[xubuntu-users] Hi, Newbie Here

[Charlie Kravetz]

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:38:08 -0400
Robin <dixiedancer at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi!
> 
> I'm a noob. Relatively, anyway. Started with Ubuntu in March of this 
> year. Tried Crunchbang and it's awesome, but not especially 
> kid-friendly. Played with LXDE for a bit, but it's really buggy and I'm 
> getting tired of the hassle. It's pretty and kid-friendly, but it 
> frustrates me no end with all the little annoying bugs, so I thought I 
> would check out Xfce, and since Ubuntu is where I started, Xubuntu might 
> be the easiest way to do that. I'll install it as soon as Xubuntu Karmic 
> comes out. But I have some pointed noob questions which I'm sure you 
> have heard before.  The closest things to my questions in the archives 
> are pretty old now, so maybe alot has changed.
> 
> First question: IMPLEMENTATION seems to be an issue I've read alot 
> about. Over and over again in forums and blogs I have read stuff like this:
> 
> "KDE is great, but Kubuntu sucks," and "Xfce is great, but Xubuntu sucks 
> (is 'bloated,' etc)."
> 
> With KDE I can kinda sorta understand it. On PCLinuxOS, KDE was 
> magnificent, but reeeeeeally slow on my poor old 'puter. But Kubuntu was 
> horrible! It had better hardware detection, but it was maddeningly slow 
> and buggy (even buggier than LXDE has been). I haven't tried Xubuntu yet 
> (waiting for Karmic), but where do all the complaints about "bloat" come 
> from? It's Ubuntu after all, so it's bound to be "bloated" in that 
> Ubuntu tries to be all things to all users. But no one complains that 
> Ubuntu is bloated! Is it just that the people who are complaining 
> expected something OTHER than Ubuntu with Xfce? Or is the 
> *implementation* of Xfce in Xubuntu comparable to KDE's implementation 
> in Kubuntu?
> 

I have not used Kubuntu, so I can not make a fair comparison with it.
If you install Ubuntu, then install Xubuntu, it will be bloated and
slow. If, on the other hand, you install Xubuntu and use the
applications that install with it, instead of Open Office and the
applications replaced in Xubuntu, it is not bloated. Those who make the
bloated claims generally have decided they want OpenOffice.org
applications instead of GnomeOffice, they want the multimedia
applications in Kubuntu instead of the one in Xubuntu, etc. This will
cause bloat and slowdowns.

> Second question: Has there been any effort to "lighten up" Xubuntu to 
> appease its critics (even though their criticisms may be unfair)? Ubuntu 
> ran okay on my older 'puter, but I'm told by some people that Xubuntu is 
> alot faster. And I'm told by others that it's just as slow as Ubuntu! 
> That would really be okay with me I guess (because it isn't Gnome and 
> hopefully won't be as aggravating as LXDE has been). But now I don't 
> know what to expect, and I'd like my expectations to be more realistic 
> than they were with my LXDE experience. Grrr.
> 

Yes, every effort has been made to lighten up Xubuntu. We intentionally
use applications designed for lower memory requirements as well as
slower cpus. I run tests on a PII, 400MHz CPU with 256MB of ram before
each release. To be fair, this machine does not run fast, nor does it
run multiple applications at once. It also does not have to have Ubuntu
installed before Xubuntu is installed. That is not to say Gnome
applications will not be used. Just because an application has the word
gnome in it does not mean it is going to slow down the system. 

> Third: I've just learned yesterday that Xubuntu is not a Canonical 
> product, but a "community distro." I was shocked! Lubuntu is supposed to 
> be a Canonical project just like Kubuntu and Ubuntu are. Why not 
> Xubuntu? What's the difference?

If anyone is telling Lubuntu is supported by Canonical the same way
Ubuntu and Kubuntu are, ask to see the amount of money they received.
Mark Shuttleworth puts his money into two distributions, along with
some going into Edubuntu. Xubuntu and Lubuntu are both given the same
support. They are outside the window that Ubuntu and Kubuntu are in.

The Lead Developer for Xubuntu works for Canonical as :
     Software Systems Release Engineer
     Foundations Team
     Custom Engineering Solutions Group
     Canonical OEM Services

However, that does not give Xubuntu any more of an edge when it comes
to being supported as a distribution. I could only wish that were true.

> 
> I hope I haven't ruffled any feathers or brought up anything unpleasant 
> with that last question (or the others either I guess), but it looks to 
> a noob, looking in from the outside, as though Xubuntu is being "dissed" 
> or something. I'd just like to know why.
> 

No, you have not ruffled any feathers here. If anything, you have given
us the opportunity to give you some information. Thanks for allowing us
the chance to do that.

> I can't wait to try Xubuntu! I'll have to wait for the CD though because 
> I have bandwidth issues here. But I'm anxious to learn, and to hopefully 
> rid my kid-friendly 'buntu of these stupid LXDE bugs!
> 
> Thanks very much in advance!

You are very welcome.

> 
> Robin
> (dixiedancer on UF)
> 
> 

-- 
Charlie Kravetz 
Xubuntu Quality Assurance Lead
Linux Registered User Number 425914          [http://counter.li.org/]
Never let anyone steal your DREAM.           [http://keepingdreams.com]