Comments on: Some system suggestions

By: johnraff

johnraff — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:22:47 +0000

I started Xubuntu at 5.10 too, and while on my 450MHZ/128MB box it ran OK I found it a bit lacking in user-friendliness. Around Dapper or Edgy with the new version of XFCE it seemed to improve immensely with all the things I wanted (desktop icons – not just launchers – , printing and scanning out of the box, usb sticks could just be plugged in…) and maybe a bit faster too… It’s just recently that it seems to be moving in a Gnomier direction.

I may well take your advice and try straight XFCE on a ubuntu server install some day – or, when I “know my hardware inside out”, even with Arch.

By: K.Mandla

K.Mandla — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:56:48 +0000

In general, Xubuntu has aligned itself more with the Gnome desktop in the past year or so. Originally it promised a GTK2 desktop wherever possible, but for the convenience of the developers and with the consent of its user base, it began relying more on the software prepacked in straight Ubuntu over lighter, non-Gnome-based alternatives.

As a result, some people (like me) who work with very old hardware find Xubuntu to run at an unacceptable pace — something that basically comes as a result of running Gnome with XFCE added over top. So to answer your question, it’s not that there’s anything slowing things down underneath, it’s just that you’re essentially running regular Ubuntu with a different face on it. Slow is as slow does.

How you feel about that is your personal decision. For my own part I find it undesirable, and as a result I no longer use Xubuntu. But if your hardware can handle that, and you find the Xubuntu interface preferable to the Gnome one, I would suggest you keep it. It’s all about freedom.

By: johnraff

johnraff — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:53:22 +0000

Hi, still on XFCE/Xubuntu, I’m not quite clear- is Xubuntu just XFCE with a lot of (some heavy) extra apps, or is there something more underneath slowing things down?

Or to put it another way, to get my current Xubuntu 7.04 system running a bit faster should I uninstall – or just not use – the bigger stuff, or is there some more to be done under the hood?

By: K.Mandla

K.Mandla — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 23:00:02 +0000

@Jim: In short, yes. I drifted away from Xubuntu when it started to pick up so much of the Gnome structure, and performance started to fall off on the machines I used it for. There’s a stark difference between a system running straight Xubuntu and a machine that starts with a command-line installation and adds only XFCE and GTK2 applications. Try it and see what you think.

@alexandru: On a dual core machine, like I said in the post, you’ve got enough muscle that you’re probably not going to notice a huge difference between Xubuntu and XFCE, or one distro over another. And that’s a good thing — it’s just not a good thing if you’re working at 600Mhz.

But like I said, all of these suggestions are tempered by what you like and prefer, and what you can tolerate. I started using Xubuntu at 5.10, and in those days it was a very, very lightweight version of Ubuntu. When things started to get slower and slower, I stopped using it. If the developers and the Xubuntu user base are happy with a Gnome-based XFCE, it’s okay with me too. It’s all about freedom.

By: alexandru

alexandru — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:24:06 +0000

i was about to ask the same question as jim.

i had used both xubuntu and arch+xfce on my dualcore laptop. i have to admit that arch was less bloated, booted faster and gave more control over my system. the dark side is that arch had almost always something broken that annoyed me. I’ve spent too much time try to fix things in arch (or configuring them). on the other side xubuntu is very stable and I had no single problem with it. i would gladly try arch again, but perhaps when it will be more polished.

my opinion is that xubuntu is a really good distro for those who want XFCE (like me).

By: Jim Campbell

Jim Campbell — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:37:12 +0000

Hello, I’m curious as to why you say “pure Xfce (but not Xubuntu)” in the one portion of your article. Do you not recommend Xubuntu because of their inclusion of some Gnome-based apps in some of the recent releases (specifically, 7.10)?

Whatever the reason . . . I was just curious if you could be more specific about your reasoning. Thanks.