Unix on Ivon's Blog

XFCE Is Outdated. The Unix Philosophy May Not Apply to Graphical User Interface Design

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 06:00:00 +0800

XFCE is good, but it is outdated.

The current version is 4.20, and the interface is still almost the same as it was 20 years ago.

The so-called Unix philosophy may only apply at the level of system programming. It is not suitable as a guideline for graphical environments built on top of an operating system kernel.

Hot take: XFCE can only be a fallback when other desktops cannot be used properly, because it can still run well without GPU acceleration. Otherwise, this desktop would have been outdated long ago. If possible, you should use the KDE or GNOME desktop. Whenever I see people recommend users anything outside these two desktops, I think they are developers who do not treat users as users, but assume everyone is a kernel hacker. Either that, or boomer mentality is acting up and leaning on seniority.

Tell those anti-Systemd people who keep shouting that Linux should stick to the “Unix philosophy” to use FreeBSD, and they will shut up immediately. After all, in an environment where even graphics drivers can easily have problems, they might not even be able to get online to complain. As for those who can get past this barrier? They will quietly use the system.

If you use a BSD system in pursuit of simplicity, you will also face the fact that desktop environments are influenced by Linux.

BSD’s advantage over Linux is that the system is designed as a complete whole, with system software and third-party software well separated. FreeBSD keeps system configuration files and user configuration files separate; one is /etc, the other is /etc/usr/local/. And FreeBSD’s init has not changed from the past to the present.

This insistence on traditional values of course affects FreeBSD’s mainstream desktop choices. According to a 2022 poll, Preferred DE of the FreeBSD users, the mainstream desktops, aside from KDE Plasma, are XFCE. GNOME does not even rank here.

Some people may be perfectly happy using XFCE. It indeed does not rely so much on the latest Linux technologies, so it can be used across Unix-like systems. There are certainly still many people in the Linux community who prefer XFCE.

But for a user who did not live through the old era, XFCE just looks extremely ugly and outdated. Mate, Cinnamon, and LXDE are not much better. As for the design after GNOME 40, it is too radical. It feels like only zoomers who have had more exposure to mobile devices would like it.

If you dislike all these desktops and want to use a WM? Then it cannot really be called a desktop at all. You cannot say modern people have become decadent, can you, boomer? Nobody can really use a WM comfortably, even if they only use a browser to get online. Desktop functionality is missing here and there, so you install a bunch of independent little tools to fill the gaps. In the end, aren’t you just reinventing the wheel?

The only X11 desktop heavyweight that can look modern while preserving the multifunctionality of a traditional desktop is still KDE Plasma 6. Some people may wonder: did I not install BSD in pursuit of a simple system? Would installing such a huge package of a desktop like KDE not seem to violate the philosophy? I think some people’s obsession with KISS has already reached a pathological level. They always criticize modern desktops as “bloated”, but modern desktops have long since stopped being made from such simple components. They have many services that need to run in order to provide users with a good experience. They have to handle changes across all kinds of different monitor parameters without making users manually write xorg.conf, and that inevitably increases complexity. Otherwise, just use tty.

Linux Has Become Too Mainstream. Switch to BSD

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0800

Linux Has Become Too Mainstream, So I Considered Switching to BSD or Systems That Follow the Unix Philosophy.

Linux vs BSD for desktop, which one?

Lady Suwako told me that Linux has become too “mainstream”, so should I switch to a BSD system to inherit the Unix spirit? For the past week, this thought has kept appearing. After comparing Linux with BSD (or systems that follow the Unix philosophy), I kept wanting to switch over.

While writing this article, I felt that my digging into these rabbit holes had gone a bit too far.

Life is a well of delight; but where the rabble also drink, there all fountains are poisoned.

The Systemd Controversy: Once Again Standing in the Eye of the Storm
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When Systemd first appeared in 2010, it was heavily criticized by the Linux community. It was merely an init system, yet it tried to cover everything. But time has passed, and now it has become the common standard of mainstream Linux distributions, almost an indispensable system management tool.

Systemd has made everything too complicated, and the spirit of traditional Unix philosophy is disappearing. Systemd’s design affects every aspect of Linux, permeating major distributions and influencing developers’ future decisions. We, domesticated by modern technology, can no longer understand the principles by which operating systems work. Switching to a system without Systemd seems necessary.

Recently, in order to cater to age verification bills being promoted by U.S. states, Systemd developers added an OS-level age verification mechanism: userdb: add birthDate field to JSON user records#40954 This PR was quickly approved by Lennart Poettering and others, and they refused to revert it. Presumably Systemd 261 will officially include this feature.

This caused people’s grievances against Systemd to erupt again. Although Systemd’s age verification field is not mandatory and merely provides a field for other programs to access, some users with extreme pursuits of freedom and privacy believe this is the beginning of mass surveillance. The system’s low level fundamentally should not store sensitive data about user identity, and some people are extremely disgusted by public authority intervening in the issue of “os-level age verification.” Systemd manages too much, replacing many system services and violating the Unix philosophy. Now, it is aligning with the interests of large companies and governments. People are forced to swallow it, because Systemd is already the common standard of all major Linux distributions, and upstream changes quietly affect everyone downstream. Anyway, whatever function upstream wants to add, Systemd developers have the final decision-making power. What, you are not convinced?

Governments and corporations always love squeezing people’s freedom. When commercial companies develop software, they seem to like rushing to push new technologies and force everyone to swallow them. This is called Agile development or whatever. They only pursue 90% usability, not 100% stability. Anyway, after release, they keep iterating, exhausting users, and thereby achieve their goal of monopolizing the final right of interpretation. Then, in order to respond to commercial competitiveness and cater to so-called trends, they often make technical changes without regard for user experience, and so individual freedom is sacrificed. Users who have come into contact with the free software movement will surely be dissatisfied with this phenomenon.

CRYCHIC (✕) UNIX Systems, It Isn't Over!

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 20:00:00 +0800

Adapted from the plot of episode 8 of BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!!, telling the controversy after Unix systems became commercialized in the 1980s. This is melodramatic fan creation, with many parts inconsistent with historical facts. Please forgive me.

Unix… is already over.

(Developers trying to keep the Unix spirit going)

Unix… it isn’t over!

CRYCHIC

𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖊𝖗𝖛𝖆𝖙 𝕽𝖊𝖙𝖗𝖔𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖚𝖘 𝖄𝖉𝖔𝖑𝖆, 𝕮𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖗𝖈𝖎𝖚𝖒 𝕳𝖔𝖒𝖎𝖓𝖎𝖘 𝕴𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖋𝖎𝖈𝖎𝖙 𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖈𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖎𝖆𝖒.

CONSERVAT RETROSPECTUS YDOLA, COMMERCIUM HOMINIS INTERFICIT CONCORDIAM.

Constantly Reviving Yesterday, Copyright Hurts Innocent Coders.

Indulging in the phantasms of the past, real-world commercial copyright killed harmony.

Full Recitation
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FreeBSD: Why did you release the Net/2 source code!?

FreeBSD: AT&T-chan…… Thank you for being willing to come see me today. Please do not be angry at NeXT-chan. I was the one who stubbornly asked her to message you and invite you here. Sorry, no matter what, I wanted to apologize face-to-face about the copyright lawsuit. I really had no intention of performing… releasing the Net/2 tape. Originally, we planned to publish only the parts without patented code, and I did not intend to make everything completely open source either. But the community’s compilation had already begun, and there was truly nothing I could do. Sorry, releasing the code for free must have damaged AT&T-chan’s commercial interests. I think it is only natural that you cannot forgive me. I made our important kernel code public without permission. I am truly sorry.

AT&T: Acting like it was all for the open source community. Under the BSD License, releasing code is your freedom. Do whatever you like. (See you in court later.)

FreeBSD: But Net/2 is important to the CSRG lab……

AT&T: Still clinging to the academic traditions of the 1970s even now. It is painful to watch. It is about time you forgot the days of Bell Labs, isn’t it?

FreeBSD: Why? Why say something like forget? We were clearly so close before. Ken and Dennis happily wrote C every day. Everyone was together, but now we are split into System V and BSD, each going our separate ways. Isn’t that too strange? Wasn’t AT&T-chan the one who said, “Unix belongs to the global hacker community of shared destiny”?

AT&T: Destiny……? Then what is that “penguin” (GNU/Linux)?

FreeBSD: No!

AT&T: What part is no? Your words and actions contradict each other. The unified standard of Unix has already fallen apart. It is absolutely impossible to revive.

FreeBSD: Why? Please, I want “Unified Unix” to start again. I want to go back to the happy time we had at Bell Labs, without so many branches and copyright disputes. GNU/Linux-chan and Minix-chan hope for that too, and I also planned to find NeXT-chan and AT&T-chan and bring you back.

AT&T: Is that how it is?

NeXT: I…… (As long as there is BSD code for Jobs to take and sell for money, that is enough……)

(FreeBSD turns her head to look at NeXT, shocked)