How To Install XFCE Desktop on Ubuntu 14.04

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install XFCE Desktop on Ubuntu 14.04. For those of you who didn’t know, XFCE is one of the most popular desktop environments for Linux desktops. XFCE is a free lightweight, fast, and easy-to-use software desktop environment for Unix/Linux-like operating systems. It is designed for productivity and aims to be fast and low on system resources. Unlike GNOME and KDE desktops which are heavier, XFCE uses fewer system resources. Furthermore, it offers better modularity and fewer dependencies to install and takes less time and low disk space on your hard drive.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the XFCE Desktop on Ubuntu 14.04.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 14.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• A non-root sudo useror access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install XFCE Desktop on Ubuntu 14.04

Step 1. Install Xfce in Ubuntu systems using a PPA.

The latest stable version of Xfce, At the moment of writing this article it is version 4.12:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.10
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xfce4

If you already running, want to upgrade it to the latest version, issue the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.10
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

To uninstall and remove the PPA and downgrade, run:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12

After installation, there is no need to restart the system you can get the XFCE desktop. Now log off from the current user and login back in once again but click on the ubuntu logo which is in the right corner at the user login box. On clicking the ubuntu logo, a menu will appear to select the XFCE one.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed XFCE Desktop. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the XFCE desktop environment on Ubuntu 14.04 system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official XFCE website.

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