Gloria XFCE CE Develoment

[merlwiz79]

I get really busy, so I need to start this earlier, this way we can get the next release out sooner than this last one.
Linux Mint 6 XFCE CE live cd is 694MB and this needs to get lower to add changes for Gloria.
Here is Gloria Main Road map and some of these will be added to XFCE CE Gloria.
http://linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php/Gloria_RoadMap

The old artwork will be removed including ones made for xfce.
This may save about 10MB.

I'm going to create polls and add links to them here.
Also any Suggestions not matching any polls should be added here.
Polls:
Tomboy:
viewtopic.php?f=110&t=22503

VLC:
viewtopic.php?f=110&t=22500

Deluge Torrent:
viewtopic.php?f=110&t=22534

Wicd:
viewtopic.php?f=110&t=24985

Any applications not in the default repos needs links to the Homepage and to where the sources are located.

Xubuntu Jaunty Beta info https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu/JauntyJ ... nouncement

[Zwopper]

Why not include xfburn instead of brasero as well?
There seems to be some issues here and there about brasero not working properly, and xfburn has always worked flawlessly for me.
Xfmedia would be great too.

Tomboy is obsolete imo, a better choice would be the notes plugin.

Will Gloria include XFCE 4.6?

[merlwiz79]

Why not include xfburn instead of brasero as well?
There seems to be some issues here and there about brasero not working properly, and xfburn has always worked flawlessly for me.
Xfmedia would be great too.

Tomboy is obsolete imo, a better choice would be the notes plugin.

Will Gloria include XFCE 4.6?

xfburn has never worked for me and Brasero has worked fine.
Xfmedia hasn't worked in a long time and requires xine, which will add more.
Tomboy has many features, but I never use it.
xfce4-notes-plugin should be installed by default already.
Just not on the panel since I try to keep the RAM usage to a minimum.
I'm not sure Jaunty currently is using 4.5 but it should be 4.6 in the RC.

[merlwiz79]

Well looking taking a look at Xfburn.
1st I noticed it can't find my burners even though brasero is only use 1 of them.(hopefully it works after brasero is done)
2nd it doesn't have any video or audio projects like brasero does.
Also I use the checksum plugins in brasero to make sure I have a good burn.

[Zwopper]

It does have audio projects, I'm not sure about video though... (I only play videos directly in my computer)
I make all my audio projects in it(and I do a lot of them) and it works flawlessly!

[Zwopper]

From: http://svn.xfce.org/svn/goodies/xfburn/ ... 4.0/README

Future Plans
------------

Missing functionality that we plan to add:
* Save and load compositions
* Verification
* Copy discs (needs backend support)
* Automatic checksum creation
* Blu-ray support
* Plugin support

There is no, and never will be, a timeline for these. Let us know if you think
something is missing on this list. If you really need something implemented,
feel free to help us out .

[merlwiz79]

From: http://svn.xfce.org/svn/goodies/xfburn/ ... 4.0/README

Future Plans
------------

Missing functionality that we plan to add:
* Save and load compositions
* Verification
* Copy discs (needs backend support)
* Automatic checksum creation
* Blu-ray support
* Plugin support

There is no, and never will be, a timeline for these. Let us know if you think
something is missing on this list. If you really need something implemented,
feel free to help us out .

Weird mine doesn't have an audio.
Just tried burning an iso to a blank DVD-RW .
It said it was full and then tried to erase it but just keep saying 1%.
Ok I got it to erase but it says disc is full even after that.
Switched to my other dvd burner and it says I can burn a dvd.

[Zwopper]

I guess it depends on which version you're running...
I use 0.40
From: http://svn.xfce.org/svn/goodies/xfburn/ ... 0.4.0/NEWS

xfburn 0.4.0 (2008-12-20)
============-------------

- Display an error if gstreamer realizes a plugin is missing to decode a file
- Jean-François Wauthy officially retired as maintainer. Thank you for all the
work, p0llux!
- Add symlink as symlink, and not the referenced files to a data composition
- Allow adding hidden files and devices to the composition through the
command line (they are not shown in the file selector)
- Add an entry to Thunar's sendto menu for adding to a data composition
(thanks Mike Massonnet)
- Add directories to a data composition with the correct timestamp
(thanks JR Oldroyd for discovering this)
- Stop button works now
- Drag and drop into an audio composition now adds files in the correct order
- Check that the size of the burn run actually fits on the inserted disc
- Internal and string improvements

xfburn 0.3.91 (2008-11-03)
=============------------

- Use gstreamer to decompress any supported audio files to burn an audio CD ("gst" transcoder)
NOTE: support for this is new, and not too unlikely to have some bugs
- Burn audio CDs from uncompressed CD audio .wav files ("basic" transcoder)
- Allow drags and drop from file managers like Thunar (text/uri-list target)
- Require HAL if compiled with HAL support
- Try to unmount a drive if it is not accessible (requires thunar-vfs)
- Build list of drives initially from HAL, then fill in details using libburn
once the burn dialog shows up

[merlwiz79]

Well the app crashed trying to burn the iso.
I have 0.3.2 and will have to try 0.4.0 when I install jaunty.

[viking777]

I am sorry to say I mess about with my XFCE install so much that I do not know what is in a basic install and what isn't so apologies in advance if I am writing rubbish here, but these are my thoughts:

1) Is is possible to remove parts of Open Office? (Writer and Spreadsheet is enough for me)

2) I like VLC, but is it necessary to have VLC and Mplayer?

3) Is it necessary to have Chestnut Dialler and GPRS easy connect (in fact is it necessary to have either given that gnome NM is so reliable these days?

4) Apt on CD?

5) I have never used Giver or Gnormalize and probably never will.

[pgpenc]

Fantastic job ... loved Felecia XFCE R1 ... goes like a rocket on my T60P!

What I'm really pining for is that really cool Mint menu from the main Mint release ... could this be put into Gloria?

[FedoraRefugee]

My view is that of Fred's posted in one of the links off the first post. I would like to see this edition kept as Xfce-centric as possible. As far as losing some weight, the first thing I would look at is; is it available in the repo and if yes then how easy to install yourself. I fear FF and OO.o probably have to stay, after all, many people do just use the CD live. But if you have redundant apps these should be the first to be cut. The lighter app is usually the better choice for this edition, if I wanted all the bloat I would be using Gnome. Most of us do not mind tweaking our install into what we want anyway heck, if it were up to me I would say ditch FF and OO.o and save some serious mb. Things like VLC and Tomboy can be easily thrown over the side. I wish I could remember what the default install consisted of, but then again, just because I do not use something...In the end you will get arguments for and against any app. I tend to not worry too much about these things, go ahead and strip her down. I will install what I need from the repo.

[Zwopper]

Big things are coming!

[viking777]

:!: Big things are coming!

AAGH! Please, Please, Please don't do things like that to me - my heart can only stand so much!

Take a look at the very first pic in that post and tell me what it reminds you of. Well I will tell you what it reminds me of - FolderView - from KDE4. I screamed out loud when I first saw it then spent 5 minutes crying into my beer before I read the caption and found out it actually was supposed to represent 'rubber banding' of files on a desktop.

I am sure you must have a duty of care to your forum users you know, and displaying pictures that can be interpreted to mean that XFCE is going to adopt Folderview as its next new feature is likely to induce mass hysteria - even suicide!!

[merlwiz79]

:!: Big things are coming!

They added some things that wasn't in the last version I tested.
The only bad thing now is learning how to customize everything again.
Hopefully it's easier, but that's unlikely.
I hope Xubuntu jaunty will have a build of 4.6 soon.

[exploder]

Wow! Big things are coming! That is an impressive amount of improvements!

[rhvkl]

now I'm (half) double posting my opinion:

xfce 4.6 - yes yes and yes :)
vlc - yes
brasero - no
k3b - unsure: I'll install this again, but it's not needed on the cd
xfburn - yes
xmms - yes
exaile - unsure: a heavy overkill for easy listening
tomboy - no
xpad - yes, unsure: because I should try out xfce4-notes-plugin first
giver - yes
deluge - yes
transmission - no, unsure
openoffice - yes
firefox - unsure: I prefer opera

oh and last but not least:
gwenview - no: my preferred image viewer, not needed on the cd

[FedoraRefugee]

Just dont forget, rhvkl, that the whole point of these threads is to try and slim down the iso. If you need it on the live CD then you should note that, but if you are installing on hard drive and can just swap packages with the repo then keep that in mind. We all have our favorite apps, but I think an Xfce-centric light as possible iso is in everyone''s interest.

That said, to Merlwiz, 699MB is really no worse than 599MB. As long as it fits on a CD then 100MB less is not going to matter.

[Fred]

What would seem to matter for a reduced resource install, to me anyway, would be:

1) Fits on a CD

2) Does not require a lot of running libs in memory to run programs.

3) Program complement does not require excessive cpu cycles to run properly.

4) Demonstrates the strengths of the desktop in question.

If you load up XFCE with a lot of big, resource hungry KDE and Gnome apps, what is the point in XFCE?

Fred

[rhvkl]

@FedoraRefugee: your absolutly right and my argumentation was pointed to the problem - I hope -, in other words:
yes = "imho it's good as it is / keep this compilation untouched / replace it because it's good and small(er)"
unsure = "nice to have / kick it if the space is needed"
no = "kick it"

And perhaps I would remove the "mint4win", because people who come from windows try out the main version or they choose a non-mint version.