Xfce

''Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.'' — xfce.org

Avoiding GNOME & other large, unnecessary deps
Avoiding optional GNOME support and packages will keep your system more lean and congruous.

Ensure you're using the basic desktop profile:

You'll want the one that ends with  (not   or  ):

and have the qt4 USE flag:

You may also simply want to disable the flag globally:

has an http USE flag which draws in many GNOME deps you may find unnecessary:

Without explicitly including in your emerge command,  will draw in GNOME's  instead:

Installation
In, you can add/customize this line: XFCE_PLUGINS="brightness clock trash".

The above options may change, the current list is available here.

Install the complete Xfce desktop:

Or you can select only needed packages:

Terminal emulator
You may need a terminal emulator for Xfce:

Using startx
To start Xfce correctly with startx:

Using LightDM
Setup LightDM and select upon first run Xfce Session from a drop down.

Enabling power off and restart buttons from exit window
Setup D-Bus, ConsoleKit and polkit. In the following example permission is granted to users in group users:

xfce4-volumed
Install :

Keyboard shortcuts
Run xfce4-keyboard-settings to bind following keys:
 * button: amixer set Master 5%+
 * button: amixer set Master 5%-
 * button: amixer set Master toggle

Native Xfce theme engine
Xfce's own theme engine,, was recently updated to version 3.0, which implements native support for GTK+ 3 with no further configuration.

Assuming that you have  in your USE flags, the GTK+ 3 version  should be pulled in by default if you have  or x11-themes/gtk-engines-xfce in your world set and you do a world upgrade with the   option. If it does not, simply do a:

This should pull in a version of gtk-engines-xfce with the suffix  in a new slot.

After emerging the GTK+ 3 version of gtk-engines-xfce, applications using GTK+ 3 should now blend nicely with applications using GTK+ 2 when you use one of the native Xfce themes.

Greybird theme
Another option is to use the Greybird theme, which has support for GTK+ 2, GTK+ 3, xfwm4, emerald, & metacity:

Go to Xfce menu -> Settings -> Appearance. Or run xfce4-appearance-settings. Select "Greybird" from the "Style" list.

Now GTK+ 2 and GTK+ 3 applications should have consistent look.

Additional applications

 * Application finder:
 * Volume control:
 * Text editor:
 * Removable media and drives manager:
 * Previewer for files from Thunar:
 * CD burning application:
 * Archive manager:
 * Plugin for Thunar for work with archives, uses or :
 * is perfect for laptop users. It displays battery percentage, time remaining, power source (AC or battery), fan status, warnings, and can even be configured to execute commands at certain power levels. This feature can be used to put the laptop into hibernate mode when the battery is almost exhausted.
 * is a small command line embedded into the panel. It's quicker than opening up another terminal when you want to run a command.
 * gives you a handy method of mounting devices listed in /etc/fstab just by clicking your mouse.
 * lets you monitor your hardware sensors, such as CPU temperature, fan RPM, hard drive temp, motherboard voltage, and more.
 * adds several window manager themes.
 * is a simple, handy calendar.
 * is an application to monitor and manage power usage. This is especially important for laptops! The power manager allows you to adjust screen brightness, choose maximum performance or battery-saving modes, and setup hibernate, suspend, and shutdown actions when the lid is shut or buttons are pressed. You can set xfce4-power-manager to warn you when your battery reaches certain levels, or even turn off your machine. The application comes with a couple of helpful panel plugins to display battery/charging status, and a brightness control.