After almost 4 and a half years in development, the Xfce 4.14 desktop environment has been released and it's packed with lots of new features and improvements.

Xfce 4.14 comes 4 years and 5 months after Xfce 4.12, a release that it is probably included in the software repositories of almost all Linux-based operating systems. The goal for Xfce 4.14, as the developers explain, was to port all of the core components to the latest GTK3 and GDBus open-source technologies, instead of the old GTK2 and D-Bus GLib.

"In this 4.14 cycle the main goal was to port all core components to Gtk3 (over Gtk2) and GDBus (over D-Bus GLib). Most components also received GObject Introspection support. Along the way we ended up polishing our user experience, introducing quite a few new features and improvements and fixings a boatload of bugs," reads the release announcement.

Here's what's new in Xfce 4.14

Highlights of the Xfce 4.14 release includes VSync (reduces display flickering), HiDPI, and XInput2 support for the window manager, along with improved GLX support for better compatibility with Nvidia proprietary graphics drivers, as well as several improvements to the compositor.

A new default theme is present as well in Xfce 4.14, and the Thunar file manager now features a completely revamped pathbar, BluRay support for the volume manager, support for larger thumbnails, improved keyboard navigation, and support for a "folder.jpg" file to alter the folder's icon.

RandR's primary monitor feature is now supported on both the panel and the desktop, a brand-new settings dialog is available to manage color profiles, it's now possible to save and restore entire multi-display configurations via the display dialog, and the appearance dialog now features GTK window scaling and monospace font support.

The session manager has been greatly enhanced as well in Xfce 4.14, now featuring hybrid sleep support, the ability to run commands during login, logout, or suspend, support for adding and editing autostart entries, better session chooser and settings dialogs, as well as improved default session startup.

Window grouping in the tasklist plugin in the panel is present as well in Xfce 4.14, along with a new default clock format, and an improved default panel layout. Users can also now change the orientation of the icons on the desktop, as well as to preview Fujifilm RAF images in the file manager.

As expected, several of the default Xfce apps have received various improvements in the Xfce 4.14 release, which will soon be available for installation from the stable software repositories of your favorite GNU/Linux distribution. You can also download the sources right now from the official website.