XFCE is slow on Acer One netbook - suggestions?

[Helmut Wollmersdorfer <helmut.wollmersdorfer@fixpunkt.de>]

Hi,

my netbook is a ~5 years old Acer One with Atom processor, 1 GB memory and 150 GB HDD.

The history of used configuration is:

1) Debian Lenny KDE3

2) repartition and fresh install of Squeze + Gnome2

With Gnome2 I was very happy and the PC was good performing.

3) Upgrade to Wheezy + Gnome3

Ooops. Not performing on this hardware good enough, too often reaching the limits. 

But even worse is the bad usability of Gnome3.

That's why I tried 

4) Install XFCE without removing Gnome, because I need the convenience of the network-manager (I use the netbook in a dozen different locations/networks)

It's still slow.

And some features of the graphical design are missing, which have an impact on usability, e.g. the active tab in gedit is not highlighted.

What should I do?

a) use my heavy Lenovo Laptop (+2.3kg), wide-screen, multicore, 4 GB (has already Squeeze with KDE)

b) try to tune XFCE on the Acer One

c) buy a new small, powerful, lightweight Lenovo (I like the nibble:-)


Alternatives a) and c) do not solve the pain of choosing a "good enough" desktop environment for Debian Wheezy.

TIA

Helmut Wollmersdorfer