Setting up XFCE

Installation

It can be installed by just adding the xfce4 package (check the suggested packages for extra features that you may want). After restarting there will be an option to start with XFCE in the desktop manager selector (usually a little gear icon in the login screen).

Plugins

• xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin (PPA): a better start menu. There are packages for several distributions, but it may be better to install the latest version. Check the plugin site.
• xfce4-systemload-plugin: to show RAM usage.
• xfce4-cpugraph-plugin: to show CPU usage.
• xfce4-hardware-monitor-plugin to show network usage; is way too complex to set up on Ubuntu 18.04 (from Debian packages). Requires installing libgtop-2.0-10 (from external source, Ubuntu has a newer version which is not compatible) and libgnomecanvasmm-2.6-1v5 libraries.

Display composition

Avoid tearing by disabling the display compositor in window manager tweaks and install an alternative (suggested: Compton - PPA)