Hi all, I came from Windows 2wks ago and have enjoyed the experience. I wanted to make some changes to my desktop layout and wasn't able to do all I wanted in Gnome so yesterday i installed xfce from the repositories. I have since learned it is 4.18 and 4.20 has been out for almost a year. I am enjoying the whole xfce experience and wondering if I am missing out on anything by not having the latest version. I can't update from the Zorin repositories, so if it is worthwhile to update (or is that upgrade - still very new) how would I go about it?
As far as I know it is not possible to upgrade to a later xfce version than offered in the repository.
If you want to have the Zorin look you can install zorin lite desktop instead of XFCE4 desktop - but for Zorin 18 it is not yet available, you'll have to wait until Zorin 18 lite will have been released.
sudo apt install zorin-os-lite-desktop
Edit: It seems to be possible by adding a ppa, but I wouldn't recommend it, it is not worth the effort. It may cause dependencies conflicts and the stability of the system could be lost.
If you like an up to date xfce desktop it is better to choose a non-LTS distribution which supports xfce 4.2 desktop.
E.g. MX Linux offers xfce 4.2
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Yes it's out for a while now but at the current moment there will be lot of dependency issues if you try to install it on Zorin 18. Xfce4.20 is supported on Ubuntu 25.04 onwards, and currently Z18 is based on Ubuntu 24.04 so it's not possible to do so I believe.
The biggest thing in the xfce4.20 have added is the experimental Wayland support. Apart from that there are improvements to the core desktop tools and applications, you can check it all here:
I don't think on surface level users are missing much with the current xfce4.18.
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Thank you. I'm happy to wait until the new version of Zorin Lite comes out. So much still to explore and learn.
So...
Much as I do not want to be troublesome...
Yes, you can safely install XFCE 4.20 on Zorin OS 18 - and I have done so since the moment I tested the beta release (Actually, I installed it on Zorin OS 17, too...)
There are no dependency issues using XFCE 4.20 on Core.
When Zorin OS Lite is released, there would be, however, this is mitigated by retaining the development repository for XFCE which will supersede the Zorin OS packages.
That being said...
Are you missing out on anything?
No.
Not at all.
XFCE 4.20, as a release, is aiming toward creating compliance with the reduced features of GTK4. Due to this, it actually lacks what 4.18 has.
The offering of 4.18 is not due to negligence, but due to ensuring the better user experience.
Me... Well.. I forked it and restored what was removed so it is no skin off my nose.
But you specifically asked about "whether you should install it and my answer would be; it is not worth the bother for what you get.
But, if you still want to, here is how.
Add the dev repository:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/experimental
Install and upgrade:
sudo apt install --reinstall xfce4 && sudo apt full-upgrade
That's it.
If you take this option, I highly recommend using Whiskermenu instead of ZorinMenuLite, as it is formatted for 4.20.
However, if you are already a WhiskerMenu user, you will notice that the 4.20 version is missing some features.
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Thank you - great information. Has the Linux world reached the same stage as many others, of calling things improvements when they are actually worse? I'm in danger of turning into a grumpy old man!
I have installed the Whisker menu and it's great. I have reached the stage with this whole project where I learn more about what I have and stop worrying about what I don't have. On Windows there was not a lot of cutomisation and almost all of that was getting rid of "features", so having so much I can add has made me a bit like a "boy in a lolly shop".
This is about my 10th attempt to use a Linux OS over the past 20yrs, and I think I may have succeeded this time.
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