Xfce Forum

jhhoward

Member

Registered: 2007-03-13

Posts: 1

Feature requests to the developers

I did not see any particular section where I could submit feature requests, so I am starting a topic on this forum.
I read about XFCE 4.4 in a Linux magazine, and as a Ubuntu user I decided to try it out. It has been a while since I've used XFCE and I have to say the project is really progressing well and is becoming a solid desktop environment. However, I noticed a few things that I thought were missing from the environment which would be quite useful for the next releases.

Firstly Thunar:
I found thunar a great file manager, its plain and simple and very easy to use. This is one of my favourite aspects of the XFCE desktop. However there are a few things missing:
- No networking view support. There is no 'network places' or similar item on the side panel. It would be great to browse the network in this way, or a go->networking
- No 'computer' view. This isn't as essential as the network view but would not take too much effort to implement.

The desktop:
It's great to see that XFCE now supports the system desktop icons. I found it a bit of a pain trying to enable this on Xubuntu and it took me a while digging through some forum posts before I found out how to enable them. An extra tab on the desktop settings to enable these would be perfect.
- Multiple file select using a dragged rectangle. I was quite surprised this feature isn't already existing
- Configure icon spacing

The menu system:
This is probably one of the main reasons I can't see myself switching over to XFCE just yet. The XFCE menu looks sort of scrawny with small icons and little spacing between items. I quite like GNOME's approach with the larger icon set.
- Places. There should be an option to view a 'places' menu much like GNOME and KDE. I find this extremely useful in my current GNOME environment. This could quite simply list the same items that are on Thunar's side panel. A recent documents tab would also be useful.
- Customisation. I tried to customise the menus and it was a terrible mess trying to change the smallest thing. The applications cannot be moved without editing the .desktop files. I also prefer that the system settings are kept as seperate as possible from the applications. This kind of makes sense and gives a much less cluttered view.

The compositor:
Great work on this point I think its a really nice touch to have a drop shadow behind windows and the transparency effects when moving windows. I've tried Beryl and Compiz before but they are far too unreliable at this stage. The only problem I have with the XFCE compositor is that my menus have garbled pixels for a split second before being drawn. This isn't a major problem but a bit ugly and unpolished.

I realise that a lot of the features that I have requested are already part of kde or gnome in particular. I suppose this could be down to my frequent use of the GNOME environment. I do find that XFCE is still a bit bare at the moment though.

If anyone knows a particular place to forward this message to the developers then please let me know
Thanks and keep up the good work,
James

blice

Member

Registered: 2007-03-12

Posts: 3

Re: Feature requests to the developers

I think this is a Good Idea: A single Feature-Request Thread, so anyone can post, what he/she misses.

Thunar: Browse Archives like Midnught Commander

Panel: Start x..nd X Session for Multi-Real-User systems

Systemtray for licq,amule an other software which like to use an tray-icon

weibullguy

Member

From: Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA

Registered: 2007-01-17

Posts: 37

Website

Re: Feature requests to the developers

Did you try this -> http://wiki.xfce.org/?  Scroll down to the "Feature requests" section for links.

---

1. Help the ReliaFree Project --> http://reliafree.sourceforge.net
2. Distribution --> Cross Linux from Scratch
3. Registered Linux user #413054
4. (C)LFS user #17727.
5. Ask smart --> http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/faqs/smart-questions.html

fatcat

Member

From: FI

Registered: 2004-05-11

Posts: 32

Re: Feature requests to the developers

or file them here: http://bugzilla.xfce.org/

blice

Member

Registered: 2007-03-12

Posts: 3

Re: Feature requests to the developers

Erh, a wiki is a bad place for things like feature request, it would never have come in my mind, to look at a wiki for a feature request - this is something that belongs in a forum/board

And Bugzilla is also the wrong place, its meant for posting bugs not for requests.

Nick

Dev

From: ~

Registered: 2005-02-17

Posts: 1,144

Website

Re: Feature requests to the developers

Well bugzilla _IS_ the best place for a feature request, esp. from the developers point of view, since you can stay in touch with the reporter, other people can joint the discussion and you can attach patches.

The forum is the worst place to request features, mostly because only me is reading all the posts and (I think) none of the other devs do that. The wiki gets a nice second place, but is also not a good place when you really want something new in Xfce.

Summary: Use bugzilla and lock this topic ;D

---

G+ Profile - Ohloh Profile