What are pros and cons (and tradeoffs) when choosing between XFCE and MATE?

Hi! I'm using Fedora with KDE plasma. But I've been considering trying Xfce. I love customisability and support and I'd say I have meduim-ish hardware so running it I'snt a problem. Should I try Xfce?

My laptop is Huawei Mate D15 Intel i5 1135G7
8 gb RAM :(
i got 24gb Swap File since i got like 512gb ssd nvme which i barely use

Running Linux mint 22.3 XFCE

Minft xfce system starts to freeze then all apps crash, then the icons progressively turns into blocks including system icons

Also i cant do anything including shutting down with the menu, everytime i click something its says something like this

“[][][][][] [][][][][] [][][][][]”

only thing i can do is to force shutdown but after opening a few tabs (like 4-5) it happens again

I tried using chatgpt to help me check if my SSD is healthy, and it is healthy

but i am not that comfortable using ai to help me with anything else this since it just gave me commands that i dont understand

I AM A NOOB when it comes to this, i use to have windows 11 but my laptop cant handle it anymore, so i switched to Mint XFCE about a month ago already

plzz guys help thiz the only laptop i got, im a broke ass cs student🥲🥲🥲

Just wondering, it's quite a small install.

Lately the more I use Thunar, the more I find it rather limited...

- no way to have tree view and shortcuts together
- no way to add extra columns for audio/video files
- file rename feature opens a friggin window instead of being inline

...and a lot more I'm yet to find lacking, I'm afraid.

Given the fact, what alternative would you suggest me that works just the way MS explorer does, sort of, which wouldn't require installing shitton of dependencies to work?

Only thing I tried so far is Cinnamon's Nemo - works but haven't tested much. PCManFM haven't tried. Dolphin works as well except it comes with ~10 dependency packages.

panelhide.sh

IMPORTANT:

Find the panel you want to hide and unhide with your keyboard by the number in panel preferences menu. For eg: panel-1

Change the number in the script provided below:

For eg: "panel-2" , in the script below, becomes panel-1(replace it in all the three lines it is mentioned)

2. Copy paste this script into your text editor and SAVE THE FILE in the directory of your choice as panelhide.sh

3. open terminal CD to to the DIR and chmod +x panelhide.sh

4. Now open xfce4-keyboard-settings app by pressing Alt+F2 or typing it in your terminal> Go to Applications Shortcuts> Add a shortcut from the bottom menu> Add the panelhide.sh in the command field. > Add the non-conflicting shortcut of your choosing and your're done.

5. control delay of panel hiding animation to speed up the process add this code into your

~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css

/**this goes into your gtk.css***/
#XfcePanelWindow {
    -XfcePanelWindow-popup-delay: 0;
    -XfcePanelWindow-popdown-delay: 0;
}

panelhide.sh

#!/bin/bash
val=$(xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /panels/panel-2/autohide-behavior)
if [ "$val" -eq 1 ]; then
    xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /panels/panel-2/autohide-behavior -s 2
else
    xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /panels/panel-2/autohide-behavior -s 1
fi