I've got two devices—one running Mint and the other on Q4OS. I recently installed XFCE on both and was surprised by how different they look. On my Mint setup, XFCE had a bottom panel with a menu expand button, and I could even add panels to the top and sides. In contrast, the Q4OS installation had a small floating panel at the bottom with a 'view apps' button, and the top bar just had an icon tray and screen buttons. I installed XFCE using the same terminal command on both, but on Mint, I created a new user account, while on Q4OS, I just used the existing one. Is there a reason for such a drastic difference in the graphical user interface between these two distributions?
5 Answers
XFCE is one of the most customizable DEs out there! Just look at MX Linux with its different layout. What desktop environments were you using before XFCE on Mint or Q4OS?
Even XFCE can be made to look pretty modern with the right theming! Mint makes sure it looks nice for their users. Distros like Arch will give you a more stock experience, which can feel a bit outdated.
When you say 'wildly different', it sounds like you're seeing a bottom panel on Mint and a floating panel on Q4OS. That doesn't seem too extreme to me. Sometimes it's just small UI differences!
In general, desktops shouldn’t differ that much, but there are exceptions! For instance, GNOME gets some tweaks from distributions like Ubuntu, whereas others might keep it stock. Mint has its custom configuration for XFCE, while Q4OS might not include those customizations. You can always experiment by rearranging panels and switching themes to make them look more similar!
Mint ships a custom XFCE setup, but it sounds like Q4OS doesn’t. If you want them to look alike, you could rearrange the panels and switch themes easily. It's a super customizable environment!
That makes sense! I suppose the way each distro handles its desktop environment can really change the experience.