Intrepid is only a few weeks away now, and while I don’t really count myself as a rabid Ubuntu user any more, I have my usual sense of drama that’s building. Mostly it means I’m on the prowl again for a sub-300Mhz laptop that I can beat up in the name of science.
On the other hand this post, from months ago, suggests that maybe the Xubuntu version of Intrepid will be a return to lighter times:
If all goes well, I think we’ll see Xubuntu lose a few pounds for Intrepid.
Pardon me if I don’t leap out of my chair at the suggestion; I like the idea, but I have my doubts.
Somehow I think my idea of “lighter” is still a great deal different than what the Xubuntu crowd has in mind. And from what I’ve seen of Xubuntu’s growth and development, “lighter” is a useful term only so long as it doesn’t interfere with the addition of things like Thunderbird over Sylpheed-Claws, or Firefox over Kazehakase, or Evince over ePDFView.
Of course, I’m being unnecessarily harsh, and I apologize for that. It’s always possible that the Intrepid Xubuntu will turn out to be something usable on very old machines. I don’t expect it — I gave up on that around Edgy — but I’m willing to take a look.
So in about three weeks I expect I’ll be downloading my first Xubuntu ISO in a year or so. I don’t plan to put it at the top of my “action priority list,” but it’ll be done. And I promise to be fair … but also honest.
The upgrade from Feisty to Gutsy was when I was finally forced to agree with you. It was only after uninstalling network-manager-gnome, gnome-power-manager and gnome-screensaver that the system was anything how it was before, and that was followed by quite a bit more clearing out of unwanted stuff.
I’ll be very interested in your review of Xubuntu Intrepid – if it looks usable I might bypass Hardy, otherwise time to move to Openbox or maybe the xfce4 desktop.
I don’t think you’ll enjoy this, simply because of your attitude (not meant negatively) – you’re not part of the target audience. Yes, the Xubuntu Team’s idea of light is very different, in that they don’t target very old computers. It’s supposed to be fast on recent computers, work well on reasonably old computers, and that’s it. The Ubuntu base prevents dramatic performance increases, but Xubuntu’s goal is also (as is Ubuntu’s) to be user-friendly, like Kazehakase is not.
You’re right, Vincent. I apologize if I am overly critical. It took me a long time to realize that when the Xubuntu team said “old,” they meant machines that were still years newer than what I am accustomed to. I hope it was clear from my post that I don’t hold them responsible for that. Any more, the only acrimony I hold is when Xubuntu is suggested on the forums for someone using a slow Pentium II. In those cases, I can’t help but wonder if the advice comes from someone who doesn’t really know what they’re talking about. …
Anyway, thanks for the note. 😐
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