This is why Xfce was dropped from Fedora Core 4

[Chris Hilton]

Jeff Franks wrote:

> 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.
> _______________________________________________
> Xfce4-dev mailing list
> Xfce4-dev at xfce.org
> http://foo-projects.org/mailman/listinfo/xfce4-dev
>
There are all kinds of great distros:
Arch, Ubuntu, Slackware, even Gentoo.  You may find Ubuntu to be more 
friendly like FC was, but I would check to see if xfce4 is in there and 
how outdated it is first.
Oh and of course, Debian!