Xfce Forum

dollyp

Member

Registered: 2014-03-09

Posts: 35

Version of Xfce in Mint and Xubuntu

I'm currently using Mint16 with Xfce 4.10. The new Mint17 has just been released and I see that it still has Xfce 4.10 whereas Xubuntu has 4.11.6. Although I realise that development of Xfce is slow (and that may not be a disadvantage) I wondered what the main differences are between 4.10 and 4.11.6 and whether they are in any way substantial.

Also given that Mint plans to stay with Ubuntu 14.04 for a couple of years would I be better to move now to Xubuntu to gain future improvements to Xfce?

Regards
David

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Linux Mint 17 Xfce
Lenovo IdeaPad U410

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,486

Re: Version of Xfce in Mint and Xubuntu

I wondered what the main differences are between 4.10 and 4.11.6 and whether they are in any way substantial.

Xubuntu's Xfce 4.11 is basically 4.10 with some cherry-picked changes from the git tree. Think of it as a development release. Off the top of my head, Xfce-specific 4.11 changes include:
- Desktop wallpaper management changes - the whole module was updated and now deals with image lists differently and allows for wallpaper/workspace customizations
- The display utility was updated - monitor hotplugging is now supported.
- The window manager now supports screen zooming and window 1/2 screen maximize snapping.
- Updated keyboard shortcuts to better support multimedia keyboards
- There was an update to the parole media player that fixed a number of bugs
- xfce4-panel now supports GTK3 indicators
- xfce4-power-manager support for systemd
- sync-to-vblank support
- plus a large number of bug fixes

Also given that Mint plans to stay with Ubuntu 14.04 for a couple of years would I be better to move now to Xubuntu to gain future improvements to Xfce?

I'm not sure what Mint's plans are regarding Xfce, but Xubuntu tends to stay more on the bleeding edge of Xfce development, so you'll generally see the newer features there. Plus a lot of effort goes into integrating and ensuring that the new features work well.

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