After ten months of development, Wayfire 0.9, a composite server based on Wayland, has been released which allows the creation of lightweight user interfaces with 3D effects, similar to those offered by Compiz 3D plug-ins and supports extensions through plugins, offering a highly flexible customization system.
In this new version, which is presented as Wayfire 0.9, Various features and improvements have been added and bug fixes. Among the new features that stand out we can highlight the support for the "session lock" protocol, xkb-bindings support, animation improvements, support improvements, and more.
What's new in Wayfire 0.9
In Wayfire 0.9 the Developers continue to polish a lot of details that improve the functionality and user experience of this composite server and of the most important news From this release we can find support for the session-lock-v1 protocol, which, as its name indicates, allows you to block the session, useful for situations such as the execution of screen savers or the appearance of authentication dialog boxes. The protocol is available through the plugin session lock, which can be enabled in the wayfire.ini configuration file and used in conjunction with tools such as Swaylock or other screen locking interfaces.
Another of the novelties that is presented are the improvements to keyboard shortcuts, since it has been implemented the xkb-bindings plugin, which allows you to assign keyboard shortcuts which work independently of the currently active distribution. With the use of the xkb-bindings plugin, it is now possible to extend the key bindings provided by Wayfire plugins to be based on xkb key symbols instead of hardware keycodes.
In addition to this, in Wayfire 0.9 The animations also received improvements, since in addition to allow customization of animation duration, support has been added for changing the method that regulates the speed of change of animated effects, providing smoother transitions. Available methods include: circles, linear, sigmod and easyOutElastic.
On the other hand, lThe IPC interface has been extended, The composer's external control interface has been improved, adding support for new methods that allow you to control output, adjust settings, manipulate virtual windows and desktops, and receive event notifications. A Python package has been added to facilitate interaction with Wayfire from scripts.
Of the other changes that stand out of this new version:
- It is now possible to modify the layout of panel and desktop elements in wf-shell and wf-panel using CSS stylesheets, providing greater flexibility in customizing the environment.
- New plugins have been added, such as filters that allow you to apply shaders to windows, pixdecor to add shadows and soft rounded corners to windows, and obs that allows you to adjust the opacity, brightness and saturation of windows.
- Support for mounting Wayfire on the FreeBSD platform has been added, expanding its availability and compatibility.
finally if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can check the details in the following link
How to install Wayfire?
If you are interested in installing Wayfire, you can easily do so by following the steps outlined below. The easiest way to install Wayfire on any Linux distribution is by using its installation script. To do so, open a terminal and run the following commands:
git clone https://github.com/WayfireWM/wf-install
cd wf-install
./install.sh --prefix /opt/wayfire --stream 0.9.0Installation on Arch Linux and derivatives
If you are using Arch Linux, Manjaro, Arco Linux or any other Arch-based distribution, you can install Wayfire directly with the following command:
sudo pacman -S wayfireInstallation on Fedora
In the case of Fedora, you can also install Wayfire from the official repositories using:
sudo dnf install wayfireInstallation on Ubuntu
For those who are users of Ubuntu and derivatives of it, you can perform the installation by typing the following:
sudo apt install wayfireFor more information about Wayfire and its installation, you can check out the following link.