This is why Xfce was dropped from Fedora Core 4

[Jeff Franks]

Thought you all might interested in this,

I've just finished reading all the releative postings on 
<fedora-devel-list at redhat.com> regarding the removal of Xfce from FC4. 
Most packages removed because they were not maintained or were poorly 
maintained. A few were removed for other reasons. I can't believe there 
reason for the removal of Xfce. Have a look at this posting from Bill 
Nottingham <notting at redhat com> who is on the 4 (or 5) man techincal 
commitee that made the decision to drop Xfce:

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2005-February/msg01399.html

====================
Here is the relevent extract:

A short description of some of the criteria uses. Applying this to the 
deletions:

- XFCE: duplicate functionality with respect to GNOME, KDE, etc

Honestly, if Extras was launched before FC2, I doubt that XFCE would
have been in Core to begin with.

end of extract.
===================

The dropping of Xfce upset quite a few fedora-devel-list members but 
their complaints fell on deaf ears. Fedora seems to have officially 
split into Fedora Core (FC) and Fedora Extras (FE). Some one on the 
list  suggested fedora release extras as a 5th and 6th optional CD but 
there was no mention of whether this would happen. I feel disappointed 
that Fedora Core 4 dropped Xfce. After all GNOME (~190 mbytes) and KDE 
(~130 mbytes) duplicate each other yet Xfce weighs in at under 30 mbytes.

I've been looking for an alternative to Fedora Core for some time (poor 
multimedia support, sound card worked with FC1, FC2 but not FC3, drab 
user interface, poor menu organization, lack of good GUI for the linux 
system tools). May be now I will have to try harder...

Regards,
Jeff.