In the Linux world with Ubuntu dominating the market to discuss about the comparison of Desktop Managers available for Linux is of good importance . By default Ubuntu comes with gnome desktop environment and Kubuntu comes with kde as the desktop manager . Considering the case of someone who is interested in trying out something different xfce might be fun . Xfce is a new desktop environment aimed at unix like operating system , providing nice features at smaller size and resources . Xfce can be installed in many platforms like freebsd , linux , solaris , cygwin and even macos . Xfce is definitely worth a look for users , who is interested in nice look and feel without sacrificing system resources . xfce is based on gtk 2 + just like gnome . It uses xfwm window manager . As it is always better to show something than to describe it , here I present you with some screenshots .

Also have a look at how xfce performs with compiz in Ubuntu 9.10 distribution .

The latest available version of XFCE is XFCE 4.6 . Visit xfce website for more details .

Applications like Mousepad text editor, Xfmedia audio player, Orage Calendar and Terminal are available by default for xfce environment . Printing tasks in xfce are managed by Xfprint . Xfburn is the cd/dvd burner program available for xfce . The default media player is Xfmedia player derived from Xine movie player . Thunar is the file manager for xfce .Xfce has almost everything needed by a normal user . Xfce but doesnot offer the flashy and eye-candy appearance of kde or large amount of applications like gnome .

Considering the progress xfce made in the following years , one day xfce may replace kde and gnome from our distros .Also connsider reading the comparison of kde vs gnome .

Overclocking is sometimes essential for your computer . Here are a few tools which enable you to overclock your Linux systems . Overclocking nvidia based video cards can be done with a small tools named  nvclock  and Perlmon . To install nvclock for your ubuntu linux , issue the following commands .

$ sudo apt-get install nvclock-gtk

Now your program is installed and to start it use the command  “nvclock_gtk”

After installation , you can change parameters like GPU clock and Memory Clock

screenshot of nvclock

Perlmon is another utility which is used for overclocking . Perlmon can be downloaded from here and unpack the file .

Now install the perlmon 0.2.0 by the following commands

$ cd /path/PerlMon-0.2.0
$ sudo perl Installer

To start perlmon type “perlmon”

Perlmon screenshot

Linux Mint , the Ubuntu based Linux distribution aimed at making ubuntu more , perfect in cases dealing with multimedia. It provides a complete experience by including codecs , plugins and themes making Ubuntu Linux more stylish and user friendly. More to say it is compatible with Ubuntu software repos.

Mint Linux 8 Helena is available for free with Gnome Desktop management. It offers debian package management just like Ubuntu . The default file system is ext4 .Linux Mint 8 even supports ext3,JFS ,ReiserFS and XFS . Multiple languages suite and an OpenOffice ,Office suite is also bundled with Mint 8.Helena comes with linux 2.6.31 kernel .
System Requirements for Linux Mint Helena 8 are the following :
512 mb ram recommended ,and harddisk free space , more than 2.6 gb.

Mozilla Firefox3.5.7 is the default webbrowser and gimp 2.6.8 is the image manipulation tool available with Linux Mint 8 ,Helena. Compiz 0.8.4 offers better eye- candy feel. Mint 8 offers support for ati graphic cards(ati-driver 8.681) and includes ALSA for better sound card support. ( advanced linux sound architecture ).
Whats new in Linux Mint 8. Helena:
Menu improvements
Software Manager improvements.
Update Manager improvements.
Upload Manager fully reloaded.
Gnome 2.28 with wider bluetooth and DVD playback support.
Better appearance with Gnome Colors icon theme and Shiki gtk theme.

Screenshots :