Is Xfce an Abandonware?

[Jeovani91]

Hello people

I have searched for DE's information just for make a decision about which one will I use, and I found that the last major Xfce update (4.12) was 2 years ago. It is a long time if we compare it to Mate or KDE development cycles

[jimallyn]

https://blog.xfce.org/

https://iwf1.com/xfce-isnt-dead-heres-l ... -included/

[karlchen]

xfce is like a snail: it moves on very very slowly.

[Cosmo.]

xfce is like a snail: it moves on very very slowly.

If you touch a snail, it immediately stops any movement. (I couldn't hesitate to expand the comparison. )

[Habitual]

Only 3 years to go!

[Hoser Rob]

Xfce isn't abandonware, it's a basic desktop and as such does not need major updates. Which is just how I like it. Major new versions = slower generally. Really, how much do modern DE environments do that they didn't 20 years ago???

There are a bunch of pretty serious Linux geeks out there who work on powerful hardware and they don't even use a full DE, just a window manager that dates from 20 years ago or more. Linux uses RAM caching for apps ... uinlike Windows it doesn't just leave free RAM unused ... so a small footprint makes everything run faster.

I used to use LXDE and I still like it. But that does seem to be almost abandonware. As far as I can tell the dev team has a staff of one, and he mostly just works on the pcmanfm file manager. Pcmanfm is a very food file manager but I won't be using LXDE anymore at that rate.

[altair4]

XFCE development is different from the rest. The XFCE applications keep on updating.

It's fair to say that XFCE was dismissed in the era of Gnome2 and KDE3 but then Gnome3 and KDE4 happened and all of a sudden some folks liked the absence of any par-a-dime ... um ... paradigm shifts and XFCE had a resurgence.

Remember, Windows XP owned the desktop space for more than a decade.

[cottfcfan]

Xfce=Slow Development=Ultra stability/Reliability.
Depends what you want, I have tried numerous Distros, but always end up coming back to a xfce based one. Because I want it to work.

[MtnDewManiac]

the last major Xfce update (4.12) was 2 years ago.

Abandonware doesn't even receive minor updates, lol.

Look at it like this: Xfce was basically a finished product at 4.10. Not finished as in "abandonware" but finished as in, well, a fully mature desktop environment that does all the things one could reasonably expect their DE to do.

IDK what the average team size for DEs is. I assume that this kind of thing is "a little" more involved than the average application. The Xfce team is small. Volunteers (as one might expect). You know how it goes... They're not clocking in every morning to spend at least eight hours per day, five days per week developing Xfce. They clock in that amount of time (whatever) to support themselves and their families. Other than that, they probably try to allocate time to SEE those families, lol. Perhaps they even sleep once in a while. And out of all the copious spare time left in their weeks ( ), they spend a fair amount of it working on Xfce.

You would probably see more updates if there were huge show-stopper issues connected to Xfce - but, again, that's not the case. It's a usable product as is. You would probably see more updates if you visited the Xfce community support forum and regularly viewed the "What's New in Xfce" thread. You would probably see more updates if you joined the Xfce mailing lists and your phone made a noise every time one of the developers posted a "new version of..." announcement, lol. And you would probably see more updates - lots more - if you downloaded the source from git or wherever it is that it gets posted, and compiled things yourself. You won't see those right away just watching what shows up in mintUpdate (aka "Update Manager"). That's because Clem's focus for the main editions of Mint is, rightly, user security and stability. You can, therefore, expect that things will have been published for a time before you get served them in the form of compiled, ready-to-install updates.

I remember... IDK, Mint 14, I believe. Xfce 4.10. I discovered an issue. Not a show-stopper. More like an annoyance. For all I know, it didn't even annoy all that many people - but it annoyed ME, lol. I think that's why I joined some of the Xfce mailing lists, come to think of it. I hadn't paid enough attention to realize that I should post bugs at bugzilla.xfce.org, and I wanted to, err, complain (actually, I wanted a solution, but...). So I complained - in the wrong online venue - and within a week or so, I read a post at the Xfce forum about how the lead developer had cherry-picked a few issues and dealt with them (or words to that effect). I think I had to add an Xfce PPA to my sources to get the updates quicker than I would normally see them. But I got a kick out of the fact that I complained about an issue and the issue was fixed shortly afterward ("Take THAT, Microsoft!" lol) .

One can also post requests for new features at the same http address where one posts bug reports. My understanding is that they're concentrating on switching everything to gtk3 - which has to be fun, what with the folks who punch out gtk3 updates taking such delight in breaking as much as they can with every update. But you never know.

What, exactly, is your issue? In other words, what do you feel that Xfce needs at this point in order for YOU to consider it as a valid DE choice? I mean, well, you're not one of those kids who just wants to see lots and lots of updates because... they want to see lots and lots of updates, right? Like... When YOU go to work every day, you want to actually accomplish something, I would assume? You don't just show up and see if you can waste time all week whilst giving the people you work for (in this case, Xfce users) a smoke & mirrors show? Let's assume that the Xfce developers are the same way. Find a problem, let them know. Feel like Xfce needs a specific new feature, let them know. If not, feel free to let them know that, too. And be glad that they're not wasting their - and your - time by pulling a Google/GNOME/etc. and just shoving out arbitrary and pointless changes. Because that wouldn't be a sign of quality - more like the opposite, lol; that's a "clock-puncher" mentality, IMHO.

Here is the Xfce community support forum address:
https://forum.xfce.org/

Here is a list of the various Xfce-related email lists:
https://mail.xfce.org/mailman/listinfo/
(There are several, believe it or not.)

Xfce Git repository browser:
https://git.xfce.org/

Information on building Xfce (et cetera) yourself, using the newest source files:
https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/building#fro ... repository

You can try a distro that is closer to the... bleeding edge in terms of which versions of Xfce and Xfce-related files you get. But to paraphrase Clem, thar be dragons, arrr. I mean, only do so for a reason (like when a new Mint version comes out). Opting for the absolute newest means that you won't get thoroughly tested components - it means that YOU will be testing them for others, lol. Which may or may not be fun for you, IDK. But either way, I wouldn't do so for your production / daily-use system.

I don't suppose I've said anything that everyone doesn't already know, lol.

Regards,
MDM

[cottfcfan]

Just to add to MtnDewManiacs post.
A few weeks ago, I noticed Thunar was freezing when copying/pasting certain files. I added the xubuntu staging ppa from here:
https://launchpad.net/~xubuntu-dev/+arc ... /+packages
Which updated Thunar.
Now I have a rock solid stable system again.
XFCE only updates things that need updating. Not for changes sake.

[H.Remedy]

This thread is almost abandonware , but let me add that there are significant changes in the works for Xfce. The biggest amongst them is a complete transition to GTK+ 3. So yes, the project is very much active - which is good, because some of us wouldn't be able to imagine life without it!

[jameskga]

What does the transition to GTK3 mean for people like myself, who use Xfce bare bones out of the box, modifying only the theme?

All I can really see is that it's going to cost more RAM, which is already limited on my machine...

[bjmh46]

If xfce is going completely GTK3, does this mean everything will use the gtk header bar, client side decoration? I sure hope not.

[AJ1000]

It will means things like hires monitor and wayland support in the future.

[TeaSwigger]

Xfce isn't abandonware, it's a basic desktop and as such does not need major updates. Which is just how I like it.

Me too. There's more than enough churn going on in our world. How's this for a logo: "Reduce Desktop Churn - go xfce!"

Even at xfce's "slow" pace of change, not everything (such as the weather app) is being as comprehensively kept up with downstream as one might like, probably as those reviewing, packaging & maintaining repos are kept busy with other things.

KDE 3 was my preferred DE, mostly owing to finding I preferred more KDE apps then. While I kept KDE 4 around, it was more out of habit. It caused more hassel but didn't benefit my usage. phonon? nepumuk? baloo? No need for them, don't want them taking resources but can't remove them. So I've since moved even the highest spec box to xfce. While I had bad experiences in the past with Thunar, recent versions seem fine and if one still wants another file manager, as I do, nemo can be integrated well enough and Double Commander is filling in well enough for Krusader. It can look nice too, given good themes (working well enough with whatever versions of Gnome therefore gtk 2, gtk 3 and KDE, qt 4, qt 5 and xfwm or...).

[TeaSwigger]

I don't suppose I've said anything that everyone doesn't already know, lol.

Don't know, but I liked your post and thank you - both of which can be done without needing re-dos of the forum to add "like" and "thank" functions.