Xubuntu 12.04 review - A most pleasant surprise

Blimey, who would have thought! Dedoimedo liking Xfce, is that possible? Anyhow, here's a super long and extremely enthusiastic review of Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin Long-Term Support (LTS) release edition with Xfce desktop environment, covering live session testing, installation in a quadruple-boot configuration on SSD and post-install use, including look & feel, accessibility, menu, notifications, Wireless, Bluetooth, Samba sharing with good system integration, rich application choice, package management with Ubuntu Software Center and Synaptic, multimedia playback - Flash and MP3, plus gmusicbrowser cover art and skinning, desktop customization with new theme, windows borders, Faenza icons, transparency, and wallpapers, touchpad control, system resources, stability, suspend & resume, some glitches and crashes, and more.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/xubuntu-pangolin.html


Cheers,
Mrk

 

I agree with some things (like the new xfce4-terminal color scheme), disagree with others, and I don't really like what he did to his desktop.

I'd also note that LTS for Xubuntu is currently 3 years, not the 5 years it is for Ubuntu itself.

 

You don't like what he did ... who is he?
Mrk

 

Oh. Sorry, I somehow missed that that was your web site.

I agree with some of what you said, didn't agree with other parts, and your desktop is not, shall we say, to my taste.

Here's a pic of my current desktop. You probably won't like it.

 

Many, many thanks Mrk. I was looking forward to a review on Xubuntu 12.04 (and so were several others).
Now to get that elusive 10/10 rating, you may want to try the Xfce 4.10 version available here
and check out the tour http://xfce.org/about/tour

Can confirm very stable - no bad moments at all.

 

sunoracle, it looks just fine ...
Mrk

 

Ok, thanks. I got the impression from the pictures in your review that you didn't like the all-grey look of the latest Xubuntu, so I thought you wouldn't like my desktop either. (Lubuntu obviously looks similar in color scheme to Xubuntu these days. I didn't change much, so this pic is close to a stock Lubuntu desktop.)

I'll probably swap back and forth between Xubuntu and Lubuntu for a week or two and then pick one. I must say that I'm leaning more and more towards Lubuntu. It's faster, although Xubuntu was never slow for me over the last few versions.

My other option is to switch to Arch. It's tempting. I used to really enjoy tinkering with Linux years ago, but on the other hand I have come to enjoy an OS that just works out of the box.

 

Mrk or any one who knows,
How do you remove the desktop icon text background...like in Mrk's review? That's one thing I've always disliked about Xfce but I never stayed with it long enough to figure it out. Mrk's review made me want to try xfce again.

BTW, nice review Mrk, as usual.

Later....

Bob

Addition: Nevermind. I found the answer to my question. Now to see if there's a way to run my favorite nautilus-scripts in xfce.

Later...again.

 

I've always been a bit of an Xfce fan since back when I was dabbling with Mint Debian, I tried Xubuntu for the first time after 12.04 and I really like it, I had gotten used to cinnamon and forgot how great the customizability that Xfce offers is.

I managed to customize the taskbar to how I like it (Windows-ish), the only thing I miss and hope they add is the ability to have a launcher become a process like Win7.

 

Let's keep this about Xubuntu. If you have thoughts on Lubuntu/Arch/Whatever, separate threads will be most welcome.

 

Please do tell or is it a case of this exercise is left to the reader

Edit:
I found out how and posted it here.

 

Good review but badly out of date. You need to install the new XFCE 4.10 from the PPA and give us your opinion of it in Xubuntu. The new XFCE desktop was released too late to be included in the LTS of Xubuntu, which is a shame!

 

Badly out of date? As in - I used the latest version of the distro?
Mrk

 

True. But 4.10 is there

 

Its the latest version of the distro, which for reasons of timing, did NOT include the latest version of the XFCE desktop. The version of that you ran is 4.08. You'll have to download and install the new XFCE 4.10 desktop from the PPA repository and update your review to see if what you wrote about it still applies. I think readers deserve to know if you still have the high praise for this LTS Xubuntu after the desktop was updated.

 

The review is of Xubuntu, latest edition, hence it cannot be badly outdated. Xfce 4.10 is not an official part of the distro, nor is Xubuntu a review of Xfce only, hence it might be a nice exercise, but not a part of the 12.04 experience per se.
Mrk

 

Well, the ppa has this:
"Xfce 4.10 packages for Xubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin).

Please note that only Xfce 4.8 is officially supported on Xubuntu 12.04. Therefore, any bug report filed with this PPA enabled is likely to get rejected, or you may be asked to reproduce the issue with Xfce 4.8. The first Xubuntu release to feature Xfce 4.10 will be Xubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal)."

So in terms of a review of 12.04 LTS, 4.10 is inappropriate.

 

intersting review mrk one thing i miss is just FaenzaMac icons


rest awesome too bad they stop FaenzaMac icons anyone know the reason why

http://linux.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/FaenzaMac-Screenshot-69610.html