Switching to Xubuntu
I origionally switched to Linux over 10 years ago because my modest hardware could not keep up with Windows, and I was rewarded with a reliable, stable, and responive system. Fast forward 8 years and I am now a very satisfied Ubuntu user, however, I have never been a fan of desktop enviroments such as GNOME and KDE. I normaly prefere something very light weight such as WindowMaker.However, I found a way to keep a “mostly default” Ubuntu install with a light weight desktop. I had used Xfce a couple of years ago while experimenting with Redhat 8,9 and Fedora, and I quite enjoyed it.
Xubuntu delivers a light weight desktop on Ubuntu, prefering light weight applications, and also utilizing ubuntu repositories. Ubuntu is nice, and works very well, but I just don’t like GNOME, or its heavy memory usage. I’m also cheap, and I do not like spending a lot of money on hardware. Requiring less than 192Mb of RAM, Xubuntu is now running on my main desktop, laptop, and office desktop. Its also running on my backup home workstation.
So if you are finding Ubuntu a little heavy on your machine, give Xubuntu a try! Switching from Ubuntu to Xubuntu is quick and easy, and if you do not like it, you can easily go back.
To install Xubuntu from Ubuntu type:
sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
Enjoy, if you have any questions please leave a comment.
About 2 years, I first met tried Xfce when I used the Debian derivative, Knoppix.
After enduring GNOME slowdowns, under Ubuntu 6.06, I recently chose Xfce because it is lighter than GNOME.
I’ve been using Ubuntu exclusively since Feb 11, 2007 when I switched to my Ubuntu box.
That box was first installed with Ubuntu on August 5, 2006.