Alpha testing of Xfce 4.6 desktop environment has begun

    After 18 months of development, the first alpha version of the Xfce 4.6 desktop environment has been released. The final release is scheduled for December 21, after the release of three beta versions and two candidates for releases.

    The main changes include:
    • libxfce4menu - implementation of the standard menu system from freedesktop.org;
    • xfconf is a new system for configuring the desktop environment and applications written for it. The architecture of xfconf is similar to gconf. The system consists of several components interacting via D-BUS:
    • xfconfd is a daemon that manages configuration storage and notifies applications of changes. It can work without a GUI interface and can be controlled through a command-line client program;
    • xfconf-query is a command line utility that allows you to manage all Xfce settings. As a graphical frontend, xfce4-settings-editor was developed, which acts as an analogue of gconf-editor;
    • libxfconf - a library that allows applications to organize the storage of settings through xfconfd;
    • xfsettingsd is an independent daemon that implements 'xsettings', a standard protocol for working with X Window program settings. At the same time, the xfconf system is used as the final configuration storage. The developers do not exclude that in the future xfsettingsd may be isolated from the xfconf bundle as a separate product.
    • xfce4-settings - a new graphical interface for setting up a desktop environment and independent applications. xfce4-settings replaced the mcs-manager configurator. In addition, xfce4-settings-helper has been added, which launches hotkey commands and notifies applications when certain key combinations are pressed;

    Some elements of xfdesktop, a program for managing the desktop, which provides display of screen wallpapers, icons, processes mouse clicks within the working environment, were redesigned (it turned out somewhat gnomoobrazno). The menu and settings system has changed significantly. Added experimental ability to hot-plug an additional monitor (when connected, the monitor will be immediately activated by the desktop environment);
    The volume control program, xfce4-mixer, which is now based on the use of GStreamer, has been completely rewritten. The program provides support for sound systems such as ALSA, OSS and PulseAudio. Added the ability to control multiple sound cards;
    Rewritten fce4-appfinder application designed to work with a list of installed programs.

    www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=17892
    www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=xfce46_alpha&num=1
    wiki.xfce.org/milestones_to_46

    Also popular now: