Consistent with the work so far, not impressed by the latest versions of the big desktop projects KDE and GNOME, the French software architect Oliver Fourdan labeled his latest lightweight desktop project with the version number 3.8.1 and can be downloaded. A good reason to have a look at this challenging project which has the advantage that GNU/Linux can be used as a desktop system even on older computers.

Free CDE?

This would become more and more convincing if you knew that XFCE became consequently better and interesting, more developers joined and enriched the project with good ideas thus XFCE is a complete and usable system which is nicely using the system resources and wants to be compatible with as many other programs as possible.

Download and installation of the 3.3 MB large source package does not make any trouble and is compatible with the usual GNU/pattern (tar -xvzf , ./configure, make, make install). After starting the xfce_setup - script and typing startx you can enjoy it. And XFCE becomes a real enjoyment after a short time...
The basic part of the system is the xfce-binary which presents the desktop panel that looks very similar to the one you get on the commercial UN*X systems with CDE desktop.

This is not a bad comparison because the XFCE panel has the same pleasant and fast functionality and also can be configured in a flexible way. By default 8 pop-up menus exist to which you can add programs of your choice. This is very easy:
Click on the Add Icon... - button, enter the name of the program, the path to the binary and a proper icon file - that's all. And the new entry is available at once. Also it is easy to change or delete existing entries by clicking with the right mouse button on it.

Helping tools & good ideas...

In addition the XFCE panel is the starting point for a collection of small but powerful tools which might look dusty or antique for KDE and GNOME users but have features that make the daily work much easier.
First one should mention the file manager XFTree which is an extension of xtree. It does not try to be a replacement for all-in-one-programs like Konqueror or Nautilus but restricts itself to its name: it handles files and directories. The program is very convincing: standard actions like copy, delete, move or rename of files are as naturally as open files with special programs or set of access rights; in addition you can assign default applications to file types, thus MP3 files are opened by a double click with the standard program and last but not least XFTree supports drag-and-drop, i.e. files and directories can easily be dragged between the different XFTree windows.

Nice features: To open a file with a special application in the XFCE panel just drag the file from XFTree over the symbol corresponding to the application - et voila! Simple but efficient - that's how you want a desktop to be.
Another in principle simple but supporting tool (in particular for autofs and supermount spurner who nevertheless are too lazy to type mount / umount into the console) should like xfmountdev. By default two links for floppy and CD-Rom are placed in the menu. This script does noting else than trying to attach a mount point to the corresponding path in a XFTree window. After closing this window, the device is unmounted. You see it is a simple feature but makes work with removable media much easier.
Very impressive you will find the file searcher XFGlob: This frontend of the XFCE specific tool glob, which bases on grep, offers the global power of these two commands combined in a well developed GUI. It allows a quick search for files and its contents, also it offers strange options (e.g. an inverted search, i.e. all files are listed which do not match a pattern). It is worth a try.

Browsing between worlds...

Since version 3.8 XFSamba exists which, nomen est omen, would search the local network for SMB access if a configured samba server exists. A menu bar similar to XFTree allows a comfortable access to all files which are free in a M$Win network. These powerful tools in particular are important for Linux to establish this system as a desktop-OS in such networks. Also XFClock; at least a clock and calendar should find a place on each desktop, and meanwhile you can add notes to these programs as well - of course this is not a substitution for a "real" time planer but a good possibility to remove a few of these famous yellow stickers on the side of the monitor.
Last but not least you find - equivalent to Ruindows and KDE/GNOME - a small application that allows the client execution of a command. XFRun it is called and offers everything (which is not a big deal) that you expect from it, also the possibility to execute the called program in a terminal. In addition you can use XFTerm which is nothing else than a shell script that calls the user preferred terminal (set in .xsession or .xinitrc with the environment variable TERMCMD,/tt>) in a proper way and includes it in the XFCE desktop.

Windows under control

Beside the presented tools another essential part of the XFCE system is XFWM, the window manager, that takes care of the decoration and movements of the application windows on the XFCE desktop. Changing the size, rolling it up and down and setting the "sticky" of a window is controlled by XFWM par excellence and the setup of the three mouse buttons allows a comfortable handling of the desktop. The click on the right mouse button shows all windows present on this desktop, the middle button offers a menu with options to change the status of the window (the same function which you find in the top bar of a window with the difference that first you select the action ad then the window). The left mouse button leads you to the desktop background. Behind the description User Menu you find the program xfmenu which presents in two sub-menus, called KDE and GNOME, the whole menu structure of these two other desktops. Interesting for those who use applications of both packages and want a quick access. The compatibility of XFCE with GNOME is much more developed than with KDE: with a separated program module (xfgnome) XFWM works as a gnome-compliant window manager, which is a nice feature for those who want to use the GNOME pager or the gmc on XFCE. Also the drag-and-drop between gmc, XFTree, GNOME applications and XFCE panel works without any problems thus the GNOME user does not need to miss any features of his desktop. The same argument fits to the design, too, because both XFCE and GNOME base on GLIB/GTK and both support themes so also GNOME themes can be used with XFCE.

What remains...

Also the module XFSound should be mentioned (Configuration of the system sound which is played by nearly every action), XFMouse (Settings of the mouse properties on the desktop and the use of a right- or left-handed mouse) or XFBackdrop which sets the desktop background and supports additional features like transparency effects in aterm and Eterm. The settings of the graphical appearance, fonts, window positioning, focusing and other options can easily be done via a well designed setup tool. However if questions remained, the documentation, which is very good for a project of this size, should help in all cases.

Conclusions: Impressive what Oliver and his mans created. XFCE is stable, very fast, a perfect handling and many helping tools count on the positive side. It should be the first choice for all of you who want more than a simple window manager on X but do not need the features of KDE and GNOME or do not have the necessary resources. XFCE is worth a try, binaries and sources can be found on the XFCE homepage and if problems appear the friendly mailing list can help. Recommended without any restrictions!

Links:

XFCE Website: http://www.xfce.org