No long creative break: XFCE 4. 16 appears less than a year and a half after the last issue despite the simultaneous move of the source code from Cgit to GitLab.

The conversion to The inviting, self-hosted GitLab has already paid off, because according to the abbreviated release notes, thanks to the more accessible infrastructure, a number of new developers have already taken part and thus ensured a very long changelog.

The collaboration brought XFCE a 22 percent higher number of changes in a shorter time than at the last output. About 280 of almost 1000 Individual changes affect only the core components of XFCE 4. 16 , which with the new version gets rid of further GTK2 rudiments in the code, welcomes client-side window decorations and allows a graduated scaling of the desktop elements. In addition to the hundreds of detail improvements, XFCE 4. 16 is a clearly visible innovation, a standardized set of symbols , which replaces the previous icon mix and follows the design recommendations of Freedesktop.org.

The resource requirements have remained roughly the same compared to the previous version. XFCE still occupies, without running programs and depending on the Linux distribution, between 350 and 500 MB. So it is a frugal desktop that is still not stingy on customization options.

Not only superficial: innovations in detail The window manager “xfwm4” now sets to GTK 3. 22 and the Compositor with its OpenGL extensions (GLX) has seen a large number of bug fixes. In multi-monitor mode, the task switcher of the Alt-Tab key combination is only shown on the screen defined as the primary.

Scaling with intermediate steps is useful for high pixel densities, including factors such as 1.5 to be able to adjust. So far, XFCE could maximally double the size of the graphic elements of GTK3 or QT5 / 6 applications. Now even user-defined scaling is possible, making XFCE a pleasant desktop on laptops with difficult resolutions. The list of recognized, connected screens now also shows the standard resolution and the respective image proportions.

Revised: bars, file manager, energy management

For the freely configurable bars of the desktop, which, by the way, also look good vertically with rework, there is the new bar extension “Status Tray”, which combines information symbols and notifications. Window buttons of running programs show a retrofitted point to start a new instance of the respective binary by right-clicking in the bar. The executed ones are decoupled from the XFCE bar and are no longer child processes. This means that in the event of a crash, XFCE no longer carries away all started programs.

Refurbished appearance: XFCE 4. 16 already shows client-side decorations in some of its windows, such as the settings the window manager is no longer drawing, but the application itself.

For dark color schemes, the bars now support a dark mode to better adapt to program windows. Anyone looking for a specific switch in the settings will see the new, client-side window decorations from XFCE in the settings overview in the form of a search field that also reacts to terms in deeper settings. The run dialog has also been given a modified search function, which, if desired, shows the programs last called in the first place. The assignment of file types to applications and the selection of the standard programs have moved into a common dialog in the settings.