Xfce 4.8 released

[y6FgBn)~v]

For my fellow Xfce aficionados who were unaware. I understand it will be incorporated into the 11.04 release of Xubuntu.

http://www.xfce.org/

[Typhon]

I hope someone will build DEBs for 10.10 before 11.04 comes out. I really want to try it out, but building the whole desktop envirnoment is a bit too much for me.

[ubuntu27]

Oh sweet~ new Xfce version

[cascade9]

I'll be interested to see how Xfce 4.8 goes.

Typical, it arrives during the 'Debian squeeze' freeze, so I wont be seeing it in my repos until squeeze goes 'stable'. I could always just install it now, but I'd rather wait.

[Simian Man]

In my opinion Xfce has finally managed what it has been close to doing for years: it made Gnome 2.x totally obsolete. Now that they have native browsing of remote file systems, and the ability to easily change the menu, it is a complete and great desktop.

It already had a much better panel, window manager and file browser than what Gnome offers, in addition to being much more configurable without having to resort to REGEDIT.EXE aka gconf-editor. On top of all that, it is still faster than Gnome. I honestly can not think of a single reason to use Gnome instead of Xfce any more.

It is now up to Gnome Shell/Unity to make Gnome join KDE and Xfce as relevant projects again. I'm not optimistic.

[baizon]

In my opinion Xfce has finally managed what it has been close to doing for years: it made Gnome 2.x totally obsolete. Now that they have native browsing of remote file systems, and the ability to easily change the menu, it is a complete and great desktop.

It already had a much better panel, window manager and file browser than what Gnome offers, in addition to being much more configurable without having to resort to REGEDIT.EXE aka gconf-editor. On top of all that, it is still faster than Gnome. I honestly can not think of a single reason to use Gnome instead of Xfce any more.

It is now up to Gnome Shell/Unity to make Gnome join KDE and Xfce as relevant projects again. I'm not optimistic.

Totally agree. Xfce is the "better" Gnome in my opinion and for people that don't like the Gnome 3 style.
There is already a PPA with Xfce 4.8 for Ubuntu 10.04.
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/01/xfce-4-8-adds-remote-shares-browsing-new-desktop-panel-more/

[3Miro]

Just installed it on Gentoo. Very smooth transition and two thumbs up for the new panel. If you don't like Gnome-shell or Unity, you don't like KDE, but love Gnome 2, then you should definitely try XFCE.

[kellemes]

Well, the panel is much better, transparency without affecting the panel-items looks great.
Well, there are a bunch of miner usability issues with this new release (why can't I doubleclick a new item to add it to the panel?) but nothing spectacular, all in all worth the upgrade.

[videodrome]

The PPA is either not up or already down. Sad face. Off to compile. Yuck.

[bailout]

The PPA is either not up or already down. Sad face. Off to compile. Yuck.

I think the ppa was only for Lucid and when I looked earlier the packages were marked as having failed to build so it was probably best avoided.

I would be interested to try it if someone puts up a reliable ppa for Maverick. Compiling them myself is a bit too technical for me tbh.

[3Miro]

I wonder if they have already included 4.8 packages in the 11.04 Xubuntu alpha. The final version of it will include XFCE 4.8, but I don't know if they have it already.

Xfwm4 also comes with some new improvements and I am very very happy :biggrin:

[slumbergod]

I think it is disappointing that no easy upgrade path has been offered for Xubuntu users. People using other distros seem to have Xfce 4.8 in their repos already but I can't find any PPAs for Ubuntu users. I don't really want to wait for 11.04 because I am not sure I want to upgrade -- Xubuntu 10.10 has been rock solid and the best release ever for my hardware. If I can just upgrade Xfce then I will be very happy.

I realise compiling is the way to go but, seriously, it is just more hassle than it is worth. I don't compile frequently enough to ever call myself an expert and we are probably spoiled with Ubuntu because almost everything (except Xfce upgrades) is released as a deb package for us.

If anyone finds some instructions for compilation that are intended for inexperienced users (i.e. not aimed at developers who can fill in the blanks) please post the link. Even better if someone finds a PPA with reliable debs even better!

[Kalimol]

Xfce is the "better" Gnome in my opinion and for people that don't like the Gnome 3 style it's the best alternative.

It's clearly still the "lighter" Gnome. Better's exceedingly subjective. GTK skins are still much prettier and Nautilus still does a lot of things Thunar doesn't (a few of which I'm personally quite addicted to.) And if you want to talk default window managers, God, what can you do without Compiz?

Simian Man, I can only understand your seething hatred for Gnome when I consider my first and last experience with KDE. = )

The transparent panel looks nice, though. Gnome's panels are hideous, and I was glad to finally be rid of them when AWN got the Notification Area.

[VCoolio]

It's clearly still the "lighter" Gnome. Better's exceedingly subjective. GTK skins are still much prettier and Nautilus still does a lot of things Thunar doesn't (a few of which I'm personally quite addicted to.) And if you want to talk default window managers, God, what can you do without Compiz?


For me, offering the same (main) features while being much more lightweight *is* better. Thunar is the best file manager there is in my opinion, it does file browsing, has an awesome renaming tool, is very easy with custom actions, does network browsing and has samba share options and it obeys gtk theming rules better. Only things missing could be tabs (though I'd like a splittable main window better) and maybe an embedded terminal line.

And what do you mean by 'gtk skins are still much prettier'? Xfce uses gtk right?

The compiz thing is a matter of taste and requirements. I don't digg anything else than the scale plugin to be honest.

[Simian Man]

GTK skins are still much prettier and Nautilus still does a lot of things Thunar doesn't (a few of which I'm personally quite addicted to.)
As VCoolio said, Xfce does use GTK+ themes just like Gnome. Also the only thing I can think of that Nautilus has that Thunar doesn't is tabs. Thunar has a great bulk rename tool, and it's so much easier to add Thunar scripts than Nautilus actions. Thunar is also a lot faster than Nautilus.


And if you want to talk default window managers, God, what can you do without Compiz?
That's great, but compiz isn't the default window manager for Gnome, metacity is. You can replace Xfwm with compiz just like you can replace metacity with compiz. So if you want to compare default window managers, Xfwm has around 4X the configuration options as metacity and is easier to theme as well.


The transparent panel looks nice, though. Gnome's panels are hideous, and I was glad to finally be rid of them when AWN got the Notification Area.
Gnome's panel also sometimes forgets how the applets are laid out even if you "lock" them, doesn't autohide properly and doesn't let you choose which monitor to put your panels on which are all extremely old bugs.

So I wouldn't say it's exceedingly subjective personally :).

[SantaFe]

I can't wait to install it on my Kubuntu 10.10 system so I can choose between KDE & Xfce. Hopefully SOON it will either show up in Synaptic, or as a DEB package. :D

[SantaFe]

Dupe post. WTH?

[Kalimol]

As VCoolio said, Xfce does use GTK+ themes just like Gnome.

And I knew that, so I'm not really certain what I was thinking there. I'm used to getting "GTK+" skins that include Metacity elements because they're bundled that way on Gnome-Look, which is, naturally, a little Gnome-centric.


Also the only thing I can think of that Nautilus has that Thunar doesn't is tabs. Thunar has a great bulk rename tool, and it's so much easier to add Thunar scripts than Nautilus actions. Thunar is also a lot faster than Nautilus.

It also handles more kinds of previews, custom folder icons, etc. Tabs and the previews are worth the difference to me, although when Nautilus gets fidgety about something, I end up using Thunar as a more stable backup.


That's great, but compiz isn't the default window manager for Gnome, metacity is.

And this is where I remember that in my head, I'm comparing Xubuntu and Ubuntu Gnome, not the DEs by themselves. Good point.

[kellemes]

I can understand someones preference of Nautilus over Thunar as filemanager, personally I actually use Krusader (http://www.krusader.org/) most of the time, combined with whatever filemanager (Thunar in this case) is available, or sometimes Midnight Commander (http://www.midnight-commander.org/) from cli. But I'm a sucker for Orthodox File Managers (http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/index.shtml).
But I don't think it should influence your choice of wm/dm, Nautilus can easily be used in Xfce and Thunar can easily be used in Gnome.

[3Miro]

It also handles more kinds of previews, custom folder icons, etc. Tabs and the previews are worth the difference to me, although when Nautilus gets fidgety about something, I end up using Thunar as a more stable backup.


The new Thunar comes with custom icon options (for Documents, Music etc). Still no Tabs though.

The only point on the GTK skins is that there are more GTK themes for Gnome, which means GTK + Metacity. Under XFCE, you have to find separate matching xfwm4 theme (there are fewer of those). For me this is minor, for others, I don't know.

[Typhon]

If you want tabs in file manager, you can use PCManFM. It's really fast and just as capable (if not more) than Thunar.

[VCoolio]

If you want tabs in file manager, you can use PCManFM. It's really fast and just as capable (if not more) than Thunar.

It doesn't do custom actions which I need far more than tabs. But it's a nice app too.

[Ichtyandr]

I wonder if they have already included 4.8 packages in the 11.04 Xubuntu alpha. The final version of it will include XFCE 4.8, but I don't know if they have it already.

Xfwm4 also comes with some new improvements and I am very very happy :biggrin:

It is in the Natty daily build (screenshot attached)
I must say it is really terrific, I have a natty rush of installing it as a my main production desktop. Do you think one should expect any major breakages in xubuntu, or people will be busy wrecking the unity thing?

[3Miro]

It is in the Natty daily build (screenshot attached)
I must say it is really terrific, I have a natty rush of installing it as a my main production desktop. Do you think one should expect any major breakages in xubuntu, or people will be busy wrecking the unity thing?

My guess is that Unity will be the big "problem" for Ubuntu. There are already hordes of haters and fanboys, and the bugs (will are there on every first release) will flame the troll-wars.

XFCE4.8 on the other hand seems really stable. I have used it for a week and only the Keyboard Layout Plugin has a memory leak, everything else is great. 4.8 is also more of a evolution than a revolution, we get "more of the same", just "better".

Unity vs Xubuntu: Unity is less of a change in Gnome than Gnome-shell is. Basically Unity is a plugin for Compiz, so everything else in Ubuntu will be more or less the same. I don't foresee any compatibility issues arising between Unity and XFCE.

[Typhon]

I managed to compile Xfce 4.8 on Xubuntu 10.10. It wasn't as hard as I had expected, but it was time consuming. I used auto-apt run ./configure --prefix=/usr to configure each package; it helped resolve many dependency issues. checkinstall turned out to be more trouble than it's worth, so I used make install instead.

[Wobblybob]

Xfce 4.8 seems to be fully implemented in Natty now, I've been running Xubuntu since Alpha 1 having decided I don't want either Unity, it's fallback Gnome or Gnome shell and am loving it. I'm running it on my laptop as the main o/s doing safe upgrades every few days and [fingers crossed] not had any problems. I think Xubuntu is going to be my new main o/s.

[slumbergod]

What I don't get is why the Xubuntu Devs are focussed on Xfce 4.8 on Natty yet have made no effort to prepare packages for upgrading Maverick. Even the Xubuntu Dev ppa is out-of-date. I remember the issues I had updating to Xfce 4.6.2 so I am not sure I want to tackle compiling them myself.

If it is as simple as just compiling 16 new packages then surely that's not a big job for the guys who know Xubuntu intimately?

Does anyone know of a set of instructions for compiling that is up-to-date and simple enough for non-devs to follow. I can't find a decent guide.

[slooksterpsv]

I can't wait to try it out, I'm compiling it, but I've made a boo-boo. I forgot to put like some in for ${PREFIX} so my xfce stuff is in /bin and /share and what not ummm... should I leave it or should I restore from backup, and try to recompile xfce 4.8??

[Typhon]

@slumbergod, read these:
- Compiling: Easy HOWTO (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompilingEasyHowTo)
- Xfce 4.8 Building Instructions (http://www.xfce.org/download/building)
- Xfce forum: xfce 4.8 compiled in ubuntu maverick (http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=5657)
- Xfce forum: How To Install Xfce 4.8 on Debian (http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=5661)

Also, checkinstall seems to have a few bugs so I suggest you modify the following line in file /etc/checkinstallrc:
from DPKG_FLAGS="" to DPKG_FLAGS="--force-overwrite"
... and then run checkinstall like this:

sudo checkinstall -D --fstrans=0 make install

To recap it, I installed Xfce 4.8 like this:

auto-apt run ./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo checkinstall -D --fstrans=0 make install

[slumbergod]

Thanks Typhon, I will have a good look at them this weekend.

Also, some more info for those who are waiting...an encouraging comment from one of the Xubuntu Devs:

We're waiting for the first bugfix releases to fix the most annoying
issues, and then, yes, there are (at the moment, only plans) plans to
either backport 4.8 or update the existing xubuntu-dev PPA

[whowinsdares]

please excuse my ignorance, but where is the link to post a new thread here?

[Typhon]

Look for "Forum Tools" on the top right side.