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 (http://kubuntuforums.net). 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 (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OneiricOcelot/TechnicalOverview):


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 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/casper/+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.

[rojaasensei]

+1 :-)

[rojaasensei]

I, too, wish there was a dedicated xubuntu forum.

I have been able to do so much more with Xubuntu, including customization. I've pretty much created a Xubuntu- Ubuntu Studio fusion. Lol. Of course, Studio is switching to Xfce later this year anyway.

[XubuRoxMySox]

I, too, wish there was a dedicated xubuntu forum.

I have been able to do so much more with Xubuntu, including customization. I've pretty much created a Xubuntu- Ubuntu Studio fusion. Lol. Of course, Studio is switching to Xfce later this year anyway.

Really!? COOL! I love the configurability of Xfce. Just for fun I made mine look like Unity (except without the maddening drain on resources)!

There's soooo much versatility in Xfce, and the way they're mixing Xubu these days, there aren't going to be any more complaints about "bloat" either. Even Lucid Xubu is lean and mean!

[neu5eeCh]

One more big +1 for Xubuntu. I love it. I just wish XFWM4 got more love from theme designers (for those of us who prefer XFCE without Compiz).

[hhh]

I just wish XFWM4 got more love from theme designers (for those of us who prefer XFCE without Compiz).
Theming Xfwm4 is a PITA. There are about 30, no, 40 xpm images you need to hand edit with GIMP, whereas if you use Compiz/Emerald the Emerald Theme Manager let's you edit installed themes with menus, sliders and color pickers. Compiz/Emerald has it's own nutty quirks like wonky window matching and shadow rendering, but for an extra 40MB RAM you have so many more configurations... shadow color, offset and radius, window stickiness sensitivity, more window placement options like cascade, etc... But for light and rock solid, Xfwm window management and compositing is awesome.

re: an Xfce forum, several times I've seen moderators say "we have a feature freeze until the forum software gets upgraded, then we'll consider *feature X*". Maybe you/we can request a separate Xfce section at that time? Until then, post Xfce questions in the Desktop Environments forum with the *xubuntu* prefix. There are those of us who keep an eye out for those posts specifically (Toz, I'm thinking of you!).

Gratuitous 4.6 screenshot link...
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=11120114&postcount=141

[Linux_junkie]

Xubuntu not official? have you not looked on their website http://www.xubuntu.org/ ? Also if you want to try out Alpha 2 of 11.10 visit http://www.xubuntu.org/node/47

[Khakilang]

Since I read this thread. I remember I had a Xubuntu DVD that come with the magazine I bought so I thought I give a try to see how it perform. Its pretty good looking at my old computer which is a Pentium 4 1.5GHz with 512MB RAM. I think it will fly on my main computer.

[neu5eeCh]

... if you use Compiz/Emerald the Emerald Theme Manager let's you edit installed themes with menus, sliders and color pickers...

Hasn't Emerald been abandoned by its developers? When I initially installed Xubuntu and tried to install compiz and Emerald, most of the responses from this forum were that Emerald wasn't being developed anymore, so why bother...

[hhh]

@Poet, I'm still on 0.7.2, but it looks like .8.8 came out in April. And it's in the Oneiric repos. And because it's easily theme-able and it's pretty.

http://releases.compiz.org/components/emerald/
http://packages.ubuntu.com/oneiric/emerald

[BrokenKingpin]

One more big +1 for Xubuntu. I love it. I just wish XFWM4 got more love from theme designers (for those of us who prefer XFCE without Compiz).
Not sure why anyone would actually want to use Compiz with Xfce. The built in compositor works great... it doesn't have all the crazy effects that Compiz does, but if you want that type of eye candy then Xfce isn't the right DE for you anyways.

Luckily for me you can get the shiki-brave theme for Xfce/XFWM4, which looks fantastic.

[hhh]

Not sure why anyone would actually want to use Compiz with Xfce.


for an extra 40MB RAM you have so many more configurations... shadow color, offset and radius, window stickiness sensitivity, more window placement options like cascade, etc...



...if you want that type of eye candy then Xfce isn't the right DE for you anyways.
Xfce is perfect for me. It's light and flexible. Compiz runs great on it and gives me some feature I want. It's a lighter setup than Compiz on GNOME.

[drawkcab]

I installed xubuntu on a pIII back before it was an official branch. If I'm not mistaken, there were xubuntu forums back then, although almost no one was participating.

[koleoptero]

Not sure why anyone would actually want to use Compiz with Xfce. The built in compositor works great... it doesn't have all the crazy effects that Compiz does, but if you want that type of eye candy then Xfce isn't the right DE for you anyways.

Luckily for me you can get the shiki-brave theme for Xfce/XFWM4, which looks fantastic.

Compiz isn't only eye candy. Expo makes using virtual desktops easy, scale lets me pick a window from dozens of open windows with visual ease, negative helps reading bright documents at night, zoom helps reading a recipe from some distance etc etc etc...

The impact in performance with compiz+emerald isn't that great either in relatively new pcs (5years and newer). My laptop is 5+ years old but runs compiz just fine.

Also you can want xfce with some eye candy. It's so modular that you can use whatever parts of it you want however you want them. It doesn't force you to use them only as part of what's considered a "standard" xfce desktop. You can use it however you want them.

[rojaasensei]

Really!? COOL! I love the configurability of Xfce. Just for fun I made mine look like Unity (except without the maddening drain on resources)!

There's soooo much versatility in Xfce, and the way they're mixing Xubu these days, there aren't going to be any more complaints about "bloat" either. Even Lucid Xubu is lean and mean!

Can't argue with the dixiedancer. :)

[sffvba[e0rt]

Something for you Xubuntu users to cheer about - http://open.knome.fi/2011/08/09/new-xubuntu-website-taster/

;)

[solitaire]

I might have to bite the bullet and jump over to Xubuntu in a few months time.
Never liked Unity/Gnome3, and unless some bright spark Forks Ubuntu 11.10 onwards with Gnome2. i'm sticking to Ubuntu 10.10

Might give Kubuntu a try for a few months see how i get on with that...

[BrokenKingpin]

If you like Gnome2, you should feel right at home with Xfce. I also gave KDE 4.6 a chance for a few weeks, but found it too bloated for my tastes (buggy as well). KDE is getting better with every release though.

[drawkcab]

I'm giving xubuntu a try on my netbook right now. XFCE 4.8 is pretty slick. The menus bug me a bit but I can live with them.

[BrokenKingpin]

What menus are you referring to... the application menu? If so you can change the layout with any standard menu editor (such as Alacarte).

The only thing I really did not like was the standard application list for the panel (which is the same for any DE really). I wanted something more like the Win7 superbar or DockBarX... I found the Talika plugin which does the job nicely.

[XubuRoxMySox]

...I found the Talika plugin which does the job nicely.

Not available in Xubu 10.04 (Lucid). Looking forward to using it in the next LTS though. It could make the Xfce panel behave more like Unity's "dock" I think.

-Robin

[hhh]

I found the Talika plugin which does the job nicely.
That's what I use, but it won't work with 4.8, will it? I didn't think that xfce4-xfapplet-plugin (as well as many other plugins) was working with the new panel yet.

@Robyn, Talika is not in the repos but it's on sourceforge and gnome-look.

[BrokenKingpin]

That's what I use, but it won't work with 4.8, will it? I didn't think that xfce4-xfapplet-plugin (as well as many other plugins) was working with the new panel yet.

@Robyn, Talika is not in the repos but it's on sourceforge and gnome-look.
Yes, it does work in Xfce 4.8/Xubuntu 11.04 with the xfapplet.

[hhh]

Good to know. Thanks, Kingpin.