XFCE + gala + plank = awesome

I recently installed xubuntu and wanted some good compositing. I tried compiz but it seems a bit buggy with xfce.

I recently found a great solution. Using elementary os's gala window manager. it works amazingly with xfce! incredibly smooth, stable, and fast. I'm also using plank as the dock and it all integrates very well, feels like I'm using eOS luna, but with all the mature stable xfce apps.

To install it on xubuntu just do the following:

Add the elementary daily ppa and install gala

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:elementary-os/daily

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gala dconf-tools

Set gala as xfce's default window manager

cp /etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml

leafpad ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml

replace "xfwm4" with "gala"

Put min/max/close buttons on the right

open dconf-editor:

org pantheon desktop gala appearance

button-layout: :minimize,maximize,close

original source where I found the instructions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12a8M5y7MNg

My current desktop, still got plenty of tweaking left to do. running great already though, blazingly fast and smooth: http://i.imgur.com/grZzR.png