The first pre-release from Xfce 4.10 is here.

Maybe the next stable Slackware can jump from 4.6.2 to 4.10?

I'll leave that for the development team to figure out. Great news about the release.

Xfce 4.8 was released in January 2011, which they did not include in the April release of Slackware 13.37. I doubt they'll jump all the way to 4.10 for the next Slackware version. From my understanding, 4.8 isn't even included in -current.

I don't believe there is any rule that says you cannot have a big version jump. In fact, I would say that version jumps happen all the time. I think the rule is, "when it's ready", and that goes for xfce 4.8, and 4.10 equally.

But xfce 4.10 is only at an alpha release, so the chances are slim in this cycle, unless 4.10 is relatively minor when comparing to a 4.8 system.

More than likely Slackware will go to 4.8 but you have to realize how much extra software is going to have to be included to add 4.8 in as dependencies. XFCE 4.10 is too untested at this point.

I'm actually looking to see how Patrick is going to do this because of all the bloatware/problemware that's been going on with KDE as of recent as well as the ongoing issues several of us have had with KDE's services and how it handles and mishandles USB hardware (seriously I still have issues and can't use KDE) especially USN-Network devices.

I'd rather see KDE get axed to allow for XFCE 4.8 to be included honestly, yes keep SOME of KDE's more useful files and libraries, but relegate the rest over to SlackBuilds.

I am too interested in how the next version of slackware will play out. I can't say that I am eager on xfce 4.8 -- even though I am using xfce 4.6 right now. I actually started using twm again on my work computer (which is not slackware). I am considering trying dwm for something more modern.

No FVWM?

I have been running 4.10pre for a while now and aside from the removal of of the gui lib which caused some compile problems with other xfce apps its running fine pretty stable just had to update intltool to 0.50.0, no other dependencies other than whats already in 13.37, it's much improved over 4.6, exo works properly now so you can set a default file manger ( thunar is pants! ), and xfdesktop is much improved.
All in all I can recommend 4.10.

just wondering, is "pants" a Good Thing (TM) or a Bad Thing (TM)?

2 members found this post helpful.

From the context its safe to assume its a BAD thing!

Better than 4.8x? As stable as 4.6.2?
Thanks.

It runs pretty stable on my box too. I have been using for 5 days now. But can't really compare with 4.6 or 4.8. Drag and drop in Thunar seems to work flawlessly now (it used to crash from time to time before). Xfdesktop feels much more complete now. I had a problem with some icon themes. Other than that, I got impression that tumbler chokes on large files (>1MB). But haven't done any benchmarking so don't take my word for it.

All in all, I would agree with Keith it feels stable.

Sorry I didn't get back before but I agree xfdesktop is now actually usable, I was still using nautilus to handle the desktop until I upgraded to 4.10 I now let xfdestop do the work, I don't really use tumbler as I think this is for use with thunar which I don't use, thunar is still very much like something out of the 90's and needs to seriously grow up! some plugins need recompiling, some won't work as a plugin ( screenshooter ) but run fine as a custom launcher, I've had no problems with themes but I don't have a large collection, although after switching an icon theme you may have to reload the desktop with unless you use MY theme manager here:http://xfce-look.org/content/show.ph...content=149647 ( shameless plug ).

If you are going to use any non-core apps you will have to install the 4.8 gui lib which has been removed from 4.10.

All in all very much improved!

As the3dfxdude already mentioned, nobody hardcoded tiny version changes. Last official KDE version in Slackware(13.37 & current) is 4.5.5, now we waiting for 4.8.2 to be accepted in(few days or weeks). So why XFCE cannot have KDE's fate?

Would you mind expanding on this please?

I can't seem to compile xfwm, thunar, and xfce4-settings. All the rest I have compiled from source without any problems.