For those who want to try out the new XFCE Desktop 4.20, XUbuntu developer team has made it into experimental PPA for (X)Ubuntu 24.04 and (X)Ubuntu 24.10.

XFCE 4.20 is the new major release of the popular lightweight Linux desktop. It features experimental Wayland support, client-side decoration and hamburger menu for Thunar, power profile daemon, hybrid sleep, and many other exciting new features. See HERE or the official release note for details.

Try XFCE 4.20 in (X)Ubuntu 24.04 | 24.10

XFCE 4.20 will be probably default in next XUbuntu 25.04, Fedora 42 (spin), Arch, etc Linux Distributions.

For (X)Ubuntu, Linux Mint (XFCE edition), Linux Lite users who can’t wait, XUbuntu developer team has made the new desktop release into QA experimental PPA for testing purpose!

NOTE: The PPA is for testing purpose!!! The packages will be either moved to the Staging PPA (if passed verification), or removed.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open up a terminal window. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/experimental

Type user password when it asks, while there’s no visual feedback, and hit Enter to continue

2. After adding PPA, just run command to install all available updates to upgrade to XFCE 4.20:

sudo apt full-upgrade

NOTE: Linux Mint user may need to run sudo apt update first to refresh package cache.

For non-XUbuntu or Ubuntu based systems without XFCE4, you need to run the command below instead to install the new desktop environment:

sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop

Tips: It’s recommended to copy what packages it’s going to install, in case you want to uninstall them later.

After installation, restart your computer. Then, launch “XFCE About” dialog to check the desktop version.

Uninstall XFCE 4.20

To restore the previous XFCE Desktop 4.18, simply install ppa-purge tool, then use it to purge that PPA which will downgrade all the install packages.

First, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install ppa-purge:

sudo apt install ppa-purge

Then, use the command below to purge the QA experimental PPA:

sudo ppa-purge ppa:xubuntu-dev/experimental

To remove XFCE desktop (don’t do it in XUbuntu or other Linux xfce edition), then try running command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove xfce4* libxfce4* xubuntu-* xfwm4

The popular lightweight desktop environment XFCE4 got a new major release after 2 years of development. Here’s how to install it in (X)Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint 21, and/or Linux Lite 16.x.

The new release, XFCE 4.18, focuses on improving its Thunar file manager. They include image preview, Undo/Redo option, customize toolbar, highlight files with different background and filename colors.

In the List View mode, it shows how many files contained for directories, and supports for displaying ‘file creation date’ column. Other changes include split view, recursive search, new ‘Bookmark’ menu, as well as:

• “Recent” in left pane for quick access recently used files.
• Trash option ‘Restore and Show’
• Custom action menu option can now have sub-menu entries.
• Show file thumbnail for only limited size.
• Verify file checksum on copy.
• Restore tabs on startup.

There are as well new features for other part of the desktop, including new Clock plugin (the original DataTime and the Clock plugin combination), option to hide window decorations, new shortcut editor for Thunar file manager, Xfce4-terminal and Mousepad text editor.

It also improved UI scaling, and added support for thumbnail sizes x-large and xx-large, for better Hi-DPI displays support. Settings Editor now has a search function support. All header bars of Xfce Windows and Dialogs now rendered by default by the XFCE4 window manager. And, there’s now option to hide window decorations.

How to Install XFCE 4.18 via PPA

The Xubuntu Developers team has built the packages for (X)Ubuntu 22.04, and their based systems into this PPA repository.

NOTE 1: Ubuntu 20.04 and earlier are NO longer supported via this PPA!

NOTE 2: As PPA description said, the packages were built for testing purpose! Do NOT install in production machine!!

1. Add the PPA

First, open a terminal window either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching from ‘Activities’ overview or start menu depends on your system.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/staging

Type user password when it asks while no asterisk feedback, then hit Enter to continue.

2. Refresh package cache

Ubuntu 22.04+ should automatically refresh system package cache while adding PPA, though it might not for some based systems.

To manually update the cache, run command:

sudo apt update

3. Install or upgrade to XFCE 4.18

Finally, either run the command below to install all available package updates:

sudo apt upgrade

or launch Software Updater (Updater Manager) and click install updates to upgrade to XFCE 4.18. Finally, restart your computer and enjoy!

For non-XFCE users, run the command below to install the whole desktop environment on your Ubuntu based system:

sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop

How to Restore:

For XUbuntu 22.04, Linux Mint XFCE edition, and/or Linux Lite 16.x, install ppa-purge and purge the PPA will downgrade all installed package into stock versions in system repository.

To do so, open terminal and run commands:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:xubuntu-dev/staging