Xfce

Xfce () is a free software desktop environment for Unix and other Unix-like platforms, such as Linux, Solaris and BSD. It is made to be fast and lightweight, while still looking nice and easy to use.

The current version, 4.12, is modular and reusable. It is based on the GTK+ 2 toolkit (formerly used in GNOME). It uses the Xfwm window manager, described below. Its configuration is entirely mouse-driven, and the configuration files are hidden from the casual user.

 History 
Olivier Fourdan started the project in 1996. The name "Xfce" originally stood for "XForms Common Environment", but after that Xfce has been rewritten twice and no longer uses that toolkit. The name survived, but it is no longer capitalized as "XFCE", but rather as "Xfce".

 Xfwm 
Xfwm is the window manager of Xfce. Starting with version 4.2, Xfwm integrates its own compositing manager. Other compositing managers exist, but have been very unstable, and Xfce was the first to put its own compositing manager into the window manager. At its beginning, many users called it the most stable one available, though at the time, in late 2004, xcompmgr was the only other compositing manager available.

Prevalence
While not as common in Linux distributions as the KDE and GNOME desktop environments, there are still some distributions where Xfce is the default desktop environment, and most support it as an optional part.

These distributions include Xfce in their default environment:
 ALTLinux 4.0 Lite (CD)
 Archie
 Debian Xfce CD
 Dreamlinux
 dyne:bolic
 Fedora Xfce Spin
 FreeSBIE (FreeBSD LiveCD)
 Gentoo Linux 2008.0 installation
 KateOS
 Linux Mint Xfce
 Mythbuntu
 Myah OS
 SAM Linux
 Slackware
 SLAX Popcorn Edition
 VectorLinux Standard Edition
 Wolvix
 Xubuntu
 Zenwalk Linux
 Gentoo Linux for the PlayStation 3http://www.xfce.org/download/distros Xfce Orientated Distributions

 References 

 Other websites 

Xfce website

Category:Desktop Environments