How is Hardy Xubuntu?

[jesusfreak107]

I have heard good things about Hardy Ubuntu, and bad things. From using Hardy in a VM on my main machine, I do not like it as much as Gutsy, and notice little change, except that my advanced graphics confiuration manager is missing. How is Xubuntu? Is is better? worse? just plain BAD? about the same? I am thinking about installing it on an old laptop I found in the garage, recently.

[gn2]

Xubuntu 8.04 is significantly better than 7.10 on my laptop.

[stevethefiddle]

Several improvements and fixes that were bugging me with Gutsy. Some of the improvements were not obvious at first, but suddenly I find "Oh that works now" :)

Xorg has definitely got better and screen resolution selection is now working perfectly.

"Abuse" (a cool 2D shooter game) now works - that's going to make me waste so much time :D

[Windcharger]

I have an older Gateway laptop, to which I wiped w*ndows and replaced with Feisty. I had the typical troubles with ATI and wireless, but eventually got them to work. Gutsy was much improved but took forever to boot, and I mean forever.

I then read about Xubuntu Hardy and I seem to enjoy it a lot. I think Thunar is much faster than Nautilis as a file manager; I can transfer from cd-rom or flash drive in half the time. I still had to do fwcutter for my broadcom 43xx wireless, but I was able to get my ATI driver after a round of updates. Plus, Xubuntu is at desktop in under one minute for me, instead of the eternity like Gutsy.

I also like how it finds the necessary libraries easier than Gutsy. For instance, when I put in a dvd, it finds the correct Gstreamer for Totem (even though the same bugs are in Totem as in Gutsy).

One issue with Xubuntu, though, is I can't use Compiz and Emerald and play games, like Secret Maryo or Torcs, as they flicker. After unistalling Compiz, there was no flicker.

Another minor complaint is the main menu size is too small. I wish it could be adjusted simply.

Anyway, Xubuntu is much more lightweight and a quicker install than Gutsy. I tried the upgrade option to Hardy from Gutsy and had problems. Doing this fresh install seemed to be flawless. :)