I've been an Xubuntu user for a couple of years. I've been following the discussion on goals for Xubuntu and thought it might be useful to hear why I use it and what I use it for.
-What do I use Xubuntu for? This is probably the best place to start a discussion on the vision for Xubuntu. I use it for running Tomcat and MySQL for my Webservers. I know there are distributions that are even lighter for this, but it's just nice to have a windowing system. I can have multiple windows up, I can test pages using a web browser and it just makes things easier for me. I can't remember every single Unix command and having gui apps to do some things just makes the system easier to use. -Ubuntu has a very good reputation and that helps Xubuntu. When I started looking for "lightweight" distros, I had a little experience with Unbuntu and liked the approach, quality and community support. I liked how apps were installed and removed. So the first thing I looked at was Xubuntu and I liked that it was similar without all the extra apps. -I've never done a comparison between Ubuntu and Xubuntu to see which runs faster on my hardware, probably either would be fine, but for my use, I liked that I didn't have a ton of apps installed that I'll never use. Whether it really saves that much disk space or not, I don't know, but I like having only what I need installed. I'd rather have to install a few additional apps instead of removing apps (to a point). This is a big reason why I liked Xubuntu. I find it takes less time for me to add the few apps I need. Otherwise I have to spend a lot of time removing apps and hoping I don't break anything in the process. For my purposes Xubuntu works pretty well. I have no need for Open Office, GIMP and any Games on my systems and I'd prefer not to have them installed, but I'm guessing Xubuntu is mostly used as a lightweight Office desktop. That is why you are on this slippery slope. :) All desktop systems get bloated over time. If I could offer a suggestion, it would be: listen to how users are using Xubuntu and base your decisions accordingly. Perhaps some of the differences could be solved by some simple installation options. For example, an option to install the "Internet bundle", "Office bundle", "Games bundle", etc. Otherwise, you get the base XFCE with some selected GUI apps. thanks for Xubuntu, dan -- xubuntu-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel
