- The developers of Xfce are about to release the 4.18 version of the popular, lightweight desktop environment.
- Xfce 4.18 comes with many improvements in Thunar, Xfce’s default file manager, including image preview support on the sidebar.
- The newest version of the desktop environment will be available on the 15th of this month, however, it might take additional time to land on Linux distributions.
The lightweight desktop environment for Linux, Xfce, soon will receive a new update a long time after the release of the current version. Xfce 4.16 was released on December 22nd, 2022; almost two years ago. Xfce 4.18 is planned to be released on the 15th of December this year; which makes it two years between two releases, minus one week.
Many improvements in Thunar
Xfce’s default file manager, Thunar, receives several improvements such as new image previews in the sidebar or in a standalone state on the right side. Additionally, the toolbar of Thunar can now support the split view feature, which divides the window into two columns with drag-and-drop support.
Files can now be highlighted by defining a background color through Properties and the folder paths in the window can now be used for searching, like modern web browsers. Thunar has some additional improvements such as undo and redo support, a “Recent” option in the sidebar, customizable keyboard shortcuts, and more.
The Xfce4 Panel, which features application launchers, panel menus, and more has received some new settings under its preferences menu. The panel length will now be set with pixel numbers and it has the new “Keep panel above windows” option as well. Also, the clock applet has new font options.
New options
There are some new options in the Settings menu as well, such as the ability to disable header bars in dialogs, hiding the Delete option in context menus, and more.
The desktop environment will be fully available on December 15. If you want to try the new features on your system, you can also download and install the Pre2 version:
Click here to download Xfce 4.18 Pre2 as individual tarballs
Click here to download Xfce 4.18 Pre2 as one tarball with all releases