[xubuntu-users] Hi, Newbie Here

[Charlie Kravetz]

On Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:22:52 -0400
John Culleton <john at wexfordpress.com> wrote:

> On Wednesday 28 October 2009 12:15:01 Vincent wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 12:20 AM, Charlie Kravetz <
> >
> > cjk at teamcharliesangels.com> wrote:
> > > 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.
> 
> I  keep Open Office around for two reasons. Sometimes I need to 
> convert an index etc. to rtf. And sometimes I need to convert a 
> doc file to plain text.  Other than that it only serves as a source for 
> a pretty complete CMYK palette which I can choose in Scribus.
> 98% of the time OO sits idle. So it doesn't slow me down. 
> 
> OO apps run on Slack, on various flavors of Debian, on Windoze 
> etc. And the pool of developers is probably bigger than the pool of 
> developers for Gnome Office. The choice of OO therefore makes 
> some sense.
> 
> About the top bars (Gnome style) mixed with a bottom bar (KDE 
> style.) If I wanted top bars I would be using Gnome.  I would 
> prefer that XFCE on xubuntu looked and worked just like XFCE on 
> Slackware, XFCE on Vector Linux and so on.
> 

Having those choices is the great thing about gnu/linux! At least you
get to decide what you want, and you can have it your way.

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