XPde 0.3.5 has been released, which according to the site is a major upgrade to the XPde desktop environment and window manager. We reported on the (Pascal-written) XPde before (shots). On other X11 news, InterfaceWM 0.2.4 was recently released, XFCE 4 is getting closer to release (screenshots and one more), while the XWin.org team had another conference call last week.
XPde 0.3.5 Released; InterfaceWM, XFCE and XWin.org News
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Eugenia Loli
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and if i want XP, i’ll use XP
Wow, I am impressive with how XPde has gotten so far, but I ain’t going to use it thought. I am fan of Gnome 2.. 🙂
Anyway, the conference call, it doesn’t looks good for Keith and others. I think, they just should fork and start the process more quick than agrue and waste the time.
Looks lik a Sun box except much more attractive in looks at least. (never actully used it) XFCE seems like the perfect balance between features and speed.
I looked at all the screenshots provided and I have to say i really am looking forward to it andmaybe OSnews can even review it, in comparrison to KDE and GNOME.
Also I read the XFCE uses GTK+, but which version? Does it use GTK 2.2.1? Also, can it follow my GNOME theme?
Anyway its looking great and also seems like the perfect way to introduce a UNIX CDE user to Linux as XPDE is for windows users.
>Looks lik a Sun box except much more attractive in looks at least
Sure, the original XFCE up to version 3.x is all about providing a free CDE-like environment.
>Also I read the XFCE uses GTK+, but which version? Does it use GTK 2.2.1?
Yes, it uses the latest GTK+ installed.
>Also, can it follow my GNOME theme?
It has its own themes, but I think it can use GTK+’s too.
Read the discussion here for more:
http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=2913
Thank you for the info, looks great, and looking forward to it. And it provides a familiar interface for windows users to switch.
Is there anybody who actually tried XPde? What about CPU/memory usage? Is it significantly lower than that of KDE/Gnome? If it is, then it looks like I should try to download and build this thing.
I don’t care about XP resemblance — never used XP, anyway (but I think it looks nice, regardless of origin). What I’m primarily interested in is features, and XPde seems to have all the features I want. Now I wonder how it would compare with KDE/Gnome on my Celeron 266 with 128M…
Useage of ram in XPDE is actually pretty low, and it seems like the borland compiler is actually pretty good, so the Xpde binarys are really fast, so the desktop so far is very responsive.
You can’t really do a lot with it yet, so there isn’t really much comparison it it and say KDE.
I installed Xpde from the package they offer at their site. It doesn’t work properly:
– there is nothing in the control panel
– in start menu only shutdown and run work
– i cannot create shortcuts
– the focus pattern is neither WinXP nor default Kde
– mouse pointer “glues” itself to the window and moves it when
I move the pointer.
I am sure that if I knew what to do in less than 2 hours I would make it work properly
I am a linux user for months now and I think in its current form I will not use XPde but dont get me worng I think the idea of creatinga DE that is familiar in a windoze user point of view is great. To those you are creating XPde, keep up the good work. Maybe once its all finished then I will try it.
Thanks for the info. So we have to wait ’til at least the WM is working.
“xpde developers don’t give a damn about endusers”
I suppose it’s a little bit too early to give a damn about end users. After all, it’s only 0.3.5. But I thought they implemented more functionality…
“I am sure that if I knew what to do in less than 2 hours I would make it work properly
”
Then hey, maybe you’ll ask the developers what to do and we’ll get something useful, say, tomorrow? :-p
Artem
XFCE is a great project, and it’s good that the 4 series is getting ready. Go Olivier!
I personally think XP interface so psychodelic for my taste, and XPde won’t run on my FreeBSD at work, so…
And the xwin guys looks like they’re doing the right thing, being cautious about their moves.
I tried xpde, and it seemed okay. No way I could use a DE without virtual desktops though. And its written in pascal, which means not very many people will be contributing to this project.
Right now i’ve installed XPde.
Most things doesn’t work.
The Filemanager is very nice and clean!
Maybe in v3.0 it’s good. Meanwhile i’m happy with KDE 🙂
Isn’t pascal taht language that is almost exclusively used in universities? Why is it any better than C++, I’ve ehard lots of bad things about it and no good things yet.
Any talk of putting this on one of the desktop Linux distros, such as Lycoris. I would also like to see my favorite windows XP effect incorporated. Drop showdows behind desktop fonts. Allows you have desktop shortcuts without an ugly text box.
Can xwin just fork already. I am not a hastey person, but I believe that discussion on any subject has a shelf life. This discussion is far past expiration date.
The question is… does the xfree86 core team want to change how things are done. Are they willing to fix a system that isn’t working. Clearly the answer is no. The people in the call from the X core team where whining that this discussion should have been amongst the core team, not xwin. They don’t want other people involved.
If they thing their project is going fine, well, good for them. They can keep it. Let those who want smarter, more productive community should fork. Words don’t mean a thing at this point. It’s time for these xwin pansies to put up or shut up.
I have to say, I’ve always had an appreciation for XFCE. Of the lite WM’s, it’s been my favorite. The file manager (xfm – I believe) is super fast. Now, it’s looking great to match its performance! Not that it looked bad before.
Anyway, if you haven’t tried it, you’re missing out.
Darren
Just a quick gripe, and maybe off-topic because I don’t plan to participate in the X11 discussions, but why are people doing conference calls?
A few working groups I am involved in still use this archaic method of communication. Ever since I was a kid, I have been communicating via BBS chats, IRC, instant messaging, something where I can see multiple discussion threads in real time with logging capability.
On the phone, I don’t know who is doing the talking, I can’t follow the discussion, and I can’t scroll back to see what I missed or to reread what might be important.
Conference calls are primitive. Telephones have a user interface that makes ed(1) look easy.
I used to run XFce back when I used FreeBSD as my dev system. Being used to BeOS I wanted a desktop environment that embraced the KISS principle. And I have to say that I was farily happy with it, but I always thought it was a bit amatureish and unpolished (not to say ugly). But it looks like it’s shaping up really well now. If it’s as good as it looks, I’d say that KDE and Gnome has some serious “competition” here.
Looking forward to trying it in a not to distant future
Isn’t pascal taht language that is almost exclusively used in universities? Why is it any better than C++, I’ve ehard lots of bad things about it and no good things yet.
People who put pride in having learnt C usually bash Pascal. Personally, I think Pascal is a bit nicer towards the user. That is often reason enough for a bad reputation in the computer world. Pascal was designed at the ETH Zuerich, so it’s certainly got a bit more academic roots than C (which was designed… no, thrown together by the same people who gave us the mess called UNIX). As such, it is popular as a teaching tool for structured programming. It also isn’t quite as low-level as C.
Pascal isn’t exclusively used in universities, though. It’s quite popular in the PC world, only it has never been a high-ranking language in the UNIX world, both because that system was programmed in C, and because they come from different eras and backgrounds.
..and I like the idea, cause if you combine something like this with a product such as crossover office, you could switch people to linux without them really noticing.
One problem at the moment though is that XPde isnt really heavy in fuctionality at the moment, is looks nice, but thats about all it does, I know it’s still early and I really do hope that the project continues and get’s better, it has a lot of potential, just needs time and a lot of work on the functionality it provides
>>Looks lik a Sun box except much more attractive in looks
>>at least
> Sure, the original XFCE up to version 3.x is all about
> providing a free CDE-like environment.
Yes, but not anymore with xfce 4.0.
>>Also I read the XFCE uses GTK+, but which version? Does it
>>use GTK 2.2.1?
xfce 4.0 uses GTK >= 2.0 and compiles and work with latest GTK+-2.x CVS.
>>Also, can it follow my GNOME theme?
I guess you are talking about GTK themes. Yes, indeed, xfce 4.0 is based on GTK+-2.x and share all the GTK themes with GNOME.
It also comes with its own GTK engine, but you are free to use the one you want (or use xfce engine with GNOME)
Cheers,
Olivier.