Xubuntu: Official or Not?

[XubuRoxMySox]

Just a quick question, prompted by repeated omissions from Canonical:

When Ubuntu released the updated LiveCD for version 10.04 (Lucid Lynx),images were made available for Ubuntu and Kubuntu - but not Xubuntu.

Now Ubuntu 11.10 has reached Alpha 3 and ISOs can be downloaded forUbuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and even Lubuntu - but not Xubuntu!

LiveCDs of Ubuntu and Kubuntu can be ordered from Canonical. Both were available for free from Canonical's ShipIt service. But not Xubuntu.

Is Xubuntu official or isn't it? Is it supported by Canonical or isn't it? I wish someone could explain this. I occasionally find complaints onUbuntu Forums that "Canonical needs to show Kubuntu more love!" But not Xubuntu. There are Ubuntu Forums and Kubuntu forums. But no Xubuntu forums. Only the little mailing list.

Why no respect for Xubuntu? [whiney fanboi mode] Xubuntu is the mostawesomest Linux distro in the history of evvaaaar! Why doesn't Canonical show Xubu some love!? [/whiny fanboi mode]

Just wondering.


-Robin

[srisharan]

have a look
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1309338

[sffvba[e0rt]

I am not sure how much support Canonical gives to any of the "official" releases... It seems to me more a case of the various releases having to meet specific criteria to be called "official".

Anything above and beyond this the devs (and the community) put in place for their spin is up to them...

EDIT: From the post above me - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DerivativeTeam/Derivatives

[el_koraco]

There are no Xubuntu forums, because noone has started them. The hosting of kubuntuforums is payed for by a single individual, and have nothing to do with Canonical.

[3Miro]

Canonical only officially supports Ubuntu. If Xubuntu .iso images are lacking, this is an issue with the Xubuntu team (separate from Canonical), but I don't see those as big issues. 10.04.3 is exactly 10.04 with updates, if you install 10.04 and then update you get 10.04.3. Xubuntu just doesn't have the .iso. Same with the Alphas, for 11.04 Xubuntu released alpha .iso images that were basically 10.10 with additional repos enabled, you basically install 10.10 and then update to 11.04. (the final Xubuntu does install the right version form the start).

[XubuRoxMySox]

Just got a history lesson in an e-mail from Charlie Kravetz, the Xubu team leader! He writes (on the Xubu-users mailing list):

When Mark Shuttleworth started to build a new linux operating system in
2004, he did not know if he would base it on KDE or Gnome, the two desktop environments most popular at the time. Xfce as a desktop environment was very young and unknown. Since he, as the only financial backer of the new operating system, wanted to be able to use either of
the environments known to be stable, he hired both Kubuntu and Ubuntu developers.

In 2006, a developer named Jani Monoses started a derivative of Ubuntu that would be lighter in resources and use the Xfce desktop environment. That derivative was released as Xubuntu 6.06 and was the
first official release of Xubuntu. Jani has since moved on to create Kiwi, a derivative of Ubuntu for Romanians, and is working with the Ubuntu ARM team.

As an supported, official derivative of Ubuntu, Kubuntu has paid developers. That gives them the right to whine when Canonical forgets them.

That explains quite a bit! And it is a tribute to the Xubu volunteers who have done such an awesome job for so long!

As for why the ISOs for Xubu were not released along with all the other 'buntus, I found this:

The Xubuntu images currently require several workarounds in order to be used, so are not being officially published with the A3 release. Known issues have been documented below for those wanting to work with the daily images.

Apparently the installer has some kinda dependence upon Gnome-power-manager, and it shouldn't. They're treating it as Bug #820731.

Sigh, I feel better now. Still a fanboi, just not as whiney after hearing from Charlie. Thanks, Charlie, you and the Xubu devs are awesome!

Lots of Xubu love,
Robin

[3Miro]

Xfce as a desktop environment was very young and unknown.

I am not sure about the unknown part, but any reference to XFCE as being "young" are incorrect. XFCE and KDE began development in the same year - 1996. Gnome development started in 1997 and LXDE in 2006. Only LXDE can be called young and XFCE and KDE are the oldest DE.

[kostageas]

If/when I install Linux (again) I want to use XFCE instead of Gnome. I don't really like Unity or Gnome-3, and after 11.10, I won't be able to use Gnome 2.x anyway.

[orange2k]

if/when i install linux (again) i want to use xfce instead of gnome. I don't really like unity or gnome-3, and after 11.10, i won't be able to use gnome 2.x anyway.

+1

[Legendary_Bibo]

I took a Xubuntu install on my old Dell Dimension 4600 or whatever the number is (P4, 256mb RAM) and made it look really freaking close to Windows 7. Now I'm going to set that machine up as an FTP server.