10 ms·

Releases for XFCE

104 points by wwwhizz 10y ago

omegote 10y ago
Only XFCE has given me back the joy of using Linux on the desktop that I used to feel with Gnome 2.x after the crap of Gnome 3 and the honorable but not-quite-there attempts of Cinnamon and Mate. Do you guys have any tips on contributing to XFCE? As far as I've heard, they mostly use C/C++ and Python, the two languages I'm more experienced with.
- abrowne 10y ago
  I like Xfce, but I now used Ubuntu MATE almost completely. Try it again, either the 16.04 GTK+ 2 LTS or 16.10 (or even 17.10 — the pre-releases are very stable) for the update to GTK+ 3. I think you'll find it's definitely "there"!
  - antouank 10y ago
    Arch + XFCE. You get all the latest, in a lightweight bundle. I've had enough with the Ubuntu bloat with lib versions from years ago.
    - abrowne 10y ago
      MATE in Arch then ;-) MATE came from Arch originally, as it happens.
      - 123333 10y ago
        1
    - bmurphy1976 10y ago
      Majaro (which is basically Arch+XFCE) is really slick looking. I'd use it as my primary if it weren't for HIDPI issues.
    - vladimir-y 10y ago
      I switched to the Manjaro + XFCE from Arch + XFCE with a hope to get a more stable system since Manjaro team does addition polishing and testing. XFCE is a kind of simple DM in comparison wit Gnome/KDE, but powerful enough - so less chance of problems due to a lower level of complexity.
- severine 10y ago
  > Do you guys have any tips on contributing to XFCE? There's a bounty program: https://www.bountysource.com/teams/xfce/issues https://www.bountysource.com/teams/xfce/issues
- cyphax 10y ago
  > Only XFCE has given me back the joy of using Linux on the desktop that I used to feel with Gnome 2.x I feel exactly the same way! I never really got used to KDE's looks; I've always had a preference for the look Gnome 2.x had, and when that ended, Xfce filled the gap brilliantly. So much so, that MATE hasn't replaced it since (eventhough I have it installed also), especially since I started using Whisker Menu. I have many nice things to say about Xfce, so I hope it stays. :)
  - macco 10y ago
    What's wrong with the look of Breeze?
    - kijin 10y ago
      Breeze is light years ahead of Oxygen (or whatever the default theme on KDE 4 was called), but I cannot shake the feeling that it will be replaced with something else before it is done being polished. KDE doesn't seem to like stability.
      - macco 10y ago
        I hope they don't polish too much. The already polished the circle from the X-Button on the title bar away. Which is no improvement. Besides that KDE is fuckin' great, imo.
    - cyphax 10y ago
      It's super objective for me, and hard to explain, if not impossible. I do recognize KFE's qualities and I have no real criticism of it, frankly, it's this difference between qt and gtk that I can't properly explain. :)
- ufo 10y ago
  First step will be to figure out how to build xfce from source and how to compile. ATM this is a bit tricky because of the gtk3 transition: some of the modules have compilation warnings for deprecated functions in the latest version of GTK3, which is problematic because -Werror is on by default. And if you want to install the latest xfce on a different prefix instead of /usr and /usr/local you need to fiddle wit lots of configure flags and environment variables (like XDG_DATA_DIRS). I wish there was a more automated way to do all of this because I got stuck in this part the last time I tried :( Anyway, I sincerely wish you the best of luck! You should probably get it working if you don't try to overcomplicate it like I did :) The source code is available at [1] and each library or component gets its own git repo. Building instructions can be found here [2] on the wiki. They are mostly up to date but you might need some help from the IRC [3] if you run into trouble. [1] https://git.xfce.org/ https://git.xfce.org/ [2] https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/building https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/building [3] #xfce on irc.freenode.net
Longhanks 10y ago
Hopefully XFWM4 will someday support full 60fps vsync compositing without any tearing. That would make XFCE the perfect desktop environment for me. For now, I am relying on Compton.
- andreyv 10y ago
  Xfwm4 already supports two methods of tear-free compositing, OpenGL and X Present, for a few years now. You need to build from git master to use them.
- eumoria 10y ago
  Am in the same boat Compton nearly does the job but I have to manually disallow some windows and tooltip type things because it creates this weird oversized bounding box around stuff. Small complaint but a better built in compositor would be a huge bonus.
raspberrytart 10y ago
Just posted to say I use XFCE every day and love it. Thanks for your hard work.
listic 10y ago
Is this going to get into Ubuntu 17.04 or is it too late?
- XzetaU8 10y ago
  We're two months away from the 17.04, Judging from the last two release roadmaps I'd say that there's still plenty of time. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/topic-y-xubuntu https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/topic-y-xubunt... https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/topic-x-xubuntu https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/topic-x-xubunt...
near 10y ago
Sigh, are they seriously bringing GTK3's client-side decorations and lack of title bars to Xfce??! Applications should have title bars. This is how it's been done everywhere since pretty much the first Xerox GUI. Monitors are bigger than ever today. I promise, people can spare 10 pixels of vertical space so that they can see the name of the application being run (and the name of documents open in said application), and have a very easy area to click on to move the window around with. GTK3 CSDs also break the user's ability to choose a window manager theme. It also removes the possibility to disable the toolbar area from certain applications, eg text editors. They also tend to result in applications that lack traditional menubars, which are very useful for complex programs. I have already dropped every last Gnome 3 application over this nonsense. This is going to be horrendous to have to stop using Xfce now, too. Sorry, I know HN doesn't like negativity, but this "change for the sake of it" stuff is getting really old. I just want to keep using my computer the way that's worked just fine for me for the past 25 years. This really is a step backward in usability. I don't want to have to target tiny slivers between widgets, or hold down Alt to move windows around. And for applications I want an actual toolbar in, I don't like how most of the toolbar icons disappear so that things can be merged into the titlebar area.
- macco 10y ago
  Use Kde or LxQt, not CSD's there.
- kelnos 10y ago
  The one thing I'm looking forward to with a GTK3-ified Xfce is better HiDPI support. GTK2 on a 352dpi screen is miserable. I agree with you on CSDs, though; they're horrible and take control away from me, and make windows drawn by different toolkits look different... why would I ever want that?
- darren0 10y ago
  I share your frustrations with CSDs but just because they are moving to GTK3 doesn't mean they will adopt CSDs. Can you refer me to what you saw that indicated they would do this? Or do I misunderstand that these two things are in fact coupled?
peatmoss 10y ago
XFCE is the (maybe only?) boring desktop environment that does exactly what it says on the tin and who can be trusted to make thoughtful incremental progress rather than changes for change's sake. You can't duplicate this sense of enduring without lots of time. I mostly pair XFCE with XMonad to get some creature comforts plus automatic window tiling. I've thought about trying to patch XFWM to add automatic tiling--the one and only "power feature" I can't live without in XFCE. I remember when XFCE was billed mainly as a CDE clone and thus got lumped in with other "nostalgia desktop recreation" projects for a lot pf folks. Since that time it's really come into its own.
kijin 10y ago
Crashy Thunar has been my only complaint with XFCE so far. I'm glad that it has been fixed! Thunar is an absolutely gorgeous file manager that does what it should, no less, no more. It embodies the essence of what I like the most about XFCE: it is living proof that simplicity and elegance are compatible with treating your users as adults.
- wiz21c 10y ago
  just for the sake of the useless argument, I(ve used Thunar but for me at least, it's quite slow. Somehow Dolphin (kde's file manager) is much better (I use openbox WM and Dolphin is the only KDE component I use regularly)
  - kijin 10y ago
    I found Dolphin clunkier and slower than Thunar when I tried it, but that might have to do with the fact the I was trying to run KDE in a virtual machine. Thanks for the suggestion anyway, I'll give it another go the next time I feel like switching distros.
Slackwise 10y ago
If only they'd add a proper "dock" widget, then I can go back from my hacked-up Gnome 3 setup. Guess I should put my foot where my mouth is and code one up.
- realharo 10y ago
  I use DockbarX (https://github.com/M7S/dockbarx https://github.com/M7S/dockbarx), which you can configure to act very much like the taskbar from Windows (one of the best Windows features imo). Unfortunately the window previews don't work in Xfce, and some apps sometimes still show up twice (the launcher doesn't merge with the running app correctly) - rare, but it happens. Still, haven't found anything better on Linux.
edoceo 10y ago
Yay! Crashy Thunar has annoyed me a bunch, glad to see the patches are in. Will try to help get the Gentoo packages updated

104 points by wwwhizz 10y ago

Only XFCE has given me back the joy of using Linux on the desktop that I used to feel with Gnome 2.x after the crap of Gnome 3 and the honorable but not-quite-there attempts of Cinnamon and Mate. Do you guys have any tips on contributing to XFCE? As far as I've heard, they mostly use C/C++ and Python, the two languages I'm more experienced with.

abrowne 10y ago
I like Xfce, but I now used Ubuntu MATE almost completely. Try it again, either the 16.04 GTK+ 2 LTS or 16.10 (or even 17.10 — the pre-releases are very stable) for the update to GTK+ 3. I think you'll find it's definitely "there"!
- antouank 10y ago
  Arch + XFCE. You get all the latest, in a lightweight bundle. I've had enough with the Ubuntu bloat with lib versions from years ago.
  - abrowne 10y ago
    MATE in Arch then ;-) MATE came from Arch originally, as it happens.
    - 123333 10y ago
      1
  - bmurphy1976 10y ago
    Majaro (which is basically Arch+XFCE) is really slick looking. I'd use it as my primary if it weren't for HIDPI issues.
  - vladimir-y 10y ago
    I switched to the Manjaro + XFCE from Arch + XFCE with a hope to get a more stable system since Manjaro team does addition polishing and testing. XFCE is a kind of simple DM in comparison wit Gnome/KDE, but powerful enough - so less chance of problems due to a lower level of complexity.
severine 10y ago
> Do you guys have any tips on contributing to XFCE? There's a bounty program: https://www.bountysource.com/teams/xfce/issues https://www.bountysource.com/teams/xfce/issues
cyphax 10y ago
> Only XFCE has given me back the joy of using Linux on the desktop that I used to feel with Gnome 2.x I feel exactly the same way! I never really got used to KDE's looks; I've always had a preference for the look Gnome 2.x had, and when that ended, Xfce filled the gap brilliantly. So much so, that MATE hasn't replaced it since (eventhough I have it installed also), especially since I started using Whisker Menu. I have many nice things to say about Xfce, so I hope it stays. :)
- macco 10y ago
  What's wrong with the look of Breeze?
  - kijin 10y ago
    Breeze is light years ahead of Oxygen (or whatever the default theme on KDE 4 was called), but I cannot shake the feeling that it will be replaced with something else before it is done being polished. KDE doesn't seem to like stability.
    - macco 10y ago
      I hope they don't polish too much. The already polished the circle from the X-Button on the title bar away. Which is no improvement. Besides that KDE is fuckin' great, imo.
  - cyphax 10y ago
    It's super objective for me, and hard to explain, if not impossible. I do recognize KFE's qualities and I have no real criticism of it, frankly, it's this difference between qt and gtk that I can't properly explain. :)
ufo 10y ago
First step will be to figure out how to build xfce from source and how to compile. ATM this is a bit tricky because of the gtk3 transition: some of the modules have compilation warnings for deprecated functions in the latest version of GTK3, which is problematic because -Werror is on by default. And if you want to install the latest xfce on a different prefix instead of /usr and /usr/local you need to fiddle wit lots of configure flags and environment variables (like XDG_DATA_DIRS). I wish there was a more automated way to do all of this because I got stuck in this part the last time I tried :( Anyway, I sincerely wish you the best of luck! You should probably get it working if you don't try to overcomplicate it like I did :) The source code is available at [1] and each library or component gets its own git repo. Building instructions can be found here [2] on the wiki. They are mostly up to date but you might need some help from the IRC [3] if you run into trouble. [1] https://git.xfce.org/ https://git.xfce.org/ [2] https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/building https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/building [3] #xfce on irc.freenode.net

Longhanks 10y ago

Hopefully XFWM4 will someday support full 60fps vsync compositing without any tearing. That would make XFCE the perfect desktop environment for me. For now, I am relying on Compton.

andreyv 10y ago
Xfwm4 already supports two methods of tear-free compositing, OpenGL and X Present, for a few years now. You need to build from git master to use them.
eumoria 10y ago
Am in the same boat Compton nearly does the job but I have to manually disallow some windows and tooltip type things because it creates this weird oversized bounding box around stuff. Small complaint but a better built in compositor would be a huge bonus.

raspberrytart 10y ago

Just posted to say I use XFCE every day and love it. Thanks for your hard work.

listic 10y ago

Is this going to get into Ubuntu 17.04 or is it too late?

XzetaU8 10y ago
We're two months away from the 17.04, Judging from the last two release roadmaps I'd say that there's still plenty of time. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/topic-y-xubuntu https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/topic-y-xubunt... https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/topic-x-xubuntu https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/topic-x-xubunt...

near 10y ago

Sigh, are they seriously bringing GTK3's client-side decorations and lack of title bars to Xfce??! Applications should have title bars. This is how it's been done everywhere since pretty much the first Xerox GUI. Monitors are bigger than ever today. I promise, people can spare 10 pixels of vertical space so that they can see the name of the application being run (and the name of documents open in said application), and have a very easy area to click on to move the window around with. GTK3 CSDs also break the user's ability to choose a window manager theme. It also removes the possibility to disable the toolbar area from certain applications, eg text editors. They also tend to result in applications that lack traditional menubars, which are very useful for complex programs. I have already dropped every last Gnome 3 application over this nonsense. This is going to be horrendous to have to stop using Xfce now, too. Sorry, I know HN doesn't like negativity, but this "change for the sake of it" stuff is getting really old. I just want to keep using my computer the way that's worked just fine for me for the past 25 years. This really is a step backward in usability. I don't want to have to target tiny slivers between widgets, or hold down Alt to move windows around. And for applications I want an actual toolbar in, I don't like how most of the toolbar icons disappear so that things can be merged into the titlebar area.

macco 10y ago
Use Kde or LxQt, not CSD's there.
kelnos 10y ago
The one thing I'm looking forward to with a GTK3-ified Xfce is better HiDPI support. GTK2 on a 352dpi screen is miserable. I agree with you on CSDs, though; they're horrible and take control away from me, and make windows drawn by different toolkits look different... why would I ever want that?
darren0 10y ago
I share your frustrations with CSDs but just because they are moving to GTK3 doesn't mean they will adopt CSDs. Can you refer me to what you saw that indicated they would do this? Or do I misunderstand that these two things are in fact coupled?

peatmoss 10y ago

XFCE is the (maybe only?) boring desktop environment that does exactly what it says on the tin and who can be trusted to make thoughtful incremental progress rather than changes for change's sake. You can't duplicate this sense of enduring without lots of time. I mostly pair XFCE with XMonad to get some creature comforts plus automatic window tiling. I've thought about trying to patch XFWM to add automatic tiling--the one and only "power feature" I can't live without in XFCE. I remember when XFCE was billed mainly as a CDE clone and thus got lumped in with other "nostalgia desktop recreation" projects for a lot pf folks. Since that time it's really come into its own.

kijin 10y ago

Crashy Thunar has been my only complaint with XFCE so far. I'm glad that it has been fixed! Thunar is an absolutely gorgeous file manager that does what it should, no less, no more. It embodies the essence of what I like the most about XFCE: it is living proof that simplicity and elegance are compatible with treating your users as adults.

wiz21c 10y ago
just for the sake of the useless argument, I(ve used Thunar but for me at least, it's quite slow. Somehow Dolphin (kde's file manager) is much better (I use openbox WM and Dolphin is the only KDE component I use regularly)
- kijin 10y ago
  I found Dolphin clunkier and slower than Thunar when I tried it, but that might have to do with the fact the I was trying to run KDE in a virtual machine. Thanks for the suggestion anyway, I'll give it another go the next time I feel like switching distros.

Slackwise 10y ago

If only they'd add a proper "dock" widget, then I can go back from my hacked-up Gnome 3 setup. Guess I should put my foot where my mouth is and code one up.

realharo 10y ago
I use DockbarX (https://github.com/M7S/dockbarx https://github.com/M7S/dockbarx), which you can configure to act very much like the taskbar from Windows (one of the best Windows features imo). Unfortunately the window previews don't work in Xfce, and some apps sometimes still show up twice (the launcher doesn't merge with the running app correctly) - rare, but it happens. Still, haven't found anything better on Linux.

edoceo 10y ago

Yay! Crashy Thunar has annoyed me a bunch, glad to see the patches are in. Will try to help get the Gentoo packages updated