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Thread: Xfce development

  1. #11
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    Re: Xfce development

    I never get why you'd want a back up desktop
    I install different desktops to learn how to navigate and use them. I'm not all that picky about how I access applications. Unity dash or Synapse on XFCE both get the job done quite well .

    I mean, orange and purple?
    There are plenty themes icons and some nice customization tools for Unity that are not available on 12.04. Unity has come a long way since 12.04, but that doesn't keep me from trying different window managers. XFCE has been one of my favorites on the last three Ubuntu versions. PPA's all have potential problems and are use at your own risk ! Even if a PPA works great for me it may not for another person with different hardware.
    Last edited by Frogs Hair; December 7th, 2013 at 04:00 PM.
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  2. #12
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    Re: Xfce development

    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew_Lucas View Post
    Thanks for this! It's good to see something is going on. However, scrolling back - I do noticed there seem to be large periods with no development:



    The fact that the website has only (seemingly) been neglected is a little worrying about the long term viability? Doubts a little eased, but not completely assuaged.
    The Xfc component was deprecated pre-4.8 - hence the no work part. The core components of Xfce are:
    - libxfce4util
    - xfconf
    - libxfce4ui
    - garcon
    - libxfcegui4
    - exo
    - xfce4-panel
    - thunar
    - xfce4-settings
    - xfce4-session
    - xfwm4
    - xfdesktop
    - xfce4-appfinder
    - xfce-utils
    - gtk-xfce-engine-2
    - tumbler
    + whatever plugins are still being maintained. See: http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/building.

  3. #13
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    Re: Xfce development

    Quote Originally Posted by vasa1 View Post
    I'm not sure people have pointed this out or not, but much of the work done on Linux and Xfce and Xubuntu is by people volunteering their time and without expecting remuneration.

    I personally feel more comfortable helping, when I can, someone who shows an understanding of these limitations.
    Yeah, of course I understand this. But six months is a long time for development to completely come to a standstill, right? Even if the community using Xfce isn't huge, I imagine it is internationally distributed (i.e. I'm assuming someone in India, or any other majority non-Christian country isn't going to have the same slow down the western world has around Christmas/Easter). Plus, regardless of the reason, development apparently (and I do stress apparently - it could just be gaps in the logs or particular bugs being particularly difficult to work out - so updates aren't posted, so it appears as if there was something of a 'development drought') stopping is still development (apparently) stopping. Think of how many distros have gone dead? Who ever hears about these anymore? I'm not saying it will happen, I'm saying it could happen, and given that, any indication that makes death look more likely (or Xfce being merged with other projects, or being superceded etc.) worry me! Projects go out the window all the time, but unlike a particular package dying, it'd be much more difficult to find a like-for-like replacement of Xfce, I'd definitely miss it's 'feel'.

    Quote Originally Posted by Morbius1 View Post
    One of the greatest assets that XFCE has is that it changes so slowly. Small incremental changes to fix bugs and maybe add a new feature or two. It's the WinXP of Linux.

    I don't want it to change rapidly for fear that I will have to finally learn how to spell paradime ... paradym ... paradigm? whatever..... and be forced to interface with my operating system using interpretive dance.
    I suppose you're looking at this from the other end of the telescope to me. I'm an educated amateur rather than guru, and so for me, how the software updates isn't really that much of a big deal - providing it does actually update once in a while! I do use the Aurora builds of Firefox, and was using Earlybird (now I have to use Outlook, since my Uni uses Exchange rather than an IMAP server), and enjoying seeing tweaks and new features, but it isn't that much of a big deal. I don't do much (read: any) active bug reporting - I'm using those builds because they generally are as stable (at least in practice) as final releases and enable me to see any changes pushed through ahead of the curve. As soon as they stopped being stable and/or offering any advantage, I'd stop using them. Likewise...Xfce offers the best user experierence (look, simplicity, bugginess, GTK rather than Qt - so none of the mess of requiring GTK dependancies on a Qt desktop) out of the DEs I've tried, so I stick with it. If this changed, and I did start worrying about things like release cycles, I'd probably move back to KDE - for the simple reason that it's got a larger community and is more configurable than Cinnamon (GNOME3 would be out of the question!).

  4. #14
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    Re: Xfce development

    Quote Originally Posted by Frogs Hair View Post
    I install different desktops to learn how to navigate and use them. I'm not all that picky about how I access applications. Unity dash or Synapse on XFCE both get the job done quite well .

    There are plenty themes icons and some nice customization tools for Unity that are not available on 12.04. Unity has come a long way since 12.04, but that doesn't keep me from trying different window managers. XFCE has been one of my favorites on the last three Ubuntu versions. PPA's all have potential problems and are use at your own risk ! Even if a PPA works great for me it may not for another person with different hardware.
    Yeah, I know the issues (the biggest one for me is security - particularly if the PPA has a smallish user base). Regarding Unity, colour is probably more the nail in the coffin than anything else - a minor issue that confirms all the other problems I have with it .

    Quote Originally Posted by Toz View Post
    The Xfc component was deprecated pre-4.8 - hence the no work part. The core components of Xfce are:
    - libxfce4util
    - xfconf
    - libxfce4ui
    - garcon
    - libxfcegui4
    - exo
    - xfce4-panel
    - thunar
    - xfce4-settings
    - xfce4-session
    - xfwm4
    - xfdesktop
    - xfce4-appfinder
    - xfce-utils
    - gtk-xfce-engine-2
    - tumbler
    + whatever plugins are still being maintained. See: http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/building.
    Could you expand on this? 'Deprecated'?

  5. #15
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    Re: Xfce development

    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew_Lucas View Post
    Could you expand on this? 'Deprecated'?
    By deprecated I mean no longer being used. Outdated code. Functionality retired or merged into other modules.

  6. #16
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    Re: Xfce development

    Quote Originally Posted by Morbius1 View Post
    ...
    I don't want it to change rapidly for fear that I will have to finally learn how to spell paradime ... paradym ... paradigm? whatever..... and be forced to interface with my operating system using interpretive dance.
    You left out intuitive. I wonder what that really translates to.

  7. #17
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    Re: Xfce development

    Quote Originally Posted by Toz View Post
    By deprecated I mean no longer being used. Outdated code. Functionality retired or merged into other modules.
    So let's get this in black and white: prior to 4.8, certain components of the DE were deprecated (i.e. more or less written off). That doesn't explain the current dry periods though, does it? :s The components you mentioned would largely form a DE on their own, presumably.

  8. #18
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    Re: Xfce development

    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew_Lucas View Post
    So let's get this in black and white: prior to 4.8, certain components of the DE were deprecated (i.e. more or less written off). That doesn't explain the current dry periods though, does it? :s The components you mentioned would largely form a DE on their own, presumably.
    Personally, I'm happy with the speed of development. To me, Xfce is a complete DE. However, I know that others feel differently. Perhaps it would be best to ask your question to the Xfce maintainers and developers themselves - maybe they can provide the answers you are looking for. You can try the #xfce IRC channel.

    Since this isn't really a support thread, I'm going to move it to Linux/OS Chat.

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