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Comment by omegote | Hacker News Reader

Only XFCE has given me back the joy of using Linux on the desktop that I used to feel with Gnome 2.x after the crap of Gnome 3 and the honorable but not-quite-there attempts of Cinnamon and Mate.

Do you guys have any tips on contributing to XFCE? As far as I've heard, they mostly use C/C++ and Python, the two languages I'm more experienced with.

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First step will be to figure out how to build xfce from source and how to compile. ATM this is a bit tricky because of the gtk3 transition: some of the modules have compilation warnings for deprecated functions in the latest version of GTK3, which is problematic because -Werror is on by default. And if you want to install the latest xfce on a different prefix instead of /usr and /usr/local you need to fiddle wit lots of configure flags and environment variables (like XDG_DATA_DIRS). I wish there was a more automated way to do all of this because I got stuck in this part the last time I tried :(

Anyway, I sincerely wish you the best of luck! You should probably get it working if you don't try to overcomplicate it like I did :) The source code is available at [1] and each library or component gets its own git repo. Building instructions can be found here [2] on the wiki. They are mostly up to date but you might need some help from the IRC [3] if you run into trouble.

[1] https://git.xfce.org/ [2] https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/building [3] #xfce on irc.freenode.net

> Do you guys have any tips on contributing to XFCE?

There's a bounty program: https://www.bountysource.com/teams/xfce/issues

> Only XFCE has given me back the joy of using Linux on the desktop that I used to feel with Gnome 2.x

I feel exactly the same way! I never really got used to KDE's looks; I've always had a preference for the look Gnome 2.x had, and when that ended, Xfce filled the gap brilliantly. So much so, that MATE hasn't replaced it since (eventhough I have it installed also), especially since I started using Whisker Menu. I have many nice things to say about Xfce, so I hope it stays. :)

What's wrong with the look of Breeze?

Breeze is light years ahead of Oxygen (or whatever the default theme on KDE 4 was called), but I cannot shake the feeling that it will be replaced with something else before it is done being polished. KDE doesn't seem to like stability.

I hope they don't polish too much. The already polished the circle from the X-Button on the title bar away. Which is no improvement.

Besides that KDE is fuckin' great, imo.

It's super objective for me, and hard to explain, if not impossible. I do recognize KFE's qualities and I have no real criticism of it, frankly, it's this difference between qt and gtk that I can't properly explain. :)

I like Xfce, but I now used Ubuntu MATE almost completely. Try it again, either the 16.04 GTK+ 2 LTS or 16.10 (or even 17.10 — the pre-releases are very stable) for the update to GTK+ 3. I think you'll find it's definitely "there"!

Arch + XFCE. You get all the latest, in a lightweight bundle. I've had enough with the Ubuntu bloat with lib versions from years ago.

MATE in Arch then ;-)

MATE came from Arch originally, as it happens.

Majaro (which is basically Arch+XFCE) is really slick looking. I'd use it as my primary if it weren't for HIDPI issues.

I switched to the Manjaro + XFCE from Arch + XFCE with a hope to get a more stable system since Manjaro team does addition polishing and testing. XFCE is a kind of simple DM in comparison wit Gnome/KDE, but powerful enough - so less chance of problems due to a lower level of complexity.

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