It is a good desktop environment. It has a reputation for being lightweight
and highly configurable, although it is not as lightweight as it once was.
It should fill the gap nicely for many people. Move the panel to the top
and it is a good knock off. Does running Nautilus still cause problems? It
used to before 11.10. It will replace the XFCE desktop with GNOME's because
Nautilus is not just a file manager but a partial window manager as well. I
think but have not tried it, that 11.10 fixed that.

I started on xubuntu on 9.10 (i think) and coupled with compiz as you
say make a 'best place'. I didn't change to xubuntu due to the ubuntu
development i should add. I preferred the minimum approach to which i
add... and don't remove stuff as i used to with ubuntu.

I just heard on Mintcast a listener say why would anyone use Mate when they
can use XFCE? The Mintcasters agreed. :)

XFCE is a solid desktop that has a long history, it is well supported and
it is not unstable. Ever, in my experience. So I would have to agree that
Xubuntu with or without Compiz is a good alternative for disgruntled GNOME
2.x users.

Any difference between XFCE and LXDE?

XFCE has more functionality but I am not impressed by Thunar very much. PCManFM
has more functionality and it is more efficient.
LXDE is lightning fast.
Yes, they are right. XFCE is good for former Gnome users.
I use all three. Sometimes I prefer FVWM, which runs more smoothly than
FVWM-Crystal.

Both are desktop environments, but LXDE is lighter weight, meaning it
consumes fewer resources and it has less functionality built in. It is a
trade-off. You will find XFCE midway between LXDE and GNOME 2.x, perhaps
closer to GNOME. I agree that Thunar is not the best file manager. PCMan is
good, but you get what you pay for (in resources) IMO. Dolphin is the best
Linux file manager.

Dolphin is indeed very good. However, I doubt whether it is the best. I am
hooked on PcManFM.
By the way, what is your opinion about Konqueror ? I like it but I think it
should be a museum exponate.
One of my colleagues had a serious problem. Windows died after 2 years.
Partition C was FUBAR. Booted up Slax (it uses Konqueror as file manager). Saw
everything, could not copy anything to partition D and/or external hard drive.
Booted up Antix Mepis. Ran PCManFM as root and copied everything to partition D
and to the external hard drive. So, I recovered all her files by using Antix and
PCMANFM run as root. Next time I am going to try Dolphin run as root.
Then I reinstalled Windows and all her stuff, but she demands Linux. She
understood it was good technology. This is an exception. Generally, nobody wants
Linux on the Desktop here.
By the way, she is an engineer.

Asking my question here about Dolphin in case you missed it. I'm trying
to do file searches on Dolphin, but it reverts back to the Nepomuksearch
and removes itself off of my highlighted drive as soon as I press
search. Does anyone know how to fix that? I cannot do any file
searches, but I can browse throughout all the folders within Dolphin.
But something is preventing Dolphin from executing the searches on my
computer.

But how do I configure it? I don't like icons, so I always want the list of
files.

To configure Dolphin go to Settings, Configure Dolphin and on View Modes
you can change the settings for the various views. Under General, you can
have one setting for all folders or have it remember different settings for
each folder. If you like only one view, then change this to Use Common
Properties...

Then in Dolphin (not the settings) when in a folder that you want to view,
go to View, View Mode and change it to Details. Or press Control+2 to
change it with a hotkey. You use Alt+. to show hidden files and folders.