Can't decide

[tmette]

Well, I went ahead and installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my new machine along-side Windows 7. It's been about half-year since I've used Ubuntu. I'm ready to use it as my main desktop, however, like many of you I do not like the new Unity interface. I gave it a test drive and it was very buggy/glitchy. I know that I can always load the classic interface in Natty, but feel like somehow it's going to work better if it's the default interface.

So I installed 10.10 and it's running great, everything works out of the box and I got some music transferred to it. It's only been like this for about 24 hours, but I'm starting to think I may just want to switch to Xubuntu. This isn't for the speed performance (running a quad-core i5) but mainly so I can keep the GNOME-like interface. I'm afraid that 11.10 will also be Unity and I still won't like it. Has anyone else switched to Xubuntu in fear that Ubuntu will now stay with Unity?

[ManualSparrow]

I went with XFCE a while ago, and I can say that I don't really miss anything from Gnome or the brief trial I did with Unity. The xfdesktop system is great with it's right-click app menu - at least as slick as any of the resource-heavy Unity/Gnome solutions (you can configure the appmenu and windowlist to popup with keyboard shortcuts, too, so you don't even need to click the desktop).

Also, XFCE 4.8 (included with Xubuntu 11.04) is just a little nicer than 4.6 and finally puts XFCE in the same league aesthetically as the other top WMs.

Thirdly, I would go with PCman FM from the LXDE environment - Thunar's light, but PCman's lighter still and way fast (plus, it has a cool App folder kind of like Mac OSX).

[deconstrained]

I sincerely doubt that Xubuntu will use Unity in the future; the whole idea of Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu (etc) is to provide Ubuntu with its support and software repos but with an alternative interface, and in the case of Xubuntu, a no-nonsense, lightweight interface. Plus, Unity is not XFCE, so Xubuntu would be superfluous if it used Unity :-P

[jerrrys]

I - Thunar's light, but PCman's lighter still and way fast (plus, it has a cool App folder kind of like Mac OSX).

and on the other end of the spectrum.

i like the bells and whistles of nautilus so i installed it

[cvielma]

Hi.

Well, i really like Unity (i really thought that i wouldn't but i test it one day and captivated me), but if you're looking for Gnome you have many options:

- You can always install ubuntu and install gnome on it. It will be always be there even when Ubuntu is using Unity by default. Of course you could use Gnome with Unity or Gnome Shell, or classic Gnome.

- You could try LinuxMint (don't misunderstood me, i love Ubuntu, but the think with Open Source is to keep the mind Open and to have options). LinuxMint is based on Ubuntu, so if you like one probably you would like the other.

- You could decide for another distro.

I really don't like XFCE. I think Gnome is more complete and suitable for me. I would only use XFCE for performance matters...

Hope it helps.

Best regards,

[ivanovnegro]

Ok, I settled also to Xubuntu alongside Kubuntu, funny, yes, but Im in love with the Xfce desktop, for me its like Gnome Light or maybe like Ubuntu Classic, so if you use to like Gnome 2.x very much, I can recommend you to use the new Xubuntu 11.04, it has also a pretty interface now.
For all old school Gnome users out there, you can even make Xubuntu just look like Ubuntu Classic with Gnome 2.x, you can take even the theme, Nautilus, whatever, some things like the Software Center are included, so you can build your own "Gnome" looking Xubuntu, I know this isnt really the goal of Xfce but its very customizable.
In reality Im even using the defaults apart from Abiword and some minor stuff.
You can install all the apps you want, Gtk or Qt apps are looking all good under Xubuntu, LibreOffice also isnt a problem, minor thing you need to make it looking good is the package libreoffice-gtk.