Xubuntu 9.10 Review and Commentary

Xubuntu is basically, the Ubuntu core with XFCE as the desktop environment of choice. While some people will call this the "Ubuntu for slower machines", there are actually quite a few people who prefer XFCE over the traditional Gnome or KDE Environments.

Xubuntu 9.10 brings with it a new look and a new version of XFCE (4.6.1) as well as a number of performance enhancements and of course, the addition of EXT4 as the file system of choice.

Full release notes can be found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu/KarmicKoala/Final

Let's get started and take a look at the installation:

Not much has changed here, pretty standard stuff so far.

Following suit with the other systems, the new map that outlines the timezones visual has been incorporated and is a nice touch.

The nicely enhanced partition manager is present here as well which shows a graphical representation of partitions and drives.

The next two steps basically incorporate adding a user and the install itself, so we won't bore you with screenshots of those since they haven't changed from previous versions.

Once installation is complete and you've restarted, you'll be greeted with your spanking new desktop:

They've made some nice improvements to the visual look of the default desktop. We personally like the dark scheme but would prefer to see transparent icon backgrounds (which is something we find ourselves changing after every xfce installation we do.. for the record.. to make the background on the text transparent in XFCE, you can use this tutorial.)

Settings wise, there are lots of options that are accessible and can be changed as you can see from the screenshot below.

Checking out the add/remove applications list, we can see a wide range of available applications for install. They haven't implemented the new software manager that Ubuntu 9.10 itself is sporting as of yet but hopefully they will move that route soon as visually, it's a bit more appealing. You can see what that looks like in our Ubuntu 9.10 review.

The settings manager in Xubuntu is well arranged and reminiscent of the control panel that Windows users are familiar with. Naming conventions are logical and easy to understand.

A small suggestion for developers (and this is small.. but an annoyance to me personally) is to set it up so that we can change the time or the timezone by right clicking on the clock.. as it stands, if you do this you'll get a properties option which shows the screen below and isn't particularly helpful in my opinion.

Looking at Firefox, you can see a number of plugins are preconfigured and ready to use which is nice. It would be great to see the addition of flash, java and PDF plugins in the future, even if you just get prompted to accept licenses somewhere along the way to comply with their usage, they really should be installed by default since it's such a straight forward process.

Overall, there aren't a huge number of changes in this release but there are a few and it's getting more polished as they proceed.

Pro's

• Preinstalled video plugins in Firefox are a nice addition.
• A new desktop look helps with the overall visual appeal of the system.
• Excellent support tied into the Ubuntu Forums.

Con's

• Still needs some polish on basic items like the desktop icons.
• Doesn't incorporate all of the new Ubuntu enhancements like improved software manager.