I like the xfce look and the xfce specific apps unfortunately I tried using xfce on a dell xps 15 laptop and had problems with screen tearing while scrolling up/down. I never found a fix so ended up on KDE.
Screen tearing is usually due to rendering faster than the display can support. So you wouldn't want to have it on by default since it likely impairs frame rate if I had to guess.
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I like the xfce look and the xfce specific apps unfortunately I tried using xfce on a dell xps 15 laptop and had problems with screen tearing while scrolling up/down. I never found a fix so ended up on KDE.
Try disabling XFCE composor in "Windows Manager Tweaks" it fixes tearing issues.
Wait a second, why wouldn't TearFree be enabled by default?
Are there people who wish to have screen tearing out of the box?
This answer has some good detail on the tradeoffs of TearFree with the Intel driver. https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/518362/whats-the-do...
Screen tearing is usually due to rendering faster than the display can support. So you wouldn't want to have it on by default since it likely impairs frame rate if I had to guess.