New Xfce Release and Other News
This blog has had little activity this year, but Xubuntu and Xfce projects have been quite active lately and released some interesting pieces. So I think it's time to become active here and contribute to the buzz.
Xfce news:
- Perhaps the most noteworthy recent event in the Xfce world is the release of Xfce 4.4.0. This version seems to have many usability improvements over previous releases. For example, as I understand from the visual tour, this new version comes with the also recently released Thunar Volume Manager (thunar-volman), which enables automatic management of removable drives and media. Even Xubuntu 6.06 (Dapper) users will notice many improvements like the new built-in compositor and trash bin support, just to name a couple. Unfortunately, this version is not available yet in Dapper repositories.
- For those thinking nothing is better than 4.2 branch, a bug fix release for the old Xfce 4.2 is available: Xfce 4.2.4. However, if you use Xubuntu this release is not for you because Xubuntu comes with the Xfce 4.4 beta 2 version (4.3.90.2) and it's better to upgrade to 4.4.0 version when available in repositories.
Xubuntu news:
- It was released Herd 2, the second alpha release of the next version of Xubuntu. Since this is an alpha release is for testing purposes only. I've not tested this alpha release yet but I hope the final release to install libnotify and a notification daemon for Xfce by default to benefit from the thunar-volman notifications among other things. In Dapper you have to do it manually.
- There's also a new mailing list for users, "for help and support with a bit of user discussion on the side". You may subscribe to the list to post any question or to answer if you are experienced enough. I think the mailing list format is not the best for computer newbies but it's a step in the right direction.
That's all for now. Hopefully this year will be quite active in the Xubuntu related area.
