Xfce

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Xfce

A typical Xfce 4.4 desktop. Various Xfwm4 effects are visible (drop shadows behind windows, semi-transparent windows and panel).
Developer:	Multiple developers, enumerated here
Latest release:	4.4.0 / January 21, 2007
OS:	Cross-platform
Use:	Desktop environment
License:	GNU General Public License and GNU Lesser General Public License
Website:	http://www.xfce.org/

Xfce ([eks ef siː iː]^[1]) is a free software desktop environment for Unix and other Unix-like platforms, such as Linux, Solaris and BSD. Its configuration is entirely mouse-driven and the configuration files are hidden from the casual user. It is based on the GTK+ 2.x toolkit (like GNOME). It uses the Xfwm window manager. Xfce is somewhat similar to the commercial CDE, but has been getting a little farther away from that comparison with each new version (it was completely re-written twice, between versions 2 and 3, and then again for version 4).

The name "Xfce" originally stood for "XForms Common Environment", but since that time Xfce has been rewritten twice and does not use the XForms toolkit any more. The name survived, but it is no longer capitalized as "XFce", but "Xfce". The developers' current stance is that the acronym does not stand for anything any more. The installer for the Xfce and Slackware-based distro Zenwalk labels the description for Xfce as the "Cholesterol Free Desktop Environment" that is "sex-appealing" as Slackware has done in the past.

1 History
2 Xfce applications
3 Xfce distributions
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Pre-Version 2.0

Olivier Fourdan began development on Xfce in early 1997. It began as a simple project created with XForms, meant to be a free Linux clone of CDE. The program, a simple toolbar, was released by Fourdan to ibiblio (then "SunSITE"), and the community showed an impressive demand for expansion of the project.^[2]

[edit] 2.x Versions

Fourdan continued developing the project, and in 1998, Xfce 2.x was released with the first version of Xfce's window manager, Xfwm. He requested to have the project included in Red Hat Linux, but was refused because the project was based on XForms. Redhat only accepted software that was free and open source, but, at the time, XForms was closed source and free only for personal use.^[2]

[edit] 3.x Versions

XForms, the proprietary library that Xfce was based on, was limiting the progress of the project. The popularity of the GTK+ toolkit was increasing, and Fourdan saw it as a fitting replacement. In March of 1999, he scrapped the old Xfce and began a complete rewrite of the project based on GTK+. The result was Xfce 3.0, which was licensed under the GNU GPL. Along with being based completely on open-source software, the project gained many benefits from using the GTK+ libraries, including drag-and-drop support, native language support, and improved configurability. Xfce was uploaded to SourceForge in February of 2001, starting with version 3.8.1.^[3]

[edit] 4.x Versions

Thunar, Xfce's file manager from version 4.4.0 onwards.

Xfce made a major jump in version 4.2.0 - it was upgraded to the GTK+ 2 libraries. There were many other major changes made in this version as well, including a compositing manager for Xfwm and a new default SVG icon set.^[4] In January of 2007, Xfce 4.4.0 was released. A notable feature of this release was the inclusion of the Thunar file manager, a replacement for the aging Xffm. This release also featured many improvements to the "eye candy" aspect of the desktop: Xfwm gained built-in support for transparency and drop shadows, and support for desktop icons was added. Also, various improvements were made to the panel to prevent buggy plugins from crashing the whole panel.^[5]

[edit] Xfce applications

Xfce also provides a development framework for applications. Other than Xfce itself, there are third-party programs which use the Xfce libraries, most notably the Mousepad text editor, Xfmedia audio player and Terminal.

The window manager of Xfce, Xfwm4, is unique in that starting with version 4.2 it integrates its own compositing manager. Other compositing managers exist, but have been rather unstable, and Xfce was the first to integrate its own compositing manager into the window manager. At its inception, many users called it the most stable one available, though at the time, in late 2004, xcompmgr was the only other compositing manager available.

Thunar is the default file manager for Xfce, replacing the earlier Xffm. It resembles Nautilus and is designed for speed and a low memory footprint.^[6] Xfce also has a lightweight archive manager called Xarchiver.

Other Xfce components include:

Xfmedia, a xine-based media player for Xfce
Xfprint, a print manager
Xfburn, a CD/DVD burner

[edit] Xfce distributions

Xfce running on OpenBSD 3.9

Xfce is not as common in Linux distributions as KDE and GNOME. Few distributions include Xfce as their default desktop environment, though most include it as an optional component.

Some distributions which include Xfce by default: