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masinick
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Joined: 03 Apr 2025
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
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 Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 9:08 pm Post subject: Xfce 4.6 ALPHA ('Pinkie') Released |
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Hello everybody,
After about 18 months of development, we are pleased to announce the release of Xfce 4.6 ALPHA, codename 'Pinkie'.
Xfce 4.6 is going to be the next major release of the Xfce desktop environment. The previous release was 4.4 with the last bugfix release being 4.4.2 released in December 2025.
The release schedule for Xfce 4.6 is available to the public on http://wiki.xfce.org/milestones_to_46.
What's new?
===========
Xfce 4.6 comes with a lot of new components, some of them replacing old code and some of them being completely new. A preliminary ChangeLog for the alpha release can be found at http://www.xfce.org/documentation/changelogs/4.5.90
There is also a page which contains general information about the components of Xfce 4.6 and changes that are supposed to go into 4.6:
http://wiki.xfce.org/general_info_46
Updated components:
* Thunar
* exo
* libxfce4util
* libxfcegui4
* xfce-utils
* xfce4-dev-tools
* xfce4-panel
* xfce4-session
* xfdesktop
* xfprint
* xfwm4
Replaced components:
* libxfce4mcs => xfconf
* xfce-mcs-manager => xfconf, xfce4-settings
* xfce-mcs-plugins => xfce4-settings
* xfce4-mixer => xfce4-mixer (rewrite)
* xfce4-appfinder => xfce4-appfinder (rewrite)
New components:
* libxfce4menu (used by xfdesktop and xfce4-appfinder)
Excerpt of new features:
* While Xfce 4.4 shipped a centralized settings storage system with dynamically loaded plugins, 4.6 features a D-Bus based settings
daemon (xfconfd). All settings dialogs are just standalone applications now which makes the whole platform more flexible. You can now much easier write a settings dialog and remove/add components from/to Xfce.
* In addition to xfconf and the settings dialogs being ported to xfconf, there will also be tools addressed to users who would you like to have direct access to the settings. There is a shell application xfconf-query which allows to list/get/set properties and a graphical settings editor is in development and will most likely be part of 4.6 as well.
* We have tried to make the keyboard shortcuts settings more transparent to the user. Shortcut themes have been completely dropped and there are dialogs now which help resolving conflicting shortcuts between xfce4-settings (command shortcuts) and xfwm4 (window manager shortcuts).
* The settings dialogs will be available as standalone apps but they will also support embedding into the main Xfce settings dialog which helps making the desktop less intrusive.
* In 4.4 xfdesktop used a pseudo-fd.o-compliant menu system. In 4.6 this is replaced by libxfce4menu which aims at implementing the fd.o menu spec. It's still in development but covers enough of the specification already to replace the old code.
* The volume control (xfce4-mixer) has been replaced with a completely new mixer based on GStreamer 0.10. This removes the need to maintain support code for different sound architectures and also provides some new features.
Base dependencies
=================
Xfce 4.6 is going to depend on GTK+ 2.10 and GLib 2.12. There are some optional features available with more recent versions like with the tooltips API of GTK+ 2.12. Some of the (optional or not optional) dependencies introduced by core components include:
* gstreamer 0.10
* gstreamer-plugins-base 0.10
* libnotify >= 0.4.0
* hal-storage >= 0.5.7
* libstartup-notification-1.0 >= 0.5
* libglade-2.0 >= 2.0.0
* dbus-glib-1 >= 0.72
* dbus-1 >= 1.0.0
* libwnck-1.0 >= 2.12
* cairo >= 1.0.0
* xrandr >= 1.1.0
For a complete list, look here:
http://wiki.xfce.org/general_info_46#dependencies
Known Issues
============
As this is a development-release, we do not claim it is perfect. Here is a list of issues we have already identified:
* Some Xfce Menu items are unsorted.
* xfdesktop and xfce4-menu-plugin can crash when installing new desktop files or icons.
* xfwm4 does not use the keyboard shortcuts configured in the settings dialog.
* xfce4-settings-editor cannot be used to edit settings.
It does show some of them though.
* Due to a bug in xfce4-settings-editor using the wrong API, it depends on glib 2.14 instead of 2.12.
* Workspaces settings dialog is missing the margins settings.
* Workspaces settings dialog cannot set workspace names.
* Icons for app launchers are not shown properly on the desktop.
* "Help" buttons in settings dialogs aren't hooked up yet.
Downloading Xfce 4.6 ALPHA
==========================
Getting excited? You can download xfce 4.6 alpha from here:
http://www.xfce.org/download/#unstable
We hope you have a lot of fun trying out this new Xfce. If you find any issues, don't hesitate to check out http://bugzilla.xfce.org/ and
look for the bug, or submit a new report if your issues are not already mentioned.
Kind regards,
The Xfce development team
Ps.
You might need to be a little patient until the mirrors have synced.
_______________________________________________
Xfce-announce mailing list
[email protected]
http://foo-projects.org/mailman/listinfo/xfce-announce |
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Germ
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masinick
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Joined: 03 Apr 2025
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
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| Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2025 12:55 am Post subject: |
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Yes indeed. I have not seen the output of this yet, but Debian Sid is bound to see this soon, so it won't be long before my sidux system gets this. I have other desktop and window managers to "cover for it" in case things are unstable for a while.  |
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JP
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Joined: 07 Jul 2025
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Location: Central Montana
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masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2025
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
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| Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2025 2:03 am Post subject: I will go with XFCE on sidux, will keep versions working |
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smxi WILL put a hold on any packages that have mismatched version numbers. Also, if there are any known bugs, smxi will also put a hold on them as well. I believe that is how the logic works. The script reviews the bug lists and version mismatch list and puts holds on those packages. The sidux guys, either slh or devil, have commented that smxi is not 100% reliable, but I would argue, "What is?" To me, smxi is the closest you can get with cutting edge software to using something that works. It has not caught me off guard in over a year now. I have been back in my house since September 2025 and I am pretty sure I was using my custom Debian Etch turned Sid, turned sidux by that time. I know for a fact that I went 100% true sidux by December, because my D600 has sidux, mostly because I had already been praising it and when I got the D600 in December I put sidux on it. Given that kind of a track record, I trust sidux and smxi. Before that, though, I have used Sid many times in the past. For a couple of years, I used Libranet with repositories turned Sid from Testing. I'd get about two years between failures that would take the network out of action, then I'd have to finally reinstall. But that was with no examination of the failure logs at all. Now with the sidux approach I have a much better chance of a system continuing to work for me and that has been the case. Other systems have failed from time to time, but not sidux, at least for me. That goes for XFCE as well on sidux.
I had a good Libranet implementation of XFCE 3.8.12, but when XFCE 4 first came out I found it too unstable, so I went to KDE for a few years. The V3+ years for KDE have been good years. KDE 4.1.1 is now looking tolerable for some basic stuff. I used it all weekend about a week ago.
I hope that XFCE 4.6 is solid and these rewrites do not lead to instability. If they do, I will use KDE 3.5.10, KDE 4.1.1, and IceWM, with maybe fvwm-crystal thrown in there and a bit of Fluxbox. |
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