Xfce

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(Redirected from XFCE)

{{Infobox_Software | name = Xfce | logo = Image:Xfce Logo.jpeg | screenshot = Image:Screenshot of 4.2.jpeg | caption = Xfce 4.2 showing Settings Manager and compositing effects (drop shadows behind windows and semi-transparent panel) | developer = Multiple developers, enumerated here | latest_release_version = 4.2.3.2 | latest_release_date = November 15, 2005 | operating_system = Cross-platform | genre = Desktop environment | license = GPL and LGPL | website = www.xfce.org }}

Xfce is a desktop environment for Unix and other Unix-like platforms, such as Linux, Solaris or BSD. Its configuration is entirely mouse-driven; the configuration files are hidden from the casual user. "Designed for productivity, it loads and executes applications fast, while conserving system resources." (Olivier Fourdan, creator)

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

Xfce is based on the [[GTK+]] 2.x toolkit. 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).

Xfwm is unique in 4.2 in that 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, and at its inception, many users called it the most stable one available. (At the time, in late 2004, xcompmgr was the only other compositing manager available.) It is, of course, worthy to note, that there are a few promising compositers that will surpass Xfwm, namely Xgl, but that they are still actively being developed (as of February 2006).

The name "Xfce" originally stood for "XForms Common Environment", but since then, Xfce was rewritten twice and doesn't use 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 doesn't 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" as Slackware has done in the past.

Thunar is the project name for what will be the future default file manager for Xfce. It resembles Nautilus and is designed for speed and a low memory footprint. [1]

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Xfce distributions

Xfce is not as common in Linux distributions as other desktop environments such as KDE and GNOME. Few distributions include Xfce as their default desktop environment, though most include it as an optional component. Image:OpenBSD39snapshotxfce.png Some distributions which include Xfce by default: