xfmusic4 alpha release

[Wade Nelson]

Erik Harrison wrote:
> I look at the lightweight/bloat issue this way - as a user.
> 
> XFce is highly modular - it is the Unix of modern desktop
> environments. Every tool does one thing and does it well. Tools can be
> mixed and matched with each other and other environments. When a tool
> needs extensible functionality, it is performed though a simple plugin
> design. 

I love this modularity, with nearly all WMs I've used, I've used 
xfce-mcs-manager/xfce-setting-show to handle gtk2 themes.... I've always 
used xfce4-panel with pager and a couple launchers... I also like using 
xfdiff4 and xfrun4, as well as xfsamba4.... I feel this modularity is 
important because it allows for a flexibility that doesn't require 20 
libs and dependencies (libbonobo/ORBit/kdelibs anyone? :P)

> When I hear lightweight my major concern is memory usage and
> processor usage. This is usually a result of a well thought out and
> small design.
> 

This I also agree with... For a very long time I ran openbox3 with 
xfce4-panel & the tools mentioned above... Personally I'd like to see 
xfce4 a little lighter on memory usage, but I don't want it to become as 
stripped as say openbox3 or hackedbox.

> Here is what I hate about Gnome- gconf and gnome-vfs. Just use
> dotfiles for goodness sake. The problem with Gconf is that it's a huge
> framework that works best if everything uses it - so everything does,
> even when it is innappropriate. VFS has excessively rich semantics
> which have been used to implement things bizarrely. I want to use the
> Gnome panel - why should I have to use Nautilus to configure it? I
> have to because the applications menu is configured through the
> applications:// URI though gnome-vfs. ARG!
> 

I feel this is what seperates xfce4 from the rest... IMHO, Gnome/KDE are 
fully intertwined & SELF-integrated... I won't use K3B, even though I 
think its a great app, simply because I don't want to have to 
install/run half of KDE just to use one app.  The xfce4 "desktop" is 
much more modular, cleaner, simpler, smaller, and that's what I love 
about it :)  Bigger is not always better.

> As long as tools are kept distinct, and as long as the framework
> itself is not bloated, then I have no problem with adding apps.
> Harddrive space is cheap and plentiful, and I can just not install the
> bleeding thing if it bugs me. It's the inability to, say, uninstall
> Nautilus if I want to use the panel that irks me about Gnome.
> 
> -Erik
> 

Well put, my main concern is that too many apps/modules make it into the 
core xfce4, rather than be considered addons or extras.

BTW, if you're a gnome panel fan, fbpanel is quite nice, although not my 
cup of tea :)

--Wade