[Solved] About future of XFCE

Migilenik · 2011-11-10 17:28:19

Hi, i replaced GNOME'S HELL in my Debian Wheezy for a XFCE 4.8. But I had to install many GNOME3 components, because XFCE analogy 1) does not exist or 2) isn't working.

Example:

1) tool for managing users - or is there some XFCE analogy for this?
2) Ristretto and XDM - I dont know why, but Ristretto can't browse images in folder. I have to Open and Close one by one. GodDamn. With XDM i cant shut down (or put to sleep) my notebook. I found something about "XDM cant register a session bla bla bla".

!! This was not a problem until now. What was missing or not working, we could replace with GNOME app.!!

BUT i read a roadmap:

As discussed on the xfce4-dev mailing list; Xfce 4.10 will depend on Gtk+ 2.20 and won't be ported to Gtk+ 3.0 until after the 4.10 release. Reason for this is that both Gtk+ 3.0 is not fully stable when 4.10 entered the development stage and because in 4.8 the porting to GIO/libxfce4ui/polkit/consolekit took more time then expected, so this this release is all about polishing and focus on what matters to users.

It smells like incomplete Desktop Environment, which is not compatible with DE, serving as source of working analogies.

I'm not a Hater. I'm just scared from this situation. In Debian is KDE still unstable, GNOME is gone and XFCE is incomplete. And future isn't looking well. Another DEs not worth mentioning.

So, have you plans, how fix these problems, or i have truth about what is waiting for us?

angstrom · 2011-11-10 17:46:33

Migilenik wrote:

I'm not a Hater. I'm just scared from this situation. In Debian is KDE still unstable, GNOME is gone and XFCE is incomplete. And future isn't looking well. Another DEs not worth mentioning.

Yeah, it's the end of the world in 2012 anyway so ...
For image viewer, search the forum, there is a post about it. Otherwise, I use gthumb.
For login manager, use Slim or LightDM
For user manager : I don't know.

xfcelav · 2011-11-10 20:55:47

It happens something like you with Ristretto. Use LightDM, but SLiM is a good choice. I was thinking that you can use GPicView, but I was making a mistake by putting the images at 100%.

the98 · 2011-11-11 02:06:04

I'm not using Wheezy right now, but I think it sucks in every way. I mean some packages are too old, and other are too new. That's what happens with Gnome 3 and KDE 4. You can't make a "clean" transition. You have to depend on Sid's repositories and Experimental repositories.

I'm under Sid right now, and for Xfce, it works great. Ristretto has had a new update just recently and it's amazing how nice and improved it is. I mean, you can navigate through pictures using the arrows!!!

So my advice is, upgrade to Sid. It's not unstable and/or unusable, and thing get fixed before than Testing. Besides, if you have a problem with a package, you can just update from Experimental and that usually solves it. Although I've been using Sid for a while now and I hardly ever had to that (mostly with Iceweasel and all the version changes that happened this year).

Anyway, that's the advice I can give you.

Good Luck!

Migilenik · 2011-11-12 09:03:05

OK, i tried it again. Almost GTK2 only, and it's fine and working.

Managing users - not necessary
DM - LightDM, nice, easy, some gtk3 dependencies, but not much
Simple-scan - ok, i can live with xsane, it's not so horrible
Ristretto - stupid application, i installed Mirage. GTK2, works nicely.
Quod Libet - i don't like this app. But Listen is fine, GTK2 and only few dependencies.
Mousepad - Gedit was better, but Geany is awesome.

Now I'm happy with my XFCE desktop.
Good list of analogies here.

demosthenese · 2011-11-12 16:31:02

LightDM has a regression at the moment in wheezy/sid that often prevents the mouse cursor appearing. This can result in you locking yourself out if you misenter your username - you will be stuck at the entering the password with no way of backing out. I would suggest editing the configuration to list users:

edit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf, locate the [SeatDefaults] section and change the following setting:

greeter-hide-users=false

This will prevent misentering of user names.

The latest Ristretto is better in sid, and will feed down into wheezy. However I too prefer Mirage as it allows cropping and resizing of images. But it too does not handle raw images, so I keep geeqie around for that.

scottbomb · 2011-11-15 21:19:02

I recommend "Image Viewer" - that's the actual name of the program in the software center. Works better than any other in my opinion.

P.S. that's in the Ubuntu software center... don't know if it works in straight Debian.

Last edited by scottbomb (2011-11-15 21:20:38)

Nick · 2011-11-16 09:49:01

FYI, gtk2 and gtk3 work fine together. In fact, application wise you probably won't even notice a different although not a lot of themes support both gtk2 and 3.

For accounts: yes there are some plans to add an accountservice plugin to xfce4-settings. Hopefully I get this working before 4.10. That will at least simplify managing users and their appearance in gdm and hopefully other login managers that adopt the feature.

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#1 2011-11-10 17:28:19

[Solved] About future of XFCE

#2 2011-11-10 17:46:33

Re: [Solved] About future of XFCE

#3 2011-11-10 20:55:47

Re: [Solved] About future of XFCE

#4 2011-11-11 02:06:04

Re: [Solved] About future of XFCE

#5 2011-11-12 09:03:05

Re: [Solved] About future of XFCE

#6 2011-11-12 16:31:02

Re: [Solved] About future of XFCE

#7 2011-11-15 21:19:02

Re: [Solved] About future of XFCE

#8 2011-11-16 09:49:01

Re: [Solved] About future of XFCE

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