xfce version 3 vs. 4 : missing features?

[hugh d fegely]

No, sorry, I'm not the only one who wants a customized desktop out there..

Even within the "limitations" of other window managers/desktop environments, look at the various amounts of tweaking people do in Themes for their favorite environment.

Those of us who are not programmers, but are at least computer savvy enough to be able to understand how to edit an .ini file or find files in a directory tree without much problem, WANT the configurability options that can be made available (and have been available in the past in many cases).

If all we, as a community, are going to do is stick to basic standards, and not "push the limits" as I have been used to seeing in just about everything Linux, then again I say, we might as well go back to using windoze, or at least start writing our checks out to SCO...

Don't get me wrong, I really DO like XFce overall. I am just asking for more user configurability. If I could do it myself, I would, but as the only programming skill I have is "Hello, World!" I am ASKING for this to be implemented. Even if it's something as simple as limiting the selected icons to come from a specific directory (/usr/share/icons or even ~/.xfce4/icons) and/or a specific type (.png, gif, ico, bmp, xfce-custom-picture-file-type-that-no-one-else-can-use).

Heck, we can customize the icons in the panel; how about implementing a small check in the iconbox and/or taskbar (don't run taskbar, as mentioned by someone else it looks too much like windoze). have it check to see if (a) there is a "freedesktop.org" compliant standard icon provided. If not, have it check to see if the user has selected on in the panel. If not that, THEN use the "default".

Like I said before, if I could, I *would* program this myself. I am not a programmer, and it will be months if not years before I can get to the level of capability you guys have. I do understand enough basics about programming to understand the hard work you have put into this, and I am not trying to belittle your efforts.

Please do not belittle my requests and desires as one of your users. From what I can see here, I'm not the only one asking questions regarding configurability and usability of XFce4, and requesting future enhancements to our favorite desktop environment.



Marcus von Appen <mva at sysfault.org> had stated the obvious on Mon, 29 Sep 2003 18:12:02 +0200 when they said:

> Hi hugh,
> 
> on Mon, 29 Sep 2003, hugh d fegely wrote:
> 
> > Gotta go with David here. "Standards" -- isn't that what the "Microsoft" 
> > desktop is, basically -- a standard? One that I (and I'm sure MANY like me) 
> > came to use Linux for.. their "standard" was too limiting, and we WANTED the
> > configurability.
> 
> You wanted ;-).
>  
> > If I want all my Icons to be Smiley Faces instead of whatever "canned" 
> > default is given to me by the program/desktop/operating system, then I 
> > should be able to do it..
> 
> You are, see below.
> 
> > 
> > Since the requests from before seem to have fallen to the wayside due to 
> > "standards compliance" regarding the configurability of icons in the icon 
> > box, and there are still people who miss at least some of the old XFce3 
> > functionality with the minimized icons on the desktop, then once again I 
> > have to ask "why not include a little more USER REQUESTED functionality" to 
> > our desktop environment?
> > 
> > Standards? Bah... standards are rules, and they're meant to be broken ;)
> 
> No. Standards are only guide lines. If they'd be rules, I would not see so many
> incompliant web pages out there, a lousy web server called 'IIS' and many other
> things...
> Do not blame the team here for not doing something, _you_ want.
> 
> As you know, XFCE is free software. If some things do disturb you, hack your
> changes into the code and be happy. Or ask someone, who is willing to do it.
> I think, the xfce team did a great job with 4.x, although some things might be
> disturbing (personally I dislike the limit of 'only' ten hotkeys if xfwm4, but
> I can live with it for now).
> 
> If the project members do not think, your wish might be helpful in general, you
> are free to implement it yourself and (optionally, but preferred :) release it
> for others, too.
> 
> 
> Is there a possibility to make a 'inofficial patch' section on the xfce site
> for such cases (or the demand)?
> 
> Regards
> Marcus
> 
> -- 
> We don't understand the software, and sometimes we don't understand the 
> hardware, but we can *see* the blinking lights!
>