XFCE: How to customize Linux Mouse Desktop Environment?
One of the topics or areas that tends to fascinate many of the ever-increasing number of GNU/Linux users around the world is its ability to be customized, and to allow it to showcase its customization capabilities to others in healthy and good competition.
Certainly, each GNU/Linux distribution , each Desktop Environment (DE) , and each Window Manager (WM) usually has different customization capabilities. Therefore, in this post we will focus on XFCE , which, incidentally, has been my favorite Desktop Environment (DE) for many years now, and which I currently use on MX Linux 19.3.
XFCE: What is it and how is it installed on DEBIAN 10 and MX-Linux 19?
However, for those who have never used or know little about XFCE , we recommend reading our previous post about it, in which we explain what it is:
“ XFCE is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like systems. Its goal is to be fast and use few system resources, while remaining visually appealing and easy to use. XFCE embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and reusability. It consists of a series of applications that provide all the functionality you would expect from a modern desktop environment. They are packaged separately, and you can choose from the available packages to create an optimal personal work environment . ” XFCE Community ( www.xfce.org ).
And for those interested in learning more about customizing GNU/Linux distributions in general, here are some other options:
XFCE: My own customization of XFCE on MX Linux
XFCE: The Linux Mouse Desktop Environment
How to customize XFCE?
To begin fully customizing the XFCE Desktop Environment, we will divide it into several elements, leaving out the Desktop Background (Wallpaper) , because obviously that is 100% up to the user's taste.
Appearance
To begin customizing XFCE , it's best to start with the overall appearance of the desktop environment, which can be accessed through the "Appearance" option in the XFCE "Settings Manager ." Users should then explore each tab ( Style, Icons, Fonts, and Settings ) and experiment with different configurations. My own settings are shown in the image above.
Desktop
Next, you can go to the "Desktop" option in the XFCE "Settings Manager ." To do this, users should browse through each tab ( Background, Menus, and Icons ) and try different configurations. My configurations can be seen in the image above.
Window Manager Settings
Next, go to the "Window Manager Settings" option in the XFCE "Settings Manager ." To do this, users should browse through each tab ( Selection, Focus, Accessibility, Workspaces, Positioning, and Compositor ) and try different configurations. My settings can be seen in the image above.
Desktop main panel
From there, you can go to the "Panel" option in the XFCE "Configuration Manager ." To do this, users should browse through each tab ( Presentation, Appearance, and Elements ) and try different configurations. Mine can be seen in the image above.
Home Button and Menu
In my particular case, as you can see, I use the element (widget) called "Wishker Menu" instead of the "Traditional XFCE Menu" . This allows me to configure it as shown in the image above.
Other external elements (Conky)
- Compton: To achieve, among many other visual effects, global transparencies that include transparencies for the active windows, and transparencies for the main menu window.
- Conky's: To achieve including beautiful and functional informative displays on the desktop.
Certainly, much more can still be done to customize XFCE ; however, at this point, it would be easy to go from the default desktop appearance , such as the one shown in the image above, to a completely different one, such as the one I have shown you much further above.
Conclusion
We hope this "useful little post" about «¿Cómo personalizar el Entorno de Escritorio XFCE?», which by default, comes very light and minimalist, and therefore, not very attractive from the visual point of view; is of great interest and utility, for the entire «Comunidad de Software Libre y Código Abierto» and of great contribution to the diffusion of the wonderful, gigantic and growing ecosystem of applications of «GNU/Linux».
And for more information, always do not hesitate to visit any Online library , the OpenLibra y jedit to read books (PDFs) on this topic or others knowledge areas. For now, if you liked this «publicación», don't stop sharing it with others, in your Favorite websites, channels, groups, or communities of social networks, preferably free and open as Mastodon, or secure and private like Telegram.