Xubuntu Linux 10.04
Where To Get Help
Please take a moment to register for the DLR forum (registration takes less than a minute and you can login with your Facebook account if you want); everybody is welcome. You are welcome to post a message in the Linux Help section and we’ll do our best to point you in the right direction. The forum contains discussions about Linux, but also many other topics. Please stop by and say hello when you have a chance.
Drop by the forum to get help, talk about Linux or just hang out.
You might also want to check out the Xubuntu Linux support page. There are links there to numerous sources of documentation and support, including the Ubuntu forum.
Final Thoughts & Who Should Use It
I’m very pleased with Xubuntu. The inclusion of the Ubuntu Software Center really makes a positive impact on the overall experience of using Xubuntu. A big thumbs up to whoever was responsible for making the decision to include the Ubuntu Software Center in this release.
Beginners, intermediate or advanced users can all use Xubuntu. It’s a particularly great option for those who want or need a desktop environment that is fast and functional, without the eye-candy of GNOME or KDE. If you’re in that category, give Xubuntu 10.04 a download. You won’t regret it.
What’s your take on this distro? Tell me in the comments below. Visit the DLR forum for more discussions. Visit JimLynch.com for opinion columns.
Summary Table:
| Product: | Xubuntu Linux 10.04 |
| Web Site: | http://www.xubuntu.org/ |
| Price: | Free |
| Pros: | Ubuntu Software Center included in this release. Xubuntu now uses PulseAudio for an improved audio experience. Users have the option of logging into a classic Xfce session or a Xubuntu session. Also includes an updated theme and a revamped selection of games. |
| Cons: | The Ubuntu One service and music store are not present in Xubuntu. PiTiVi (video editor) and Gwibber (social media client) are not installed by default but are available in the Software Center. |
| Suitable For: | Beginner, intermediate and advanced users. |
| Summary: | Xubuntu is an excellent option for Ubuntu users who prefer a light-weight desktop environment. Xubuntu is particularly well suited for older hardware with less RAM and CPU power. |
| Rating: | 4/5 |
(14 votes, average: 4.21 out of 5)
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(4.83 out of 5)
Multimedia has to be enabled on most flavours of Ubuntu.
Doing:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras flashplugin-installer
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
Should get most multimedia working.
Most of the laptops I work with need b43-fwcutter run as well, to get the wireless working.
“One of the things I disliked most about Kubuntu was that it lacked the Ubuntu Software Center”
It is in the repository. Install it yourself; it it not that diffcult:
aptitude search –
aptitude -y install –
Although Xubuntu does not include gwibber, there is ‘Pidgin Internet Messenger’ included. UbuntuOne is not included by default because it is not fully compatible. It is written expressly for Gnome at this time, and will be expanded in the Maverick Meerkat cycle. To make it fully functional, you must install the gnome interface for it, as well as Nautilus file manager to replace Thunar.
Thanks for a very thorough review.
I’ve been using xubuntu for years as a way to reduce package bloat from Linux. It has been a happy experience, mostly.
Oddly, I just installed 10.04 on my main desktop yesterday and chose LXDE instead. It feels much lighter than XFCE did. There’s no menus across the top or bottom, which always bothered me about Ubuntu. Happily, my mouse buttons matter when used on the desktop again. I can see where Mom wouldn’t like that – she needs to see a menu/panel to know what to “click.”
This is my preferred flavour of Ubuntu, because it is fast and KDE applications work better on Xubuntu than on GNOME Ubuntu. Ubuntu Tweak works on Xubuntu and I highly recommend it for cleaning up redundant packages and customising the system.
One minor point is that the menu editor could be made more user-friendly.
Gwibber also isn’t included because it was written expressly for GNOME, lately the Xubuntu team has been trying to be as independent from GNOME related software as possible.
Jim, I have long been a fan of Xubuntu, since I tend to favor KDE and XFCE over other desktop environments. Recently, however, I have been following KDE more closely in order to track changes, since XFCE has been relatively dormant recently. No doubt about it, when I need a faster desktop experience, I choose XFCE. As far as XFCE versus LXDE that someone commented about, some XFCE implementations are loaded up and approach the bloat of full desktop systems, but a light XFCE implementation will definitely rival LXDE and it will be more robust and more stable. If you REALLY need something much lighter than XFCE, you are better going to a window manager like IceWM, which is flexible and configurable. Besides, you can superimpose the xfdesktop from XFCE onto IceWM and get a really nice implementation.
As far as graphics, the default graphics with XFCE are quite plain, but there is nearly as rich a collection of XFCE wallpapers, mouse pointers, backdrops, and themes as what you find with KDE and GNOME. I’ve found some pretty outstanding Xubuntu art in the past and in fact, in previous releases I have found the Xubuntu art to be superior to the Ubuntu or Kubuntu art – of course, that is merely personal opinion.
Operationally, Xubuntu is also, at least to me, the most interesting desktop. Coming from a UNIX background where I used the UNIX Common Desktop Environment (CDE), where you aware that XFCE was actually the first port of a desktop environment that made it to Linux? It was originally a FREE play on CDE and looked the same – UGLY! Fortunately, artists in the free community quickly improved it. XFCE has always been faster and lighter than the primary desktops but it lacks that heavy weight interprocess communication overhead, and that’s why it doesn’t chew up nearly as many memory resources.
All in all, XFCE rocks as a desktop and Xubuntu is undoubtedly the most popular distribution to feature it (though there are quite a few others as well if you check out DistroWatch – Mandriva actually offers XFCE as a desktop alternative and was the first distro I know of to do so std.
I am here with the aforementioned Xubuntu 10.04 running in Virtualbox OSE from sidux. Looks good, gets here pretty simply, and it’s pretty much how Jim called it! :-)
Dragonmouth says:
@charlie-tca:
Did we read the same review? All Jim did was review the desktop environment and whether it has eye candy or not. Very little was said about the distro itself. How does it handle networking and wi-fi? Were the full capabilities of monitor/video card properly recognized? Or were some totally unacceptable default settings used and how easy/hard is it to correct them? How easy is it to access the administrative functions? Or does this “newbie-friendly” distro require the noobs to be CLI experts as all other Ubuntu flavors do?
Brian replies:
Wifi is handled by the tool network manager, and an icon is included in the XFCE task bar to achieve wireless access. Getting actual access will depend on whether the firmware for your interface is included or not. If you are wired initially Xubuntu will offer to download any “non free” wireless firmware – more than likely that will be necessary for a significant population. Xubuntu does make this fairly easy to accomplish. There are not a lot of administrative functions at your fingertips. Package management is handled by the Ubuntu package manager or alternatively synaptic. Beyond that, if you need to tweak you need to know what you are doing. Video is automatically detected; you are in tweak mode if you have to mess with it.
Note that Ubuntu tries to set itself up so that the typical use case is that no extra configuration is required. It is not strong in graphical system administration tools. If that is something you are looking for, that would be a significant weakness of this or any other Ubuntu system. Linux Mint, also based on Ubuntu, does a much better job including additional administrative tools, and would be a better choice if you need that kind of functionality. If you need that functionality coupled with a relatively light desktop, Mint does offer multiple choices in that category, so it is a viable alternative to Xubuntu. Personally I like SimplyMEPIS and antiX, the first for simplicity with a modest number of powerful administrative tools coupled with excellent documentation, and I like antiX for the light environment at a cost of modest complexity, with a great number of tools. antiX does take a bit more expertise, but its well documented with a great community. It is a bit more of a tweaker’s system, though, no mistaking that. On the opposite end, still easy to install, but definitely a tweaker’s kind of system, my sidux systems are marvels of flexibility, but nothing a person needing only GUI tools would ever consider even touching.