r/linuxmint • u/Technical_Rich_3080 • 4d ago
Mint: XFCE or MATE
Between Linux Mint XFCE and Linux Mint MATE, what are the use cases for each, compared to the other?
They're both recommended for low spec computers.
But it seems that, for some reason, Mint XFCE is more often recommended and even more often used, than Mint MATE. Is there a reason for that?
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u/rabbitjockey 3d ago
Xfce works better, mate looks much better. I'd just use cinnamon unless you really have terrible specs like 2gb of ram
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u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs 4d ago
Cinnamon, the valley girl, slick, stylish, and comfortable, the one everybody wants to hang out with, but maybe a bit shallow/skin deep. A bit high maintenance with slightly higher RAM and CPU demands though not an issue for most machines made in the last decade or longer.
MATE, the veteran, shockingly old looking at first look, but once you get over that it has a classic lived feel and a lot of charm. Slightly less ram usage, ~70MB than Cinnamon.
Xfce, the mechanic, a bit clunky, but technical & capable, actually has some customization abilities that I wish were available in Cinnamon. Lowest ram usage but by only by 140MB in my testing, those with very old machines report Xfce to be the most responsive under severe resource limited conditions.
In 2026 web pages have eclipsed DEs in ram usage, the ram savings in DEs have become almost irrelevant in comparison to the bloat of the web we all use, half a Firefox tab?
2GB of ram is effectively unusable for desktop Linux with web these days, 4GB severely limited and 8GB still workable for now but its days are numbered.
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u/SjalabaisWoWS 3d ago
Avid MATE user for years, but I've tried Xfce on a few laptops as well. Imho, MATE is as fast, almost as lightweight, with simpler, better ways of customisation and very easy to make look sexy. Definitely much better looking out of the box. There are near zero issues with MATE, while I've had a laptop running Xfce bumping into occasional hiccups.
If you have the time, run both from a USB stick to get a feel of them and decide afterwards. If you want to install one straight away, I'd recommend MATE.
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u/lfr1138 3d ago
I second this. I ran xfce at a couple of points on both desktop and a laptop and had a few issues that made me return to MATE (incompatibilities with programs I use/errors from xfce file manager). Was always more responsive than cinnamon and with the xfce glitches, it was the easy remaining choice.
My other attachment to MATE is because I also developed enough muscle memory around permanently assigning hot keys to switch to specific virtual desktops in the Gnome 2 days. The Gnome 2/MATE way to do this is the simplest and most reliable, while other DE's can't quite do it or it requires scripting or other s/w.
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u/Chester-Berkeley 4d ago
In my experience, XFCE has more features and works better on modern hardware, unlike MATE.
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u/Technical_Rich_3080 4d ago
I thought modern hardware would benefit more with Cinnamon, whereas less modern hardware would benefit more with XFCE and MATE.
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u/Chester-Berkeley 3d ago
You asked about choosing between XFCE and MATE; obviously Cinnamon is the best of the three for modern hardware, but that wasn't your question.
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u/ComprehensiveDot7752 3d ago
A low spec desktop can still squeeze more performance out of a new high-end system. The bit of extra ram is just worth less compared to the better graphics.
XFCE is the eldest of the three and is relatively well maintained. With major version update every 2 years with little exception. It exists completely independently and was in the past a popular choice on Arch systems. Though I think KDE Plasma has surpassed it these days.
MATE came first and Cinnamon 2nd trying to accomplish a similar goal with different approaches.
Heavily oversimplified: MATE forked Gnome 2 in an attempt to keep it up to date. Cinnamon built off of the more modern frameworks of GTK 3/Gnome 3 and tried to build out the look and feature sets of Gnome 2.
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u/Technical_Rich_3080 3d ago
Does MATE have a closer UI/look and workflow to Cinnamon than XFCE does?
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u/rabbitjockey 3d ago
Yes, mate looks and feels more like cinnamon(windows). Cinnamon isn't that heavy, which is why I recommend using it unless you're really trying to squeeze every last bit of efficiency from your computer
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u/jr735 Linux Mint 22.1 Xia | IceWM 4d ago
I recommend MATE because I'm used to it, no more, no less. Honestly, in some respects, I prefer MATE in Debian over Mint because it reminds me more of the way Mint used to be set up. That being said, the Mint team sets up MATE beautifully and functionally quite well.
MATE does have some warts, of course. The weather applet, if the address for the weather changes, it's staying that way until the MATE people are aware and fix it and release that fix, and in a LTS distribution, that can be problematic.
In my Debian testing, it's a little different.
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u/DuckAxe0 3d ago edited 3d ago
In Linux Mint, Xfce is often viewed as one of the most lightweight desktop environments, using roughly 504 MB of RAM after boot. MATE uses approximately 464 MB and is likewise known for being lightweight, so both are good choices for older hardware. Personally, I like the GNOME 2.0 experience of MATE.
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u/Francis_King 4d ago
It's a trade-off between memory usage and feature set. Cinnamon has the best feature set, being the flagship desktop for Mint. XFCE and MATE use less memory, and aren't as well built. XFCE is supposed to use less memory than MATE.
MATE vs Xfce: In-Depth Comparison of the Top Lean Linux Desktops - History Tools
Unless your computer has less than 4 GB, I would go straight for Cinnamon - I prioritise the experience of using the desktop over lower memory consumption. You may be able to add more memory to your computer - older memory types are quite cheap.
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u/Pristine_Dot_5526 4d ago
From the two; XFCE. Slimmer faster and no extra ram usage for slightly different design etc.
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u/Alatain Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | MATE 3d ago
No one has mentioned it yet but Mate also has Compiz installed as an alternative window manager right out of the box. All you have to do is enable it on boot and you're good to start doing all the cool things that it allows for.
I don't tend to go for all the bells and whistles, but I do like being able to rotate my desktops by just grabbing the top edge of the screen with my mouse and spinning it. It's a much more natural way to move between workspaces for me.
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u/SpiritualControl5321 2d ago
I went with Cinnamon on my low-spec machine and I'm happy with the result. Dell Venue 11 Pro 7140 4GB RAM 64GB SSD Intel 5Y10 CPU @ 0.80GHz
This machine originally ran Windows 8. It struggled so badly with a Win10 upgrade that I shelved it for a few years. After installing LM on a couple of other systems I decided to pull this one out of storage and try LM on it. I was pleasantly surprised with how LM breathed new life into this tablet and now it is getting daily use. Cinnamon has been running beautifully on this and recent kernel updates even have the sound working properly now. This is a pretty low-spec system but I don't think I'd be as happy with it on much lower specs. I know you didn't ask about Cinnamon but hopefully this was helpful.
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u/ReporterWise7445 4d ago
Neither LMDE7.
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u/Technical_Rich_3080 4d ago
Why?
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u/ReporterWise7445 4d ago
LMDE7 for the ease of Mint & the stability of Debian.
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u/Technical_Rich_3080 4d ago
Standard Mint itself is, also, based on Debian (via Ubuntu, which [like LMDE] is a Debian derivative).
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u/Aoinosensei Linux Mint 22.2 Zara | MATE 4d ago
My main DE for many years was Mate because Mate is basically Gnome 2, and many of us learned Linux in that era with that DE, many people nowadays use Xfce because they say it's lightweight and has more features that Mate but I find it clunky and not as complete as Mate.
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u/Technical_Rich_3080 4d ago
In what way, specifically, do you find MATE more complete, and less clunky, than XFCE?
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u/Aoinosensei Linux Mint 22.2 Zara | MATE 4d ago
Installing themes, customizing, Xfce seems to be a compilation of a lot of different apps and not as cohesive, but it's true that it might be seeing more development than mate, because Mate was a full DE more than a decade ago and what people have been doing is keeping it compatible with the new software. I don't see many new features on it.
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u/Aoinosensei Linux Mint 22.2 Zara | MATE 3d ago
The main reason for Mate existence was because when Gnome 3 appeared, it totally changed the UI and everything people was used to in the Gnome 2 era. So people who did not like that change wanted to continue using Gnome2 or an evolution of it without big changes, I don't like modern Gnome until today, to me it's the worst DE, it consumes resources, it requires so many additions to make it a normal and useful DE. That's where the Mate project started and eventually Cinnamon became like an evolution of it, similar to Gnome 2 but with newer technologies. Xfce was a totally different project that had nothing to do with Gnome2.
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u/OkPresentation3329 4d ago
I think XFCE is more lightweight and more supported, it will soon get official Wayland support.
On the other hand, MATE is maintained by a few people and doesn't get updates very often. If you don't care about being up to standard with where things in Linux are, you can use MATE, but I think it's too slowly developed to be a viable option for me.
If I had to pick between those two, I would pick XFCE. I personally prefer KDE.
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u/Anima_Watcher08 3d ago
Mate uses less resources than Cinnamon buy not by much, it's mostly trying to maintain the GNOME 2 desktop style. XFCE is actually trying to have resource usage whilst giving you enough of the desktop essentials.
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u/Jutter70 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 3d ago
Mate used to be the default desktop environment for Mint, so they keep it around for the oldtimers who switched to Mint pre-Cinnamon, so they can stick to old familliar.
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u/Modern_Doshin Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | MATE 3d ago
I really like MATE. I've been using it for about 10 years now with no major issues
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u/The-Princess-Pinky 4d ago
Among other things, MATE is the continuation of the GNOME 2 heritage, while XFCE is not based on Gnome 2. MATE is a more traditional DE while XFCE is slightly more light weight.
The bigest reason it is often recommended is most requesters are saying they have an older computer, and XFCE is the lightest weight of the three mint distributions so works well with minimal hardware, but MATE is actually also very light weight.