Xfce 4.14 released [LWN.net]

Xfce 4.14 released

Posted Aug 13, 2019 13:43 UTC (Tue) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link] (7 responses)

You are confusing cause and effect. Plus, wow are gnome people touchy. My OP made no reference to other DEs. Why did you feel threatened by it?

Xfce 4.14 released

Posted Aug 13, 2019 14:02 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (6 responses)

So you don’t disagree anymore that Xfce has less resources. You are claiming that less resources doesn’t cause slower releases? OP absolutely did refer to both KDE and GNOME explicitly. Also I don’t really have any affiliation with any DE really. If anything I introduced the Xfce spin in Fedora and continue to use it where it makes sense. My point has nothing to do with personal preferences

Xfce 4.14 released

Posted Aug 13, 2019 14:16 UTC (Tue) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link] (5 responses)

I'm saying stable software doesn't need an army of developers. 9+6+occasional contributors is plenty.

As for my OP, here it is in full

4.10 in 2012, 4.12 in 2015, 4.14 in 2019. Proof, I think, that when something "just works" manically fast release cycles aren't needed. Typing this on an xfce+i3 setup.

In reply to which you scoffed at the number of developers. If you think any reference to KDE or Gnome was explicit: no. If you think it is implicit: touchiness case made. I was thinking of a large number of other (non-desktop-environment) projects whose release cycles I do follow; I haven't kept track of KDE or Gnome in years.

Xfce 4.14 released

Posted Aug 13, 2019 14:24 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (4 responses)

We disagree that the slow release process is deliberate. No evidence for that. The comment I replied to directly did mention both GNOME and KDE explicitly and negativity. I didn’t bring it up first. You are making the case that the poster is being touchy. Not me.

Xfce 4.14 released

Posted Aug 13, 2019 14:38 UTC (Tue) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link] (3 responses)

Er... Scroll up. You replied directly to my post, saying it's cos they haz no developers.

Xfce 4.14 released

Posted Aug 13, 2019 14:50 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (2 responses)

No I replied to both. My reply did you not bring up other DE at all not did I say that it has no developers. The other poster did bring up both DE first and I was replying directly to that. You are just confused about threading

Xfce 4.14 released

Posted Aug 13, 2019 14:56 UTC (Tue) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link] (1 responses)

Wow, just wow.

What you wrote (just scroll up) in its entirety:

>Seems more like proof that Xfce just doesn't have a whole lot of developers active in that project. That might just work out to be fine for the Xfce userbase but let's not equate it to some deliberately slow release process

Xfce 4.14 released

Posted Aug 13, 2019 15:00 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]

Yes. I know what I said. That reply to you does not refer to other DEs at all. It was solely focused on Xfce. It does not say that Xfce has no developers either

Xfce 4.14 released

Posted Aug 13, 2019 14:45 UTC (Tue) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

GNOME and KDE are huge projects. I don't know for sure because I haven't worked it out, but I would guess that developers / lines of code would be roughly comparable.

Also, as anyone who has worked in the software field for any time at all should know, the productivity of a development team is not proportional to the number of developers. The quality of the developers has a huge effect, and especially the quality of the leaders.

It's a fact that despite what you may say about the number of Xfce developers, they've managed to produce stable, useful and efficient software. Additionally, the slow release pace is a function of the software's maturity and not due to lack of developer resources.

Xfce 4.14 released

Posted Aug 13, 2019 20:19 UTC (Tue) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (2 responses)

> You are proving my point here.

And, as is rather common, you are having difficulty deciding which is the cart, and which is the horse. Or in other words, are you confusing the cause with the effect?

The number of developers is irrelevant. The *important* question is do they have *enough* developers. Don't forget - is it Brook's - law. "Adding software developers makes a late project even later".

If they have more developers than they need - and you have provided absolutely no evidence either way - then the project is on solid footing. And judging by the comments several people have made here, that fact is much appreciated by users.

Cheers,
Wol

Xfce 4.14 released

Posted Aug 14, 2019 1:17 UTC (Wed) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (1 responses)

> The number of developers is irrelevant.

Not quite. Desktop tech doesn't stand still. A simple window manager doesn't need to care quite so much but a desktop environment has more to cover in terms of features. Xfce developers clearly want to adopt GTK3, Wayland and many other things like supporting high definition displays to keep up. With a small team, they have to keep the releases at a pace they are good with and that is atleast in part limited by the size of a team one has access to ie) you can always go slower but you can't necessarily go faster. As a conceded in my very post here which atleast some posters seem to have missed, the userbase might well be comfortable or even appreciative of that

Xfce 4.14 released

Posted Aug 14, 2019 5:27 UTC (Wed) by interalia (subscriber, #26615) [Link]

You probably triggered this by commenting that it was like Xfce just didn't have a whole lot of developers active, which got some people's hackles up.

I agree with you that Xfce probably isn't carefully being deliberately slow in releasing. Suppose a couple of developers went hard and finished the GTK3 conversion etc. in 2017, would the project have held off on releasing just because it was too soon? I don't think so, a 2 year gap in major revisions doesn't sound too disruptive for the userbase.