My Time with Xubuntu 10.10

For the past four or five months I've been using and evaluating a Linux distribution called Peppermint One. Its a lightweight Linux OS built from Ubuntu. The GNOME desktop environment was replaced with LXDE, which is a much lighter weight desktop environment that doesn't skimp on functionality. Peppermint One used OpenBox was its desktop compositor using the Nvidia Geforce drivers, but it only did 2D OpenGL desktop compositing. Windows games running via Wine wouldn't display anything but a black screen. They require full OpenGL 3D compositing to work. Thus, I decided to switch to a distribution I knew offered this feature.

Ubuntu.

However, my past experience with Ubuntu Desktop told me that GNOME was becoming too re

source intensive for my current PC. Its an old AMD Athlon XP 1.2GHz, with 1GB PC2700 RAM, 8x AGP Nvidia Geforce FX 5600 graphics, Sound Blaster Live sound card, 160GB ATA-133 hard drive, and 16 DVD-RW. I built it many years ago and its go through several motherboard changes since then. I didn't want to deal with the hassles of Windows XP, keeping anti-virus software up to date, and most software is moving to the new versions of Windows as XP is slowly being phased out by Windows 7. I didn't need the headaches, so I went with an operating system I actually enjoyed using and that was Ubuntu. Or, to be more accurate the official derivative known as Xubuntu (pronounced zu-buntu).

Xubuntu is not developed by the UK company Canonical but a third party group who are officially recognized by Canonical. Canonical offers support for Xubuntu in their online forums and email mailing lists. The main difference between Ubuntu Desktop and Xubuntu is the default desktop environment. Xubuntu uses XFCE, a very popular lightweight desktop environment which is based on GTK+. GTK+ is a GUI runtime library used by a lot of s

oftware to generate a graphical interface. The GIMP uses GTK+ to create its windows. Because of this XFCE uses very little memory and places very little demand on the processor. At the same time it has the look and feel of GNOME used on Ubuntu Desktop with only a few noticeable differences. The Notification Area, a small envelope shaped icon on the system tray used for email, Twitter, Facebook, and instant messenger notifications is missing. There are only two menus instead of three.

The menus are...

Applications - A menu of the installed software listed in categories; Accessories, Games, Graphics, Multimedia, Network, Office, and System. It is here you will also find the Ubuntu Software Center, an icon for the help system, and a icon for logging out or shutting down the computer.

Places - A listing of folders in your Home directory and all of hard drives and removable drives currently attached to your computer.

The System menu, which is normally separate in Ubuntu Desktop is incorporated into the Applications menu in Xubuntu. Xubuntu also places several configuration screens into a Control Panel like window called the XFCE 4 Settings Manager.

The XFCE 4 Settings Manager replaces the Preferences menu you'd find in Ubuntu Desktop. The Settings menu on the Applications menu replaces the Administration menu from Ubuntu Desktop.

On my old PC Xubuntu runs very fast, and boots very fast. Time from system power-on to login screen is less then 10 seconds, counting the slow as hell BIOS screens. From login screen to usable desktop is 1 to 2 seconds. Everything loads really fast, the menus are snappy, and nothing lags anywhere. There are a few instances where you do see some lag. The Thunar file manager lags a little on huge file transfers. Like when I moved my massive 1.3GB anime wallpaper collection into my Pictures folder in my Home directory from my backup drive. Also, when installing software from the Ubuntu Software Center the windows will lag but the system as a whole will not. These are tiny quirks which aren't deal breakers. This is an old system and its running really well with this operating system.

Xubuntu comes pre-installed with a lot of nice software. Much of it is geared towards low-system-resource usage so instead of OpenOffice.org you get Abiword and Gnumbers for your word processor and spreadsheet. There's nothing stopping you from install OpenOffice.org and it will run on this old system fairly well. AbiWord isn't bad, its a great word processor that has a huge fan following and it indeed uses very little in the way of system resources. It starts fast, the second I click its icon in the menu its on my screen and it loads OpenOffice.org .odt OpenDocument Text files just as fast. For getting out onto the web Xubuntu uses Firefox. Not exactly the most lightweight of browsers, so I installed Chromium. This is the open source web browser that Google Chrome is built from, and it still supports Google Sync so I was able instantly get back all of my bookmarks, extensions, passwords, and even the visual theme I was using before. Instead of Gwibber the Pidgin instant messenger used. It still works with all of the major networks: ie; MSN, Yahoo, Google, AOL, ICQ), but doesn't connect to Facebook and Twitter like Gwibber does. You get Transmission for Torrents, which is by far the best Bittorrent client for Linux hands down. For email Thunderbird is installed instead of Evolution, which is the Ubuntu Desktop default. For burning CDs or DVDs you get Xburn. It not as feature rich as K3B which you find on Ubuntu Desktop but it is lightweight and serves its purpose. There is also Mousepad, the default text editor for XFCE which is basically like Notepad for Windows, and Catfish which is a search tool that offers up features that file searches on Windows and most other operating systems usually don't give you.

Overall, everything runs really fast. I was able to enjoy a Youtube video using Flash. I have not yet tested HTML5 video in the Chromium browser yet. This is something I couldn't do with Ubuntu Desktop, even with the benefit of hardware acceleration. When visiting Gmail in Chromium its not as laggy, and is actually less laggy than when I was using Chrome on Peppermint One. I am also able to play all of my video files on my 1TB USB drive. Xubuntu uses the Parole Media Player, a lightweight media player that uses the GStreamer framework in Linux for handling multimedia (sound, video and sometimes graphics). Its fairly decent at playing most video formats and DVDs, but I installed VLC because it supports far more video formats and is better at playing DVDs. VLC isn't heavy on resources either and its one of the most popular open source media players around. For music you get the Exaile, which I'm familiar with because it was also included with Peppermint One. Its a decent iTunes like music player that runs smoothly and will also play Shoutcast Internet radio streams.

For graphics Xubuntu offers The GIMP, a professional level photo editor with all the bells and whistles you'd find on Adobe Photoshop. There is Ristretto, a tiny lightweight image viewer, and Simple Scan which works if you have a scanner. Ubuntu works with a lot of USB based scanners so you could easily go to the store, buy one, bring it home, and it will most likely work.

I even plugged in my very generic Playstation 2 to USB adapter in and it works. I'm able to use it with native Linux games but it doesn't work with anything I run with Wine. Wine is software that mimics a Windows environment for running Windows programs and games on Linux. I installed Steam, downloaded Final Fantasy XI and was able to get it to run and log into the server. The game runs very choppy but its not really the fault of Linux. FFXI uses very little GPU optimization and so its very CPU intensive. If I had a more powerful processor on this computer it world run better. I can upgrade to a 2GB AMD Athlon XP or Sempron for very little money so I may do that. FFXI didn't run all that well when I was running under Windows XP, so its no real surprise it doesn't perform well under Wine. I'll post an update after I upgrade my CPU. Even getting our color laser printer work was easy. I didn't even have to download drivers.

I've only been using Xubuntu for about a day now. Overall, its been much easier to customize to my own preferences than Peppermint One had been. XFCE even has a built-in feature for changing your wallpaper from a list so I didn't have to go hunting for one myself. The installation and setup were pleasant experiences. The installation was very easy to follow using plain English explanations of what was happening and the OS boots very fast. I'll post an update of my experience with Xubuntu in a few months.

If you want to try Xubuntu yourself you can without making any changes to your computer. Get a copy of the LiveCD, burn a copy for yourself and your friends, and test it out. You can even install it like an application in Windows without needing to change your disk partitions so you can boot Xubuntu without making changes to your hard drive. I think you'll like it. If you have an old computer that's gathering dust in your closet, bring it back to life by using Xubuntu and make it usable again.

Canonical's Perfect 10

There are those who say Ubuntu isn't ready for the mainstream. They have no idea now wrong they are. Canonical's release of Ubuntu Desktop 10.10 on 10/10/10 is a major milestone for the Linux distribution. The media has responded, giving Ubuntu 10.10 glowing reviews and recommendations. Lets see what all the fuss is about and why Ubuntu Desktop 10.10 could be the best Canonical has released to date.

1. Installation

Installing Ubuntu is actually easier than installing Windows. You need only boot the CD and start the install immediately, or you can boot to the LiveCD's desktop and run the install from there. The LiveCD gives y0u a fully working Ubuntu desktop user interface which you can try out before making any changes to your computer. When you choose to install every instruction is presented in plain English in a very polished windowed screen that walks you through the process step by step without any confusing geek jargon. Even the disk partitioning portion of the install is simple to understand. The majority of the install is fully automated after a few basic questions and after you choose your user login ID and password. The average length of time an Ubuntu install takes is about 5 minutes. If you have a network connection Ubuntu can download and install updates during the installation process on the fly automatically. Once the install is done you're asked to remove the CD and your computer will restart on its own.

2. The User Interface

Ubuntu Desktop boots very fast. The average start time is about 10 to 15 seconds depending on your computer. The login screen immediately comes up with shows you the login name you selected and a box to type in your password. Once past this the desktop comes up and this loads very quickly.

Ubuntu Desktop uses the Gnome desktop environment. There are two bars or Panels on the screen at the top and the bottom. The top is where your menu buttons can be found:

Applications which you will find all the apps installed in Ubuntu listed in categories; Accessories, Games, Graphics, Sound & Video, Office, Internet, and etc. You'll also find the Ubuntu Software Center here, we'll cover this later as this deserves its own section.

Places where you will find links to different folders for music, videos, documents, downloads, and buttons for other drives you might have attached to your computer.

System menu where you find the Preferences and Administration menus. This is where you can change your screen resolution, select your screensaver, change your wallpaper, install a printer, install your graphics card drivers (to use Desktop Effects, we'll discuss this later), and more.

The layout and locations of these menus has remained consistent on Ubuntu since its first release. This is part of the philosophy behind how Ubuntu is made. From the ground up the user interface is designed to be very easy to use and to learn. Its made so the average user can learn to use Ubuntu in just a few minutes and when they do upgrade they never have to relearn where everything is.

Next to the menus is an area for shortcut buttons. You usually find buttons for the Firefox web browser, the Evolution email client (a powerful clone of MS Outlook), and a shortcut button to the Ubuntu help page. You can add new shortcut buttons easily from the Applications menu. Just right-click on a app's icon and choose Add to Panel from the pop up menu. Its that easy.

Across the top panel you'll find the the Network Manager, which serves the same purpose as the network icon on the Windows system tray, the volume control, a clock which pops up with a calendar view of the month when you click on it, and there is a System Tray for apps that have system tray icons like Skype, Dropbox, and etc.

Along with the usual stuff you'll see some additional buttons and doodads on the top panel. One looks like a Envelope. This is the Notification Area, and its a very important feature of the user interface. The Notification Area shrinks the complexity of receiving information from multiple programs down into just one pop up menu. From here you can access your email, your instant messenger accounts (AOL, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN, Google, etc), and your accounts on Facebook and even Twitter. Everything is in one place and easily accessed with just a click or two. The Notification Area doesn't nag you either like most other system tray icons in Windows does. If you have a new email, a message or whatever the icon turns green and can even set it up to play a sound. No annoying pop ups that just get in the way.

Next to the Notifications Area is a button that lets you set your status for your instant messengers. Then there's the buttons for logging out, restarting, shutting down or hibernating the computer. Again, these features have been kept in the same place so they are easy to find.

The bottom panel is where you'll find the Task Bar. What this does is list the apps and windows that are currently open, and there is the also the Desktop Pager. Ubuntu gives you 4 desktops you can use. This gives you a lo of room on screen for more stuff. You can open Firefox full screen on one desktop, switch to another and open Evolution to get your email, go to the next to start OpenOffice to work on a document and use the last to start the Rythmbox media player to listen to some tunes while you work. Switching between these desktops is easy and fast, and the pager shows small boxes representing the windows you have open so you knew you have something running on that desktop at all times. The final items is the Trash Bin, the Ubuntu equivalent of the Recycle Bin in Windows.

The design philosophy Canonical uses for Ubuntu keeps this desktop design relatively the same with minor changes from time to time, but the overall look and feel is kept consistent so users who upgrade don't have relearn the user interface each time. This is something Microsoft needs to learn when releasing a new version of Windows. The mantra "keep it simple stupid" describes the Ubuntu desktop perfectly.

The biggest change to the Ubuntu desktop is the Multi-Touch support. If you have a tablet PC or a computer with a touch screen you can use your fingers in place of a mouse. The multi-touch in Ubuntu 10.10 had been praised all around by the media for its accuracy and ease of use. Its not quite as refined as the multi-touch you'll find on the iPhone but its every bit as good as what you'll find on Android. In some cases its better.

Ubuntu Desktop uses Compiz for desktop compositing (like Aero in Windows 7 only more awesome). If you have a compatible video card (Nvidia, ATI, Intel, there's a big list) and Ubuntu detected your device you can install the drivers for it in the Additional Drivers screen in the System and Administration menu. Once the drivers are installed you can turn on Desktop Effects in the Appearance window in the System and Preferences menu. When activated your windows will wobble around like pieces of paper when you move them around on the screen, and if you hold the Windows Key on your keyboard and rotate the mouse button you can zoom in and out. Also pressing the Windows Key and pressing N or M will invert the colors on the entire screen or just the current window that is open. This is a neat feature for people with low vision. For those with no vision Ubuntu has the Orca screen reader, which is a text-to-speech application that reads the screen and any text that is there in a computerized voice that actually easy to understand. Ubuntu also supports special Braille displays that some visually impaired individuals use without needing to install any additional software. Of all the Linux distributions available Ubuntu is the most accessible to the Blind and Visually Handicapped.

3. The Ubuntu Software Center

On the Applications menu on the top panel of the Ubuntu desktop you'll find the Ubuntu Software Center. Way back, more than ten years ago, installing apps on Linux was a real chore. You often had to compile programs from source code using long archaic commands in the terminal, and often this could take hours. Today, installing apps in Linux is as easy as installing apps on your iPhone or Android phone.

Several years ago Linux distributions got rid of the complexity of installing new apps by using app repositories and package managers. Repositories are big warehouses of apps that sit in the cloud on the Internet. A package manager talks to these repositories, can search through them, and download apps from them. This has gotten much easier to use over the years. The past few Ubuntu releases have used the Ubuntu Software Center, which makes searching for and install apps very simple. As simple as installing apps on a smartphone.

Immediately after installation Ubuntu already comes with many apps. Like Firefox for browsing the web, OpenOffice for getting work done, F-Spot Photo Manager for keeping your collection of digital photos organized, Rythmbox for playing your music and buying tunes from online music stores, Totem for watching videos and DVDs, Transmission for downloading from Bittorrent, and more. To add more apps just start the Ubuntu Software Center.

When it opens the Ubuntu Software Center shows you a list of software categories; Accessories, Games, Office, Graphics, Sound & Video, Programming, System, and etc. The new software center also has a new Featured Apps section and a section for New Apps. You can go into any of these and browser through a list of programs. As you do you'll see the names of the apps and a brief description of what they do. Click on one and you'll goto a bigger page that gives you more information and even gives you a picture of what the app looks like. To install an app just click the Install button. The process is automatic, depending on what kind of app it is you usually don't need to give your password to install most apps. A Installed Apps section shows a list of everything you've installed and lets you uninstall any app with just a click.

The biggest change to the Ubuntu Software Center is the addition of paid apps. Right now the list of paid apps is limited to the Flouendo Media Codecs Pack and the Flouendo DVD Player for Linux. More commercial apps are on the way though and start showing up in a few months. Canonical is in negotiations with several software makers who write Linux software to add their wares to the Ubuntu Software Center.

Understand, Linux is not Windows. It will not run Windows software, not without additional software called Wine. Wine will run most Windows software. It runs most older games perfectly, and even run Steam and Valve's Source Engine games like Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. You can even run World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, and Modern Warfare 2 on Linux with Wine. Wine can be installed from the Ubuntu Software Center.

4. Ubuntu One and the Ubuntu Music Store

Canonical is working hard to add premium services to Ubuntu Desktop that people actually will want to use. A very popular third party service is Dropbox, its a services that takes files in your Dropbox folder, backs them up to the Cloud, and then synchronizes them with other computers with Dropbox installed on them. The Ubuntu One service is pretty much the same service, only its integrated into Ubuntu Desktop and isn't a third party application you have to install later. You can use 2GB of storage free or pay a small monthly fee for more storage space. Like Dropbox the backup and file syncing service is completely automated. You just log into your account and the software does the rest for you. So if you have more than one computer with Ubuntu Desktop install you can keep your important documents synced easily using Ubuntu One.

The Rythmbox media player that comes installed in Ubuntu has always let you access the Magnatunes online music store, but Canonical has decided to open their own. Unlike Magnatunes, which only offers music from unsigned independent bands, the Ubuntu Music Store offers music from signed bands and artists. The prices for music are comparable to iTunes, the music downloads as DRM free .mp3 files (meaning there's no copy protection which could mess up leaving you without your music library), and you can sync your music to your MP3 player or smartphone right from within Rythmbox. The selection of music in the Ubuntu Music Store isn't as extensive as what you'll find in iTunes but the service only just recently opened. Given time the selection of tunes will get better. There hasn't been any talk about adding movies or TV shows to the list, but that could be an option for the future.

5. Simple Choices

Ubuntu "officially" comes in four different distinct flavors. Deciding which one you need is pretty easy, as the website makes it clear what each version is designed for. There are different "officially" recognized Derivatives of Ubuntu developed by third parties, but the versions actually produced by Canonical are:

Ubuntu Desktop - Currently the most popular Linux distribution on the planet, and its the one we've been talking about here in this article. Whether you have a desktop computer or a laptop this is likely the version you'll be using.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix - A version of Ubuntu with a new user interface called Unity which is designed to better make use of the smaller screens on Netbooks and is built to best use the new Multi-Touch support that Ubuntu 10.10 offers. So, if you have a small Netbook like the ASUS EeePC or Acer AspireOne, or a tablet PC this is the version you want.

Ubuntu Server - A powerful version of Ubuntu designed for big businesses and enterprise customers. Canonical also offers comprehensive paid support for Ubuntu Server that rivals what Red Hat offers their business users. Home users can use this to build their own file servers for storing media files like music and movies and sharing them over their home network.

Ubuntu Cloud Edition - A version of Ubuntu that runs on the Amazon EC2 Cloud Computing Platform or can be run in the Cloud on your company's own network. If you aren't an enterprise customer chances are you won't need to worry with this version.

The beauty is all of the software in the Ubuntu Software Center work the same on all of these different versions. You don't have to worry about something not being compatible.

The "officially" recognized Derivatives of Ubuntu developed by the community outside of Canonical are:

Kubuntu - A release of Ubuntu Desktop that replaces Gnome with KDE. It follows the exact same design philosophy so when you upgrade everything is in the same place and users don't have to learn a new user interface each time.

Xubuntu - A release of Ubuntu Desktop that replaces Gnome with XFCE. XFCE is a very lightweight desktop environment designed for older computers or computers that don't have much memory. Xubuntu can run in as little as 256MB of RAM but does best with just 512MB and can use as little as 2GB of hard drive space to install. It also follows the same Ubuntu design philosophy so the user interface doesn't have to be relearned with each new release.

Mythbuntu - A special release of Ubuntu Desktop that includes MythTV. MythTV is a Media Center graphical user interface designed for televisions. You can build a media center PC suing Mythbuntu and play music, movies and games right 0n your TV or HDTV.

Ubuntu Studio - A specialized release of Ubuntu Desktop that includes software for composing and writing music, drawing graphics and 3D animation, editing video and adding special effects, and creating professional looking DVDs.

Edubuntu - A specialized release of Ubuntu Desktop that features software designed for use by schools. It includes special software that can be used by teachers, school administrators, and educational software for students in grade K through 12.

Like with the "official" releases these third party developed derivatives of Ubuntu are all compatible with the same software. You don't have to worry about something not working right when you install it. This is a part of the consistency which Canonical has worked hard to establish for Ubuntu Desktop.

6. Hardware Support

Ubuntu Desktop has built-in support a lot of hardware without needing to install additional software. Most printers, webcams, and scanners just work the moment you plug them in. Ubuntu also supports a huge list of sound cards, video cards, network cards, and has improved support for Wi-Fi and 3G-4G wireless technology right out of the box. Printer support on Ubuntu is handled by CUPS, the same technology used by Apple's Mac OS X. Some proprietary drives need to be installed separately. These appear in the Additional Drivers window under the System and Administration menu. Installing drivers is as easy as pointing and click. Ubuntu will automatically download and install the drivers for you. No need to open a terminal window and enter long strings of commands.

Its very rare to find something that Ubuntu won't work with. This isn't the fault of Ubuntu or Linux but is usually the fault of the hardware manufacturer for not providing Linux based drivers. In the past hardware support used to be a problem, but today more and more hardware manufacturers are making Linux drivers available. So if you install Ubuntu Desktop today that webcam you bought from Best Buy the will likely work on the first try. Canonical and put in a lot of effort to make sure Ubuntu supports as many different types of hardware as possible. They're in negotiations with many hardware makers and PC makers to get Linux drivers released for all of the most popular devices and computers on the market.

7. Software Support

No operating system is perfect and sometime down the line you may or may not need support. Getting support for Ubuntu though is pretty easy and readily available. The best way to get support is from the Ubuntu community. There are forums and email mailing lists dedicated to providing support for Ubuntu Desktop. On the Internet there are countless wikis and how-t0s surrounding Ubuntu. Finding the answer to your question is often just one Google search away. You can opt in for paid support from Canonical also. They offer this support for the Server and Cloud editions of Ubuntu also.

Canonical releases bug fixes for software rather quickly. Where it takes Microsoft months or even a year to release a bug fix or security patch, for Ubuntu the release of such patches can be counted in days or even hours after the problem is found and reported. There is an extensive system built by Canonical for report and tracking bugs and security problems in Ubuntu and getting those problems fixed immediately after they're found. Applying updates that are released is easy using the Update Manager, which pops up with an icon on the top Gnome panel whenever new updates are available.

The online support community is typically made up of friendly, courteous people who are more than willing to answer any questions you might have. There are a few bad apples, every online community has them, but the Trolls are few and far between. In most cases you can actually send messages to or email the Ubuntu Developers themselves. Lets see Microsoft do that!

8. Overall

No operating system is perfect. Not Mac OS X, not iOS 4, not Android, and certainly not Windows. Of all the hundreds of different Linux distributions out there and their derivatives Ubuntu is one of the most user friendly and easiest learn. Your granny could sit at an Ubuntu PC and learn to use it within in minutes to browser the web, read or email, check up on Facebook, and watch videos of the grandkids on Youtube. A great effort has been taken to make sure that each new release is easy to use and its user interface design of consistent so there's no learning curve. Some aspects of the user interface still need work. That doesn't mean its not ready for the mainstream, could you honestly say that Windows is truly user friendly. If anything is rather unfriendly and each use release has a steep learning curve for the average user who has to learn where everything is because Microsoft changes things so much.

Overall, is Ubuntu Desktop ready for the mainstream? I say yes, and there are millions of happy Ubuntu users who agree with me. Want to see what all the fuss is about, want to experience Ubuntu yourself and see what people have been raving about? Get a copy of Ubuntu and find out for yourself. The best way to experience Ubuntu is to try it.