Doh! methinks I named the wrong file.
champagnemojo try /usr/local/etc/xfce4/xinitrc instead.
Which session manager do you use? I use gdm which reads its configuration from /usr/share/xsessions/ which in turn launches /usr/local/bin/startxfce4 which in turn executes /usr/local/etc/xfce4/xinitrc.

(oy vey that's alot of nonsense just to get the wm started!).

Your screen looks nice using the gnome-panel. Are you using xfce4 to set the background still or has rox taken over that task? On my system I simply right click the desktop, select Background and drag & drop a new background from a rox-filer window. You may need to tweak the 'Compatibility' settings under rox preferences.

Oh and as for the screens posted in the forum I'm not sure how well they're approved but I have seen them (reduced in size of ).