Xubuntu Development Update December 2024
- Sean Davis
- Development Update
- December 7, 2024
Table of Contents
As the holiday season enters full swing, Xubuntu 25.04 is off to a quiet start. Xfce 4.20 is a mere 8 days away and will bring numerous updates expected to ship in Xubuntu 25.04. MATE 1.28 will also land in Ubuntu over the next few months. There’s a lot of uncertainty in schedules, but the Plucky Puffin is expected to be a significant change over past releases.
December Schedule
The Plucky Puffin Release Schedule for December is a quiet one. We’re still early in the development cycle, and the archive is in constant flux as Debian packages are synced to Ubuntu. The biggest update to anticipate is the arrival of Xfce 4.20, expected on December 15.
| Date | Milestones |
|---|---|
| December 05 | |
| December 12 | |
| December 19 | Xfce 4.20 released, Ubuntu Testing Week (optional) |
| December 26 |
Major Package Updates in Xubuntu 25.04
The Plucky Puffin currently features a modest set of changes. Updates to elementary-xfce refresh the desktop experience, while modifications to the Xubuntu metapackage improve image support and expand support VPN options.
The truncated list of important Xubuntu 25.04 package updates to date.
| Package | Oracular (24.10) | Plucky (25.04) |
|---|---|---|
| elementary-xfce-icon-theme | 0.19 | 0.20 |
| gdebi | 0.9.5.7 | 0.9.5.8 |
| gnome-sudoku | 47.0 | 47.1.1 |
| pipewire | 1.2.4 | 1.2.7 |
| libadwaita | 1.6.0 | 1.6.2 |
| libgtk-4 | 4.16.2 | 4.16.7 |
| libreoffice | 24.8.2 | 24.8.3 |
| libwireplumber | 0.5.6 | 0.5.7 |
| mousepad | 0.6.2 | 0.6.3 |
| xfce4-dict | 0.7.6 | 0.8.8 |
| xubuntu-artwork | 24.10.1 | 25.04 |
| xubuntu-desktop | 2.263 | 2.265 |
| xubuntu-default-settings | 24.04.4 | 25.04.0 |
elementary-xfce-icon-theme 0.20
elementary-xfce 0.20 expands mime type support, adding more file types and programming icons including Crystal, Dart, Julia, and Scala. Additional actions are now supported, ensuring consistent icons in more applications. New and updated application icons expand the constantly evolving elementary icon theme to more of the Xfce desktop. Many more updates can be found on the 0.20 release page.
mousepad 0.6.3
Mousepad 0.6.3 adds support for the GVfs admin backend (admin://) and increases stability with a handful of bug fixes.
xfce4-dict 0.8.8
Xfce Dictionary 0.8.8 fixes a freeze when switching between search modes, refreshes the panel plugin, and tidies up some old code.
xubuntu-default-settings 25.04.0
xubuntu-default-settings 25.04.0 replaces our xcape integration for binding the Super (Windows) key with a native keyboard shortcut (LP: #2084326). During the Xfce 4.20 development cycle, libxfce4ui added support for single modifier key shortcuts, enabling a better-supported and faster solution.
xubuntu-desktop 2.265
xubuntu-desktop 2.265 expands image format support for .heif and .webp files (LP: #2084324). It also expands the available VPN options to include OpenVPN (LP: #2057923), aligning with Ubuntu and Ubuntu MATE, among other flavors.
The 25.04 To-Do List
The Xubuntu 25.04 project board lists many outstanding tasks that we’d like to review this cycle. If you’d like to contribute to Xubuntu, pick a task and get to work. :) There are many other ways to contribute to Xubuntu listed on our website.
That’s it for now. Happy Holidays!
