Thunar 0.9.0, exo 0.3.4 and thunar-volman 0.2.0 release

I just released new versions of Thunar, exo and thunar-volman with several bugfixes and new translations. They are part of Xfce 4.4.2, which will be released tomorrow.

A Visual Tour of Xfce 4.4.0

I just wrote a short summary of the major changes that went into the upcoming Xfce 4.4.0. The article is available here (and will also be published on the new Xfce website later).

Thunar 0.8.0 and libexo 0.3.2 releases

I just released Thunar 0.8.0 and exo 0.3.2 as part of the long awaited Xfce 4.4.0, which will be released in a few hours. The separate tarballs are provided for users of Xfce 4.2.x refusing to upgrade to Xfce 4.4.x, and users of other desktop environments. This is the final release of Thunar, but since not all items from the roadmap were completed, it is not yet the 1.0.0 version.

You will need at least libxfce4util 4.2.2, GTK+ 2.6.4, shared-mime-info 0.15 and desktop-file-utils 0.10 to build and run Thunar. In addition Gamin or FAM are highly recommended to enable file system monitoring in Thunar. For HAL support on Linux, the libhal-storage-devel package is required (0.5.0 or above). Furthermore if you want to use the trash panel applet, you will need the Xfce Panel 4.4BETA1 or above and D-Bus 0.34 or above. The README file contains a complete list of dependencies and optional packages.

The official announcement is available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/news.html#2007-01-21

Several screenshots are available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/screenshots.html

The source tarballs and the graphical installers can be downloaded from:
http://thunar.xfce.org/download.html#0.8.0

Installation instructions and documentation are available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/pwiki/

Please report bugs to the Xfce Bug Tracker (product Thunar) at:
http://bugzilla.xfce.org/

thunar-volman 0.1.0

I just released the first version of the Thunar Volume Manager. It adds automatic management of removable drives and media to Thunar, without adding another daemon to your desktop sessions. It requires Thunar 0.5.1svn or above, HAL 0.5.0 or above and D-BUS 0.32 or above.

Website:
http://www.xfce.org/~benny/projects/thunar-volman/index.html

Documentation:
http://thunar.xfce.org/documentation/C/using-removable-media.html

Release notes:
http://developer.berlios.de/project/shownotes.php?release_id=12027

Download:
http://developer.berlios.de/project/showfiles.php?group_id=910&release_id=12027

Just another Xfce 4.4 review

Another interesting review of Xfce 4.4.

Xfce 4.4 Release Candiate 2

Hopefully the last release candidate for 4.4.0...

Thunar 0.5.0 and libexo 0.3.1.12 rc2 releases

I just released Thunar-0.5.0rc2 and libexo-0.3.1.12rc2 as part of Xfce 4.4RC2, which will be released in a few hours. The separate tarballs are provided for users of Xfce 4.2.x that don't want to upgrade yet, and users of other desktop environments. It is planned to be the last release candidate before the final release, so please help with testing so we can locate and elimate the leftover bugs for the final release.

You will need atleast libxfce4util 4.2.2, GTK+ 2.6.4, shared-mime-info 0.15 and desktop-file-utils 0.10 to build and run Thunar. In addition Gamin or FAM are highly recommended to enable file system monitoring in Thunar. For HAL support on Linux, the libhal-storage-devel package is required (0.5.0 or above). Furthermore if you want to use the trash panel applet, you will need the Xfce Panel 4.4BETA1 or above and D-Bus 0.34 or above. The README file contains a complete list of dependencies and optional packages.

The official announcement is available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/news.html#2006-11-05

Several screenshots are available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/screenshots.html

The source tarballs and the graphical installer can be downloaded from:
http://thunar.xfce.org/download.html#0.5.0

Installation instructions and documentation are available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/pwiki/

Please report bugs to the Xfce Bug Tracker (product "Thunar") at:
http://bugzilla.xfce.org/

thunar-archive-plugin 0.2.2

This is a minor release, which adds support for the new Drag'n'Drop menu in Thunar 0.5.0 and tangoified icons, as well as several new and updated translations.

Download:
http://developer.berlios.de/project/showfiles.php?group_id=910&release_id=11557

Release notes:
http://developer.berlios.de/project/shownotes.php?release_id=11557

Website (with screenshots):
http://xfce.org/~benny/projects/thunar-archive-plugin/index.html

Xfld 0.3 release

Unfortunately I have the flu and so I'm somewhat late with posting old news here... Anyway, Xfld 0.3 is finally available for download. This time it's based on Xubuntu. And as usual it is the perfect LiveCD for nearly every use case. ;-)

Xfce 4.4 Release Candiate 1

Another step forward to 4.4.0. Get it while it's hot!

Thunar 0.4.0 and libexo 0.3.1.10 rc1 releases

I just released Thunar-0.4.0rc1 and libexo-0.3.1.10rc1 as part of Xfce 4.4RC1. The separate tarballs are provided for users of Xfce 4.2.x that don't want to upgrade yet, and users of other desktop environments. As suggested by the name it is not yet a final release, but is considered to be somewhat stable.

You will need atleast libxfce4util 4.2.2, GTK+ 2.6.4, shared-mime-info 0.15 and desktop-file-utils 0.10 to build and run Thunar. In addition Gamin or FAM are highly recommended to enable file system monitoring in Thunar. For HAL support on Linux, the libhal-storage-devel package is required (0.5.0 or above). Furthermore if you want to use the trash panel applet, you will need the Xfce Panel 4.4BETA1 or above and D-Bus 0.34 or above. The README file contains a complete list of dependencies and optional packages.

The official announcement is available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/news.html#2006-09-03

Additional (updated) screenshots are available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/screenshots.html

The source tarballs and the graphical installer can be downloaded from:
http://thunar.xfce.org/download.html#0.4.0

Installation instructions and documentation are available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/pwiki/

Please report bugs to the Xfce Bug Tracker (product Thunar) at:
http://bugzilla.xfce.org/

New Features in Thunar 0.4.0rc1

I wrote a short summary of the new features for the upcoming 0.4.0rc1 release of Thunar, which outlines what we have so far, and what is planned for later versions. The article is available here.

Trash, Bugs, Wasted Time

So, the trash framework finally made its way into Xfce SVN. Still a bit rough around the edges, but that's mostly cosmetic fixes.

In other news, I wasted four hours hunting down a bug/incompatible change in GTK+ 2.10, where the GtkTreeModelFilter doesn't behave properly anymore, which means that people using Thunar with GTK+ 2.10 and the tree pane will most probably not be able to run Thunar. The suggested solution for now is to switch to the shortcuts pane instead (or downgrade to GTK+ 2.8).

Update: According to the responsible GTK+ maintainer that was an intentional break in the expected behavior of a GtkTreeModel. Of course, in a perfect world, toolkit maintainers would let application developers know of such breakage instead of waiting for other applications to crash... Thunar is now switched to the new behavior and will therefore work with GTK+ 2.10 again. Now we'll wait for the next crash. Maybe its worth the time porting Xfce to Qt; not that Qt is perfect, but atleast (if you have commercial support) you get useful comments about breakage in Qt that may cause trouble in applications.

Trash is back

Because this feature was requested quite often, and it somewhat makes sense for a file manager, I'll add trash support (based on the trash specification) for the next release (most probably RC1).

Trash support will be transparently available to all applications using thunar-vfs (no API/ABI breakage, just a few special methods added), and it should be easy to develop a panel plugin that displays the trash can or add a trash can to xfdesktop.

Unfortunately the problem of interoperability of trash:-URIs remains, but that should be a minor problem as long as people don't try to use the trash as primary storage for their documents.

Xfce 4.4 beta2 released

And so it's done. Another huge step forward to Xfce 4.4.0.

Thunar 0.3.2 and libexo 0.3.1.8 beta2 releases

I just released Thunar-0.3.2beta2 and libexo-0.3.1.2beta2 as part of Xfce 4.4BETA2, which will be released tomorrow. Separate tarballs are provided for users of Xfce 4.2.x that don't want to upgrade yet, and users of other desktop environments. As suggested by the name, it is still a beta release and it is thereby considered to be more or less stable in what it does, but it is not yet a final version.

You will need atleast libxfce4util 4.2.2, GTK+ 2.6.4, shared-mime-info 0.15 and desktop-file-utils 0.10 to build and run Thunar. In addition Gamin or FAM are highly recommended to enable file system monitoring in Thunar. For HAL support on Linux, the libhal-storage-devel package is required (0.5.0 or above). The README file contains a complete list of dependencies and optional packages.

The official announcement is available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/news.html#2006-07-09

Additional (updated) screenshots are available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/screenshots.html

The source tarballs can be downloaded from:
http://thunar.xfce.org/download.html#0.3.2

Installation instructions and documentation are available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/pwiki/

Please report bugs to the Xfce Bug Tracker (product Thunar) at:
http://bugzilla.xfce.org/

thunar-archive-plugin 0.2.0

This is a major release, which introduces a generic scripting interface for archivers, so the plugin can now be used with basicly every archive manager that supports the required command line parameters. Support for File Roller (the GNOME archive manager) and Ark (the KDE archive manager) is builtin. Xarchiver will include support for the archive plugin in the next release. It depends on Thunar 0.2.2 or above.

Download:
http://developer.berlios.de/project/showfiles.php?group_id=910&release_id=10461

Release notes:
http://developer.berlios.de/project/shownotes.php?release_id=10461

Website (with screenshots):
http://xfce.org/~benny/projects/thunar-archive-plugin/index.html

Another Xfce 4.4beta1 review

What next for the Xfce Project? on LWN.net.

New Xfce Installer

Jannis just uploaded new screenshots demonstrating the next generation of the Xfce Installer, which will hopefully be available for BETA2.

Be sure to have a look!

Xfce 4.4beta1 Review

Tuxmachines.org has nice review of Xfce 4.4beta1, which provides a more detailed overview than my brief list of major changes.

Conclusion: Things are only getting better with xfce4 4.4. Updated interface configurations, new options, and new applications make this release an exciting prospect. If you've never tried xfce or haven't tried it recently, you owe it to yourself to test it out.

Major changes in Xfce 4.4BETA1

As you might already know, Xfce 4.4BETA1 was released today, and it contains a lot of changes, that have been worked since the last major release. I'm going to present an (incomplete!) list of the most important changes in BETA1. I will not include Thunar here, read the Thunar 0.3.0 release notes for details about Thunar.

Desktop Icons

One of the most often requested features during the Xfce 4.0/4.2 days was support for desktop icons. Xfce 4.4 finally includes support for icons on the desktop.

xfdesktop utilizes Thunar's libraries to handle application launchers and files/folders on the desktop, and it is also able to display icons for minimized windows on the desktop (a popular CDE feature), or to disable desktop icons all together.

Mousepad

Mousepad, a simple and lightweight text editor, was included as part of Xfce 4.4. Mousepad starts up very fast and provides all the basic text editing features, which makes it a perfect default editor for Xfce.

Orage

Orage, the new calendar application based on xfcalendar, provides all the features one would expect from a time management application today, while it remains lightweight and easy to use.

Panel

The Xfce Panel was completely rewritten for 4.4, and supports multiple panels and external plugins (running as separate applications and thereby improving the stability of the panel). xftaskbar4 and xfce4-iconbox were dropped from the release, as their functionality is completely provided by the new panel now.

The panel items can now be added and reordered using Drag'n'Drop, and the panel launcher properties dialog was redesigned to make it easier to create and manage launchers with attached menus (there is also support for Zero Install now).

Most of the panel plugins, available via the Xfce Goodies project, have been updated for the new panel, and the new xfce4-xfapplet-plugin allows users to add GNOME panel applets to the Xfce panel.

Preferred Applications

A new preferred applications framework was imported into Xfce, so users no longer need to edit shell profiles to specify which browser and terminal emulator should be used by Xfce applications.

Window Manager Tweaks

xfwm4, the Xfce window manager, saw a lot of improvements. One of the most interesting user-visible changes is the inclusion of a window manager tweaks dialog, which allows users to tweak several advanced options of the window manager.

There is also support to tweak the builtin composition manager in the window manager settings if xfwm4 was built with support for the Xcomposite extension.

This is just a very brief list of changes. A more complete review of Xfce 4.4BETA1 should be available during the next weeks.

Xfce 4.4 beta1 released

Xfce 4.4beta1 was finally released today with all the nice stuff (new panel, Mousepad, Orage, Thunar, ...). Be sure to grab your copy today!

thunar-archive-plugin 0.1.2

I just released the second version of the thunar-archive-plugin. It includes a bunch of new translations, and fixes the problem that the folder was not properly reloaded after creating or extracting an archive. It requires Thunar 0.2.2alpha2 or above and File Roller.

Download:
http://developer.berlios.de/project/showfiles.php?group_id=910&release_id=9778

Release notes:
http://developer.berlios.de/project/shownotes.php?release_id=9778

Website (with screenshots):
http://xfce.org/~benny/projects/thunar-archive-plugin/index.html

Thunar 0.3.0 and libexo 0.3.1.6 beta1 releases

I just released Thunar-0.3.0beta1 and libexo-0.3.1.6beta1 as part of Xfce 4.4BETA1 (separate tarballs are provided for users of Xfce 4.2.x that don't want to upgrade yet, and users of other desktop environments). As suggested by the name, it is a beta release and it is thereby considered to be more or less stable in what it does, but it is still not a final version.

You will need atleast libxfce4util 4.2.2, GTK+ 2.6.4, shared-mime-info 0.15 and desktop-file-utils 0.10 to build and run Thunar. In addition Gamin or FAM are highly recommended to enable file system monitoring in Thunar. For HAL support on Linux, the libhal-storage-devel package is required (0.5.0 or above). The README file contains a complete list of dependencies and optional packages.

The official announcement is available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/news.html#2006-04-16

Additional (updated) screenshots are available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/screenshots.html

The source tarballs can be downloaded from:
http://thunar.xfce.org/download.html#0.3.0

Installation instructions and documentation are available at:
http://thunar.xfce.org/pwiki/

Please report bugs to the Xfce Bug Tracker (product Thunar) at:
http://bugzilla.xfce.org/

New Thunar Wiki

I set up a new Thunar Wiki today, which contains interesting information for users. The old wiki with the development notes is still there and will continue as dev wiki.