AWN instability in Zorin 9 - how to change it to XFCE?

I appear to be plagued by instability of the AWN bar in Zorin 9 Ultimate 64-bit. It appears to be worse than in version 6.4, though the latter was a far less buggy OS overall than v9 (at least that has been my personal experience of these two versions of Zorin).

I would like to replace it with XFCE (as exists in Zorin Lite), XFCE being more stable, but I'd rather not install the Lite version of Zorin (which has XFCE) as it is not a 64-bit OS.

How can I make the change to XFCE?

Many thanks for any help with this,
Regards
Mike

(Linux newbie - since XP death in April 2014)

OK, some corrections needed . Lite is based on Lubuntu = LXDE not XFCE!



As you can see you can get it from within Synaptic Package Manager - I tend to install everything but the dev packages (unless you are a developer). I have not installed XFCE before on Zorin - I know I did have some issues running LXDE - it was OK for a while but then I started having some issues (can't remember what exactly). My personal preference is gettinig rid of indicator-3 applet which seems to be the biggest bug-bear (for me) on any iteration of Zorin - I would keep it if I could modify it's appearance but it is not possible. I have changed my loginscreen to Gnome3, modifid AWN to this:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7878#p38613

How did I achieve the above?:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7983

But mainly I boot into this:

download/file.php?id=3448&mode=view

Z menu at bottom I customised myself (neon look) and when launched I get GnoMenu (I installed it alongside ZorinMenu then got rid of ZorinMenu - not completely, just from the panel - so now I get left Windows key to launch the menu but I don't get Window move anymore or 'Aero' - as I am in the Cairo-Dock DE. The top 'Z' launches 'YAMA' with a search box like the RC of Zorin 8 used to do!

If you do install XFCE - if you want to keep the same boot screen and it asks in a 'dos-like' window what manager you want GDM or LDM - choose the latter if you want to keep things the same - I went to GDM. Then before you login, click on the 'cog' to see what DE's you have available - I am guessing here that XFCE should show up but cannot guarantee it - if unsure of what will happen, be sure to make a backup of critical data!

Many thanks Swarfendor.
Oops! I meant LXDE - thanks for correcting me on that one. Maybe though, XFCE would be better than LXDE as you said you had issues with the latter. However, I am not sure I am competent to do this as it sounds complicated and I'm only a newbie to linux, but may anyway give it a go...

May I make the strong recommendation that Zorin issues a 64-bit version of Zorin Lite. I'd be grateful if you could relay that recommendation to the rest of the development team, which I assume you are part of. I'm sure I'm not the first to suggest this, but for good reason ...

Zorin Lite 64-bit would be a really great thing to have, and would save us beginner-users in Linux a lot of hassle with Zorin's Awn problems. It's a great shame about the general bugginess in Zorin 9 and earlier versions - this drawback is the main issue that holds me back from using Zorin with all my computing tasks. If you could resolve the bugginess and improve stability generally, I think Zorin would shoot up in popularity. I say this as someone who thinks the Zorin project has great potential, and who has made online donations as a reflection of that view.

Regards
Mike

Hi Mike, Just to put the record straight, none of the mods are part of the Dev team - only the Admins (Artyom and Kyril)!
It would make sense for a 64-bit - LXLE came out with the 64-bit version first before the 32-bit ones but there were a few minor bugs I found with that one - error report at every logon and after switching between wireless and powerline network connection ended up with two nm-applets! (network monitor applets) - so I am currently running Netrunner 14(.04) 64-bit - it uses KDE and plasmoids are a bit painful (but not as painful as haemerrhoids! )