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.

Comments

Keyboard shortcuts

[TheFlu]

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

Re:Great for Linux, but bad for MS

[quantaman]

I really wish they'd make a nice light desktop for Windows XP.

Not gonna happen. Even if it didn't cost them anything, if fact I suspect if they wanted to they could adapt their PDA window manager which I suspect is fairly lightweight. There are two reasons why (I can think of). One is upgrade cycle. Most people who get a new computer do so because their old one gets old and slow. When they buy a new one they also buy a new OS and other software along with it not to mention the other software they buy seperately to go with their new computer. Offering a light WM would allow people to extend their computers life cycle and slow the upgrade cycle, assuming it was free of course but even if it isn't MS would just be taking a slice of their future pie.

Another reason is variety, right now one of MS's biggest advantage is people don't have experience with variety. If they get used to a utilitarian WM without the flashy features they may start to wonder if it wouldn't be easy for someone other then MS to make a good WM and start looking around.

The main rule I've learned about when a corporation gets to be a monopoly is what is good for the corporation is very often not what is good for the consumer.

Re:Great for Linux, but bad for MS

[gaijin99]

Another reason is variety, right now one of MS's biggest advantage is people don't have experience with variety. If they get used to a utilitarian WM without the flashy features they may start to wonder if it wouldn't be easy for someone other then MS to make a good WM and start looking around.

This is actually a good point. MS, by promoting a ruthlessly standardized desktop environment, has managed to get large numbers of people quite used to doing things one way (the MS way, that is). It really is a struggle for some of the more ossified types to even change to another browser simply because the buttons have slightly different icons from IE.

By eleminating diversity, the MS designers have quite neatly gotten a psychological lock into the minds of many people. Gamers tend to switch more easily because games don't follow the MS standard interface, but non-gamers are very used to/addicted to the MS look and feel.

Not, mind you, that standardization doesn't have its place. When every program makes the scrollbars look and behave differently even the most flexible of mind can get a bit worn out. I wonder if there's a happy medium between over-compliance with a standard UI, and over-diversity in UI look and feel?

Re:lighter is better

[shellbeach]

Try comparing compile times of the kernel between TWM and KDE3, no surprise which will win.

But there is a "middle-ground" between butt-ugly TWM and big-and-bloated KDE (which is also, IMHO, butt-ugly, but that's more because I can't see the GUI for the kitchen sink that's in the way ...)

That's why environments like xfce, ROX, WindowMaker and IceWM exist - providing speed, but not at the expense of being so minimal they interfere with usability. I'm currently using IceWM and ROX as a desktop, but having had a quick look at xfce4 I'll certainly give it a try. It looks very neat indeed ...

Not a desktop. So what?

[Tirs]

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 ;-)