Changes/xfce-4.16

Xfce-4.16

Summary

A new release of Xfce desktop environment is expected (before the end of 2020). Xfce 4.16 is a stable release with proven components, provide features to both new and power users alike. This change proposal is submitted to sync fedora packages with the latest upstream release.

Owners

• Name: Mukundan Ragavan
• Email: nonamedotc@fedoraproject.org

• Name: Kevin Fenzi
• Email: kevin@scrye.com

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora 34
• Last updated: 2020-12-22
• Tracker bug:
• Release notes tracker:

Detailed Description

This change migrates Xfce desktop environment (DE) to the latest version provided by upstream developers. This release brings, amongst others, the following features

• client-side decorations
• fractional scaling
• new status tray plugins
• Streamlined application chooser (i.e. merged mime type editor and default applications)

Benefit to Fedora

Other GTK-based DEs such as cinnamon and MATE have already migrated to using GTK-3 libraries. This change proposes to migrate the popular Xfce DE to the latest GTK-3 based versions upstream developers have released.

This change would result in fewer packages depending on the older GTK-2 libraries and move Xfce to use a modern toolkit.

Scope

• Proposal owners:
  • Update core xfce packages to 4.14
  • Rebuild plugins once core packages are build

• Other developers: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

• Release engineering:
  • List of deliverables: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

• Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

Upgrade/compatibility impact

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

How To Test

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

User Experience

• A fresh install should have fully functional Xfce DE
• Upgrade from Fedora 33 or older should be mostly seamless
  • Users will notice differences in certain instances (e.g. settings) because of implementation of client side decorations
  • Default ALT+TAB behavior will likely be different.

No special configuration or hardware needed.

Dependencies

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Contingency Plan

• Contingency mechanism: (What to do? Who will do it?) N/A (not a System Wide Change)

• Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

• Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change)

• Blocks product? N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Documentation

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Release Notes

Fedora 34 ships with Xfce 4.16.

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