xfce4/xfwm and their components have had some major upgrades in the past couple years after no updates for a long, long time. Idk about debian versioning but maybe there was some incompatibility if you upgraded one but not the other. Try doing it all at once.
I just installed Debian 12 on a new laptop and took Gnome as
desktop/window manager.
I really insist on something more Xerox PARC style.
I had been using Xfce, and liked it until (following Debian 10 software
updates) it began to act strangely. A few months ago it started to kick
up a huge fuss about difficulties starting the Panel after a restart.
About 2 weeks back, following an upgrade, the Desktop area stopped
displaying anything -- no wallpaper, no icons from the Desktop folder --
just gray. That prompted this move to Debian 12.
I might go back to Xfce, and assume my troubles just resulted from being 2
major releases back, but before that, what do other people use and like?
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