However, if you want XFCE, is there a reason you don’t want to use Linux Mint 21.3 with XFCE?
I’m still unsure about the differences: LMDE is based on debian, the OS I now use the most, whereas LM (linux mint) is based on ubuntu. Several posters have argued that LMDE, like debian, is barebones, whereas LM is ideal for an end user with not much idea about linux, but my main issue is speed: I don’t want the notebook to be painfully slow: this is a notebook with an Intel Core i5-4278U @ 2.60GHz (2 cores, 4 threads) with 8 GB RAM and installing and upgrading on xubuntu 23.10 was already really, painfully slow.
I either save on resources using a lightweight DE like xfce or using a barebones OS like LMDE
I also want to future proof it as much as possible, which would mean using the OS/DE that uses less resources.