Why I use Xubuntu

[dan latham]

I've been an Xubuntu user for a couple of years. I've been following the 
discussion on goals for Xubuntu and thought it might be useful to hear 
why I use it and what I use it for.

-What do I use Xubuntu for? This is probably the best place to start a 
discussion on the vision for Xubuntu. I use it for running Tomcat and 
MySQL for my Webservers. I know there are distributions that are even 
lighter for this, but it's just nice to have a windowing system. I can 
have multiple windows up, I can test pages using a web browser and it 
just makes things easier for me. I can't remember every single Unix 
command and having gui apps to do some things just makes the system 
easier to use.

-Ubuntu has a very good reputation and that helps Xubuntu. When I 
started looking for "lightweight" distros, I had a little experience 
with Unbuntu and liked the approach, quality and community support. I 
liked how apps were installed and removed. So the first thing I looked 
at was Xubuntu and I liked that it was similar without all the extra apps.

-I've never done a comparison between Ubuntu and Xubuntu to see which 
runs faster on my hardware, probably either would be fine, but for my 
use, I liked that I didn't have a ton of apps installed that I'll never 
use. Whether it really saves that much disk space or not, I don't know, 
but I like having only what I need installed.  I'd rather have to 
install a few additional apps instead of removing apps (to a point). 
This is a big reason why I liked Xubuntu. I find it takes less time for 
me to add the few apps I need. Otherwise I have to spend a lot of time 
removing apps and hoping I don't break anything in the process.

For my purposes Xubuntu works pretty well. I have no need for Open 
Office, GIMP and any Games on my systems and I'd prefer not to have them 
installed, but I'm guessing Xubuntu is mostly used as a lightweight 
Office desktop. That is why you are on this slippery slope. :)  All 
desktop systems get bloated over time.

If I could offer a suggestion, it would be: listen to how users are 
using Xubuntu and base your decisions accordingly. Perhaps some of the 
differences could be solved by some simple installation options. For 
example, an option to install the "Internet bundle", "Office bundle", 
"Games bundle", etc. Otherwise, you get the base XFCE with some 
selected GUI apps.

thanks for Xubuntu,

dan