Xfce 4.18 Released - Much Improved File Manager, Better HiDPI, Adaptive Vsync With GLX

After nearly two years of development the Xfce 4.18 desktop environment was released today with a wide assortment of improvements.

Xfce 4.18 is a collection of two years worth of changes from many refinements to its Thunar file manager, various window manager / compositor enhancements, and a lot of random polishing throughout. This is rather an evolutionary update for this GTK-based open-source desktop environment with a wide range of different fixes collected over this time, including two summers worth of Google Summer of Code student projects.

Xfce developer Alexander Schwinn shows off some of the Thunar file manager improvements in Xfce 4.18.

Some of the Xfce 4.18 changes include:

- Xfce's settings area has improved with improved searching, minor enhancements to the display settings area, and other refinements.

- Various enhancements to Xfce's Thunar file manager, including adding of an image preview pane. Thunar has also added undo and redo functionality, highlighting files with specific colors, optional split panes, and finally the ability to recursively search directories.

- Improved handling for managing of Xfce's Default Applications.

- The xfce4-appfinder has added support for the "PrefersNonDefaultGPU" property for better app handling on hybrid / multi-GPU systems.

- The Xfwm4 window manager / compositor now supports Adaptive Vsync with GLX.

- Improved support for UI scaling that is particularly useful for HiDPI displays.

- All header bars of Xfce windows/dialogs by default will be drawn by the Xfwm4 window manager but there is now an Xfconf setting for some dialogs that optionally support GtkHeaderBar client-side decorations.

- XfceShortcutsEditor is added as a shortcut editor to have a GUI-driven means of modifying component-specific shortcuts. The XfceShortcutsEditor is used by the Thunar file manager, Xfce's terminal, and Mousepad text editor.

- Performance improvements to Xfce's thumbnailer along with other improvements to that code.

- Xfce's prior DateTime and Clock plugins have been merged into a single new Clock plugin.

- Introduction of the XfceFilenameInput widget for easily inputting filenames to better deal with creating new empty files and avoiding invalid filename issues.

See the lengthy write-up about Xfce 4.18 changes via this blog post by Xfce developer Alexander Schwinn.