# Xfce 183 Hacker News commenters recommended Xfce and 48 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 10 years (29 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** A lightweight, stable Linux desktop with a classic layout that stays out of your way and is highly customizable, though mixed high-DPI monitor setups and Wayland support lag. ## Why people recommend it - Simple, gets out of your way (7 comments): "because it provides only the strictly necessary functions and it allows me to easily combine otherwise conflicting applications" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46657837)) "it's a breath of fresh air. Everything just works how you'd expect it to work, and it gets out of your way." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49377159)) "Xfce has long been the only DE that gets out of my way enough for me to actually be productive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46585791)) - Lightweight and snappy (7 comments): "an X11 desktop that didn't do much fancy 3D rendering (Xfce) because it didn't have enough VRAM for triple-head and compositing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49512746)) "when compared to GNOME and KDE, XFCE does use less resources and is indeed snappier, with near feature parity." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46585173)) "it's smaller, simpler, lighter, faster, more coherent, and complies much better with Windows's keyboard UI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49489339)) - Classic, stable, unchanging interface (6 comments): "in the few cases where the UI basically hasn't changed in a long time (XFCE, VLC, probably more), they fucking love it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589392)) "windows 98 ergonomics (that's NOT sarcasm) with more customisation and not trying to re-invent the wheel every month" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47504031)) "My Xfce desktop looks a lot like my Gnome 2 desktops used to. I've never felt the need to switch to anything else" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46597007)) - Highly customizable (5 comments): "windows 98 ergonomics (that's NOT sarcasm) with more customisation and not trying to re-invent the wheel every month" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47504031)) "you can make it fit your needs, not adjust yourself to the machine and somebody's design decisions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46584624)) "I'm pretty happy with my Linux Xfce setup. It allows me to customize the UI to my heart's content" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46118190)) ## What people warn about - Struggles with mixed high-DPI monitors (3 comments): "borderline unusable with high DPI monitors and dual monitor setups that aren't the same" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46584634)) "I've had a hell of a time getting it to work nicely with multiple high DPI monitors." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46485506)) "it didn't keep up with my high resolution monitors. But it was fast and flexible" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47245285)) - Slow, weak Wayland support (2 comments): "It's because you're using XFCE, which might be one of the last desktops to adapt to Wayland." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49309713)) "It's wayland support is utterly broken right now and getting very little attention." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46659089)) - Nonstandard window-management keyboard shortcuts (2 comments): "The main hassle that I've found is that I have to mentally train myself to remember that a lot of the keyboard shortcuts in a boring stock xfce4 desktop environment" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49477580)) "It works very well although standard window-management keystrokes don't work." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46420589)) - Fiddly window resizing and snapping (2 comments): "it has 1px thin area to grab, and last time I checked they just mentioned you should use alt right click instead" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46581912)) "Window snapping dimensions are oft still wrong, i get visual artifacts sometimes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46592918)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [KDE Plasma](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kde-plasma.md): 650 recommend - [GNOME](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gnome.md): 340 recommend - [COSMIC desktop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cosmic-desktop-environment.md): 75 recommend - [Cinnamon desktop environment](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cinnamon.md): 57 recommend - [MATE Desktop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mate-desktop.md): 29 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Xfce", https://hackerapproved.com/p/xfce/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).