Xfce VS LightDM

Xfce

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.

LightDM

A lightweight display manager

Landing page //
2023-07-04

Landing page //
2021-10-16

Categories	Linux Operating Systems Desktop Environments Linux Distribution
Website	xfce.org

Categories	Linux PHP Framework PHP MVC Framework Operating Systems
Website	freedesktop.org

Xfce videos

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Fully functional? - Xfce 4.14 First Impressions

LightDM videos

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Ubuntu 11.10 LightDM Login Screen, Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Xfce and LightDM)

LightDM

Linux

82 82%

Linux

18% 18

Operating Systems

86 86%

Operating Systems

14% 14

PHP Framework

0 0%

PHP Framework

100% 100

Desktop Environments

100 100%

Desktop Environments

0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Xfce and LightDM. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Xfce and LightDM

Xfce Reviews

9 Best Linux Desktop Environments to Use in 2023

XFCE is compatible with a wide range of Linux distros. Xfce does not offer sophisticated modifications, yet it is the most performance-oriented desktop environment. It’s a compact desktop environment with a comprehensive user interface. XFCE can be installed on a variety of UNIX systems. It has been reported to compile on Ubuntu, NetBSD, Solaris, Cygwin, OpenBSD, and macOS...

Source: geekflare.com

The 8 Best Ubuntu Desktop Environments (22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux)

Cinnamon desktop is another fork of the GNOME desktop. It has a rather conservative design and is similar to Xfce. It is uncomplicated to learn and from this reason might be a good choice for someone who is new to Linux.

Source: linuxconfig.org

Top 10 Best Desktop Environments in 2020

Lightweight and Low-resource can be considered the same, but in this case, there’s a difference. XFCE is a lightweight desktop environment even with a whole lot of built-in customizations and UI perks. LXDE, on the other hand, is a DE that is built to be as low-resource as possible. You certainly can add animations, but they need to be downloaded separately.

Source: www.journaldev.com

The 12 Best Linux Desktop Environments

At first look, Xfce looks a bit older and boring, but we assure you that your mindset will change after unpacking it because it is one of the best Linux lightweight desktop environments available. Xfce is becoming one of the most reliable choices, but it has a comparatively small team for development that results in late updates. Nowadays, many users think that Xfce is an...

Source: linuxhint.com

The Best Desktop Environments For Linux (We Tested Them So That You Don’t Have To)

Xfce is light on resources but proves to provide a feature-rich user experience. If you need a performance-centric desktop environment without needing advanced customizations, Xfce is a great choice to go with.

Source: itsfoss.com

LightDM Reviews

We have no reviews of LightDM yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Xfce seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 19 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Xfce mentions (19)

distro hopping
Pick up your Desktop Environment based on your computer's specs, NOT on your visual preferences. (HINT: XFCE consumes way less system resources than GNOME and KDE). Source: 3 months ago
Lightweight dev tools.
It’s a bit of an interesting challenge and has forced me to re-examine some of my tool usage. I started by a minimal install of Debian “bookworm” with the XFCE Desktop Environment which chews through much fewer resources than the default GNOME 43 based environment (although more than LXDE - but there still has to be room for aesthetics). - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
I Still Use Windows 95 (archived, 2008)
Luckily you can get an efficient, clean Desktop Environment that works well and is actively developed: Xfce ( https://xfce.org/ ) I think you will like it. It has a very early-2000's feel IMO. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
best lightweight linux distro for old laptop and gaming
Well, it depends. It was better experience than FreeBSD 7.2 that's for sure. :) It was running Xorg with https://i3wm.org, a web-server, XMPP-server, PostgreSQL, few bots and dovecot / postfix (e-mail server). It was doing fine routing internet for 2PCs and a WiFi router for 10 years until its HDD died. For gaming... erm... I was able to play something like Theme Hospital or Syndicate Wars in dosbox. You have to... Source: 10 months ago
Only one of the four XFCE4's desktop/workspace got hung and now I can't use wallpaper
Another resource for help might be xfce.org. It's a low traffic site, but responsive. Source: 12 months ago

LightDM mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of LightDM yet. Tracking of LightDM recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Xfce and LightDM, you can also consider the following products

KDE Plasma Desktop - Plasma Workspaces is the umbrella term for all graphical environments provided by KDE.

SDDM - QML based X11 and Wayland display manager. Contribute to sddm/sddm development by creating an account on GitHub.

LXQt - The LXQt team is proud to announce the release of qtermwidget and qterminal, both in version 0. 8. 0. Read more..

CDM - Console Display Manager. Contribute to evertiro/cdm development by creating an account on GitHub.

LXDE - Why will you like it? Less resource needs. You can use it on your less-pricey embedded board or salvaged computer. Component-based design. Don't want something in LXDE, or you don't want to use LXDE but only part of it?

Ly - TUI (ncurses-like) display manager

Xfce vs KDE Plasma Desktop

LightDM vs KDE Plasma Desktop