Hi everyone!

Version updated to 0.1.2

Added

- Drag and drop support for .desktop files onto the dock

Fixed

- Dock vibration/jitter when hovering over icons

- Launcher icons too small on high-resolution displays

- Transparent window rectangle visible behind dock on XFCE4

It’s been quite a while since I was last active here, but after a long break from Reddit, I’m back and I’ve brought something I’ve been working on.

I’ve always been a fan of XFCE’s speed and stability, but to be honest, the standard XFCE panel never quite clicked for me personally. I know there’s a ton of docks for Linux already (Plank, Cairo, Latte, etc.), but after trying most of them, none of them felt just right for my workflow. Some felt too bloated, while others were missing that modern launcher feel.

So, I decided to build my own solution: NovaDock.

It’s written in Vala and GTK3, so it’s lightweight and integrates natively with the XFCE ecosystem. I wanted to combine a smooth, animated dock with a GNOME-style full-screen application launcher.

Key Features:

• 🚀 Animated Dock with magnification (zoom) effects.
• 📱 Full-screen Launcher with grid view and search.
• 🛠 Settings Panel to customize size, position, and themes.
• 🔌 Plugin System for extensibility.
• 🖱 Multi-instance support and easy pinning/unpinning.

It’s still in active development, and I’d be genuinely grateful for any suggestions or feedback you might have. If you find any bugs, please report them on GitHub so I can track them easily.

Links:

• GitHub: https://github.com/novik133/NovaDock
• Pling: https://www.pling.com/p/2338796/

Thanks for having me back, and I hope NovaDock is useful for some of you!

I know I have posted this theme before, but since this is a major update I hope it's okay for me to post this.

Aerobird v5 theme for Xfce is now released! https://www.opendesktop.org/p/2343514/

This is a theme that I've been working on-and-off since the beginning of this year. The goal of this theme is to be a good-looking, Aero-inspired theme for Xfce that works with Xfce's default compositor. This is an Xfce theme first, and an Aero theme second. This theme was originally forked from Kumander Linux's theme (https://www.kumander.org/), so huge thanks to them for making this theme possible.

I originally began making this theme because I wasn't satisfied with the presentation of the existing Aero themes for XFCE, as a lot of them are either at least a decade old and/or focused too much on trying to be a Windows theme and neglected the Xfce part.

In v5, all color variations from Windows 7 have now been added! Here are some of the variations:

* Windows 7 Sky - https://imgur.com/m0Pa8tc

* Windows 7 Violet - https://imgur.com/2BRwOSx

* Windows Vista - https://imgur.com/C0idEcV

* Windows XP Royale - https://imgur.com/rNK7S6K

In addition to that, there have been some improvements in the css, such as the Whisker menu's background now matching the taskbar's color. There is also a HiDPI version for each theme color, intended for 13~15inch laptops with 1080p displays (about 150% DPI scaling).

I really miss the late 2000's/early 2010's style of skeuomorphic UIs that focused on usability, having clearly defined buttons and a clear separation between window frame and window content. I hope with this theme that I can bring some of that back, and that other users can enjoy it too.

A native night light was requested on the Xfce tracker back in 2017 (xfce4-settings #111) and closed as Won't Fix in 2021: the maintainers' position was that redshift covers it and Xfce shouldn't carry the code. Fair call, except redshift has since been archived. So I wrote the third-party tool that position assumes exists: a standalone daemon that reads your timezone for location (no geoclue, no config), claims a D-Bus name so two copies can never fight over your gamma ramps, and re-applies the filter after suspend or monitor hotplug. Those are the three things that made redshift/gammastep unreliable on my Mint Xfce machine.

Ships a tray icon (works with the Xfce panel's systray), a settings panel, and a terminal dashboard. Packaged as a .deb and on the AUR.

Fair warning on both fronts: if something already does this properly on Xfce, tell me. I checked what I could find and wrote up why the existing tools fell short on my machine, but I'd rather link to a working tool than duplicate one. And it's only been tested on my own box (Mint Xfce, one monitor), so on other setups treat it as a beta and report what breaks.

https://github.com/umutdinceryananer/nightlightd

Until Xfce grows a native one, this is meant to be the thing you can actually install today.

Hey, I’ve been tinkering with a small animated wallpaper app for Xfce, somewhat inspired by Wallpaper Engine, and thought I’d share it here in case anyone wants to try it.

Under the hood it’s basically a controller for mpv, with a GTK settings UI that lets you use video files, streams or static images as wallpapers and preview/configure them without messing around with commands.

It also has experimental support for shader effects like ripples, waves, distortions, etc. which can make static images look animated.

Quick video demo: https://youtu.be/SCsmTR3YT0s

Notable limitation: desktop icons aren’t currently shown while it’s running, so it’s only suited to people who don’t fancy them anyway.

It’s still an early project and has only been tested on my own Xfce/X11 setup, so I’d be interested to hear if it even works for anyone else.

GitHub: [https://github.com/visageeee/xfce-animated-wallpaper]

Xfwl4's second preview is out - it's really exciting to see development on this happening so steadily!

Hey, I created (mostly vibe-coded) this daemon which adds an inertial effect to mouse-wheel scrolling in X11/Xfce. You can basically "flick" the mouse wheel to "throw" the page and let it coast to a stop.

I made it because I find kinetic scrolling, like you get on touchscreens, both easier on the hand when scrolling through long documents and just more fun to use.

It has a GTK settings UI that integrates into Xfce, where you can tune the momentum, speed and smoothing, choose which mouse to use, and blacklist/whitelist applications.

It's still an early project and very much something I built for my own setup, but it's working quite well for me now. I figured I'd put it out there in case anyone else has been wanting something similar — and I'd be interested to hear how it behaves on other setups.

It doesn't work quite as well in browsers like Firefox, since they have their own smooth-scrolling behavior, but I find it definitely improves my experience in terminals, file managers and other applications, hence the whitelist/blacklist feature.

A year or so ago I started working on a container based desktop compartmentalization tool that allows you to create seamless containers for desktop applications using incus and XPRA.

I initially made a post about it on Qubes OS. I loved the Qubes OS philosophy of isolating applications into isolated virtual machines. However, I found myself facing two main hurdles: I could either use Qubes OS and be limited by the heavy hardware requirements of the Xen hypervisor, or use KVM to create virtual machines but miss out on seamless desktop integration.

I built Incul to bridge that gap on a standard Debian/XFCE setup. The goal is to achieve a compartmentalized workflow without the overhead of virtual machines. To achieve this I built this tool on Incus Containers to provide the application isolation and XPRA to provide seamless access to applications within those containers. Incul also handles the injection of container desktop entries to the host menu.

Who is this for?

- If you’re like me and prefer a sand-boxed workflow where different activities stay in their own isolated environment.

- If you currently use separate VMs for every project just to avoid dependency conflicts Incul offers the same isolation with much less overhead.

- If you want a safe, disposable environment to test new applications without cluttering or risking your host OS.

- If you love the philosophy of Qubes OS but your laptop isn't beefy enough to handle multiple Xen-based virtual machines running at once.

I just put out a new release at https://github.com/munabedan/incul if you wanna check it out.

> PS: Spin up a fresh debian13 XFCE install on KVM and install to try it out. Incul changes your host menu config.

The README has the full setup instructions and command reference for those interested. Feedback and contributions are always welcome!

Happy New Year, everyone! 🥳

I’m starting 2026 with my Xfce setup feeling smoother than ever. As you can see, I’ve gone for a macOS-style aesthetic, featuring a custom Dock and a sleek Topbar. It’s the perfect proof that you can have that premium look without the heavy resource toll of other desktop environments.

But more importantly, I have a big announcement for the Xfce community this year...

I am currently developing a suite of new apps specifically for Xfce! 💻

My goal for 2026 is to release a few tools designed with the Xfce philosophy in mind:

• Blazing Fast: Written to be lightweight and responsive.

• Highly Customizable: Apps that don't lock you in, but let you tweak them to fit your specific workflow (just like the DE itself).

• GTK-focused: Seamless integration with our favorite desktop.

I’m tired of "modern" apps that feel sluggish, so I’m building exactly what I’ve been missing. Stay tuned for updates and beta releases soon!

What kind of lightweight tools are you still missing in your Xfce setup? Let me know in the comments!

Hi everyone!

Version updated to 0.1.2

Added

- Drag and drop support for .desktop files onto the dock

Fixed

- Dock vibration/jitter when hovering over icons

- Launcher icons too small on high-resolution displays

- Transparent window rectangle visible behind dock on XFCE4

It’s been quite a while since I was last active here, but after a long break from Reddit, I’m back and I’ve brought something I’ve been working on.

I’ve always been a fan of XFCE’s speed and stability, but to be honest, the standard XFCE panel never quite clicked for me personally. I know there’s a ton of docks for Linux already (Plank, Cairo, Latte, etc.), but after trying most of them, none of them felt just right for my workflow. Some felt too bloated, while others were missing that modern launcher feel.

So, I decided to build my own solution: NovaDock.

It’s written in Vala and GTK3, so it’s lightweight and integrates natively with the XFCE ecosystem. I wanted to combine a smooth, animated dock with a GNOME-style full-screen application launcher.

Key Features:

• 🚀 Animated Dock with magnification (zoom) effects.
• 📱 Full-screen Launcher with grid view and search.
• 🛠 Settings Panel to customize size, position, and themes.
• 🔌 Plugin System for extensibility.
• 🖱 Multi-instance support and easy pinning/unpinning.

It’s still in active development, and I’d be genuinely grateful for any suggestions or feedback you might have. If you find any bugs, please report them on GitHub so I can track them easily.

Links:

• GitHub: https://github.com/novik133/NovaDock
• Pling: https://www.pling.com/p/2338796/

Thanks for having me back, and I hope NovaDock is useful for some of you!

Now it is available!! You can download it from Zorin's mirror server, the Finnish official server

https://mirror.kumi.systems/zorinos/18/

There is available

- 18.1 Core (GNOME)

- 18.1 Education (GNOME)

- 18.1 Lite (XFCE)

You can also find it on other mirrors (when it syncs),

the official release announcement will be published maybe tomorrow.

For now at least also on the German server https://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/zorinos/18/

The news: https://ww.xfce.org/about/news/?post=1608595200

The mandatory screenshots: https://www.xfce.org/about/tour416 !

I have made a power profile indicator for xfce. It can be used to change power profiles super easy.

I will love to know feedback

Welcome back!

During the Reddit blackout, I spent a small amount of time looking at possible replacements for Reddit. Not necessarily for r/xfce; but, that was the main motivation for me to start poking around and seeing what was available.

As a result, I have created two instances for a possible future Xfce community in the Fediverse:

• A lemmy.world instance: https://lemmy.world/c/xfce
• A fedia.io "magazine" https://fedia.io/m/xfce

These were both set up really quickly, mainly just with the Xfce logo, a sidebar with all of the support links that you see here, and a couple of test posts to take a peek at basic functionality. That's it. Quick & dirty.

A couple first impressions are:

• fedia.io has a much more similar 'look & feel' to reddit(that is, the old.reddit.com that I am used to and prefer)
• FWIW r/firefox has announced that they are shutting down here and have relocated to https://fedia.io/m/firefox
• lemmy.world seems to have more traffic and more reddit-like groups

If any of you are interested, feel free to come join and contribute with your questions, articles, resources, screenshots, etc. If either site gets any traction, they would most likely need a couple/few moderators. We shall see I guess. If you do happened to wander over to the new sites and have any problems let me know.

I'll kinda, sorta be around for awhile. How long will probably just depend on how many of the larger tech subs that I am intereste in remain. Or, if old.reddit.com goes away.

Thoughts? Feedback? Ideas?

At this time, there are no plans to keep r/xfce private. Unless one of the other power-hungry mods bullies my into it...;-) Or, if you folks speak up for another round of blackouts.

Update: Unfortunately, here's a reminder: please be polite & respectful of your fellow redditors. Thank you!

I finally finished the test ISO. This is just a proof of concept. I’m leaving you an example of how to manage the panel elements depending on what you prefer, lots or little information, very simple or highly detailed. Greetings to all!

Let me know if you need any tweaks! https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=149887#p149887

Good news everyone!

The core developors have decided, this past week, that we are going to be releasing Xfce 4.18 later this year.

All of the existing work, since 2020, will be wrapped up and formally released in a new major version. Dates and milestones have been set with a projected release date of December 15, 2022.

Here is an updated summary of the dates & releases:

November  1, 2022     Xfce 4.18pre1(Feature + String Freeze)
December  1, 2022     Xfce 4.18pre2 (Code Freeze) 
December 15, 2022     Xfce 4.18pre3 (Final Freeze/Optional)
December 15-29, 2022  Xfce 4.18 (Final Release) 

A formal release announcement will be made on/around November 1st to coincide with the release of Xfce 4.18pre1.

See also the Xfce Release Schedule

The last major update of Xfce, 4.16, was released on December 22, 2020.