Features Coming For The Imminent Xfce 4.12 Release

[Steve DL]

Would be nice if they upgraded the looks of the UI. XFCE is probably the best UI there is on Linux. Then Mate and then Cinnamon. But in terms of how UI's look then XFCE looks like Windows 95. Cinnamon looks like Windows 2000. KDE looks like Windows XP. While Gnome 3 and Unity look very modern and pleasant to the eye. To bad they're frustrating to use compared to the rest.

You can use Greybird for a more modern look. One of the difficulties in deciding whether Xfce should have a new default theme was that GTK+3's themeing engine has not stabilised until now (well, hopefully). The people making the themes want to wait and see that GTK+3's themeing won't change before writing a theme that provides identical looks for both GTK+2 and GTK+3. In the meantime, you can fully customise the GTK+2 and GTK+3 themes, the fonts, the icons, the panel's look, the wallpapers (per monitor/workspace), the alt+tab menu, etc. There are a few more UI improvements that will be on their way in the next version (that could include workspace swap notifications, themable shutdown dialog).

[Steve DL]

Is CSD only supported if you use Xfwm4's compositor? If so, have they significantly improved the compositor? Because it sucked in 4.10.

Yes, only with xfwm4. These are the main changes: HiDPI theme, full CSD support, corner tiling, new alt+tab, VSync support, bunch of UX fixes, support for titleless maximise. There are many more commits/fixes, waiting for the final changelog.

[Steve DL]

I'm a little disappointed XFCE hasn't progressed more than this. Its arguably the most balanced DE in terms of features, performance, stability/reliability, and system resources. But with wayland around the corner and GTK2 gathering a thin layer of dust, it might get left behind.

Libxfce4ui can be built with GTK+3. The panel also runs with GTK+3 plugins. Apart from Thunar which has a lot of code, most apps will be fairly trivial to port. 4.14 will be dedicated to that.

[curaga]

What do you guys mean by 2D vs 3D acceleration? If it's done using OpenGL, it's hardware accelerated (using GPU), no matter 2D or 3D.

2d accel = something usable by a 2d card, meaning XRender, pure X, directfb, so on and so on. GL is not accelerated when run on swrast/softpipe/llvmpipe.

[SystemCrasher]

Seriously, who cares how it looks like? A DE's or WM's first and most important function is to support you in your work without getting in the way.

I do. Using good-looking user interface is more fun than using some scrap metal^W bytes. IMO, it is not too much fun to use shitty-looking programs, DEs or systems.