ClarkePeters
September 26th, 2006, 04:10 PM
When I was looking to make a choice between Xubuntu and Ubuntu, I found little information, although I did gleen that Xubuntu is good for outdated/smaller systems. But what about medium/larger systems? Here's my two cents on this:
First, I'm running GenuineIntell, pentiumIII, 800mhz, 256kb cache, 386mg RAM (was actually 512 on ram but I guess some of my memory died, so I'm not sure if I was running 512 or 386 at the time of my testing). Installed the operating system on a 20 gig hard drive dedicated as an operating system disk (keep my data/music/videos on a secondary hard disk or usb drive).
I read a thread a while back that suggested that Xubuntu, seeing that it runs fast on small machines compared to other Operating Systems, that it should really rock on a larger machine, i.e one that would run a full Ubuntu without troubles. However, .....
It is my experience on my computer that Xubuntu does not outperform a regular Ubuntu install, in fact, Xubuntu has quite a lag time when opening programs in my system, especially firefox and openoffice; so I'd say my Ubuntu responds faster to my demands. (abiword was Ok, a little slow at open, but to make a valid comparison, I used OpenOffice since its standard with Ubuntu). Other than the lag in opening programs, can't tell much difference (I know at the engine level maybe there's a difference, but as a user, I can't tell) My suggestion, unless you have an outdated/smaller machine, or just want to play around with the Xubuntu install, stick with Ubuntu.
Maybe not the case for all systems, but it's true for me.
That being said, I decided I'd had enough playing around with installs (did about 12 on a few different disks, dual boot with windows etc.. just to experiment).
I settled on an initial Xubuntu install that I updated and then went and did an ubuntu-desktop install on top of that. I pretty much stay in Ubuntu and put up with the little bit of lag time. But I always have the choice at boot time.
I would like to know what others think--and maybe some explanations of what the true difference is, either in performance or in the desktop use (besides just saying that one is gnome and the other xfce--that's pretty obvious and doesn't mean much to a non-techie user)
First, I'm running GenuineIntell, pentiumIII, 800mhz, 256kb cache, 386mg RAM (was actually 512 on ram but I guess some of my memory died, so I'm not sure if I was running 512 or 386 at the time of my testing). Installed the operating system on a 20 gig hard drive dedicated as an operating system disk (keep my data/music/videos on a secondary hard disk or usb drive).
I read a thread a while back that suggested that Xubuntu, seeing that it runs fast on small machines compared to other Operating Systems, that it should really rock on a larger machine, i.e one that would run a full Ubuntu without troubles. However, .....
It is my experience on my computer that Xubuntu does not outperform a regular Ubuntu install, in fact, Xubuntu has quite a lag time when opening programs in my system, especially firefox and openoffice; so I'd say my Ubuntu responds faster to my demands. (abiword was Ok, a little slow at open, but to make a valid comparison, I used OpenOffice since its standard with Ubuntu). Other than the lag in opening programs, can't tell much difference (I know at the engine level maybe there's a difference, but as a user, I can't tell) My suggestion, unless you have an outdated/smaller machine, or just want to play around with the Xubuntu install, stick with Ubuntu.
Maybe not the case for all systems, but it's true for me.
That being said, I decided I'd had enough playing around with installs (did about 12 on a few different disks, dual boot with windows etc.. just to experiment).
I settled on an initial Xubuntu install that I updated and then went and did an ubuntu-desktop install on top of that. I pretty much stay in Ubuntu and put up with the little bit of lag time. But I always have the choice at boot time.
I would like to know what others think--and maybe some explanations of what the true difference is, either in performance or in the desktop use (besides just saying that one is gnome and the other xfce--that's pretty obvious and doesn't mean much to a non-techie user)