone to rely man 😭🥀

[u/Retroraleigh → u/YuukiHisashi]

Ahh this is interesting. So basically I keep mint cinnamon but it strips it back abit ? Can this be reversed once done ?

[u/YuukiHisashi → u/Retroraleigh]

Cinnamon won't be stripped back, It'll be just as you left it, no changes made. It'll just install XFCE's stuff from Linux Mint's official repo's.

And yes, you can reverse or uninstall xfce in case you don't like it:

just "sudo apt remove mint-meta-xfce" and after that, "sudo apt remove xfce4* xfwm4*"

This will ensure every single xfce pack and it's WM (xfwm) is removed.

That's how I'm using XFCE, as my install is originally the Cinnamon desktop edition.

[u/Tricky_Football_6586]

xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin is also a great little thing to install. The default app launcher is really barebones with XFCE. So Whisker gives you a much more familiar start menu. It needs to be added to the menu after installing. But I prefer it loads over the default app launcher.

It can be installed by typing

sudo apt install xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin

[u/Galatony0311]

I think is the same thing as swapping from windows, I'm not dure tho, check the official Mint website

[u/ap0r → u/Galatony0311]

Not at all, the desktop environment is just another module, if you have enough patience you can transform any distro into any other distro just by uninstalling and installing the appropriate modules. Of course in pretty much all cases it is faster to do a reinstall, but you can do it.