Replace Unity with LXDE?

[Matt Johnson]

>________________________________
> From: John Hupp <ubuntu at prpcompany.com>
>To: ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com 
>Sent: Wednesday, 3 October 2012, 16:56
>Subject: Replace Unity with LXDE?
> 
>
>I have been trying very hard for several months to get a Lubuntu + LTSP network running smoothly, but have run into one problem after the next with various applications not working right in this environment.  I have filed the bug reports and worked with the Lubuntu mail-list support, but success is not yet within sight on half or more of the issues despite everyone's efforts.
>
>I also have an Edubuntu + LTSP test network, and I observe that
        a number of these problems don't appear on it.
>
>However, Edubuntu is a MUCH slower performer.  I also don't need
        the educational array.

Very interesting. We run a 64 workstation Ubuntu 10.04 LTSP install in our school. It's great and we're looking to update it to get more recent software (e.g. the new way Firefox updates are handled in 12.04, newer flash by default, make better use of fat-clients etc.).

I'm in exactly the same position as you describe... I'm trying to find something lighter than the full Ubuntu default, but that also works reasonably seamlessly. I plan to try 'gnome fallback' in 12.04 - I *think* it will be lighter in terms of RAM on the client and/or server, though probably not by much, and also will not make the size of the actual image smaller as far as I can see. 

(A show-stopper for not using Unity 2d is the lack of customisation of the icons on the dock (launcher?) that the system admin can make for our 240 7-10 year old users. Removing and adding icons to the launcher in Unity for all users seems non-trivial - it's not just a text file somewhere, like for example controlling the menu is in openbox). A real shame for us and is a strong reason we won't be adopting Unity at the moment.)

I also plan to test ubuntu 12.04 default install with lxde installed afterwards as you describe. Again, the image size won't shrink but perhaps the RAM requirement will? I'm also considering an openbox, tint2, nitrogen, thunar combination as found in a default Crunchbang linux install. That's very light and might sit nicely on Debian. I suspect though that a default Ubuntu install does a lot of the heavy lifting for setting up some really nice features in LTSP (like flawless sound, local mounting of usb etc.), so we will probably enjoy those benefits and stick with 12.04. I *think* that installing Debian or Crunchbang as the ltsp server would experience a lot of the same issues you describe with lubuntu. I think there's a lot of value-add in Ubuntu for LTSP. I might be wrong.

Perhaps we should communicate our findings as we proceed? Perhaps this mailing list isn't ideal. I suggest the ltsp list?

I'll be very interested to hear where you end up with this.

All the best,

--
Matt