Xubuntu or Lubuntu?

[oxf]

I have a Acer Aspire one netbook (Atom 450 processor/1GB RAM). I was thinking of installing either Xubuntu or Lubuntu on it and am curious about people experiences with either on simimiar spec PC's. All recomendations and perspectives welcome :)

Thanks!

[snowpine]

Do you prefer Xfce desktop (Xubuntu) or LXDE desktop (Lubuntu)? That is the major difference. If you've never used either before, then I recommend making a Live CD or USB of each and going for a test-drive.

Ubuntu is known to run pretty well on the Acer Aspier One. There is a lot of infomation on the Wiki and Forums if you do a quick search. Good luck! :)

[oxf]

Do you prefer Xfce desktop (Xubuntu) or LXDE desktop (Lubuntu)? That is the major difference. If you've never used either before, then I recommend making a Live CD or USB of each and going for a test-drive.

Ubuntu is known to run pretty well on the Acer Aspier One. There is a lot of infomation on the Wiki and Forums if you do a quick search. Good luck! :)

I've only ever used GNOME for real. I did try KDE breifly from a live CD. BUt I was thinking more about any differences in functionality.

[snowpine]

I've only ever used GNOME for real. I did try KDE breifly from a live CD. BUt I was thinking more about any differences in functionality.

No difference in functionality. The different Ubuntu "flavors" differ only in their desktop environment and default pre-installed applications.

Visit the websites, look at the screenshots, read the list of applications, then make a Live USB and take it for a test-drive:

http://lubuntu.net/
http://www.xubuntu.org/

[Paddy Landau]

There is another important difference. Lubuntu is very lightweight, suitable for old and slow computers. It rescued an old computer of mine that ran like treacle even on Xubuntu.

[wolfen69]

I have a Acer Aspire one netbook (Atom 450 processor/1GB RAM). I was thinking of installing either Xubuntu or Lubuntu on it and am curious about people experiences with either on simimiar spec PC's. All recomendations and perspectives welcome :)

Thanks!

I have the same netbook, and Lubuntu runs like a dream on it. All function keys, suspend, and all hardware is perfect. Don't waste any time and just go for it. :) But I added another gig of ram and a 60gb ssd. ;)
:guitar: :guitar: :guitar:

[wolfen69]

There is another important difference. Lubuntu is very lightweight, suitable for old and slow computers. It rescued an old computer of mine that ran like treacle even on Xubuntu.

True. There will be a noticeable between the two on a netbook. I'm not saying that xubuntu will be a dog, but lxde will definitely be faster.

[oxf]

I have the same netbook, and Lubuntu runs like a dream on it. All function keys, suspend, and all hardware is perfect. Don't waste any time and just go for it. :) But I added another gig of ram and a 60gb ssd. ;)
:guitar: :guitar: :guitar:


Oh cool! Can I just switch the existing HD for a SSD?
I got this on sale because it still had XP on it!

[ubupirate]

Lubuntu. :)

[wolfen69]

Oh cool! Can I just switch the existing HD for a SSD?
I got this on sale because it still had XP on it!

Yeah, no problem. With an ssd it runs like greased lightning. For a netbook, it has very impressive speed. You won't be disappointed.

[neu5eeCh]

I use Xubuntu, but have dabbled in Lubuntu.

Lubuntu: Far as I know, one still can't easily edit the menu. However, I just searched and this (http://askubuntu.com/questions/54303/gui-for-editing-menu-in-xubuntu) might work. Thumbnails of image files appear on the desktop.
Xubuntu: Alacarte is a GUI menu editor that now works with Xubuntu (not with Lubuntu) but brings in Gnome dependencies (which doesn't bother me). Annoyingly, thumbnails of image files to not appear on the desktop, only a generic box with the file extension inside it. This alone, sometimes. makes me want to switch to Lubuntu.

And that, literally, is my 2 cents. About all it's worth. Other than that, Lubuntu is lighter and slightly less configurable, I think.

[malspa]

I'd be interested to know what folks think of this review about Lubuntu 11.10:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/lubuntu-ocelot.html

[wolfen69]

I use Xubuntu, but have dabbled in Lubuntu.

Lubuntu: Far as I know, one still can't easily edit the menu. However, I just searched and this (http://askubuntu.com/questions/54303/gui-for-editing-menu-in-xubuntu) might work. Thumbnails of image files appear on the desktop.
Xubuntu: Alacarte is a GUI menu editor that now works with Xubuntu (not with Lubuntu) but brings in Gnome dependencies (which doesn't bother me). Annoyingly, thumbnails of image files to not appear on the desktop, only a generic box with the file extension inside it. This alone, sometimes. makes me want to switch to Lubuntu.

And that, literally, is my 2 cents. About all it's worth. Other than that, Lubuntu is lighter and slightly less configurable, I think.
Does it really matter that much? We're talking about a netbook here. LXDE is a simple, straightforward os perfect for a netbook. I wouldn't sweat the minutia. If you're talking about a more capable machine, then I might understand your concerns. The speed alone makes lxde worth using on a netbook. Imho of course.

[neu5eeCh]

Does it really matter that much? We're talking about a netbook here.

I don't know if it really matters. If it were me? Probably not; but like I said: 2 cents. I have installed Lubuntu for a couple acquaintances who couldn't care less what their OS or desktop looked like. Lubuntu was perfect for them.

[BrokenKingpin]

Although both are very good distros, I personally prefer Xubuntu. Lubuntu is lighter, but not enough to really make a difference, even on my netbook. Xfce just feels like a more complete DE, and is easier to configure. With LXDE I often found I had to edit config files manually, where I could do it though the GUI in Xfce.

Xfce also has features such as a built in compositing window manager, and I generally find that it looks better. I run it on my main high end machines, as well as my low end machines like my netbook.

[KBD47]

I have a Acer Aspire one netbook (Atom 450 processor/1GB RAM). I was thinking of installing either Xubuntu or Lubuntu on it and am curious about people experiences with either on simimiar spec PC's. All recomendations and perspectives welcome :)

Thanks!

Why not dual boot--use both :-) That is what I'm doing on my AAO d255e netbook. Both work very well on it.
KBD47

[wolfen69]

Although both are very good distros, I personally prefer Xubuntu. Lubuntu is lighter, but not enough to really make a difference, even on my netbook. Xfce just feels like a more complete DE, and is easier to configure. With LXDE I often found I had to edit config files manually, where I could do it though the GUI in Xfce.

Xfce also has features such as a built in compositing window manager, and I generally find that it looks better. I run it on my main high end machines, as well as my low end machines like my netbook.

If you need xfce on your netbook, then you need xfce. ;) It's all good. I absolutely love Lubuntu on my netbook, but I run Gnome shell on my desktop, and KDE on my laptop. It's all good, and couldn't be happier.

[asifnaz]

AFAIK your laptop can run any Ubuntu flavor . I personally like Lubuntu (because it revived my 11 years old PC) you can have a look at Linux Mint LXDE .

good luck

[koleoptero]

I use Xubuntu, but have dabbled in Lubuntu.

Lubuntu: Far as I know, one still can't easily edit the menu. However, I just searched and this (http://askubuntu.com/questions/54303/gui-for-editing-menu-in-xubuntu) might work. Thumbnails of image files appear on the desktop.
Xubuntu: Alacarte is a GUI menu editor that now works with Xubuntu (not with Lubuntu) but brings in Gnome dependencies (which doesn't bother me). Annoyingly, thumbnails of image files to not appear on the desktop, only a generic box with the file extension inside it. This alone, sometimes. makes me want to switch to Lubuntu.

And that, literally, is my 2 cents. About all it's worth. Other than that, Lubuntu is lighter and slightly less configurable, I think.

Actually alacarte won't pull in many dependencies if you do "sudo apt-get install alacarte --no-install-recommends" to install it IIRC. But the desktop in xfce is horrid if you use it. I always disable the icons on the desktop in xfce.

For the menu in lxde, you can always make it show the wm menu on desktop click in which case you have the openbox menu and the obmenu app to edit it quickly.

It might be possible to combine things here though, like using lxdesktop and xfwm and the xfce4 panel. I haven't tried, but I might if I get the time. Sounds like a good solution to the desktop problem with xfce.

One more thing: There shouldn't be any reason for xfce to be heavier than lxde. It might use 5mb more ram on boot but that should be it. If anyone notices a big difference on a netbook try disabling the desktop compositing in xfce under system settings -> window manager tweaks. And/or removing some unnecessary (imo) stuff, like update managers (you can do that manually anyway) and some panel applets (indicators in xfce were a bad idea (imo again)).

[Paddy Landau]

... I personally prefer Xubuntu. Lubuntu is lighter, but not enough to really make a difference...
That depends on your hardware! On my very old computer, it makes a significant difference.

I also have Lubuntu running on a 3-year-old netbook with a hard drive (no SSD) and just 512Mb RAM. It runs at a perfectly acceptable speed, whereas Ubuntu on the same machine was too frustratingly slow to use.

[oxf]

Yeah, no problem. With an ssd it runs like greased lightning. For a netbook, it has very impressive speed. You won't be disappointed.

Great! :D
Thanks

Katja

[anna2112]

Lubuntu...but mine is Xubuntu

[rojaasensei]

They are both great. I have Lubuntu, but I installed the XFCE panel from Xubuntu on my desktop to create hybrid LXDE/XFCE panels which give me indicator plugins, notifications such as battery power, weather, and the X-mixer

[mamamia88]

No reason you can't install one or the other and install the other desktop environment and just chose which session to login to. I heard lxde was lighter than xcfe but I can't really tell a difference speed wise on my netbook.