Fedora Xfce 31: A Lightweight Fedora Spins Distro

Fedora Spins are customized Fedora distros with different desktop environments (like Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu and so on). While GNOME is the default desktop for Fedora, Spins come in a variety of different desktop environments like KDE Plasma Desktop, Cinnamon, LXQt, LXDE, MATE and Xfce.

This article describes installing and using Fedora Xfce 31 Spin. Download it from here.

Minimum PC requirements for such Spins is 1 GB RAM, 1 GHz or faster CPU and 10 GB disk space. A detailed list of hardware requirements can be found here.

Installing Fedora Xfce:

Once downloaded, create a bootable USB drive and boot into the Live mode. You can also use the Fedora Media Writer to make a bootable USB drive.

booting into Fedora Xfce live environment

To install, double click Install to Hard Drive.

install to hard drive option from Fedora Xfce live environment

The installation process uses Anaconda Installer and is the same as when installing the default Fedora distro. Choose a keyboard layout, the time zone, and other locale settings.

choosing language and locale settings for installing Fedora Xfce

anaconda installer options for installing Fedora Xfce

Then, select the disk partitioning scheme. (This example uses the entire disk, you can also have different partitions for the root filesystem, users and swap).

partitioning disk for installing Fedora Xfce

You can also enable encryption during this step by choosing Encrypt my data and entering a passphrase.

Next, choose a root password. By default, the root account is locked during installation which is a good security measure.

setting a root password during Fedora Xfce installation

Also, root login over SSH is disabled by default which is also good. Then, add a user and enter the credentials by clicking on User Creation.

choosing the option of creating user during Fedora Xfce installation

adding user as administrator during Fedora Xfce installation

You can also enable the administrator role for the new user.

Once these options are configured, select Begin Installation.

finalizing installation options for Fedora Xfce

Wait for the process to be complete and reboot.

Fedora Xfce installation in progress

installation of Fedora Xfce completed

Using Fedora Xfce:

Login to the shiny new Fedora Xfce Spin which is now ready to use.

Fedora Xfce login screen

If you are familiar with Xfce, then the desktop environment will be very familiar.

Fedora Xfce environment

Thunar is the default File Manager.

Thunar file manager in Fedora Xfce

Firefox and Claws Mail is the default browser and email application that comes with Fedora Xfce.

default browser and mail app in Fedora Xfce

Also, some handy system tools are installed by default like GParted.

system tools like GParted are installed by default in Fedora Xfce

Office apps include Orage Calendar, Orage Globaltime, Gnumeric (spreadsheet) and Document Viewer.

Office apps like Gnumeric and Orage Calendar are installed by default in Fedora Xfce

Multimedia tools include Parole Media Player, Xfburn and Asunder CD Ripper.

multimedia apps like Parole Media Player in Fedora Xfce

You can also directly install any of the programs using the command line either through System > Xfce Terminal with dnf or search and install using Software Management through Administration > dnfdragora.

installing packages from the command line in Fedora Xfce using dnf

Here is a list of dnf commands to install and manage apps in Fedora.

using the dnfdragora graphical tool to search and install packages in Fedora Xfce

To update, use the following command:

sudo dnf update

updating Fedora Xfce from the command line

Overall, this is a lightweight distro and if you’d like to try a non-Debian based Linux distro, then Fedora Spins can be a good choice.

Happy spinning.

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