The next generation XFce is now out, v4. Read the release notes, the press release and download.
XFce 4.0 Released
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Good news! I’m still running RC4 and will probably not bother upgrading because I’ve had exactly 0 problems with it.
FINALLY! XFCE4 was stable in CVS, These RCs have been annoying. What has it been, 5 years since XFCE3’s last upate?
Great job Mr. Fourdan. XFCE4 is super stable,fast,pretty,and full of features, GNOME and KDE should someday hope to be as good as XFCE.
Is the name of this project really pronounced xfce (x-fee-cee)?
The people developing Metacity and those doing XFWM (is that what it is called) would just get together. Or just port over some of the missing functionality from XFWM to Metacity.
It looks quite impressive, quite clean. Nice design!
I’ve never used Xfce though… Might try it out one of these days…
I think xfce is best in its look and simplicity. xfce ( + menumaker) is my main DE now. Shunned KDE and kept only gnome 2.4 and XFCE Rc4. XFCE fast and clean. Liked it. Best of luck team
Can XFCE minimize to the desktop ala Sun’s CDE?
XFCE has changed a lot between main releases 3 and 4. XFCE4 is beautiful and strong. I only hope that Debian maintainers update the XFCE4 packages in unstable as soon as possible.
>Can XFCE minimize to the desktop ala Sun’s CDE?
That’s what XFce 3 was doing. XFce 4 has a real taskbar now.
i had the cvs on my ibook..cant wait to try xfce4 ..woo hoo finally
>>Is the name of this project really pronounced xfce (x-fee-cee)?
I would like to know that too. Also, semi-related (since I guess you can run it under XFCE), how do you pronounce “kopete”? Koe-peet? Koe-pay-tay? Kay-oh-peet? What??? God I hate Linux product names. I asked how you pronounce “SuSE” a while back and got like 3 different answers.
Is the name of this project really pronounced xfce (x-fee-cee)?
I pronounce it as x-f-c-e.
My word is law.
Linux is all about choice. You can pronounce it however you want, and be completely correct. I mean who really says GNU ga-new?
>>I asked how you pronounce “SuSE” a while back and got like 3 different answers.
view this video from ZDNet http://news.com.com/1601-2-5061745.html and it’s probably correct pronunciation
“That’s what XFce 3 was doing. XFce 4 has a real taskbar now.”
Is the old behavior still available?
good news! i’ve been using xfce3 for all my work needs – its aesthetic, light, doesn’t get in the way and has enough functionality to be _useful_.
i’ll continue to use xfce3 for my main workstation, but i did try to compile rc4 for netbsd and it works beautifully.
i’ll still the source rpm to xfce3 around … just in case!
and i find that the artistic side of the design of xfce to be much more “finished” than either the default gnome and kde installs.
hurray and congratualtions…. its been a long wait.
“”That’s what XFce 3 was doing. XFce 4 has a real taskbar now.”
Is the old behavior still available?”
I think the minimize to desktop CDE/WindowMaker, etc way is much better than the taskbar that windows brought us, but that’s just me
Which comming distro will it have? I am thinking about puing a new box and looking for a good distro that will have it as part of instalation
Thanx
At least their stuff is fast!! Gnome and KDE take notice!
I know xfce is all about the mouse, but how is the
keyboard support in 4.0 ?
Well, if you don’t like the taskbar, don’t use it. I don’t. If you look at this screenshot:
http://www.xfce.org/images/screenshots/michael_screen.jpeg
You’ll see no taskbar, just the panel and the iconbox at the lower right (which holds icons for programs that are minimized, &c). Note, stock XFce doesn’t have icons on the desktop, but if you run nautilus, you can get them back. If you want gDesklets, run it and it will work. You can have all the eyecandy you want, but much slimmer than GNOME.
Guma:
Slackware-Current (soon to be 9.1) has it.
Actually, it has XFCE4 rc4, so I guess it will probably up date in the next few days, almost certainly before 9.1 final comes out.
-Charlie
“Can XFCE minimize to the desktop ala Sun’s CDE?”
“That’s what XFce 3 was doing. XFce 4 has a real taskbar now.”
“I think the minimize to desktop CDE/WindowMaker, etc way is much better than the taskbar that windows brought us, but that’s just me”
Try the icon box — you can also “turn off” the taskbar by copying xfce4’s xinitrc file to your `?.xfce4 folder and removing the line of code the calls the taskbar — or you could repalce it with the icon box. You can also center-click just as in those other window managers and desktops to cycle through your desktops and apps… or you can use the rox desktop instead…
“is the old behavior still available?”
There is an iconbox now that can be used as an alternative to the taskbar.
Alright! First Qcad and OpenOffice updates, and now this! Awesome… I love Xfce 4. I’ve been running one of the RCs for a while now, and it’s fast and stays pretty much out of my way. There have been a few small problems that I’ve noticed with it (the file manager crashing, themes acting quirky), but I’m willing to bet that most of these have been fixed to some degree. I use Rox-filer for my desktop icons. I also like it quite a bit as a file manager, too, but maybe now I’ll try out Xffm again…
There is an iconbox that can replace the taskbar.
Sorry just trying to be funny!!!!
;-B
Sounds great. I use Sawfish (without Gnome), or FVWM, though if I ever wanted to use a desktop again, this would definitely be my first choice. Lightweight, feature complete, and has an iconbox. Not bad. Plus it looks very clean in GTK+2
One question though, is it possible to viewports in the XFCE pager like in FVWM or Sawfish? Just curious.
–Tim
Xfce4 is simply the best DE for me. My rc4 even is very stable for everyday use. Excellent job by the xfce team! Thanks for bringing us the goods
I’ve been using xwindows since the early 90’s, and no windowmanager or desktop really looked and felt right until I started using xfce4. I found it to be extremely responsive, and easy on the eyes with anti-aliased fonts. I highly recommend it to anyone that wants a no bullshit but good looking window environment for unix.
Can someone please post memory usage when you start them. And what is the best config to fun XFce. I like simple fast enviroment. I am using blackbox right now. How does it compare in speed to blackbox? I am asking just about speed here
Guma
I’m wondering what the recommended requirements might be.
I have an old P-133, 32mb ram, at school that I’m thinking of slapping FreeBSD on and I’d really like to be able to run something like XFCE 4.0. I wonder if this is pushing it a bit to far?
I remember running XFCE 3.x on my p200 with OpenBSD and it was a tad sluggish (that could be OBSD though).
Can anyone share any relevent experiences?
xfce4 is the shiznit
but this xfce4 de is great.
on redhat9, i feel like i’m running a brand new distribution. it also loads instantly from gdm.
i get wireframe mode back, and it’s not all “twinkly” like kdes….and i don’t have to hack metacity either.
this is very cool.
GREAT JOB XFCE CODERS!
quick, it looks great. put it on your rh9 box. it takes like 5 minutes, including download (if your on broadband)
The best desktop E is only getting better. Kudos to you all, developing xfce!!
-Vecc
Overall I like what I see in XFce4 but one think missing is a program menu … not just the quick start buttons on the bottom but something to launch programs resident on comp. Also, does XFce4 support desktop icons?
blackbox, fluxbox and derivatives are ofcourse faster.
they are more minimal
Hey, don’t ask them about Start menu or they will kill you 🙂
XFCE coders don’t like this way of starting programs. I asked them if it’s possible to implement such a thing, and they said yes, it is, but they won’t.
>I know xfce is all about the mouse, but how is the
>keyboard support in 4.0?
That’s also my concern. Is it possible to configure keys for switching desktops etc.?
I am heavy KDE user, but I just fell in love with XFCe. This is so fast and configurable. You can change its look to whatever you like.
The one thing I would like to have, this is on a laptop running Red hat 9, is integration with the standard menu. I am also yet to learn how to create shortcuts to applications on the desktop. Tips, anyone?
3-ways to add menu in XFCE
Dirty Way:
right-click on desktop ==> run program ==> gnome-panel
Hard Way:
This is how you configure the right click pop-up menu to display your custom menu.
copy the global setting into your home directory
1) cp /etc/X11/xfce4/menu.xml ~/.xfce/.
open up ~/.xfce/menu.xml
2) gedit or vi ~/.xfce4/menu.xml
<xfdesktop-menu>
<!– your custom menu goes here –>
</xfdesktop-menu>
3) to add menu
<xfdesktop-menu>
<menu name=”Multimedia” visible=”yes”>
</menu>
</xfdesktop-menu>
4) to add applications to menu
<xfdesktop-menu>
<menu name=”Multimedia” visible=”yes”>
<app name=”Totem Media Player” cmd=”totem”/>
</menu>
</xfdesktop-menu>
5) to add separator
<xfdesktop-menu>
<menu name=”Multimedia” visible=”yes”>
<app name=”Totem Media Player” cmd=”totem”/>
<separator/>
<app name=”XMMS Player” cmd=”xmms”/>
</menu>
<separtor/>
<menu name”Office” visible=”yes”>
<app name=”Word” cmd=”swriter”/>
</menu>
</xfdesktop-menu>
Clean way:
import gnome’s menu structure (see how-to by googling)
Hi,
after APM suspends on my Intel RC44BX Board PII350 256 MB RAM Riva 128zx, xfce sometimes crashes, or hangs in a kind of infinite loop:
The monitor powers on and I see only a black screen. Switching to the terminal where I started xfce with “startxfce4” there is plenty of text running over the screen. There’s no other solution then Ctrl->Alt->Backspace.
I’ve had this problem with all release candidates.
Does anyone know, what’s happening here??
http://www.xfce.org/en/documentation.html#shortcuts
Wow,
Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll look into it after I get some sleep.
Thank you again.
Folks, if you want a program menu in XFce4, you should get Menumaker:
http://menumaker.sourceforge.net/
It searches your box for programs and then replaces the right-click menu (i.e., ~/.xfce4/menu.xml).
No fuss, no muss.
No fuss, no muss.
What exactly is muss?
hee hee
Does it support desktop icons?
“Folks, if you want a program menu in XFce4, you should get Menumaker:”
Thanks, I know this. The point is, desktop menu can’t replace panel menu. It’s inferior usability-wise, ’cause you have to search for free desktop spase to right-click on it and get program menu, whereas with panel button you always know where to click. And yes, I know about desktop margins, but for this particular application I consider it only a work-around… I think that the UI control showing program menu must be distinct, clearly seen.
In my experience there was no Bluecurve theme for XFFM, what’s up with that? It’s the default panel theme and then they give you stock GNOME icons (shudder) in the file manager.
Also, I haven’t been able a way to make the panel minimize. Isn’t this supposed to be possible?
BTW, I love XFCE’s support of mousewheel desktop switching. Now if only Olivier and friends would get started on a GTK2 mail client. Balsa is a POS that’s never worked right for me and Slypheed(-claws) don’t do it for me, either. Mozilla and Thunderbird insist on giving each account its own drafts, trash, sent, and inbox folders so they’re out (plus the take too long to launch). Evolution is more than I need…
If you really cannot live without desktop icons, check out iDesk:
http://idesk.timmfin.net/about.html
Evolution 1.4x is *lightning fast*, MUUCH faster than the older gtk version. You should give the new version a try, I’m sure it will surprise you.
I am using the latest and while it does start up fairly well, it’s still quite a RAM hog. Also, I My XFCE setup only has 128 megs of RAM and a 500mhz PIII.
Boy, I’m really slopping in my spelling and capitalization today. Up too late last night /-)
I recomend MenuMaker for those who like quick excess (sp?) to their apps. IMO, MenuMaker should be part of XFce4. It worked like a charm here, created nicely organized desktop menu.
BTW, I was long, long time BeOS user, i built dual celleron box just for it, picked all my hardware to be BeOS compatibile, but I was fed up since my digital camera is not supported, or my USB disk, so I went to Linux. Gnome was dog slow, but XFce4 is WONDERFULL. Light, nice looking without bloat.
I pronounce is GUH-new.
🙂
Sue-zuh
Sue-zee
zue-suh
Zue-zuh
🙂
Zuzuh.
Ko-peet.
Ka-Day-Ay
Ikx-Ef-Say-Ay.
And for GNU: Chnü. Dzjnju is a bit weird, IMO.
With XFCE4: Too bad it has a real task bar, now it isn’t so CDE anymore 🙁
I find a taskbar useless when there’s 15, 20
or more windows open. I use CDE on HP & AIX
and liked XFce 3.0’s minimize to desktop
functionality. Can XFce minimize to the desktop?
Can any Linux window’s manager?
(Response to email address appreciated.)