A quick glance into the new features of Xfce 4.20 desktop environment.
Xfce 4.20 desktop environment has arrived a few weeks back, and it’s packed with features and updates. This major release comes after two years since Xfce 4.18. Hence, it’s now more evolved, bringing experimental Wayland support, UI refinements and performance updates.
Let’s dive into the highlights.
Table of Contents
Xfce 4.20: New Features
Wayland Support
Xfce 4.20 offers to experience modern display protocol Wayland in this release. Although it is tagged as experimental, it is a right step towards to replace aging X11 display server for good. Wayland promises better security, smoother performance, and improved support for modern hardware. Thanks to the introduction of the new libxfce4windowing library, most Xfce components can now run on Wayland without requiring XWayland.
However, be prepared for some rough edges – workspace support, systray icons, and power management are still works in progress.
HiDPI Scaling
HiDPI displays have become the norm, and Xfce 4.20 ensures they’re supported. Icon and thumbnail scaling issues have been resolved, eliminating blurriness and ensuring a sharp visual experience. For those having 4K monitors or high-resolution laptops, you should get that much-needed clarity using this legacy desktop environment.
Thunar updates
Each major release of Xfce desktop environment brings a bunch of Thunar updates. Thunar file manager is the core of the Xfce desktop and the most critical native application.
That said, Thunar gets a significant upgrade in this release. Performance improvements mean it can now handle over 100,000 files without breaking a sweat. New toolbar buttons, like the View Switcher and Hamburger Menu, streamline navigation, while client-side decorations (CSD) offer a modern look.
Here are a few screenshots and highlights of the above improvements in Thunar.
Easy controls of views from toolbar icon and new tab icon. If it is not visible, enable it via the configure toolbar option.
Option to use client-side decoration (CSD) in Thunar 4.20. Although it doesn’t look good anyway.
Statusbar: Option to show the number of hidden files.
Recently Used Files: Only successfully opened files are added; directories are excluded.
Symbolic Icons: Option to use symbolic icons in the side pane and colored icons in the toolbar.
- Drag and Drop: Folders open automatically on hover, and split-view pane focus updates when hovered.
- Performance: Improved handling of large numbers of files through better container types, job separation, and throttled view updates.
- Custom Actions: Shortcuts now work for custom actions in sub-menus.
- File Transfer: Direct file comparison replaces slow MD5 checksums. Parallel copying only occurs when devices are idle. File transfer dialogs are streamlined.
- Launchers: Shows launcher names instead of filenames for trusted launchers.
- Undo/Redo: Confirmation dialog before deletion during undo operations.
- List View: Supports folder expansion, similar to the tree-view side pane.
- Split View: Shortcut to toggle between panes, with focused pane coloring. Confirmation dialog when closing a split-pane with multiple tabs.
Xfce Panel
The Xfce panel, the heart of the desktop experience, now offers more flexibility. Configurable border widths, improved plugin discovery, and refined clock options (including LCD-style segments and 24-hour analog mode) give users greater control over their setup.
xfce4-power-manager
- Screen Locking: Simplified lock screen management; Light Locker dropped. Lock-on-sleep synchronized with xfce4-session and xfce4-screensaver.
- Power Settings: Support for power-profiles-daemon. Fixed charge state calculation. Prevented unintentional actions during critical power dialogs. Added hybrid sleep mode support. Device details tab shows energy rate.
- Lid Close Options: Added “shutdown” and “do nothing” options.
xfce4-session
- Logout Dialog: Removed checkbox for session saving.
- Wayland Session: Can be started via
startxfce4 --wayland. Or you can choose while logging in. - xdg-desktop-portal: Minimal support added for wallpaper, screenshot, and background xapp.
xfce4-settings
- Appearance Settings: Icon themes load in a separate thread. Warning for incomplete icon themes. Opt-in for client-side decorations. Improved dark theme support.
- Display Settings: Default display profile added to matching list. Profile management extended to all profiles. Scaling always applies to both dimensions. Improved mirror state management. Minimal dialog improvements.
- Mouse Settings: Checkbox for adaptive/flat mouse acceleration. High-resolution scrolling support.
- Mime Settings: Multiple items can be selected/changed at once.
xfconf
- systemd User Unit: Added for D-Bus session service.
- Whitespace Escaping: Properly escaped when writing xfconf channels to disk.
- xfconf-query: Displays array contents.
xfdesktop
- Background Management: Random wallpaper cycling avoids repeats until all wallpapers are shown. Old backgrounds ported to SVG. Gamma-correct gradient rendering.
- Icon Grid: Optional confirmation dialog for arranging icons. Custom colors for icon labels and backgrounds. Independent icon grids per monitor.
- Minimized Application Icons: Shown on the monitor where the window was minimized. Enhanced context menu options.
- File Icons: Option to sort folders before files. Improved icon position saving. New files placed near the cursor. Option to show fixed disk/drive icons.
- Preferences: Redesigned Desktop Icons tab. Configurable shortcuts using XfceShortcutsManager. Additional background image folders. Asynchronous wallpaper folder loading.
- Context Menu: Correctly shows cascading custom actions. Multiple folders can be opened at once. Opens on button press. Styled middle-click window list menu.
xfwm4
- Theme Variants: Support for stretch theme variants.
- Compositor: Block softpipe for GLX vsync.
- Focus: Include skip taskbar/pager when passing focus.
- Crash Fix: Fixed crash when alt-tabbing.
Download
For Ubuntu users, this will be available in Ubuntu 25.04 release on April 2025.
Arch Linux users can immediately get this update by upgrading their system or do a fresh installation.
If you are using MX Linux 23.x you can get this by doing a dist-upgrade. Detailed instructions are present here.
Wrapping Up
Xfce 4.20 is a release that balances its traditional look with the modern way of doing things. It introduces cutting-edge features like Wayland support while refining the core experience that users love. Moreover, the much-needed performance improvements are always welcome.
Being a lean team of contributors, the team always delivers for the users who always love a traditional menu-driven desktop in Linux space.
That said, grab the updates and experience the future of Xfce. It’s lightweight, it’s powerful, and it’s here to stay.
