Xfce Forum

AxisOS

Member

Registered: 2025-07-24

Posts: 3

Sharing 3 New Plugins to Modernize the XFCE Panel

Hello XFCE Community!

I'm excited to share three new panel plugins I've been working on. My goal is to create a series of plugins that give the XFCE panel a more modern look and feel, while staying true to XFCE's philosophy of being lightweight and fast.

I have more ideas in the pipeline, but I wanted to share my progress so far and get your valuable feedback. Here are the plugins:

1. XFCE Launcher Plugin

A modern, full-screen application launcher plugin for the XFCE Panel, inspired by macOS Launchpad. It provides a visually appealing and efficient way to access all your installed applications with a single click, transforming your desktop experience with a full-screen application grid.

Key Features:

    Visual Design

        Full-screen overlay: Covers your entire screen with a semi-transparent dark background.

        Grid layout: Applications are organized in a responsive grid that adapts to your screen size.

        Smooth animations: Hover effects and transitions provide visual feedback.

        Clean interface: Minimalist design that focuses on your applications.

    Functionality

        Instant search: Start typing to filter applications in real-time.

        Keyboard navigation: Use ESC to close, Enter to launch, and just type to search.

        Right-click context menu: Hide unwanted applications from view.

        Snap & Flatpak support: Automatically discovers and displays Snap and Flatpak applications.

        Live refresh: Automatically updates when applications are installed or uninstalled without a restart.

    Integration

        Panel integration: Adds seamlessly to your XFCE panel as a launcher button.

        Theme aware: Respects your GTK and system icon themes.

    Performance

        Lightweight: Minimal resource usage when not active.

        Fast loading: Applications are cached for instant display.

        Efficient rendering: Uses GTK3 for hardware-accelerated graphics.

2. xfce4-axisclock-plugin

A macOS-style clock plugin for the Xfce panel, featuring a clean design and calendar popup. This is a lightweight plugin that brings an elegant clock style to your panel, with a customizable time display and a beautiful calendar popup with transparency support.

Features:

    macOS-style Design: Clean and elegant clock display.

    Calendar Popup: Click on the clock to show a beautiful calendar widget.

    Customizable Time Format: Choose between 12-hour, 24-hour, or custom formats.

    Theme Support: Automatically adapts to your system's light or dark theme.

    Transparency Control: Adjust the calendar popup transparency to your preference.

    Font Customization: Use custom fonts for the clock display.

    Lightweight: Minimal resource usage.

3. XFCE4 Apple Menu Plugin

A panel plugin for XFCE4 that mimics the macOS Apple menu, providing a familiar and intuitive system menu experience for XFCE desktop users.

Features:

    🍎 Apple-style Menu: Familiar dropdown menu with Apple logo.

    💻 System Information: Quick access to system details ("About This Computer").

    📦 Package Management: A shortcut to launch your system's package manager ("App Store").

    📄 Recent Items: Track and access recently used files and applications.

    ⚡ Quick Actions: Sleep, Restart, Shut Down, Lock Screen, and Log Out.

    🎨 Themeable: Supports GTK+ theming and custom icons.

Downloads and Source Code

You can find all my projects on my GitHub profile, and download them directly from Pling.

    My GitHub Profile: https://github.com/Axis0S
   
    Pling Downloads:

        XFCE Launcher Plugin: https://www.pling.com/p/2303338/

        AxisClock Plugin: https://www.pling.com/p/2303779/

        Apple Menu Plugin: https://www.pling.com/p/2303356/

I plan to continue developing more plugins to enhance the XFCE experience. All feedback, bug reports, and suggestions are highly welcome! Please let me know what you think.

Thank you for your time!

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,123

Re: Sharing 3 New Plugins to Modernize the XFCE Panel

Hello and welcome.

Always excited about new potential add-ons to Xfce, but I'm curious how these plugins are different from already existing ones - perhaps you can comment on the differences?

XFCE Panel Full Screen Launcher Plugin - This looks/acts alot like xfdashboard.

AxisClock - This looks/acts like the existing clock plugin.

macOS Style Apple Logo Menu - You can achieve something similar using the applicationsmenu plugin with a custom menu.

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AxisOS

Member

Registered: 2025-07-24

Posts: 3

Re: Sharing 3 New Plugins to Modernize the XFCE Panel

1. Well, I disagree that my launcher works like xfdashboard, from what I understand, I've never used it, xfdasboard is a kind of shell for xfce, my plugin is nothing more than an application launcher with an application search engine, it works on the same principle as the gnome launcher, many plasmoids for kde or macos launcher, displays applications in a 6x5 grid on one page, it is a plugin for the xfce panel, not a separate application, and from what I noticed on reddit it is quite popular. https://www.reddit.com/r/xfce/comments/ … launchpad/

2. I won't comment on my watch plugin, as there's not much left to invent in this area. I simply wanted a watch plugin with a nice-looking calendar pop-up. No offense, but I don't really like the original plugin for aesthetic reasons.

3. As for the apple menu or if you prefer the logo menu, well I like the idea of this menu and every DE, Gnome or KDE has some plugin that imitates this menu, I couldn't find anything similar in XFCE so I created it myself.

Each of my plugins has a relatively modern look with adjustable transparency levels. Not everyone will like it, but since I created them anyway, I wanted to share them with the community so everyone can choose whether to use the well-known XFCE plugins or something newer.

gnanvofredy

Member

Registered: 2025-07-25

Posts: 2

Re: Sharing 3 New Plugins to Modernize the XFCE Panel

It's really exciting to see new plugins being developed! Thanks for sharing your creative work with the community.

oldrust

Member

Registered: 2021-01-05

Posts: 18

Re: Sharing 3 New Plugins to Modernize the XFCE Panel

What XFCE is missing is a color temperature adjustment panel plugin (Redshift like). That would be a nice addition.

AxisOS

Member

Registered: 2025-07-24

Posts: 3

Re: Sharing 3 New Plugins to Modernize the XFCE Panel

well, I have a lot of free time, so I'm waiting for any suggestions, the best of them will be turned into plugins

gogogadget

Member

From: EU

Registered: 2023-03-19

Posts: 39

Re: Sharing 3 New Plugins to Modernize the XFCE Panel

What XFCE is missing is a color temperature adjustment panel plugin (Redshift like).

You have Xfce Night Mode, that use a genmon plugin.

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EndeavourOS
Xfce+gtk3-classic (no CSD)+Picom