 Linux distributions that use the XFCE desktop environment. There's a whole bunch of them out there. There's a lot of good ones out there. So today, what I thought I would do is I would take, I don't know, 10 or 12 very popular Linux distributions that offer the XFCE desktop environment and I would break them down into a tier list. So I added 12 very popular Linux distributions that offer XFCE as a desktop environment. So what I have included here is Arch Linux, Arco Linux, Demian, Fedora, Gentoo, Linux Lite, Linux Mint, Manjaro, MX Linux, Peppermint OS, Void Linux, and Zubuntu. I think that really covers certainly the most popular desktop Linux distributions that offer an XFCE environment. And I'm not going to go necessarily in alphabetical order here. Some of these distributions I haven't used lately. I'll be honest. There's a couple that I added here that I have not used probably in a year or maybe two years. But for the most part, these Linux distributions, they haven't changed that much. So I feel pretty comfortable in being able to rank them. So the first one that kind of jumps out at me is Arco Linux. Arco Linux, of course you guys know, is the distribution I actually use on my workstation here at the office. I make all of my videos on Arco Linux. I also use Arco Linux on my home computer. But I don't use the main Arco Linux edition. And they actually do have a flagship edition of Arco Linux that actually uses the XFCE desktop environment. It also comes with OpenBox and i3. It comes with three desktops on that ISO. But XFCE was kind of their flagship desktop environment when Arco Linux bursted on the scene. And it's still a really good XFCE experience. If you're looking for a very customized, very clean looking XFCE that's really got some bling to it. A lot of good themes, a lot of fancy icons. And of course you get the entire Arco Linux ecosystem because Arco Linux has a lot of custom apps like the Arco Tweak Tool, which has now been renamed to the Arch Linux Tweak Tool. So you get a lot of that extra goodness, but I'm not gonna focus on a lot of the stuff that's under the hood of these distributions. I just wanna talk about who offers a good XFCE experience. And Arco Linux I think definitely provides a good XFCE experience. I'm not gonna say it's great because I don't wanna just hand out great rankings because I want these distributions to have to earn them and I can think of a couple that I know I'm gonna put in the great ranking, but I definitely think Arco Linux XFCE is definitely in the good tier. And when I think of the great tier, I immediately think of Manjaro. Manjaro of course, one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions around. Manjaro, their flagship desktop edition has always been their XFCE edition. And it's a very nice XFCE desktop. It's very clean, very polished, got a lot of nice apps and custom tools and beautiful welcome screen, beautiful theming. Everything about Manjaro XFCE is just gorgeous. And that's something to be proud of, especially with the XFCE desktop environment because it's kind of older. It looks a little dated typically, but on distributions that really focus on the theming aspect of it, you can actually do some really gorgeous stuff with XFCE and Manjaro really knocks it out of the park and is definitely in the great tier. And I think another one that really kind of hits it out of the park and it's one that doesn't get a lot of love actually, is Linux Lite. Linux Lite has for many years been one of my favorite Debian based Linux distributions that uses the XFCE desktop environment. I actually have installed Linux Lite many times on friends and family computers when they bring me their, you know, virus riddled Windows seven laptops that no longer work and they're wanting to revive these older machines. Linux Lite has always been one of those distributions I could always go to. And the great thing about Linux Lite, it looks gorgeous. It has a beautiful XFCE desktop environment that's themed very nicely. And it really resembles the Windows seven, Windows 10 kind of workflow. So if you're used to Windows transitioning a Windows user over to Linux Lite is actually pretty comfortable. I've never had anybody that brought me their Windows laptop that no longer work. And I put something like Linux Lite on it and handed it back to them, ever call me and say, hey, I can't figure out how this thing works. You know, Linux Lite really, they actually designed this distribution and their XFCE desktop for the Windows centric kind of user, right? That person that is used to that Windows workflow. And that's why I think it definitely deserves to be in the great tier. Another distribution that kind of jumps out at me as far as an XFCE specific distribution is Peppermint OS. Now Peppermint OS is interesting because I've got to be honest. I actually haven't used Peppermint probably in about two years. It still sees releases, but it's not a distribution that's very popular at all. I never hear about it, which is probably why I haven't reviewed it in a couple of years is because until I was making this list today, I had forgotten all about Peppermint OS. I was actually just going through DistroWatch looking for some XFCE distros for this video. And Peppermint showed up on the list and I had forgot all about this distribution. Peppermint has never really been that popular. A few years ago, it had some popularity. You would see articles about it. Occasionally you would see YouTube reviewers reviewing Peppermint OS. It's a XFCE desktop. It's kind of a hybrid kind of desktop. They were using a lot of XFCE and LXDE applications. And it looked good and really good theming and it wasn't a minimal distribution in the sense that it didn't have a lot of stuff installed. It actually had a ton of stuff installed, a lot of programs and it was one of those distributions that I think new users, new to Linux users would be very comfortable on. The problem with Peppermint OS is that the lead maintainer of Peppermint OS died a couple of years ago. He passed away kind of suddenly and that kind of, you know, I guess slowed down a little bit of the development of the project. And maybe that is why it doesn't see as much popularity these days. That said, they do see releases every now and then I know they had a release earlier this year. I didn't take a look at it because honestly, it never, it really never popped up on my radar. But I wanted to mention it because I do think it's a distribution that deserves more love. I'm gonna put it in the okay category even though I had some positive things to say about it. I do think that the fact that the lead maintainer of it passed away. And I'm not really sure about the direction of Peppermint OS currently. I'm just gonna throw it in the okay category for now but I could have easily probably put it in the good tier. Another XFCE distribution that just jumps off the page, you know, we should talk about Zubuntu, right? So this is the official Ubuntu flavor with the XFCE desktop environment. I'm gonna put it in the meh tier. And the reason Zubuntu goes in the meh tier, it's got nothing to do with the fact that it's based on Ubuntu. I love Ubuntu. I love all the apps and the repository. Ubuntu is a great base to base a distribution on but if we're talking about the best implementations of XFCE, Zubuntu is a rather plain looking XFCE. It's not a vanilla XFCE. They do customize it but they're not really trying to go for the wow factor with Zubuntu, right? It's very plain. It's kind of old looking, kind of dated looking. It has always been my least favorite really of the main flavors of Ubuntu. I actually don't mind the Ubuntu with GNOME. I didn't mind the main flag ship addition of Ubuntu when it had Unity. I actually think Kubuntu is a very nice KDE Plasma distribution. I think Lubuntu with LXQ is great. Ubuntu Budgie is also an amazing distribution but Zubuntu doesn't have the same spit and polish. It doesn't look like a professional product compared to a lot of the other main flavors of Ubuntu. Again, that's just subjective. That's my opinion but for me, I'm gonna put it in the Mac category. Next up is MXLinux. MXLinux, their flagship addition, desktop addition is the XFCE desktop environment so you would expect them to do a really good XFCE and that's exactly where I'm gonna put them. I'm gonna put them in the good tier. Now, I'm not gonna quite put them in the great tier because honestly, I actually think that Manjaro and Linux Lite, their XFCE desktops look better than MXLinux. They look a lot more polished, a lot more clean. MXLinux still, even though it's very unique and very striking when you look at it, it does have a dated kind of look. I also am not crazy with MXLinux the way they do that side panel that's on the left-hand side of the screen. I don't mind a left-hand side panel but it's weird because they have the buttons like in the reverse order is where you'd kind of think they are on the panel. It's a little strange to me that desktop, I do think it's very unique and I know a lot of people love it so I've got to put it in the good tier. I know some people are going to fight me on that and say it probably deserves to be in the great tier. I could probably make a case for it being in the great tier but for me, I much prefer these two over MX as far as their versions of XFCE so I'm gonna put MX in the good tier. I think the next distro I wanna discuss is Linux Mint. Now, Linux Mint has three main desktop flavors. They have Cinnamon, Monte and XFCE and most people when they think of Linux Mint they think of the Cinnamon desktop because the Linux Mint team created the Cinnamon desktop. It's their baby. If you don't think of Linux Mint with Cinnamon then maybe you think of it with the Monte desktop because they've been a big contributor to the Monte desktop environment for many, many years as well but they have an XFCE edition. It really doesn't get much love at least from the community. You don't hear as many people talk about Linux Mint XFCE and I'm not sure why because their XFCE edition is quite good. You get all of the goodness with Linux Mint under the hood with the repositories and all the software and all the Linux Mint goodness and applications and everything but their XFCE desktop environment actually looks pretty good. I can't say that it's the best looking XFCE desktop environment but it's not ugly. You know, I don't hate it and I feel actually really comfortable anytime I use Linux Mint XFCE. So you know what? I'm gonna put it in the good tier. I can't make a case for it to be any lower than the good tier for sure. And now all I've got left are five very popular Linux distributions Arch, Debian, Fedora, Gen2 and Void and this may or may not shock some people but if you've never actually used any of these distributions unlike all the distributions I've already placed on the tier list these five distributions they typically ship their desktop environments as is meaning you just get vanilla XFCE, vanilla GNOME, vanilla Plasma, they don't make any customizations it gets shipped to you as it came from upstream and because of that these XFCE distributions are going to be very bad because XFCE out of the box without any customizations really looks like something out of the late 1990s. It's very ugly, horrible wallpaper, horrible GTK themes and icon themes. It just doesn't look good. So honestly, Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, Gen2 and Void Linux they're all going in the up tier for their XFCE desktops because they actually don't do anything at all to XFCE, you're just getting vanilla XFCE and when I say they don't do any customization to the XFCE desktop environment they may make some very minor things you wouldn't notice, some tweaking to make sure that XFCE works on their particular distribution because all these distributions fundamentally under the hood do some different things different package managers, different init systems and things like that but for the most part 99.9% of what you see with XFCE on these distributions is straight from upstream and again, it is not a good XFCE experience it certainly pales in comparison especially to the distributions up here in the great and the good tier. So that is my tier list for Linux distributions with XFCE, I know a lot of people are gonna take issue with my rankings some of you guys are gonna disagree and that's fine, it's all subjective it's all opinion and again, this was just my list if you have a different list let me know in the comments down below I'd love to know what's your favorite XFCE Linux distribution is before I go, I need to thank a few special people I need to thank the producers of this episode Dustin Gabe James Matt Maxim M. Michael Mitchell Paul West, while you bald homie Alex Allen, Armoredragon Chuck Commander, Angry Diokai Dylan Gregg, Marstorm Erion Alexander Paul P. Sartan Fodor Polytech Realities for Lust Steven, Tools Devler and Willie these guys, they're my highest tier patrons over on Patreon they are the producers of this episode the show is also brought to you by each and every one of these fine ladies and gentlemen, all these names you're seeing on the screen right now these are all my supporters over on Patreon because I don't have any corporate sponsors I'm sponsored by you guys the community, if you like my work want to see more videos on Linux free and open source software more tier list videos subscribe to Distro Tube over on Patreon alright guys, peace if you think these rankings are bad wait for my tier list of GNOME distros