The What is Xubuntu? page

[Sandy Harris]

On 11/8/09, Brian Burger <blurdesign at gmail.com> wrote:

>  Apart from s/KDE/XCFE, the trouble is that none of these actually mean
>  anything to those not familiar with Linux.
>
>  ...
>
>  So when you're trying to describe the various flavours of *buntu,
>  seriously consider backing up a step or two, and describe how
>  Gnome/XFCE/KDE differ, not just that they ARE different.

A while back I did a "Throwing the Windows out with the viruses"
post on a BBS for foreigners in China:
http://raoulschinasaloon.com/index.php?topic=2460.0

Here's its section on window managers:

Then there's Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/, a relatively new
distribution based on Debian. It uses the Debian package management
system so adding more-or-less anything you need is straightforward.
There are three variants using different window managers, so here
comes a digression to explain what a Window manager in X is.

X is a distributed Window system; the X server runs on your
workstation, controls the keyboard and mouse, and provides display
services to client programs. Each window can have a different client
and the clients can be anywhere. You can be at your desktop but
running your word processor on some other machine, compiling code on
another and running a simulation on a third; all can display on your
desktop machine.

The X documentation says "We provide mechanism, not policy." None of
the choices about how to display each window -- borders, buttons, etc.
-- are hardwired into the X server. Most systems use a Window manager,
a program that accepts requests from client programs, adds all the
extra details and passes them on to the X server. There are several
dozen different Window managers available, including ones that emulate
Windows or the Mac quite well. A catalog is at http://xwinman.org/

Beyond that, there are a dozen or so more ambitious systems available,
more-or-less complete desktop environments for X each with all the
accessories -- a calendar program, an email handler, MP3 player and so
on -- plus a programmer's interface so people can build more.

The GNU project have a desktop environment called Gnome, large and
complex but popular; the normal version of Unbuntu uses that. Kubuntu
uses KDE, somewhat smaller but still a rich and complex system, also
quite popular.

Neither of those runs well on slower or smaller machines. For those,
Ubuntu provide Xubuntu which uses XFCE, a much smaller and lighter
window manager built with stripped-down Gnome code and using the Gnome
programming interfaces so most or all Gnome add-ons can be used with
it.

I have quite a powerful PC, but Xubuntu is a good compromise for me.
On good hardware it is fast enough. though not nearly as quick as just
picking a lightweight Window manager and dispensing with all the
overhead of a desktop environment. That's what most hackers would do,
but I want the convenience.

-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?