Xubuntu's goals

[Arthur H. Johnson II]

Jari Rahkonen wrote:
> Arthur H. Johnson II wrote:
>   
>> Vincent wrote:
>>     
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Another branch off, regarding Xubuntu's goals.
>>>
>>> I've asked this in the past, and then I was told that Xubuntu's goal 
>>> was user-friendliness.
>>>
>>> However, with the recent discussion, it seems that Xubuntu's primary 
>>> goal could also be either to create a light-weight distribution, or to 
>>> promote Xfce.
>>>
>>> I'd like some clarity on this whole issue, and I'd prefer to hear from 
>>> the main developers (packagers) what they have in mind regarding 
>>> Xubuntu. If the goals have changed considerably, perhaps it is time 
>>> for me to look for another distribution that does suit my needs, and 
>>> Xubuntu could really start focusing on this one specific group. IMHO a 
>>> bit of clarity would make life easier for everyone and the best for 
>>> the project that is Xubuntu, too.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Vincent 
>>>       
>> I think the focus should be on making Xubuntu the lightweight 
>> Ubuntu-like distro, as well as promoting Xfce.  In other words, I feel 
>> that Xfce is the perfect tool to unite all the low-calorie applications 
>> together.
>>
>> Being user friendly should take a back seat to bringing Ubuntu to 
>> platforms like old laptops, UMPCs, or making hardware with limited 
>> resources like new again.
>>
>>     
>
> How about following the Xfce philosophy of "[aiming] to be fast and
> lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use"[1].
> Personally I use Xfce solely because I find it less of a hindrance to my
> work flow than the competition (read: GNOME and KDE) on both modern and
> older systems.
>
> We don't need another Ubuntu, so let's prefer and promote Xfce apps
> where applicable, but let's also keep in mind that even Xfce doesn't
> want to sacrifice usability and aesthetics to work on every piece of
> antique hardware out there, so neither should Xubuntu.
>   
That is true.  No matter the horsepower of the machine I'm on, I always
run Xfce, be it Ubuntu, Debian, or Fedora.

What I wouldn't want to see, and being that we are using Xfce its not
likely, is that Xubuntu starts eating up more resources, especially on
install.  The target hardware requirements are perfect, not only for
older machines, but for more powerful machines that the user would want
to max out the performance.  Even when I install ubuntu or edubuntu,
which I do from time to time, I install Xubuntu, then "apt-get install
ubuntu-desktop" mainly because I find the Xubuntu installer to be far
faster than Ubuntu's installer.

I believe that is the design philosophy of Xubuntu and Xfce as it stands
now, is it not?  Efficient, yet elegant?