Linux Mint XFCE vs Plasma 5 again

I was switching back and forth between Xfce and Plasma 5 on the M93p today, just out of curiosity to see which one I REALLY like most.  As I probably mentioned many times, the Plasma 5 is left over on my original 500GB drive from the BRIX after I replaced it with an SSD.  Because it had a lot of useful stuff on it, I plugged it into a spare USB 3 port.  It also has KDE 4 .12 on it, and since they both showed up automagically in GRUB I thought I may as well see if they would boot.

So, my preferemces.
For real day to day use, I like KDE 4.12 BEST.  It was the peak of KDE development and does everything more or less perfectly.  Other than the eventual progression path to Wayland, I think that KDE 4.x should have been continued.  Fast to boot, fast to shut down and snappy performance, with features that never made it into Plasma 5.

If it wasn't that I can cook a bacon and egg breakfast while Plasma 5 is booting, and make coffee while I wait for it to shut down, I'd class Plasma 5 as 'almost as good as KDE 4.  It can;t do all the things that KDE 4 can do, but it will be able to do Wayland.

XFCE can't compete with KDE or Plasma for 'Desktop Appeal'.  It does almost nothing in as polished and polite a way.  It is like living aboard a yacht, compared to living in an apartment.  I think that is why I like it though.  It isn;t as cosy and warm feeling.  It is functional in a spartan sort of way.  But if I have to turn the computer on just because I have one thing I forgot to do before I head away for the day - XFCE is what I boot.  I turn on the monitor (a 55 inch screen TV), switch on the wireless keyboard and hit Alt P (turns the m93p lenovo ON), switch on the wireless mouse and take them to my seat. By the time I sit, the screen is on and a print test has been sent to the wireless printer.

It is just that good.  If I know I will not be rebooting the computer during the day I sometimes like the 'plush feeling' of Plasma 5.  Sometimes I'll use it just for the plush feeling and stuff the long boot time.  But the 20 to 30 second boot time of XFCE just feels slick, despite people saying startup time means nothing.