Slashdot Mirror
XFce Desktop 4 Released
BladeMelbourne writes "After thorough RC testing, version 4.0 of my favourite 'lite' desktop environment has been released. Sporting purty eye candy, XFce is leaps and bounds ahead of the legacy XFce 3.8.18 release, whilst retaining it's performance.
Release notes are available, as well as binary and source packages. Bring that PII back to life!" While it may not have all the bells and whistles, it's pretty clean looking.
I vote for xfce as having the dang cutest logo yet.
*squeeee* lil rodent
I just rsync'd and it still isn't there. I'm so disappointed.
It's incredible, really. Here I was reading slashdot, trying to procrastinate doing some work, but it's the same stories I read earlier.... just when I am almost forced to stop reading /. and actually do some work, along comes slashdot not only with a new story for me to procrastinate more, but a story that involves looking at pictures of other people doing work! Thank you slashdot!!
I run TWM on my server and OpenBox on my iBook. Smaller window managers leave more ram and more proc. time for the processes that matter.
Try comparing compile times of the kernel between TWM and KDE3, no surprise which will win.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Even though Sun's Java Desktop could run XFCe (assuming you downloaded and built XFCe, of course).
Where your monitor seems to be a moveable window on a workspace that is bigger than the monitor's viewable area? This feature is the one thing that's kept me with fvwm all this time. I don't like seperate desktops.
How funny, just last week I was wondering what desktop to put on an old P133 with 48mb of RAM. I stumbled on Xfce and I was going to try the 4.0 release candidates. Does anyone here use Xfce, and if so, how well would you expect it to run on this computer ? Any tips ?
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
unless its being slashdotted.
I really wish they'd make a nice light desktop for Windows XP. Yes, I know, we all hate M$ here, but some of us really don't mind it. Anyway, Fluxbox and Gentoo almost made me switch about a year ago -- maybe it's time to give it another shot...
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
must be running their website on that PII he mentioned.
my pet machine
I've been keeping up with XFCE for a while now, and I've really enjoyed using it. I typically use either it or fluxbox when I'm in the mood for a minimal window manager. Anyhow, if you'd like to edit your keyboard shortcuts in XFCE (one of the first things I do when I install a new WM), you can do that in the following file: /usr/share/xfwm4/themes/default.keys/keythemerc
--It's Pimptastic!--
Can we just get around to a stable os with a graphical windowing environement which takes 16mb ram to run?
It's been in the tree ( or at least the ~x86 tree ) since at least thismorning.
;-)
-----------
curious@clyde x11-wm$ emerge -s xfce4-base
Searching...
[ Results for search key : xfce4-base ]
[ Applications found : 1 ]
* xfce-base/xfce4-base
Latest version available: 4.0.0
Latest version installed: 3.99.4
-----------
I'll probably be excommunicated from the Gentoo community now for being 0.00.6 of a release behind.
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
Ex-Ef-See-Eee or is is Ex-Feese
If it's the latter does that mean if you have lots of computers running XFce your running X-fces?
BTW Nice logo.
I advise all RedHat users (downloading XFce RPMs) not to download and install gtk2-2.2.4-1rh9.i386.rpm from the XFce SourceForge page - it prevented my gdm graphical greeter from loading the login screen.
/etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf for half an hour like me, changing gdm greeter themes.
The error message was: "The theme for the graphical greeter is corrupt. It does not contain definition for the username/password entry element." I clicked OK several times, but the error message stayed there.
If you run into troubles, revert to an older package like gtk2-2.2.2-0.ximian.6.3.i386.rpm or gtk2-2.2.1-4.i386.rpm
Dont play with
Mike
Its the Morphix Light desktop. Its GTK2 based and keeps its configuration data is XML. I recommend the Bluefish editor as your first proggie to go with it.
There hasn't been a single XFeces joke. Is everyone alright?
The XFce guys have a press release too!!
Read it here:
http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/6260.html
Ah, the power of a good Slashdotting. :-)
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
Really, when you use the ROX pinboard, it's all great. To get the proper feel, hunt down the location of the icons for the icon theme you're using for the XFce panel and use it for your ROX folders. Make sure to set ROX to not override window manager control of the root window.
-
And the Angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots! The cries of the carrots!"
Here is a mirror for the png's.
XFce screens
...you insensitive clod!
--krahd
mod me up scottie!
Not only is this completely offtopic, but posted in reply to a comment that is unrelated and not the top most on the page, and it still gets positive karma.
Who but Neo can warp the moderation system like that?
It works just fine under XP as a shell. If you want to test it without replacing your current shell, just launch it from the command line with the -desktop option.
In KDE I like to use an auto-hiding external taskbar in the upper-right corner of my screen, so if I jam the mouse over there it flies out, and the windows are shown in a vertical list rather than across the whole screen. This method uses real estate more efficiently than a Windows 95 style taskbar, because the horizontal space is only as much as is needed for a single window title, and I never open enough windows to run out of vertical space, and my window titles are seldom truncated. It's like a stack of books, and you're looking at the spines. It's also like the Mac task switcher in systems 7-9.
Is there a way I could that with XFCE?
They might not have come from Intel, but they do exist.
Here is a page with some info and links to other screenshots
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
WM environments (because you can't really call it a desktop) like XFce are a step backwards. They don't provide any of the facilities that a modern (or even ancient!) desktop should provide. By and large they're little more than a pretty means to run xterm, xclock and xload on a single screen.
The people using this stuff love to brag about the efficiency of their minimalist "Desktop", but there is nothing efficient about not being able to drag and drop images between applications, about spending hours to get a printer to work, about endless menu editing.
Call me a troll, but that's the way I see it. To each his own and all that, but please, let this stuff die already, don't give it any more publicity than it deserves. It's not a desktop, it's a graphical shell.
Oh, I don't know. I think all too much is said about KDE's use of C++ and Gnome's use of C ( even though I'm a KDE user who dislikes coding in C++).
I'm not sure why saying much about XFce's use of Java should get even more mention.
What Sun's Java Desktop has to do with it I'm not sure. Since it's a Linux distro it goes pretty much without saying that any Linux pacakage you download and build on it will run.
More to the point, since the only real reason to run Sun's Java Desktop (tm -- Don't call it Linux) is to use their version of Gnome I'm clueless as to why anyone would want to build XFCe for it, since you can also build it on any other Linux (sorry Sun, call my lawyer) distro.
Unless maybe you've popped the C note for Sun's Java Desktop (See? I've repented already), realized you've made a terrible mistake, but are too obstinate in your investment to download Red Hat, Mandrake, Debian or Slack for free?
KFG
there, i called you a troll, which you most definitely are, you no brained mofo
Anyone else pronounce this as "X Fee-cees" :)
will it run Windows Millenium Edition?
"While it may not have all the bells and whistles, it's pretty clean looking."
Bells, whistles!?!, i've been tring to write c apps that would generate those tone for years!! When is someone going to release code with bells and whistles... damnit!!! i want to see the source so i know what i've been doing wrong!
What is slashdot?
You're ruining life for the small server owners. One little thing gets slashdotted and all of a sudden it takes 2 minutes to load a screenshot. Ah, hell, keep up the good work.
I mod down pyramid schemes in sigs.
meh, no they arn't but does anyone know of a way to get scrollbars to default to the right? any os will due. A lefty on a tablet is a terrible thing to waste.
searching for and downloading all the latest versions and rependencies of all my favourite software - 168 hours
burning it on to a cdrom - 1 hour
time between burning the CD and seeing Samba 3 and XFCE 4 come out - 24 hours
time spent blueing the air with cursewords - endless
if you want a system patch that breaks the system every 6 months use Micro$0ft, for everything else there's Linux
learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
or one out of three ain't bad
Running a GUI on a server box? pah...command line's the only way to go baybee! Vi/emacs/ee is the closest I come to a GUI when editing conf files. None of that point and click malarky.
;o)
I like my sysadmining to be OLD SKOOL.
Seriously though, the reason I do this is "why use room for XFree86 that could be better used serving files?". It's also one less service to have to secure/lock down.
Others complained about Mozilla usage, but I found it tolerable, and Phoenix (ahem, excuse me, Firebird) ran just fine.
The only complaint I had was that there didn't seem to be a way to force the menu bar to stay on top, so sometimes it could be obscured by other windows. That's really a pretty mild thing though.
As others have said, if you can run X, XFce should be fine, it adds litle overhead.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
What hasn't been mentioned yet is the xfce plugin for fvwm. I kinda liked xfce, but really liked fvwm but didn't want to spend the time customizing, and then I find that there's a plugin to load into fvwm and suddenly I have the xfce taskbar. It's really the best of both worlds. Fvwm's efficient management of the desktop, and a nice toolbar to keep everything organized. Although I suppose the fact that three of the buttons on the taskbar get set to different sizes and colors of xterms says something about me....
Im wondering how deeply programs like galeon and evolution are embended into gnome environent or can the be ran and do they behave normally in xfce ? I really would like to make a switch since my computer seems sluggier and sluggier after each upgrade ..
yush
Oh yes, XFCE is not a desktop. So what?
;-)
I have migrated from KDE to XFCE. KDE is fine, but it has lots of functionalities I never use; the presence of icons on the desktop disturbs me (and KDE keeps creating them at every restart when I remove them), and all I need is a good menu system with some buttons for the apps I use most often (Opera, xterm, XMMS, xterm, kmail, xterm, the Gimp, xterm, SciTE and xterm). The printer? Less than one minute to configure my remote Samba printer. And everything runs faster now, because
I more free memory! XFCE has been a gift from Heaven for my poor 64MB-laptop.
So, although I respect your choice of KDE/Gnome, and I may enjoy some friendly waste of time with you discussing about the definition of the term "Desktop", give my XFCE if you want me happy.
Oh, by the way: I am sorry to let you down in this particular issue, but I am NOT calling you a troll. Please find someone else for that
Strength, balance, courage and reason. If you know what's this about, contact me!
..the Fonts look a little mangled, no?
SCNR
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
From the Website:-
> and everything goes faster.
Not when it's slashdotted it don't.
The months are just too short. I can count the number of days on one hand.
Totally agree. Who wants to slow their machine down with the window manager? Also, it tends to be the smaller window managers that are trying out new ideas. My current favourite is WindowLab, it's small and the author has managed to combine a number of influences and totally original features really well IMHO.
And the ass saw the angel? Could it be?
Here ya go. It seems that moderators have no sense of humor. This one was modded a troll.
Wow. A international font does look like a "mangled" English font. And also resemble the text in that language.
Imagine that.
This also just in: GNOME and KDE support internation fonts as well. Damn these broken fonts, damn them all!
But English looks just as good as any GTK+2 based desktop does these days.
I've been a pretty happy Gnome user for the last year or so. I must say though, Xfce is very snappy and well polished. It looks good, it works good, and I love it. I'll always have a special place in my heart for Gnome, but this WM is one awesome piece of software. Btw, my system has 512 MB RAM and an Athlon XP 1800+, so it's not like Gnome doesn't run fine.
This ain't a Solaris machine, son. 'round these parts, we use /dev/dsp!
"XFce", great. See, it's attention to pronouncable and memorable names such as "Ex-Eff-Cee-Eee" that endears open source projects to tens of users worldwide ;)
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
I had just downloaded the last RC release the day before this story came out. Dammit. Well, that RC release is excellent. For as fast and as light as it is, it is the best looking as well. I'm still working on getting some menus working, but that should be trivial. I just upgraded my kernel from 2.4.20-20.9 to 2.6.0test5 right after I install xfce4. Even though it was fast to begin with, the preempt support and better scheduling just rocked my world in combo with this desktop. I must say damn, linux has come a long way.
So, is it available for Cygwin yet? In other words - is it buildable and workable?
Less is more !
It's amazing what a big difference a new set of colors, and a good color theme makes. I always found Xfce ugly, and just slightly better than CDE. I might have to give it a shot now. The only thing I wish all WM or DE would do is have a decent program, script that searches for a list of well known X apps and arranges them in the menu, with their appropriate icons. KDE has something similar in app finder, but the program almost never finds all the Gnome apps that I like.
All DE have everything one needs now, they just don't have enough configuration done from the get go so you don't have to mess with it and get in your way of actually doing work. I can handle the bloat, but the only reason I stick with KDE is that I have to do the least amount of configuration for it.
And what happens if you run FCE Ultra for Linux under XFce?
Will I retire or break 10K?
I use it everywhere. It works, it does just the things one wants a desktop environment to do, out of the box, and it's light and fast, as advertised. It's basically Macintosh simplicity come to Linux, without the sluggishness and memory usage of Macintosh system software. XFCE3 looked a bit too much like CDE, but XFCE4 looks nicer in addition to working well.
I'm not sure why saying much about XFce's use of Java should get even more mention.
Let's be clear: XFCE doesn't use Java. If it did, it would neither be small, light, fast, or free.
It doesn't make sense to say that "Sun's Java Desktop could run XFCE". Sun's so-called "Java desktop" is just Gnome with a JVM installed. You either run Gnome or Sun's rebranded version of it, or you run XFCE, you can't run both at the same time.
I am running Gnome 2.2 on a pentium 2. Works great. All you need to do is add a bit of memory.
" XFce 4 is leaps and bounds ahead of the legacy XFce 3.8.18 release"
also leaps and bounds ahead file size wise as well.. yikes.
where's the debian .deb of this already. I tried it out on a RH9 system and loved it but the latest version for debian is 3.something. Installing it from source is a mission since everything is in a seperate package and needs to be done in a specific order. (There's an auto-downloading/installing script but I was not able to get it to work on my woody box.)
FreeBSD for the impatient.
those of you who were into shell extensions for windows 9x might remember a shell, i think it was called geoshell, it's still around though now it looks different; well, in the summer of 2000, that's exactly how geoshell looked.
I need a window manager that lets you map raise-lower to, ideally, the Windows key, or at least to alt-click.
Raise-lower means to raise the Window to the top, unless it is already on the top, in which case move it back to the bottom.
Mapping to the Microsoft key is the best, because it doesn't remove any other functionality you might be used to, and it is just so damn fast to cycle through windows, or put the mouse on a partially visible window and immediately bring it up. (I don't want clicking on the window to bring it up, because I like to be able to click a link on a browser that has an xterm in front of it, without bringing the browser in front of the xterm.)
I have enlightenment 16.5 installed on my Debian Woody with backports, and it has one quirky annoyance with raise-lower: If I lower the top window to the bottom of the stack, the window that was behind it becomes focused (if the mouse ends up over it), and while it may be the top window in the sense that no window is higher than it, there is still a "phantom layer" that the last window occupied, and which is now empty, and so the new window that should be the top window is not considered to be fully raised by the window manager, and pressing raise-lower on it will, I presume, bring it to the "real" top, although it looks like nothing has happened. Pressing raise-lower again will lower it. This has the unfortunate consequence of making up to half of my presses of raise-lower do nothing.
Does XFce has a robust raise-lower that can be mapped to Windows key?
To the dear asswipe who said this:
"Bring that PII back to life"
Hey, FUCK YOU buddy, I just UPGRADED to a PII
last week. So shut the fuck up you filthy rich
think you're better than everyone else just
because your running bleeding edge MHZ cpu's
bitch ass mother fucker.
I'll take that P4 of your's and stick the 900
pins into your ASS.
Where does one draw the distinction between these two? I'm fairly new to Linux on the desktop yet, and haven't tried customizing the whole experience very much yet. I've used KDE, Blackbox, and IceWM in their default configurations or with bare minimal tweaking. I know KDE and Gnome are DE's, while Blackbox and IceWM are WM's. Is XFce another DE? Some posts here suggest WindowMaker is a DE, but I thought it was a WM?
In some cases I like ultimate responsiveness, but Blackbox is almost too minimal. In some cases I'd like the additional features of a DE, but KDE is noticeably slow on my hardware. I'd like to try something lighter while knowing I'm not going to give up what I would by going back to a simple WM. I might give XFce a try, but at some point I might want to try to mix and match.
Constitutionally Correct
It's pretty fucking annoying. He does this every time.
It's = it is
You do not say "the dog lost it's bone."
Dumb ass.
I'm using fluxbox, but I tried out XFCE and I really like it. It's very cool in terms of speed and very good looking too. My girlfriend loves it too, so I configured her user with XFCE running the Aqua theme. Maybe I could make Linux suck less for her, thanx to this nice DE.
Does anyone know whether this release supports alpha transparency in the png's correctly? I have tried the Xfce bundled with mandrake 9.1 (ok, I know it's old) and it doesn't. That's why I returned to Windowmanager which seems to display all png's perfectly.
I know I'm late to the party, but here it is for anyone that might stil be hanging around this story...
My single biggest problem with XFce was that it screwed-up my long-running desktop royally.
On OpenBSD, I thought X was fscked, becuase everything would freeze-up after running for a few days straight. On other platforms, I was able to get better insight into the mystery. On FreeBSD/Linux, X would just restart all-of-a-sudden after just a short time of use. Appartently, XFce was crashing (xfwm to be specific).
After that mystery was solved, I switched to Openbox, and X has NEVER crashed on me again.
I thought about using the XFce panel under Openbox, but Openbox has a nice little interface on it's own (one that I like MUCH better than XFce's now) and most of XFce's strenght comes from xfwm. Without it, things don't iconify to the desktop, you don't have the menus when you click on the desktop, you don't have the same simple wm, and XFce's ability to configure everything from it's gui is gone.
Also, I've sworn-off any WM that has any dependencies. I used-to have to switch to a console quite often, because a ld patch was changed/removed, or a lib was uninstalled, reinstalled, or upgraded, killing XFce. I would much, much rather have a system that will come up in everything but catastrophic events.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Get me something for Solaris 9 so I don't have to hack an Xresources file (I do need to learn that) and I will run it on my blade. at 524 MB of memory, if I run KDE and a pgkadd my wait I/O goes to 70%!!!!