Xfce Updates

I see the LXDE project get a good amount of attention lately, in large part (I think) because it uses somewhat less memory than Xfce.  Xfce is still going on strong, though, and plans are in the words for the eventual release of Xfce 4.8.

Jérôme Guelfucci recently provided a brief update on what’s going on with Xfce, and one of the big things is a push for updated documentation.  I’ll be contributing to that, and will likely be borrowing some of the user-help topic “stubs” that have been put-together by the GNOME Documentation team.  I’ll be sure to share any relevant topic stubs with them, too.

Jannis Pohlman has also started the process of forming an Xfce foundation.  Jannis notes that this would make Xfce a legal entity with a board of directors, and that it would help to raise funds through sponsors and other contributors for hackfests and other events.

My Documentation Projects

Lately I have been continuing work on gedit documentation and have also done some initial work on updating the Ubuntu Packaging Guide.  I should have the gedit docs well-drafted within another week or so, but I welcome suggestions and contributions with regards to the Packaging Guide.

Thus far, I’ve drafted the Packaging Guide in Mallard, and although Mallard is XML-based, it is much simpler than DocBook.  It is not difficult to learn, and you can draft-up a nice-looking, topic-focused documentation set with it rather quickly. I also know that there was a UDS session about the Packaging Guide today, so I welcome any feedback that resulted from that session, too.

Other Documentation Projects of Note

In non-Linux-help news, there are a couple of interesting DITA-related projects that I’ve been wanting to mention. If you haven’t heard of it before, DITA* stands for the Darwin Information Typing Architecture, an XML-based syntax originally developed (and later open-sourced) by IBM. The toolkit that processes the syntax, the DITA Open Toolkit, is Java-based, though, which I think has somewhat slowed its adoption in the Linux community. (Currently, only OpenSUSE packages DITA and the DITA Open Toolkit, but their implementation is a bit broken, perhaps due to an outdated version of Saxon in the OpenSUSE repositories.)

When people ask me what the big deal is about DITA**, I like to point them to this white paper (PDF).  It seems to provide a pretty clear picture of what DITA can help you do, even if it does make it look easier to implement than it is in real life.

There are a couple of DITA tools on the horizon that look to make it a bit easier to work with, though.  A group of Drupal developers are working with DITA developers to build a Drupal-based DITA authoring platform.  From what I can tell, it will be released under an open-source license.  They are just in the planning stages now, but I’ve relayed the Ubuntu Documentation / Ubuntu Manual / Ubuntu Learning Team’s requirements from what we talked about this past summer when considering the Ubuntu Learning Center.

Also, Don Day, the chair of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee, has put together a Free-as-in-Freedom web-based DITA platform.  It’s in its early stages, too, but you can get a look at it here. You can log in as a guest, and then select topic tools from the bottom of the page to have a go at editing the document.

A Docs Conference?  In Ohio?

Finally, there is word on the street about the possibility of a docs conference in Cincinnati during the first weekend in June.  I’ve expressed interest in helping with planning and organizing that conference.  For now I will keep my calendar open, and will post more news here as conference plans solidify.

*Whenever you do a Google search for DITA, it’s typically a good idea to exclude the phrase “Von Teese” from your search query.  That is, unless you want your documentation searches to also include results for a fabulous burlesque dancer / entertainer. If you do want dancer / entertainer results in your documentation search queries, then make sure to include the phrase “Von Teese” in your queries.

** Generally, people do not ask me about DITA.

Before I do that, though, let me pause to reflect on the fact that I haven’t updated this blog since the month of May.  In the words of a wise master, “Sorry, I’ve been trying to think of stuff to put here.”

Back to considering documentation, though.  Per my post to the Xfce developer mailing list, I have proposed that any newly-written Xfce end-user documentation be licensed under the Creative Commons CC-by-SA 3.0 Unported license.  This would be a change from the documentation’s current license of GPL v2.

My post to the mailing list covers several of the advantages of using a CC-by-SA 3.0 license for end-user documentation, but I’m hoping to get some additional input on items that we may want to consider as part of making such a switch.  For example:

• Although the CC-by-SA 3.0 license would apply to new content, what qualifies as “new content,” when some of our content may include instructing users where to click to perform certain actions?  Certainly, a good portion of this language may remain the same in such cases.
• Is it possible to license code snippets under the GPL, while the rest of the documentation is licensed as CC-by-SA 3.0?  If the answer to that question is, “Yes,” would a GPL-specific notice need to be provided alongside the code sample, or could the GPL notice be provided in a less visually-obtrusive spot within the documentation?  (As a note, I don’t forsee a great deal of code samples within the end-user system documentation, but I want to make sure we have our bases covered in this regard.)
• What else might the group need to consider as part of making such a switch?

Thus far, the reception to using CC-by-SA 3.0 has been good amongst the developers, and several of them have already indicated a willingness to relicense their GPL v2 documents as CC-by-SA 3.0.  That, combined with the fact that I think contacting any existing Xfce documentation contributors would be much easier than in larger projects, leads me to think that re-licensing existing content isn’t out of the picture, either.

I know that a number of other projects have recently made a switch to CC-by-SA 3.0, though, so I am hopeful that I’ll be able to get some good input from others, and we can get this settled in short order.  Thanks very much!

from          Stephan Arts <stephan@xfce.org>
date    Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 6:30 PM
subject    Xfce 4.6.0 Released!!!

After more than two years of development, Xfce 4.6.0 has just been released.

Xfce 4.6 features a new configuration backend, a new settings manager,
a brand new session manager and sound mixer as well as several huge
improvements of its core components. A list of all the changes since
the last release candidate can be found on this page.

A visual overview of Xfce 4.6 is available here:
http://www.xfce.org/about/tour

Download Xfce 4.6 from the Downloads section of the Xfce website:
http://www.xfce.org/download

Regards,
The Xfce development team.

All interested parties should take a quick peek at the desktop tour that is linked-to above, but Xubuntu users won’t need to download anything from the Xfce website – Xfce 4.6 will be included by default in Xubuntu 9.04. 

CONGRATULATIONS to the entire Xfce development team!

So, with all due respect to my Gnome- and KDE-using brothers and sisters, here they are:

1) Relative lightness – The Xfce desktop loads more quickly than Gnome or KDE desktops, and Xfce applications are built with an emphasis on lightness.  Xubuntu does have a handful of Gnome-based applications (and hence, some Gnome dependencies), but the developers avoid Gnome-lib heaviness where they can, and applications that require Gnome libraries have been only been chosen because they provide vital end-user functionality.

2) Xubuntu is extensible – I used to work at a deli when I was in college, and my boss used to tell me, “You can always add more, but you can never take away.”  He was referring to putting ingredients onto sandwiches, but his statement can also apply to Xubuntu.  You can use the breadth and depth of the Ubuntu repositories to add extra features and functionality that you may want, but the heavier Gnome or Mono libraries aren’t built into Xubuntu’s core, so you can also stick with the lighter choices if the default Xubuntu system suits your needs.

3) You know what you’re doing – Let’s say you’ve been using Ubuntu or Kubuntu for a while, and know your way around a Linux environment.  You know mv, cp, ls, grep, what a “.whatever” file is for . . .  So you don’t need a distro that’s going to hold your hand quite as frequently.  Xubuntu provides you with most of the same features of Ubuntu, but also doesn’t get in your way with a GUI for everything.  This may not be an advantage for some, but may not be a nuisance for those who are knowledgeable about their systems.

4) Reasonably well-documented – A handful of folks have done a lot of work to bring the full-scope of Ubuntu’s quality documentation to Xubuntu for the 8.04 release.  The Xubuntu wiki is undergoing an overhaul, too.  Long-gone are the days (version 6.10…) when Xubuntu’s documentation wasn’t even updated between releases, so the information that you need to get going is available right from your Xubuntu system.  (Now if we could just do more work on Xfce’s own documentation…)

5) Easy to contribute to, valued contributions – The Xubuntu development team is small, which means it’s easy to get involved and contribute.  Have you been hacking away on Ubuntu artwork, but haven’t been getting your contributions into the releases?  Xubuntu has one person who works on all artwork – why not collaborate as part of a small artwork team?  If you are a budding MOTU, you can help package updated Xfce components.  If you are a Drupal nerd, you can help out with the Xubuntu website.  I understand that all projects need help, but Xubuntu could be an option that is right for some people.

6) Hacker ethic – Yes, Gnome and KDE have more community support than Xfce.  Gnome development forges ahead with a large developer and userbase and the support of several large corporations behind it, and KDE has its own large and thriving community.  Yet Xfce is developed by a handful of hackers who have day jobs, and they’ve still managed to create a technically sound desktop environment.  I think that is pretty cool.

7) Hackability – Although I am not a hardcore coder myself, I’ve heard from numerous experienced developers that the Xfce code base is clean and good.  If you are interested in coding, why not get involved in a project that has a clean codebase, and would appreciate your help?  If are interested in Python application development, take a look at the pyxfce bindings for creating Xfce applications in Python.

8.0) An easy transition – The transition to the Xfce environment on Xubuntu is an easy one, particularly for users of Gnome.  The Xubuntu default settings (particularly in regards to the menu bar setup) have been configured in a way that is similar to Gnome’s setup, and Thunar (the Xfce file manager) looks and works in a manner that is very similar to Nautilus, the Gnome file manager.

8.04) Xubuntu has a logo with a cute mouse in it.

I’m not going to pretend to say that Xubuntu has all of the functionality that is present in the Gnome and KDE desktops of Ubuntu and Kubuntu – Xubuntu can’t mount Samba shares by default, and I’m sure that other people can point out other areas where the Xfce desktop in Xubuntu is currently lacking.  But for everyday computing tasks, for users who have lower-powered hardware, for developers who want a system that uses less-resources on their well-powered hardware . . . Xubuntu is a worthwhile option.

While I primarily work with Xubuntu, it’s great to see projects like Fedora and Foresight Linux embrace Xfce, too.  The more people that we can have using Xfce, reporting back bugs, and submitting patches, the better Xfce will be.

As an additional note, the Fedora wiki links to the upstream README file for xfdesktop.  It provides a few little-known customizations that may be of interest to some Xfce users.