Artix (XFCE) personal use app list
Last updated : 15/7/2026 (incomplete, will require additions) (Reflash/revisit, added AppImages entry)
Introduction
This article is to list out the apps that I use in Artix, under the XFCE desktop environment.
General things that are considered important for the apps I use :
- Preferably available in Artix world/galaxy, though Arch extra is fine as long as it doesn't demand systemd (not that I can install systemd on Artix anyway).
- Balanced between having lots of features & having some that work well; while being as lightweight as possible. As much as I favor simplicity, there are times where an app can be too "simple" for my personal usage... such as terminal apps (which I never got the hang of at the time of writing).
- GTK3‐only as it is XFCE4's GUI toolkit. No EFL, GTK2/4, and/or Qt dependencies unless I am either in a desktop environment with either of those toolkits and/or forced to use those apps thanks to the lack of available GTK3 alternatives. If XFCE ever switches toolkits (and/or display protocol) I'll re‐review everything.
- X11, not Wayland. Again, because XFCE still uses good old X11. I will have to re‐review if XFCE switches to Wayland (or if I jump to Hyprland).
- Native installations; no Appimage/Flatpak/Snap/WINE unless required or preferred. Tolerance may be extended to either AppImage or WINE depending on use case (like games), but not to Flatpak & Snap (as I do not intend to install either packages).
In addition, Flatpak xdg‐desktop‐portal had plans to add age tracking (archive.org).
- Having a consistent & reliable maintenance, both from upstream & repos' maintainers / packagers. That said, I will re‐review the app if major changes were to occur, (such as new dependencies and/or the developers) dropping GTK3 for anything else). If the app is deemed complete and/or mature, I guess I can skip this requirement.
- Libre software ‐ arguably the least important point, as most packages in Arch/Artix repositories are open source (but not necessarily libre) stuff aside from Discord & Steam (both of which are proprietary clients).
Some nice to haves for the apps I use :
- Does not access the internet without proper reason & documentation. This is not exactly easy to find out considering GTK3 has no decent network monitoring apps that I know.
- I could probably argue about having the program written in a sensible language but I don't particularly care about those points.
- Preferably not written in Rust. I have no opinion on Rust as a programming language, but some of Rust's community members (particularly the louder ones) soured my stance.
- As little AI involvement as possible (preferably zero). I don't think I would rely on a software written by somebody with clear skill issues, but combine them with tools known to have skill issues (and even excarberates it)... yeah.
Gallery
XFCE's default image viewer.
Video
Mentions :
- Parole : XFCE's default media (video) player.
Welp, I'm back at mpv after Parole underperformed on AV1 videos. That said, I'm not exactly sure on video playback on Linux.
Music
More detailed notes available in the page where I sought a replacement for Quod Libet.
A lightweight GTK3 music player. Despite its lightweight advertisement, Pragha still includes an inbuilt tag editor and the ability to create playlists using folders. Seems to be unmaintained (as its last Git commit was in 2022), but the more optimistic side of me would like to assume Pragha is complete. The extra package was updated in 7/4/2026, but only as a package rebuild following some library update.
Text / source code editor
Mentions :
- Gedit : GNOME's default text editor, before gnome-text-editor. Supports restoring tabs between sessions with Ex-Mortis (not included in gedit-plugins), but doesn't support tab scrolling & keyboard tab switching is ctrl-alt-(pgup/pgdn) without control-your-tabs plugin. That said, I am no longer aware of Gedit nowadays so I'm not sure on this report.
- Lapce : A code editor written in Rust. Supports restoring tabs between sessions & tab scrolling (where it browses through visible tabs instead of switching them, just like good ol' Notepad++)... though the oversized interface (which feels somewhat alien in materia-dark) & how it opens new tabs (it simply overwrites whatever's there - if you want multitab maybe open multiple screens & drag them?) ruined it for me.
- Mousepad : XFCE's text (and code) editor. Restores tabs between sessions (requires setting session restore to always in Preferences > File), but lacks tab scrolling. Mousepad also keeps unsaved buffers, which can be neat.
- Pantheon Code : Text / source code editor from elementary OS. Supports tab scrolling (where scrolling changes the active tab instead of browsing through visible tabs), automatically restores tabs between sessions (and automatically saves them after a single change), and also comes with a sidebar that eases workflow by displaying project folder contents (Geany comes with one as well, but only shows currently opened files). However, it is not available in world / galaxy yet, has limited customizability, and lacks support for some GTK keybindings.
- Pluma : MATE DE default text editor, available in galaxy. Similar to Gedit & xed, it supports tab scrolling (where scrolling changes the active tab instead of browsing through visible tabs) & lacks tab restoration.
- SciTE : SCIntilla-based text editor. With the same base component as Notepad++ & Geany; I expected tab restoration and/or tab scrolling, but unfortunately SciTE lacks both, which probably qualifies SciTE as the worst in this list.
- xed : A text editor made by Linux Mint developers, as the default for their Cinnamon DE. Supports tab scrolling (where scrolling changes the active tab instead of browsing through visible tabs), but does not restore open tabs between sessions.
A fast & lightweight integrated development environment (though it does double as a text editor). Restores tabs between sessions & supports tab scrolling in editor bar (where scrolling changes the active tab instead of browsing through visible tabs - browsing through visible tab is better but at least here's better than nothing). Comes with its own themes, though you can always try to copy/paste alternate themes to /home/$username/.config/geany/colorschemes (or even make your own, making Geany's color customization essentially unlimited). Both geany & geany‐plugins are available in world, so you don't have to add Arch repos for this.
2/4/2026 Update : I disabled the editor bar in Geany because the sidebar proved tidier and easier to use once you got your project(s) going.
Nano
A text editor for the terminal. As someone who primarily uses the GUI, I won't be using this all that often (aside from some one-time configurations on installing Artix). But then again, I'm not the general audience for terminal-only apps... including Vim (but then again that one is a lifestyle).
Document reader
1st-party JS & XHR required to view site.
Depends on tesseract tessdata, which is available from 128 tesseract packages (from either extra or world, so combined it's 256). I chose the one from world (30) as it was no longer corrupted as of 10/7/2026.
Browser
Honorable mentions :
- Ungoogled Chromium : Chromium, without Google integration. Used to be available in Artix galaxy in lieu of vanilla Chromium in Arch extra (with systemd dependency) until it was replaced.
- Pale Moon : The one Goanna/XUL browser aside from Basilisk. Available in either GTK2 or GTK3 in the AUR (13/5/2026 Update : GTK3 binary no longer orphaned). Compilable build for either GTK2 or GTK3 exists if you don't mind taking the time.
- Firefox ESR : Welp, it is Firefox ESR. Available in Artix galaxy. I spent some time with it for uMatrix, Redirector .json, and user.js (based off Narsil's, who in turn based off arkenfox), but now that I'm back on UXP with Basilisk I can finally let go of this Mozilla abomination.
- Librewolf : To my surprise it appeared in Artix galaxy. Well, I guess there's that.
Pale Moon, but with a different UI & additional emphasis on real‐world site compatibility with the addition of stuff like WebRTC. Offered in either GTK2 or GTK3 (or even a compilable package for either) in AUR, with the GTK2 binary orphaned instead.
File manager
XFCE's default file manager. Requires gvfs to automatically deal with removeable storages (like USB).
Picture editing
Mentions :
- Pinta : Drawing program modeled after Paint.NET. Became AUR‐exclusive for some reason.
Started using after I found out GIMP moved from GTK2 to GTK3 (if only to keep added dependencies to a minimum).
Office suite
In an ideal world, Microsoft's office format is everyone's office format to play with. Alas, it remained Microsoft's.
Mentions :
- LibreOffice : Serviceable, but mixed (usually questionable) support for Microsoft Office formats.
An office suite with (allegedly) the least worst Microsoft Office format support compared to other non‐Microsoft office suites. Interface is a bit slow and ignores system themes. Only available in AUR.
Personal installation guide :
Other stuff
- Theme : adw‐gtk‐theme for now.
- Sound server : Pipewire, following dinit.
- Firewall : Currently playing around with iptables (of both nft & legacy interfaces). Also forgot to install (g)ufw in the current reinstallation.
- Terminal (emulator) : XFCE Terminal or ctrl+alt+f2 to terminal, depending on whether I needed to stay on X GUI.
- X11 : Currently running XLibre, fresh from Artix galaxy.
- Attempts at tidying up home directory (not that it helped much considering ~ remained as messy as ever as soon as I ctrl+H)
- Bundle AUR files & folders in ~/aur/$packagename (such as ~/aur/$palemoon for Pale Moon)
AppImage
The only format of portable Linux apps/programs I would think of using at this point as AppImage doesn't ask for additional packages and is the closest thing we got to Windows' .exe without being .exe. Not to mention Snap being Ubuntu‐exclusive and Flatpak basically is a distro on a distro (and the age tracking issue I mentioned on the intro).
Personal list of currently used AppImage packages:
How to use :
- Download AppImage file.
- Move (or copy) AppImage to somewhere visible (like Desktop) then open a terminal session there
- $ chmod +x $AppImage
- Run AppImage. If it doesn't run, STFW for fix. If it runs, the guide is done. Except for adding that AppImage (or its launcher) on your desktop menu.
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