Operating systems are constantly becoming heavier, requiring more and more RAM, more and more powerful processors. Marketers have come up with an excuse for this, saying that if the resources are not used, they were purchased in vain. However, sane people understand that those resources are not intended for the operating system itself, but for useful applications, for productive activities. Therefore, many users choose lightweight desktops. Such as XFCE.
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| Linux Mint XFCE |
The touchpad tap-to-click functionality is not assigned, for some reason or other. Let's activate it first of all. Menu — Settings — Mouse & Touchpad and put the necessary check mark there.
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| Activating the touchpad tap-to-click functionality |
You can also access these (and almost all others) parameters using Settings Manager, so you don’t have to scroll through the main menu for a long time.
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| Settings Manager |
Unfortunately, the touchpad speed and sensitivity are not easily adjustable in the stable XFCE release, there are no corresponding sliders in its section. There are ones for the mouse only. Alas, this is the XFCE shell, a product for poor owners of low-power computers. (What can you get from poor people? Why bother for their sake?) If this is important for you, don't waste your time, immediately get Linux Mint with the Mate desktop. Everything is fine with the touchpad settings there.
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| Setting the layout the indicator |
If you need to add a keyboard layout, this can be done in two steps. First, let's set the indicator. Right-click on the panel — Panel — Add New Items — Keyboard Layouts — Add.
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| Keyboard Settings |
Now right-click on the indicator that has appeared — Keyboard Settings — Layout — disable Use system defaults — Add. In the Change layout option drop-down list, select a convenient key combination for switching between languages.
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| The incomplete dark theme |
We should not select the dark theme because the window titles will remain gray. Such an absurdity. So that's that. The XFCE version is not the priority for the "Mint" team, so it is made a little gaudy and uninspired. Still you can colourize the light theme to your taste. For example, we will make the appearance similar to Peppermint OS (by finding the Mint-Y-Red theme in the list). And we will take the wallpaper from there too, having opened the settings by right-clicking on the desktop.
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| Choosing wallpapers |
To select your own wallpaper folder, find Other in the Folder list. Select your folder without opening it and click the confirmation button. The images will load into the window. That's where we choose and replace the desktop background.
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| Mint-Y-Red |
Don't forget to go to the Icons tab and select the same Mint-Y-Red theme there. In fact, the red pastel makes the interface elements clearly visible (especially the highlighted ones) and thus reduces eye fatigue during a long-term work.
How to set the time and date. For some reason, this is still missing in the Settings Manager. But no problem. The same right-click on the corresponding indicator - Properties. It is enough to specify your Timezone, all other corrections will be automatically pulled from the Internet. (But keep in mind that the Greenwich time will be recorded into the computer hardware, this is the legacy of the basic Ubuntu. If you run Windows on the same device, you will have to set its clock to its original state manually.)
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| You can leave Bluetooth if you need it constantly |
It is absolutely necessary, without any excuses, to thin out the autostart. Let's clean up the list of programs that start when the system boots and uselessly eat up resources. In the Session & Startup section of the already familiar Settings Manager, boldly deactivate everything that has been unchecked in the image above.
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| Celluloid |
Let's move on to our cultural recreation. Celluoid plays audio and video without problems, it is one of the best multimedia programs today.
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| Installing codecs is very easy |
However, other applications, such as audio and video editors, will need codecs installed globally in the system. Go to the Multimedia section in the main menu and click Install Multimedia Codecs. Yes, it's that simple. It's not for nothing that Linux Mint is considered the most beginner-friendly.
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| Software Manager |
By the way, about installing something. You don't have to use the terminal at all. Just download applications using Software Manager. Unlike Gnome Software, it behaves decently. After closing its window, it doesn't hang around in memory.
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| The neutralization of Update Manager |
Of course, we never listen to the global marketing hysteria about updates. We are not guinea pigs, we will not allow them to test fresh buggy software on us. We need a stable system. Go to the Update Manager settings — Edit — Preferences, and deactivate all switches on all tabs. And you will be able to work comfortably.
Well, let's also change the main menu. We can make it much more convenient. Right-click on the button with the LM logo — Preferences — Show as icons.
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| The main menu settings |
Despite some limitations of the stable version (no touchpad sensitivity adjustment), the XFCE desktop is a great power-saving blessing. Taking screenshots, it's very easy to catch the moment in Task Manager when the CPU load drops to zero while idling. You won't see such a miracle anywhere else.
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| Zero CPU load while idling |
You can choose the appropriate version of Linux Mint in the list of supported releases at the official website of the developers. It is advisable to take the one with ".3" at the end of the number. For example, "21.3". That is the final point release which is polished as much as possible.
