XFce is an easy-to-use environment for X11 based on GTK+. There is an initial version of xfwm4, a brand-new implementation of the window manager for XFce. It is a very lightweight, fast, and fully-themeable window manager compliant with freedesktop.org standards (i.e., fully compatible with KDE 2/3 and GNOME 2). It is based on GTK+ 2.0 and uses pango for font rendering (eg. antialiased text & Unicode). Oliver Fourdan sent us two new screenshots of XFce4 (1, 2), running next to KDE3/Gnome2.
XFce 4, to Support the FreeDesktop Standard
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
If you run Linux and haven’t checked it out, you owe it to yourself to do so.
It’s lightweight, flexible, extremely fast and powerful, AND you can run all your fav’ KDE and Gnome apps under it.
Version 4 seems to carry on this tradition quite nicely -In fact as soon as my WinXP based file backup’s done (Being done in my spare time.. I’m currently about 60% of the way through and about 34 CD’s into it), I’m going to reboot into Mandrake and check this new version out!
I like the project very much, too bad that I don’t like this panel thing and the window manager.
So I would never use it for my desktop. When I want something lightweight, I just load up Metacity and the Gnome-Panel (without all the session managment) but that’s just a matter of taste.
I have a question, for anybody who’s run KDE or Gnome apps under XFce, WindowMaker, etc. How, if at all, do you prevent KDE apps from starting the Panel? Or how do you prevent Gnome apps from starting Gnome’s desktop and stealing yours?
I find this *really* annoying; there are tons of good Gnome apps, like Evolution for example, which I choose not to run — because when I do, they start up the Gnome desktop and it covers over my KDE desktop. Sometimes I have to kill it, then the app hangs (presumably because it was using the desktop process for IPC, system settings querying, etc)
Are there KDE/Gnome settings for telling it “Hey, if I’m not explicitly running KDE, just KDE apps, don’t start the panel, or desktop!” And visa-versa for Gnome.
Any help would be appreciated. I don’t actually intend to switch, seeing as I really, *really* enjoy KDE as an environment; but being able to run Evolution, or having the option of using XFce as an environment would be nice.
Undoubtedly one of the best, … and one of the ugliest.
Huh? Only Nautilus (optional) and KDesktop take over the desktop… And no application autolaunched the panel at all(besides of the panel itself and the session starters of course). I don’t know what is wrong with your situation but that’s certainly not usual.
This is one of the reasons I don’t like Gnome (never had that problem with KDE), though I managed to get rid of the annoyance one time but do not remember how.
The second reason is that I must install all Gnome just because I want to run three apps (same thing with KDE).
…but it’s such a great desktop otherwise, I can live with border widgets that are somewhat less than works of art. (I’m using the ‘Linea’ window style, which is at least pretty inoffensive.)
And I don’t have any problems with GNOME or KDE apps ‘taking over the desktop,’ either.
I’ve been interested in trying Metacity, Spark, but… haven’t yet. I was going to write that there wasn’t a port for it for FreeBSD (what I run at work), but evidently there’s been one added since the last time I looked a month or so ago.
Okay, by reading the comments, I’d like to add some comments myself :
1) It’s about xfwm4. Not the current version of xfwm nor xfce.
2) Xfce4 is a work in progress. xfwm4 is not finished yet, but it’s a totally new implementation.
3) Themability. Agree that Xfce3 may not appeal to everybody, but xfwm4 is about that (but not only that), it is fully themable, just look at the snapshots Eugenia has posted (which are just 2 themes taken from the 20 themes that already ship with xfwm4)
Cheers,
Olivier.
Anyone know what font is used for the window titles in the first screenshot? (theme kindaker)?
Thanks,
fooks
It looks great, Olivier! I just recently mentioned my success with XFce on an old Pentium box. It’s nice to see that things are progressing.
Speed, I sent you an email yesterday. Did you receive it? Please email me back if you did. Thanks.
“The second reason is that I must install all Gnome just because I want to run three apps (same thing with KDE).”
You need all the libraries of course. But nothing more. Some distributions only deliver packages of complete Gnome/KDE though. That’s a fault of the packager then, not of the creators of the desktops.
All I can say is that fluxbox is the way to go. Window Managers based on BlackBox rule, my friends. Lightweight, speedy, and it’s themes rock.
Undoubtedly one of the best, … and one of the ugliest.
The screenshots don’t look ugly. Some of its themes don’t look ugly. The default looks ugly, same with the default icons, but the same goes for KDE (which I use anyway).
All I can say is that fluxbox is the way to go. Window Managers based on BlackBox rule, my friends. Lightweight, speedy, and it’s themes rock.
XFce IS NOT just a window manager. XFce is the most lightweight desktop enviroment for Linux. In fact, I use it on my old 120mhz Pentium MMX with 32mb of RAM because it is the only thing modern that doesn’t rely on swap memory and runs so slowly 🙂 (well, but then, I normally use Window Maker for that computer).
—
I like this XFce thingy, but the sad thing is that
– because it is based on GTK+, I find loading QT apps slower. You would have to wait a few seconds extra than you would normally have to on KDE.
– I have a relatively fast computer (1ghz Duron); and KDE’s features are not even found on GNOME, plus since I’m using Linux; this is the most familar thing (KDE was my first UI I have gotten used to; but that was KDE 1.x, but KDE 2.x had some things the same as 1.x)
– I find no themes on XFce appeals to me. Yeah, some of them are nice. They look good; but I want usablity. I don’t want a theme with good looking icons, yet the icons doesn’t attract attention; or a UI that looks so cool, but makes your eyes strain, etc.
So, I guess I’m stuck with KDE 🙂 (Besides, obj. prelinked KDE is fast :-).
Oh, and the screenshots doesn’t show KDE, XFce and GNOME running along side. It shows XFce’s window manager, with XFce panel, GNOME panel, KDE panel and Nautilus; hardly KDE, GNOME and XFce along side.
I used to use XFCE; it was the most stable desktop environment (I have a crappy neomagic chipset which X doesn’t like which needs a minimal desktop environment) back when I was using RedHat 7.1. I liked it, but there were some minor annoyances:
* I wish it was possible to make the panel thin and tall instead of thick and short; my 1024×768 display can only display 2 80×24 xterms with a readable font if they can use the entire vertical space.
* I preferred using a normal instead of a LCD look font for the digital clock; in fact I stopped using XFCE when I downloaded an updated version and saw that the clock had changed.
* The window manager did not allow me to set the auto raise time.
Since KDE3 is usable with my !@#$ neomagic chipset, I am using that; it has its own mild annoyances, but has the particular set of weird features I want.
I am glad Oliver continues his work on XFCE; it is nice to have a wide variety of desktop environments to choose from.
Screenshots of my desktop environments (both my current KDE environment and the previous XFCE environment) are here:
http://www.samiam.org/screenshots/
– Sam
“You need all the libraries of course. But nothing more.”
Spark, I wanted to have Konqueror and Konsole, which are in kdebase. If you install kdebase, you have near all of kde as a dependency. From Gnome I wanted gnome-games and gnomepim, and BAM! There comes all the stuff. In the two cases, it’s not only the libraries, but a bunch of apps too. Not a real problem though. It’s just that I don’t like to have apps I do not use and do not need (and redundant) on my HD.
I’m too stupid to install it. Quelle surprise. Linux makes me feel like an idiot.
Kevin
It would be nice if Xfce4 would come in different flavours.
1.) Nacked, as it is now
.
2.) With all needed libraries to run KDE/Gnome applications without having tons of additional KDE/Gnome stuff.
Is this possible to achieve?
You can install a embedded version of Konqueror is you desire, as for Konsole why in the hell would you want that thing j/k.
Spark, I wanted to have Konqueror and Konsole, which are in kdebase. If you install kdebase, you have near all of kde as a dependency. From Gnome I wanted gnome-games and gnomepim, and BAM! There comes all the stuff. In the two cases, it’s not only the libraries, but a bunch of apps too. Not a real problem though. It’s just that I don’t like to have apps I do not use and do not need (and redundant) on my HD.
I bet you are using URPMI (Mandrake); which does that to you.
2.) With all needed libraries to run KDE/Gnome applications without having tons of additional KDE/Gnome stuff.
Actually, you can install kdelibs, Qt and so on without installing the full KDE. Plus; IIRC, XFce uses a lot of GNOME libraries anyway (most notably is GTK+)
You can install a embedded version of Konqueror is you desire, as for Konsole why in the hell would you want that thing j/k.
When Konsole 2 for KDE 2.x came out, it was the only one that supports tabs. For xterm, eterm etc.; I would have to open new windows. But right now, it seems even that “Terminal” in Mac OS X have once Konsole-only features (kidding; but most konsoles for Linux already have those kool features)
“All I can say is that fluxbox is the way to go. Lightweight, speedy, and it’s themes rock.”
100% ACK! Using FluxBox as my default WM with Gentoo Linux and I really like it. The tabbing rules, also it still has some problems (tabs break up on minimizing, etc.). But still my favourite so far.