The Xfce Project has announced the public availability of Xfce 4.14. It is the latest stable release of the lightweight desktop environment that provides high flexibility and user-friendliness. Xfce 4.14 release is coming after 4 years and 4 months after it’s predecessor, ie, Xfce 4.12.

Thunar file manager in Xfce 4.14 / Courtesy - Xfce.org

The main objective of Xfce 4.14 is to port all core components into Gtk 3 from existing Gtk 2.x and using GDBus over D-Bus GLib. In addition to this, the project has received a lot of user experience improvements, new features and fix for long-standing bugs.

Whisker Menu in Xfce 4.14 / Courtesy - Xfce.org

What is different in Xfce 4.14?

In the official release announcement for Xfce 4.14, the project has listed main highlights in Xfce 4.14. The noteworthy points are summarized below.

• The XFWM window manager has received a lot of updates and improvements. It includes support for VSync (using either Present or OpenGL as backend) to reduce or remove display flickering, HiDPI support, improved GLX support with NVIDIA proprietary/closed source drivers, support for XInput2, various compositor improvements and a new default theme.
• The Xfce panel has got support for RandR’s primary monitor feature, improved window grouping in the tasklist plugin (better UX, visual group indicator, etc), a per-panel “icon-size” setting, a new default clock format and clock format evaluator as well as an improved default panel layout.
• The Xfce desktop has got support for RandR’s primary monitor feature, an orientation configuration for icons in desktop. Also, a ‘next background’ option is included in the context menu to use the next available wallpaper. This will be synced with users account service.
• A renovated color settings dialog.
• Improved display settings dialog which allows users to save and restore various configurations.
• Gtk window scaling option is added to appearance dialog.
• Improved session manager
• Thunar file manager with a lot of bug fixes, improved path bar, custom folder icon, and keyboard shortcut improvements.
• Application finder can be opened as a single window and it provides easy navigation options.
• Improved power manager with new xfce4-screensaver. Also, the power plugin on the panel has got improvements.

For a complete list of changes in Xfce 4.14 release, read the official release announcement in projects website.