Gorn, I wonder if trying the MATE desktop might be useful. Maybe just create a bootable USB memory stick with Mint / MATE and try it for a while and see if it addresses the problems you've experienced with XFCE?
Or, alternatively, install MINT / MATE as a guest in your virtual machine?
The goal would be to get a feel for whether it might prove better for you than XFCE, without having to change your existing system unless MATE really proves better for you.
Anyway, just an idea... one you might well have already thought of.
After all of these issues I've had that contradict what the experts here have stated, anyone says to me about comparative merits of X vs Y on Linux means anything or has any credibility, so I am loathe to waste my time even more.
I run Xfce because I was told by you guys it was the fastest UI. Things can still be slow in launching. I'm not going to regress from that.
As far as the VM - UHHH
no! I want something simple and reliable, not another !@^&( virtual machine I have to boot in order to do certain work.
I already have that (and accept that) with Windows ware.
To lock your XFCE desktop to prevent XFCE from making changes to it --
...
Maybe this can help the stability of your XFCE desktop.
REALLY?
That will be my "work flow" , non flow, Linux interrupting me with error messages.
So if I do ANYTHING at the UI level that would affect these settings, it WILL then error out or crash programs. I'll drag an icon on the desktop and get a big ugly error box when I release.
God damn does that sound lame. Much more so than the occasional unnecessary but FOSS programmer initiated crash I get now.
Completely unacceptable. What you are stating is an absolute admission of defeat, that the UI *IS* buggy so I have to patch around it with a lame hack.
The UI should just be stable, period, and not mother-f***ing change things on me or corrupt shit because it's crap software (which it may be.)
I shouldn't have to put the UI in read only mode to get work done.
I still don't think you or Pxsant sit in a Linux desktop session 8+ hours a day and do writing or programming continuously, or that either of you pay very close attention to how the flow of work on the keyboard goes.
Because if you did you would understand that things launch slowly, that the UI gets messed up randomly, that certain subtle settings that assist your workflow get lost in Linux.
Linux inferior to Windows at the UI, an absolute truism.
PS: NOTHING PERSONAL in the above. You guys take a certain position in these discussions that I completely disagree with based upon direct experience.
There's sort of a crudeness, for want of a more politic work, with the opinions of some very technical and otherwise extremely knowledgeable IT people when they are confronted with issues in the "softer" areas like UI. IT people who don't live inside content creation tasks tend to fluff off truly irritating issues as though they should be considered insignificant.
Kind of the same idea as a programmer that tells you that assembly language is totally good enough and you need nothing better, because at least you don't have to flip front panel switches to store a boot loader.