Vlogcanic

Xubuntu is an official Ubuntu variant which uses the Xfce desktop environment instead of KDE or Gnome (as Kubuntu or Ubuntu do). This means lower system requirements so Xubuntu is better suited to run in older or more limited hardware. It is also liked by users who prefer swifter and more efficient graphical interfaces in fast computers.

It takes about a minimum 1.3 GB to install Xubuntu in a hard drive, and then it can run with as little as 64 MB RAM –128 is recommended for optimal use.

Xubuntu’s first official and stable release appeared alongside the other official Ubuntu family member with version 6.10 Dapper Drake, following months of rumors. Since then it’s made available biannually just as the other Ubuntu releases.

It’s a live and installation CD and there’s an alternate version as well. Supported architectures are i386 and amd64. Iso images are available for download in the Xubuntu official web site and all its mirrors but not through Canonical’s shipit, like Kubuntu, Edubuntu or Ubuntu –which means you can’t have Xubuntu mailed to you.

The KDE proyect was born to provide a free desktop environment but it was built upon the Qt toolkit which wasn’t free at the time. That didn’t sit well with Debian’s interpretation of what free software is according to the GPL nor with the aspirations of the GNU project so Debian excluded KDE from Debian GNU/Linux and the GNU project launched another project to develop a new graphical desktop environment completely based on free software, the GNU Network Model Environment — GNOME — which got started in 1997 under the leadership of two mexican developers, Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena.

Currently, Gnome’s objectives (the capitalization has been dropped as it no longer suits Gnome’s activities) are the development of the Gnome desktop environment and the Gnome platform, a full infrastructure for building applications that integrate into the desktop environment.

The project puts a good deal of emphasis into simplicity and usability (things should just work), freedom in software, accessibility, internationalization, making it easy to develop new apps, project organization and support from other projects and institutions.

It was conceived as a Linux thing, but it’s now available for other Unix-like operating systems such as BSD and Solaris and it’s still strong in the Linux comunity, being the desktop of choice for many distros like Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and many others.

Controversial simplicity.

Gome’s espousal of a simple desktop is not always as welcome among Linux users as one might think. While it remains a fully featured desktop environment, Gnome’s user confgurable options have dropped significantly over time and that is something akin to a loss in versatility to some users.

On the other hand that very same simplicity can be one of the reasons for which Ubuntu has exploded this last few years, leading the current growth in the Linux new user community –for new users, the overwhelming variety in options found in other desktops can be confusing.

Recent developments.

Gnome is now a part of the freedesktop.org proyect, which aims to facilitate the interoperability between different X Window graphical environments (Gnome, KDE, Xfce) in such a way that the apps written for one of said desktops can integrate well into the other ones.

Freedesktop induces a bit of skepticisim because of the seemingly contradictory goals it espouses (cooperation and competition… at the same time) and yet there is a number of freedesktop technolgies already in Gnome’s core, so to speak, such as Gstreamer, Tango and many others.

Xfce is a desktop graphical environment for Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD or Solaris.

Roughly around the same time in which KDE’s founder was going about the development of a substitute for the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) with another more usable and homegeneous one there was another guy, Olivier Fourdan, thinking about a free Linux clone for CDE.

The project started in 1996 and was initially based upon XForms –hence the name, XForms Common Environment or XFce. Nowadays the name is anachronistic because Xfce is no longer based on XForms but on GTK, the Gnome development platform, so the old capital F is now commonly demoted to a humble minuscule.

Xfce is peculiar in some ways: all of the configuration is point and click, and the corresponding text files are not easily accesible to the less experienced users. The best known feature in Xfce is probably the low amount of resources it needs to run –less RAM memory and disk space than Gnome or KDE, but more than Fluxbox.This also means it’s not as rich in features, and maybe that is why it’s never been as popular as some other, heavier, desktop environments, but Xfce is nevertheless very appreciated by users looking for a very efficient desktop environment or for one that can be used in more limited or older hardware.
Because of its leaness is the GUI of choice for some distros aimed to high portability or high efficiency such as Zenwalk
Linux, Xubuntu, Vector Linux, SLAX or Saxen.

Fluxbuntu is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution which uses a ROX desktop environment based on the very light Fluxbox window manager instead of the typical Gnome present in standard Ubuntu (or KDE in Kubuntu and Xfce in Xubuntu). This isn’t an official Ubuntu edition, but an independent distro.

The aim in this distro is to bring together the best of two worlds: the usability, stability and extensive hardware support found in Ubuntu with Fluxbox’s speed and nimbleness. Such marriage allows Fluxbuntu to run in a wider range of systems than Ubuntu, including older or more limited systems as well as mobile devices. Other changes that allow for lightness include the absences of certain packages and the default disactivation of some services.

It’s usually available as an installer LiveCD with Ubuntu’s Ubiquity installer.

Fluxbox is a very lean X Window manager based on Blackbox for Unix-like operating systems –Linux, BSD, Solaris.

Because of its light weight it needs very little memory, loads very quickly and works very fast.

Desktop environments based upon Fluxbox are usually very simple, almost minimalistic. They feature little more than a taskbar with no menus –the system and apps menu is avilable by right clicking your mouse on the desktop. Configuration settings are stored in text files. That same lightness allows this manager to run with very little resources thus enabling very old systems to run a fully featured GUI.

Eye candy is not the main point in Fluxbox but you can have it by adding IDesk or ROX desktop to your system. However, real window transparency is fully supported and makes for very practical and usable themes.

Becaus of its very light weight Fluxbox is the window manager of choice for many mini distros aiming to maximum portability (such as Damn Small Linux), specialized distros (Gparted LiveCD, Backtrack2) in which resources are needed to perform tasks other than please the eye, full featured distros that need or want to run in old computers as well as new ones (Fluxbuntu) or those for the maximum responiveness loving crowd.