Jasper writes: “I thought you might be interested to know we have just released the first release candidate for XFce 4.0. This is meant to become 4.0 unless important bugs are found.” You can view the announcement, release notes and you can download it directly. Also, check out the screenshots.
XFce 4.0 RC-1 Released
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Adam Scheinberg
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xfce4 is a HUGE step forward compared to xfce3. I’ve been running the CVS version for a long time now, and I must say that I’m really impressed with their work. Try it out, you won’t be disappointed.
XFce4 is a very refined desktop. The CVS version already is very usable and good looking too. It is still missing some things i’d like to see (e. g. a display manager or a kprinter equivalent) but with the advent of the session manager an important step has been made. I hope that RC1 or 1.0 enters Debian SID soon, so that i can rely on the excellent apt-get to keep my XFce4 shiny. Then, i haven’t checked out the new update-xfce tool.
is the minimal approach. Unlike Konq and Nautilus, XFce is really simple and pleasant UI. Good job folks!
There’ll be no “special” display manager for XFce, since XFce is easily started by XDM, GDM or KDM, so theres no need to reinvent the wheel here.
This used to be a tiny desktop…
The dependencies required to update to the new version under gentoo are now more than installing kde!
I really like the old one, so I guess it’s worth it.
[quote]
I hope that RC1 or 1.0 enters Debian SID soon, so that i can
rely on the excellent apt-get to keep my XFce4 shiny
[/quote]
It is already in Sid!!!
I was a longtime xfce3 user. I ran it on my 128MB ram computers with <=700mhz..it ran better than anything else
It was also really functional. I’m afraid that with the gtk2 version it will turn into a slow monster like the rest of the gtk2 world
Oh well, I guess I’ll have to try it and see how it goes.
Looks like they’ve borrowed more from OS X than Windows. Nice looking UI.
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You don’t have permission to access /en/download.html on this server.
Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
the entire en directory is restricted. probably got os/newsed.
It was work, seems like they have been slashdotted or something else..
http://www.xfce.org/en/overview.html
blodinrasznov
Hah! xfce is very inspired by CDE. OSX launcher thingy just shares roots with CDE Taskbar/Wharf(or whatever next called it).
Afaik xfce launcher is nicer than osx too
I have to say, I’m very impressed. The default look is wonderful.
Is this an X replacement? It it a window manager? How is XFce?
Thanks in advance
>It was also really functional. I’m afraid that with the gtk2 >version it will turn into a slow monster like the rest of the >gtk2 world
Nah, runs smoothly. Anyway, 90% of all windowmanagers/pseudodesktop advertise themselves as “very small and fast”, so something in the middle (between say blackbox and KDE is very nice.)
>Oh well, I guess I’ll have to try it and see how it goes.
Do that. Got a screenshot at http://utelsystems.dyndns.org/pics/xfce4.png btw.
wonderful stuff doodz.
http://www.xfce.org/en/overview.html
Sorry. Fixed now. Guess it’s not a good idea to move the website location, just after a release announcement …
As for the screenshots, they haven’t been updated for rc1 yet. Most of it is the same, but settings dialogs were much improved.
Thanks everyone for the positive comments so far.
Couldnt await the release. Finally.
Thanks for all the work!
but it really runs smooth, but it feels choppy or better: unprofessional. I tried beta1 of xfce4.
Can’t work with the file manager of xfce4, don’t have integrated desktop icons and a date view near the clock.
Yes I know, I can install dfm or rox-desktop for desktop icons, but then I haven’t a integrated desktop like gnome2 or kde3 where eg. mouse buttons do what the desktop wants.
If I choose a lightweight Windowmanager, I would go for IceWM.
This was at the times, kde2 was really slow on my machine.
Now, kde3 is faster and my machine too 😉
XFce has came a very long way. I think that xffm could use a little work but other than I simply can’t complain.
I haven’t been able to use a Unix for a while, have they fixed the bug where the minimized windows disappeared instead of being rendered as icons on the desktop like they used to be?
Thankfully, XFCE doesn’t support icons on the desktop. I work with Windows and Mac users and they really are a mess with their desktops.
In my home network I have 5 computers being 2 pentium pro machines (one is dual) and xfce4 run smooth on all.
I like it a lot but, as someone said, I would like to have a better file manager. One that can have 3 panels. One with the directory tree, one with the files in each node and one that can be customized to display other node (will be very useful to cp, mv and compare) contents or some special information.
By now, I’m experiencing xfe.
Also, can anybody point a good IDE to work with xfce4?
I wish good luck to the developers of this great DE.
Thanks a lot folks!
while the XFCE launcher might do more (I don’t know if it does) it is certainly not as easy to manipulate as OS X’s launcher.
what ever happened to it?
I am rather invested in GNOME apps (gaim, Evolution, Epiphany, etc.). If GNOME2 runs quite fast on my system, what would XFCE offer over and above GNOME2? Similarly, what are its weaknesses w.r.t. GNOME2?
I have been using XFce 3 my desktop for over a year now as my primary desktop at home and the GUI I run on my server at work. It is the greatest desktop, it just feels right. Not being able to junk up your desktop with icons a plus.
Well I think at RC1 it is time to take the plunge and move up to gtk2 and get XFce compiled.
Thanks again to all the XFce developers
same here – i’ve used xfce for a very long time (before that it was windowmaker). for me, kde and gnome are really there just to show off eye candy. when you’re working you don’t want silly animations and decorations. i found that xfce 3 was the most ergonomic and eye-friendly desktop – blackbox has very tiny window bars and menus – and often unreadable with textures etc… the very clean and plain xfce was a joy to use. it let me work. all i needed was a window “shader”. a nice little middle-click to move windows… nice little “usable” touches… doubeclick titlebar to maximise… etc etc.. also nice window “attraction” to keep things lined up…
and i liked it because it was nippy on my old computers…
i hope xfce 4 lives up to all this. else i#ll be desktop hunting again…
t
In this screen shot some of the fonts look like they are missing pixels?
http://www.xfce.org/images/screenshots/default_plus_xffm_and_utils….
The x’s in xfwm4,xfce4-panel,xfdesktop
The k in xfdesktop and ksnapshot?
The capital N in Nothing searched.
“Thankfully, XFCE doesn’t support icons on the desktop. I work with Windows and Mac users and they really are a mess with their desktops.”
One of the things I disliked about OS 9 were icons on the desktop. Since switching to OS X, I use the NeXT-style column view and wont have any icons on the desktop. However, if Apple took away the ability of the user to configure the desktop how he wants, people would howl. Personally I hate clutter on screen, but each user can decide for himself.
Apple’s approach is very different from Microsoft, who decide most things for their ‘customers’, tolerating no dissent.
Why do they post images with such ugly fonts ! There is only one screen shot with nice looking fonts but the rest look ugly as hell.
since morphix light gui switched over to this…I’ve been seriously impressed. Starts next to instaneously on a really old machine too. Looks great when customized a little. I wish there was an easier way to update (from the net, that is) things like themes and such. If there is, I don’t know how yet
This and Fluxbox are my staple desktops!
Just out of curiosity, was did XFCE 3.x look like? Screenshots, anyone?
Good to see that they follow suggestions. I would hate too see people get the bad impression that I did when I saw those ugly fonts on the screenshots. Now I think XFCE-4 looks very nice indeed with new screenshots and nice looking fonts.
is the theme in this screenshot:
http://www.xfce.org/images/screenshots/vertical_panel.png
The theme in which Eugenia designed?
Anonymous:
Look at the version in SID: 4.0.0+cvs.20030421-1.
It’s not the RC1.
I’ve been using XFCE 4 since their BETA 1 version and I must say that it is a GREAT deskotp system. It is most certainly wort trying if you don’t mind editing some conf files (keyboard shortcurts) and need something that uses less system resources than gnome or kde…
The theme which Eugenia designed is included in XFCE4 (atleast beta1). The theme is called “Today”.
>Jasper writes: “I thought you might be interested to know we >have just released the first release candidate for XFce 4.0. >This is meant to become 4.0 unless important bugs are found.” >You can view the announcement, release notes and you can >download it directly. Also, check out the screenshots.
The XFCE4 is very nice, JUST TOO BAD that the leader of this project has no idea to behave with his coleagues/developers/members…he has a personal problem…
I loved Xfce 3, it helped a lot getting used to running Linux instead of Solaris. I’ve used version 4.x for a couple of weeks now (CVS), but there are two things which mean I’ll stick to my newly-found Gnome2 habit:
– why did they add a taskbar? havings minimised apps appear as icons on the desktop was fine to me.. and a task bar at the top of the screen takes a lot getting used to
I loved Xfce 3, it helped a lot getting used to running Linux instead of Solaris. I’ve used version 4.x for a couple of weeks now (CVS), but there are two things which mean I’ll stick to my newly-found Gnome2 habit:
– why did they add a taskbar? havings minimised apps appear as icons on the desktop was fine to me.. and a task bar at the top of the screen takes a lot getting used to.
– the pager may be nice and flashy but it takes far too much space on the launcher. Again, I prefer the CDE approach
– xffm needs a lot of work, but then alternatives are easy to find.
Just my 2 Shekels.
The Taskbar is movable to the bottom of the screen, and removable if you want.
And if you like the icons on the desktop, just get ‘lil icon box from the extras.
The Taskbar is movable to the bottom of the screen, and removable if you want.
And if you like the icons on the desktop, just get ‘lil icon box from the extras.
The program to run to get the iconbox is called xfce4-iconbox and is part of the release.
The CDE-style desktop switcher is still available as well. Right-click on the panel -> Add item -> Desktop switcher.
I’m amazed how many people still use that 😉
XFCE 4 is great! I use it with Rox for file management and desktop icons (since I can’t place named folders on the panel, I have to use icons…)
> The XFCE4 is very nice, JUST TOO BAD that the leader of this
> project has no idea to behave with his
> coleagues/developers/members…he has a personal problem…
Voicu, please don’t move personnal rants to public forums.
I’ve been working on xfce for almost 7 years now, and it’s the first time someone gets me mad like you did.
Olivier.
>Voicu, please don’t move personnal rants to public forums.
>I’ve been working on xfce for almost 7 years now, and it’s the first time someone gets me mad like you did.
>Olivier.
Ofcourse you got mad, didn’t you know that the truth disturbs?
BYE, for ever.
Farewell, nobody needs ungrateful trolls like you. I’m not an XFCE user but flaming trolls like you should just die no matter what.
There is no excuse for insulting people in the public. Heck, it’s even prohibited by law.
I know that XFce4 can be started from other DMs, but all DMs with some kind of functionality beyond session selection and login are dependent on other DEs which means lots of additional stuff to be installed and that leads to bloat on my rather small HD. Well, startx has always worked for me, it will continue to do so.
About XFce4 in SID, someone else already pointed out the difference between the RC1 and a CVS snapshot from April. My thanks.
I’m a long time user of XFce 3 (on FreeBSD). I love it, but there is one small (annoying) problem. It is hard to configure sound so that all applications are able to play sound. No matter if I choose Esd, or some other sound “daemon”, there are always some applications that will not cooperate. I checked the FAQ and other docomentation on XFce.org, but couldn’t find anything about sound (possibly I didn’t search good enough). Is there a preferred (standardized?) way to set up sound under XFce 4?
Sound support has been dropped in xfce4, so you can choose whatever you want now.
Cheers,
Olivier.
im using old XFCE (i don’t know ther ver) how i can upgrade it to 4.0?
I have had nothing but great dealings with Olivier. I have only contacted him a couple of times but each time he was quick to respond and gave great answers.
Quite frankly if you have personal issues with him you need to deal with those on a “personal” level or leave the XFCE community period.
Bob
Please, Please, Please, Please will this come out in port from for freebsd? please
xfce 3 screenshot :
http://www.linuxnetmag.com/share/screenshot_xfce.jpg
muhaha http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=ports/53152
.sorry, im just a little excited :S
I’ve tried XFCE4 with the new Morphix 0.4.0 and I think it’s great except two things – no show desktop button that would minimize all open windows and a problem with XMMS. Suppose you have a web browser window and XMMS open on the same desktop, the browser is on a layer above XMMS so you can’t see the entire XMMS window but just the playlist editor. In a situation like this, in order to bring XMMS to the front I’d do the natural thing and click on the playlist window just like I do with Winamp in Windows, but in this case only the playlist window would move to the layer above the browser and not the other components (player and equalizer).
What I want to know is if it’s a XMMS problem or a feature of the window manager (of all the WM’s I tried only Fluxbox doesn’t do this) and if it’s possible to change the problem.
Version 4 sure is looking smooth, but my experience with xfce in the past can be summed up as “wow, this looks nice, it sure is fast, but god, I hate this damned dock”.
# pkg_delete xfce*
Yeas, right, desktop button appeared in EWMH std version 1.3, xfwm4 doesn’t support that hint.
As for xmms equalizer and playlist editor, those are “transients” to the main xmms window. It’s a design decision in the window manager to bring transients up to front when the parent window is raised, and not the contrary. In other words, if you click the main xmms window, all three windows are raised, if you click the playlist editor or the equalizer window, just that one is raised.
The easy workarround for this is to simply click on the xmms button in the tasklist.
Cheers,
Olivier.
> Version 4 sure is looking smooth, but my experience with
> xfce in the past can be summed up as “wow, this looks
> nice,
> it sure is fast, but god, I hate this damned dock”.
>
> # pkg_delete xfce*
Hehehe, same for me with the “start menu” in windows…
format c:
lol
Peace,
Olivier.
I’ve been using XFCE4 with the gnome panels instead of XFCE’s. I love it. No nautilus slowing things down, scroll wheeling desktop changing !!, customizable root menu when clicking on the background and a window manager that doesn’t suck (unlike metacity). I just wish that XFWM4 had the ability to put a window always on top.
XFCE is the best of both worlds. It’s light, compliant, and alos uses the nicest looking toolkit gtk2 !
looking towards getting one of the JVC subnotebooks, this looks like the best choice for a desktop environment for it. Less clutter than Gnome / KDE, whic is ratehr important on a 9″ screen.
I installed it along with the GTK updates on their site on my RedHat9 / Ximian system. DO NOT INSTALL THOSE RH9 RPM’S IF YOU HAVE XIMIAN GNOME!
How to get back to a working system:
control-alt-f1
root -> rootpwd
init 3
kill -9 `ps -fu username last logged into here | awk ‘{print $2}’ | grep [0-9]`
rpm -e {all packages that you installed}
apt-get -f install
red-carpet
I’m assuming you have apt, if not scp the rpm over to your computer and install it.
If you do install the gtk packages (for menu shadowing, etc) you will not have a working gnome desktop, it will be smoked! GDM greeter will not even work properly.
Then reinstall only the XFCE rpm’s. 😉 It looks GREAT, small items I would like/need that appear missing for the WindowManager to remember window positions, and state. Minimize/Restore notification (IE: some animation) Importing of RedHat 9 desktop icons. The ability to use nautilus instead of xftree (which itself is nice). The ability to check pop3 w/ the panel mail checker.
I probably just overlooked these somewhere though. 🙂
The Taskbar is movable to the bottom of the screen, and removable if you want.
How does one remove it? I couldn’t find where to disable it. I’d also be curious to know how (if possible) one can have specific programs be launched when starting up the window manager?
Otherwise, great job, I like it!
(Oh, and to the Troll: your message had the opposite effect from what you intended. Serves you right.)
Anybody here who knows if XFCE4 RC1 is already available for Debian unstable?
archie steel: it’s in the online documentation on the site, atleast I recall seeing your questions being answered there when I looked around yesterday. so… rtfm?