A lot of people have already agreed that FF & TB are necessary, but this is an important topic, so I wanted to throw my vote in too. When a new user gives xubuntu a try he needs to see that the applications provided are up to supporting his core computing needs. (I would say that everyone's core needs include browsing, email and word processing.) Xubuntu is lightweight and fast, but so is DSL. For me, the difference is that Xubuntu is powerful enough to be used on my main computer and not just be a toy.  There needs to be a balance between light weight and power. I would love a faster lighter browser but every lightweight browser I have tried is not up to my browser needs (which include JavaScript, CSS, and Flash support, with FF extensions being almost necessary), many can't even handle GMail. Same goes for Sylpheed. I tried it briefly not too long ago, but its spam filter support is nearly non-existant, which makes it unusable for me. My suggestion would be to keep the defaults as they are, then add somewhere (website, wiki, welcome center) a section on "Even Faster/Lighter/Smaller" where we can suggest some of these other options. BTW my solution to TB being too large is to just not run it. Instead I run gnubiff, I can see when emails arrive and preview them. When one comes that is actually important, I can launch TB (it is not too slow to launch) read and reply to any emails and close it again. Daniel