Xfce 4.12, One Week Away
After what seems like an eternity, a new release of Xfce is finally just around the corner. Xfce 4.10 was released in 2012, and since then, development has happened in small bursts for each project. Once a release date was set, interest spiked, and development was along with it.
ToZ on the Xfce Forums and Skunnyk in his blog (parts 1, 2, and 3) have recorded the continued development. Both are worth a look to see how far Xfce has come in recent months. If you’re looking for screenshots, you’ll find a few at those links and a gallery at the end of this post.
With just one week until the determined release date (February 28), string freeze is behind us, and all that remains is bug fixes. If you’ve got some development skills, why not swing by the Xfce Bugzilla and provide some patches? Your patches have the best chance of being noticed and merged right now, so your hard work won’t go to waste! And development is not the only way to contribute…
Areas for Contribution
Check out the Xfce Contribute page for more details.
- Fixing “ easy,“ “ critical,“ and any other bugs you never want to see again
- Reviewing bugs and patches: Some bugs date back to 2007, and there is a good possibility they are no longer valid. If you don’t think one applies any longer, comment on it indicating as much.
- Testing: With the sudden influx of fixes and new releases, we need testers more than ever. Try the new releases and let us know if you see anything… odd.
- Translations: Is your native language missing from Xfce? Is the choice of words not quite right? Help us out!
Screenshots
The following screenshots are not an exhaustive list of the new features but rather a select list of highlights in the upcoming release.















News from Xfce 4.12, part 3
A bunch of news from the development of Xfce 4.12 !
Since my previous post in november (read it !) , many things have happened.
First, the most awaited news … wait for it… a date has been decided ! 4.12 will released by the last week end of February 2015 ! (yes, 1 week from now)
Now, I would like to draw your attention to a list of threads on the xfce4-dev mailist :
- Listing our current forces : This thread has helped a lot to grant privileges on git, bugzilla and xfce internal services to more people. Now it’s easier to give access to a new contributors !
- A proposition to do regular releases for translation updates
- A Xfce mirror is now available on GitHub
- Discussions around the 4.12 default Gtk+ theme. Maybe the ’new’ xfce-refresh from ochosi
- About gtk-xfce-engine, the decision has been made to drop the gtk3 engine part completely, and leave creating themes to themers https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-dev/2015-February/031084.html
- Participation to GSoC 2015 ?
- In order to attract new contributors to Xfce, a “list of easy bugs” is now available on the wiki
- 4.12 String freeze will be the 20 February to let translators do their job https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-dev/2015-February/031127.html
- New discussion about the port to GTK3. Note: some components (libxfce4ui, xfce4-panel etc) already have a partial support of gtk3.
- In other news, Graeme Gott’s Whisker Menu plugin is now an official Xfce project! Andrzej’s PulseAudio plugin also joining the family!
- The critical bug list has almost been eradicated, huge congrats to all developpers :)
Core Apps :
xfce4-panel :
- The intelligent panel hiding feature (see my previous post) has been released in 4.11.2 !
xfwm4 :
Oh wow, many commits, such features ! You can read the 4.11.3 announcement here
- Add titleless maximization feature.
- Client Side Decoration (CSD) support ! (Compositor need to be enabled). A screenshot with and without on gedit (an application that need CSD)

- Windows preview in alt+tab (Compositor need to be enabled too).

- Nice, right ? :)
xfce4-settings :
- Release of 4.11.4
- Add touchpad support with libinput (yes, already !)
- Better monitor and multi monitor support
- Add Gtk+ theme palettes in the appearance dialog (see screenshot)
- Add previews for icon themes in appearance settings (see screenshot)

xfce4-session :
- Bugfixes, bugfixes, bugfixes !
- The “logind runtime detection to support suspend/hibernate” patch has been merged.
- Release of 4.11.1
thunar :
- Add support for the GTK 3 bookmarks file,
- Bugfixes, support for binary file size units
- Release of 1.6.4
gtk-xfce-engine :
xfce4-dev-tools :
- Fixes, dependencies update etc
- Release of 4.11.1
xfconf :
- Not many exciting changes for this release, mostly translation updates, small fixes and code tweaks.. 4.11.0
Apps :
xfce4-screenshooter :
- Support of imgur uploads ! Yes !

- Release of 1.8.2 . Thank gaston !
xfce4-taskmanager :
- Big cleanup of UI, with new treeview mode, general UI/graph overhaul and lot of bugfixes)

- Release of 1.1.0 with all theses changes. Thanks gaston, ochosi and Cavalier
xfce4-power-manager :
- The famous “Please bring back the tray icon” bug got some attention, with a patch from Eric to re-add a tray icon, it need extended testing though
- Release of 1.4.2
Panel Plugins :
Some love for panel plugins, from Harald Judt and Landry Breuil, mostly build/bugfixes and translations updates :
- xfce4-systemload-plugin 1.1.3 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-November/000343.html
- xfce4-netload-plugin 1.2.4 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-November/000344.html
- xfce4-weather-plugin 0.8.5 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-December/000347.html
- xfce4-eyes-plugin 4.4.3 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-December/000348.html
- xfce4-cpufreq-plugin 1.1.1 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-December/000349.html
- xfce4-verve-plugin 1.0.1 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2015-January/000355.html
- xfce4-indicator-plugin 2.3.3 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2015-January/000352.html
As you can see, xfce development is more active than ever !
So be prepared to be amazed by 4.12 in a few weeks !
Sources :
- The #xfce-dev IRC chan on Freenode, THE place to be.
- Xfce4 dev list
- Thanks to ToZ on the xfce forum
News from Xfce 4.12, part 3
A bunch of news from the development of Xfce 4.12 !
Since my previous post in november (read it !) , many things have happened.
First, the most awaited news … wait for it… a date has been decided ! 4.12 will released by the last week end of February 2015 ! (yes, 1 week from now)
Now, I would like to draw your attention to a list of threads on the xfce4-dev mailist :
- Listing our current forces : This thread has helped a lot to grant privileges on git, bugzilla and xfce internal services to more people. Now it’s easier to give access to a new contributors !
- A proposition to do regular releases for translation updates
- A Xfce mirror is now available on GitHub
- Discussions around the 4.12 default Gtk+ theme. Maybe the ‘new’ xfce-refresh from ochosi
- About gtk-xfce-engine, the decision has been made to drop the gtk3 engine part completely, and leave creating themes to themers https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-dev/2015-February/031084.html
- Participation to GSoC 2015 ?
- In order to attract new contributors to Xfce, a “list of easy bugs” is now available on the wiki
- 4.12 String freeze will be the 20 February to let translators do their job https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-dev/2015-February/031127.html
- New discussion about the port to GTK3. Note: some components (libxfce4ui, xfce4-panel etc) already have a partial support of gtk3.
- In other news, Graeme Gott’s Whisker Menu plugin is now an official Xfce project! Andrzej’s PulseAudio plugin also joining the family!
- The critical bug list has almost been eradicated, huge congrats to all developpers :)
Core Apps :
xfce4-panel :
- The intelligent panel hiding feature (see my previous post) has been released in 4.11.2 !
xfwm4 :
Oh wow, many commits, such features ! You can read the 4.11.3 announcement here
- Add titleless maximization feature.
- Client Side Decoration (CSD) support ! (Compositor need to be enabled). A screenshot with and without on gedit (an application that need CSD)

- Windows preview in alt+tab (Compositor need to be enabled too).

- Nice, right ? :)
xfce4-settings :
- Release of 4.11.4
- Add touchpad support with libinput (yes, already !)
- Better monitor and multi monitor support
- Add Gtk+ theme palettes in the appearance dialog (see screenshot)
- Add previews for icon themes in appearance settings (see screenshot)

xfce4-session :
- Bugfixes, bugfixes, bugfixes !
- The “logind runtime detection to support suspend/hibernate” patch has been merged.
- Release of 4.11.1
thunar :
- Add support for the GTK 3 bookmarks file,
- Bugfixes, support for binary file size units
- Release of 1.6.4
gtk-xfce-engine :
xfce4-dev-tools :
- Fixes, dependencies update etc
- Release of 4.11.1
xfconf :
- Not many exciting changes for this release, mostly translation updates, small fixes and code tweaks.. 4.11.0
Apps :
xfce4-screenshooter :
- Support of imgur uploads ! Yes !

- Release of 1.8.2 . Thank gaston !
xfce4-taskmanager :
- Big cleanup of UI, with new treeview mode, general UI/graph overhaul and lot of bugfixes)

- Release of 1.1.0 with all theses changes. Thanks gaston, ochosi and Cavalier
xfce4-power-manager :
- The famous “Please bring back the tray icon” bug got some attention, with a patch from Eric to re-add a tray icon, it need extended testing though
- Release of 1.4.2
Panel Plugins :
Some love for panel plugins, from Harald Judt and Landry Breuil, mostly build/bugfixes and translations updates :
- xfce4-systemload-plugin 1.1.3 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-November/000343.html
- xfce4-netload-plugin 1.2.4 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-November/000344.html
- xfce4-weather-plugin 0.8.5 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-December/000347.html
- xfce4-eyes-plugin 4.4.3 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-December/000348.html
- xfce4-cpufreq-plugin 1.1.1 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-December/000349.html
- xfce4-verve-plugin 1.0.1 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2015-January/000355.html
- xfce4-indicator-plugin 2.3.3 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2015-January/000352.html
As you can see, xfce development is more active than ever !
So be prepared to be amazed by 4.12 in a few weeks !
Sources :
- The #xfce-dev IRC chan on Freenode, THE place to be.
- Xfce4 dev list
- Thanks to ToZ on the xfce forum
News from Xfce 4.12, part 3
A bunch of news from the development of Xfce 4.12 !
Since my previous post in november (read it !) , many things have happened.
First, the most awaited news … wait for it… a date has been decided ! 4.12 will released by the last week end of February 2015 ! (yes, 1 week from now)
Now, I would like to draw your attention to a list of threads on the xfce4-dev mailist :
- Listing our current forces : This thread has helped a lot to grant privileges on git, bugzilla and xfce internal services to more people. Now it’s easier to give access to a new contributors !
- A proposition to do regular releases for translation updates
- A Xfce mirror is now available on GitHub
- Discussions around the 4.12 default Gtk+ theme. Maybe the ‘new’ xfce-refresh from ochosi
- About gtk-xfce-engine, the decision has been made to drop the gtk3 engine part completely, and leave creating themes to themers https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-dev/2015-February/031084.html
- Participation to GSoC 2015 ?
- In order to attract new contributors to Xfce, a “list of easy bugs” is now available on the wiki
- 4.12 String freeze will be the 20 February to let translators do their job https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-dev/2015-February/031127.html
- New discussion about the port to GTK3. Note: some components (libxfce4ui, xfce4-panel etc) already have a partial support of gtk3.
- In other news, Graeme Gott’s Whisker Menu plugin is now an official Xfce project! Andrzej’s PulseAudio plugin also joining the family!
- The critical bug list has almost been eradicated, huge congrats to all developpers :)
Core Apps :
xfce4-panel :
- The intelligent panel hiding feature (see my previous post) has been released in 4.11.2 !
xfwm4 :
Oh wow, many commits, such features ! You can read the 4.11.3 announcement here
- Add titleless maximization feature.
- Client Side Decoration (CSD) support ! (Compositor need to be enabled). A screenshot with and without on gedit (an application that need CSD)

- Windows preview in alt+tab (Compositor need to be enabled too).

- Nice, right ? :)
xfce4-settings :
- Release of 4.11.4
- Add touchpad support with libinput (yes, already !)
- Better monitor and multi monitor support
- Add Gtk+ theme palettes in the appearance dialog (see screenshot)
- Add previews for icon themes in appearance settings (see screenshot)

xfce4-session :
- Bugfixes, bugfixes, bugfixes !
- The “logind runtime detection to support suspend/hibernate” patch has been merged.
- Release of 4.11.1
thunar :
- Add support for the GTK 3 bookmarks file,
- Bugfixes, support for binary file size units
- Release of 1.6.4
gtk-xfce-engine :
xfce4-dev-tools :
- Fixes, dependencies update etc
- Release of 4.11.1
xfconf :
- Not many exciting changes for this release, mostly translation updates, small fixes and code tweaks.. 4.11.0
Apps :
xfce4-screenshooter :
- Support of imgur uploads ! Yes !

- Release of 1.8.2 . Thank gaston !
xfce4-taskmanager :
- Big cleanup of UI, with new treeview mode, general UI/graph overhaul and lot of bugfixes)

- Release of 1.1.0 with all theses changes. Thanks gaston, ochosi and Cavalier
xfce4-power-manager :
- The famous “Please bring back the tray icon” bug got some attention, with a patch from Eric to re-add a tray icon, it need extended testing though
- Release of 1.4.2
Panel Plugins :
Some love for panel plugins, from Harald Judt and Landry Breuil, mostly build/bugfixes and translations updates :
- xfce4-systemload-plugin 1.1.3 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-November/000343.html
- xfce4-netload-plugin 1.2.4 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-November/000344.html
- xfce4-weather-plugin 0.8.5 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-December/000347.html
- xfce4-eyes-plugin 4.4.3 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-December/000348.html
- xfce4-cpufreq-plugin 1.1.1 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-December/000349.html
- xfce4-verve-plugin 1.0.1 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2015-January/000355.html
- xfce4-indicator-plugin 2.3.3 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2015-January/000352.html
As you can see, xfce development is more active than ever !
So be prepared to be amazed by 4.12 in a few weeks !
Sources :
- The #xfce-dev IRC chan on Freenode, THE place to be.
- Xfce4 dev list
- Thanks to ToZ on the xfce forum
News from Xfce 4.12, part 3
A bunch of news from the development of Xfce 4.12 !
Since my previous post in november (read it !) , many things have happened.
First, the most awaited news ... wait for it... a date has been decided ! 4.12 will released by the last week end of February 2015 ! (yes, 1 week from now)
Now, I would like to draw your attention to a list of threads on the xfce4-dev mailist :
- Listing our current forces : This thread has helped a lot to grant privileges on git, bugzilla and xfce internal services to more people. Now it's easier to give access to a new contributors !
- A proposition to do regular releases for translation updates
- A Xfce mirror is now available on GitHub
- Discussions around the 4.12 default Gtk+ theme. Maybe the 'new' xfce-refresh from ochosi
- About gtk-xfce-engine, the decision has been made to drop the gtk3 engine part completely, and leave creating themes to themers https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-dev/2015-February/031084.html
- Participation to GSoC 2015 ?
- In order to attract new contributors to Xfce, a "list of easy bugs" is now available on the wiki
- 4.12 String freeze will be the 20 February to let translators do their job https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-dev/2015-February/031127.html
- New discussion about the port to GTK3. Note: some components (libxfce4ui, xfce4-panel etc) already have a partial support of gtk3.
- In other news, Graeme Gott's Whisker Menu plugin is now an official Xfce project! Andrzej's PulseAudio plugin also joining the family!
- The critical bug list has almost been eradicated, huge congrats to all developpers :)
Core Apps :
xfce4-panel :
- The intelligent panel hiding feature (see my previous post) has been released in 4.11.2 !
xfwm4 :
Oh wow, many commits, such features ! You can read the 4.11.3 announcement here
- Add titleless maximization feature.
- Client Side Decoration (CSD) support ! (Compositor need to be enabled). A screenshot with and without on gedit (an application that need CSD)

- Windows preview in alt+tab (Compositor need to be enabled too).

- Nice, right ? :)
xfce4-settings :
- Release of 4.11.4
- Add touchpad support with libinput (yes, already !)
- Better monitor and multi monitor support
- Add Gtk+ theme palettes in the appearance dialog (see screenshot)
- Add previews for icon themes in appearance settings (see screenshot)

xfce4-session :
- Bugfixes, bugfixes, bugfixes !
- The "logind runtime detection to support suspend/hibernate" patch has been merged.
- Release of 4.11.1
thunar :
- Add support for the GTK 3 bookmarks file,
- Bugfixes, support for binary file size units
- Release of 1.6.4
gtk-xfce-engine :
xfce4-dev-tools :
- Fixes, dependencies update etc
- Release of 4.11.1
xfconf :
- Not many exciting changes for this release, mostly translation updates, small fixes and code tweaks.. 4.11.0
Apps :
xfce4-screenshooter :
- Support of imgur uploads ! Yes !

- Release of 1.8.2 . Thank gaston !
xfce4-taskmanager :
- Big cleanup of UI, with new treeview mode, general UI/graph overhaul and lot of bugfixes)

- Release of 1.1.0 with all theses changes. Thanks gaston, ochosi and Cavalier
xfce4-power-manager :
- The famous "Please bring back the tray icon" bug got some attention, with a patch from Eric to re-add a tray icon, it need extended testing though
- Release of 1.4.2
Panel Plugins :
Some love for panel plugins, from Harald Judt and Landry Breuil, mostly build/bugfixes and translations updates :
- xfce4-systemload-plugin 1.1.3 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-November/000343.html
- xfce4-netload-plugin 1.2.4 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-November/000344.html
- xfce4-weather-plugin 0.8.5 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-December/000347.html
- xfce4-eyes-plugin 4.4.3 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-December/000348.html
- xfce4-cpufreq-plugin 1.1.1 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2014-December/000349.html
- xfce4-verve-plugin 1.0.1 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2015-January/000355.html
- xfce4-indicator-plugin 2.3.3 https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce-announce/2015-January/000352.html
As you can see, xfce development is more active than ever !
So be prepared to be amazed by 4.12 in a few weeks !
Sources :
- The #xfce-dev IRC chan on Freenode, THE place to be.
- Xfce4 dev list
- Thanks to ToZ on the xfce forum