Xfce Forum

klay

Member

Registered: 2013-04-20

Posts: 1

Roadmap

Hello everyone!

I could not find an plan of revisions, or something similar. Please tell me where I can see it?

eric_the_idiot

Member

Registered: 2011-12-23

Posts: 58

Re: Roadmap

Are you looking for something like this? https://wiki.xfce.org/releng/4.12/roadmap

paweuj

Member

Registered: 2013-04-25

Posts: 8

Re: Roadmap

There is a page where supposed to be a roadmap, but nothing can be found.
The project seems to be abandoned. It's a pity, because much of work has been done.
At present LXDE is much more active: http://blog.lxde.org/ Open source project is not just coding, but also informing the community.
Without sharing information with people who are supposed to support the project you will get result of sluggish development, lack of developers and public interest.

andrzejr

Member

Registered: 2012-04-06

Posts: 48

Re: Roadmap

There is also http://blog.xfce.org

If you are looking for stories to read I can recommend some other desktop environments with very impressive speed of development.

MountainDewManiac

Member

From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 1,115

Re: Roadmap

The funny thing about roadmaps - in terms of software development - is that the only real way to create one that is 100% accurate is to wait until your "journey" is completed, and produce an after-the-fact record.

I've seen too many cases where things that were projected to occur at a certain time did not occur (or did not occur at the projected time). I've also been burned in the past by buying a piece of software (or downloading it, in the case of FOSS) because I read that a feature I really wanted but that it did not have "would be coming along any time now but definitely soon." Come to think of it, I got burned that way twice with hardware waiting for firmware updates that never materialized.

Now, I'll pick a product because of what it can do for me today and never mind what it may or may not add in the future. That way, not only am I generally satisfied with today, I am occasionally pleased with a bonus that tomorrow brings - and I am never disappointed, lol.

Coding isn't like building a house - and even then, there are often unforseen issues that delay or even completely change things. As near as I can figure, the only way for a coder to absolutely work 100% to a projected schedule is if the coder has secretly already done the job and is actually just metering it out piecemeal after the fact. Which I don't expect in the linux world, since the vast majority (as in, almost all) of them aren't getting paid. But I guess it's possible "on the other side of the fence" where  people are getting paid for things, it might be within the realm of possibility that someone has finished a project and is releasing bits and pieces of it (or successive versions of it) in order to extend the term of employment and get a higher payment, IDK.

AfaIK, Xfce is still being actively developed. But (also AfaIK) the team is a small one. It might be that they have decided not to do projections or roadmaps, thinking that to hold a small development team to them is somewhat unrealistic and potentially sets the users up for disappointments. But it seems like it was only a couple months ago that I decided to look for a fix to a bug in the part of Xfce that handles changing the desktop backgrounds every "x" minutes and saw a post that Nick "had been nice enough to cherry-pick some bugs/feature requests for us" (or words to that effect). I added the Xfce 4.12 PPA to my sources, got a bunch of updates... noticed a bug that that bugfix created (whoops, lol)... and within a day or so had received a new update which fixed that. So, yes, I'm thinking that Xfce is still actively being developed.

And I, for one, am glad. Very glad. But I do suggest that you take my approach and choose what works best for you today. If, for example, you want to use Xfce, but it is missing a feature that you consider a requirement (that another DE already has), then use that other DE and just regularly check back in this forum to see if/when a new version is released. It's generally easy to add another DE to most linux distros, so you could always add Xfce later (or, for that matter, add it now and just not use it yet). I'm sure even the Xfce developers wouldn't begrudge you a few weeks or months worth of use of a different DE - especially if, by doing so, you can avoid a potential bad Xfce experience.

Just my opinion, of course,
MDM

---

Mountain Dew Maniac

How to Ask for Help <=== Click on this link

paweuj

Member

Registered: 2013-04-25

Posts: 8

Re: Roadmap

The funny thing about roadmaps - in terms of software development - is that the only real way to create one that is 100% accurate is to wait until your "journey" is completed, and produce an after-the-fact record....

@MountainDewManiac

Thank you for your answer. I only felt pity of that excelent desktop env. had been suffering lack of developers. There must be some reason though!

-Does it suck?!
-No

-Is it so buggy, heavy that nobody wants to join the project?
-No

-Is it ugly, ascetic - only 4 geeks?
-No

-Is it ergonomic?
-Definitely!

So what is the reason? Well, in my opinion an "open" source project needs to be open not only by giving a public access to the code, but by spreading  information about it.
The roadmap in particular is a setting a goal (challenge) where a team aims to. Is a challenge ambitious? Is it valuable? Is it nice to be in a team to accomplish that goal?
What can I learn in order to accomplish it? And so on...
So I'm looking at it not only from user's point of view, but from a potential developer. What does a potential developer consider when he/she joins a project?
The goal is not a thing literally that must be done in every single aspect. It has rather more psychological impact. It is like a light at the end of a tunnel, small star on the sky as direction on the ocean
Simply: it shouldn't be neglected, even we can't fulfill all the features we set before.

What do you think, MountainDewManiac?