I really do feel like XFCE on x11 is the logical choice, it “just works” and every app runs well
Also try LXDE and LXQT if you would like a ‘lighter KDE’ vibe instead of the ‘lighter gnome 2’ vibe of XFCE.
I’m a longtime fan of XFCE. I try all sorts of DEs from time to time on spare computers, but I reliably come back to XFCE, which is really just a fairly low-resource, stable embodiment of the classic GNOME feel.
I’m genuinely wondering why everybody hates modern GNOME.
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