Xubuntu 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" Review: Looks great but slightly disappointed with performance

XFCE is my favorite desktop environment for all for being lightweight and ability to support customization. Generally Xubuntu or Linux Mint XFCE always satisfied my requirement. Hence, with that expectation I checked out the brand new Xubuntu release, nicknamed "Utopic Unicorn". The release note doesn't say any radical change except for some incremental improvements, namely:

"The Xubuntu team is pleased to announce the immediate release of Xubuntu 14.10. To celebrate the 14.10 code name 'Utopic Unicorn' and to demonstrate the easy customisability of Xubuntu, highlight colors have been turned pink for this release. You can easily revert this change by using the theme configuration application under the Settings Manager; simply turn Custom Highlight Colors 'Off' and click 'Apply'. Of course, if you wish, you can change the highlight color to something you like better than the default blue. Starting with Xubuntu 14.10, you should use pkexec instead of gksudo for running graphical applications with root access from the terminal for improved security."

From Xubuntu 14.10 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

What is new in Xubuntu 14.10?

• New Xfce Power Manager plugin is added to the panel
• Items in the newly themed alt-tab dialog can now be clicked with the mouse
• Starting with Xubuntu 14.10, you should use pkexec instead of gksudo for running graphical applications with root access from the terminal for improved security
• Linux kernel updated to 3.16, enhanced support for the latest Intel CPUs (Cherryview, Haswell, Broadwell and Merrifield systems), initial support for Nvidia GK30A and GK110B GPUs and enhanced audio support for ATI Radeon devices
• Updated Packages, like Ubuntu 14.10

I downloaded the 979 MB 64-bit ISO and created a live USB using Linux Mint Image Writer. I did a live boot on my Asus K55VM laptop and installed it on a 250 GB partition.

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Voyager Live 14.04.1 Review: Xubuntu on steroids!

To me Voyager Live is a well decorated Xubuntu. I tried previously Voyager Live and it looked beautiful but I found it much less efficient than Xubuntu and felt, kind of defeats the purpose of XFCE distros. This was for Voyager spin of Xubuntu 12.04. However, the present release changed my impression and I'll tell you how.

Voyager 14.04.1 is based on the latest LTS (3 years though) spin of Xubuntu and ships with Xfdesktop 4.11.6 running on XFCE 4.10 and Linux kernel 3.13.0. The release note states "Rodolphe Bachelart has announced the release of Voyager Live 14.04, a Xubuntu-based distribution with a customised Xfce 4.11 desktop and a large number of usability improvements designed for power users and multimedia fans. Some of the new features of this release include: new light and dark themes, as well as a new icon set; Bluetooth and print services are now disabled by default; workspace switch by mouse action; Impulse screenlets for music integrated in panel; tightly integrated and automated music application trio - Clementine, Covergloobus and Impulse; detachable SMTube for viewing YouTube videos; a panel applet for graphical measurement of Internet traffic; a modified Whisker menu with additional configuration options... ".

From Voyager Live 14.04.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

I downloaded the 983 MB 64 bit Voyager Live 14.04 ISO for this review. I created a live USB using Unetbootin and installed it on a 8 GB partition in my Asus K55VM laptop 2.3 Ghz Core i7 processor, 8 GB DDR3 RAM and 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce 630M processor. Initially I had a bit of issue in making Voyager recognize the already existing partitions I had on my system. However, after reformatting the drives by gparted CD and removing the existing partitions to create new ones, helped.

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Xubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" Review: Buttery smooth and lightweight

With GNOME 2's sad demise, a lot of users like me, shifted to another lightweight and customizable alternative - XFCE desktop environment. Those days I was most comfortable with Ubuntu, and so my natural choice was Xubuntu. And based on my experience with XFCE in Xubuntu/Manjaro for the last couple of years, I can safely say that it is the most stable desktop environment I have used along with LXDE.

On April 17, 2014, Xubuntu released it's much awaited Long Term Support (LTS) release - Xubuntu 14.04, nicknamed "Trusty Tahr". Pasi Lallinaho announced the release of Xubuntu 14.04, a desktop distribution shipping with the latest development build of the Xfce desktop, version 4.11: "The Xubuntu team is pleased to announce the immediate release of Xubuntu 14.04. Xubuntu 14.04 is an LTS (long-term support) release and will be supported for 3 years. The highlights of this release include: Light Locker replaces XScreenSaver for screen locking, a settings GUI is included; the panel layout is updated, it now uses Whisker Menu by default; Mugshot is included to allow editing personal preferences; MenuLibre for menu editing with full Xfce support replaces Alacarte; a community wallpapers package which includes work from the five winners of the wallpaper contest; GTK+ Theme Config to customize desktop theme colors; updated artwork, including various enhancements to themes as well as a new default wallpaper."

From Xubuntu 14.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

I downloaded the 913 MB 64-bit ISO for this review. I created a live USB using Linux Mint Image Writer and booted it up on my Asus K55VM with 2.3 Ghz Core i7 processor, 8 GB DDR3 RAM and 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce 630M graphic card. Next, I installed it on a 50 GB HDD partition.

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Voyager Live 13.10 Review: Ships with a lot of features - definitely the most impressive XFCE distro I've used!

As mentioned in my previous review on MakuluLinux, last one week I was busy in using MakuluLinux and Voyager Live as my primary distros. And I must say it has been an wonderful experience so far. Yesterday I penned down my review on MakuluLinux and today I am attempting to jot down my experience with Voyager.

From Voyager 13.10 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Voyager Live is a French distro which combines Xubuntu with an aesthetically pleasing interface. I can put the words written about Voyager from Distrowatch: "Its features include the Avant Window Manager (AWN), Conky and over 300 photographs and animations that can be used as desktop backgrounds". The latest release from Voyager stable is a spin of Xubuntu 13.10. I downloaded the 32-bit ISO (~1 GB in size). Like Xubuntu, it ships with Linux kernel 3.11.0 and a customized XFCE 4.10 desktop.

I created a live USB of Voyager 13.10 using Unetbootin. Post live boot, I installed it on my Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor, 2 GB DDR3 RAM and Intel HD 3000 graphics.

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Xubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" Review: As good as ever!

Ubuntu 13.10 is out and brings with it some incremental innovations. I reviewed Lubuntu yesterday and next in line is another lightweight Ubuntu flavor - Xubuntu. This is another distro which didn't undergo significant overhaul like GNOME or KDE. It has stayed more or less consistent over the years, can be customized a lot and post GNOME 2, has been my preferred DE. Unlike LXDE, XFCE is a lot easier to use and many a times, I have recommended XFCE based distros to even Linux newbies. As you can understand, XFCE is one of the best DEs I have used.

From Xubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

With that introduction, you can understand that my expectation from Xubuntu 13.10 was of a relatively stable distro without any drastic change from it's predecessors, except updated applications and packages. The release note of Xubuntu 13.10 mentions of some incremental changes like:

"The Xubuntu team is delighted to announce the release of Xubuntu 13.10! Some of the highlights for Xubuntu 13.10 include: a new version of xfce4-settings has been uploaded, bringing amongst other things a new dialog to set up your displays; a tool for changing your theme colors easily, gtk-theme-config, has been added to the default installation; new wallpaper; new releases of our GTK+ themes (with GTK+ 3.10 support) as well as the LightDM greeter, fixing many visual bugs; updated documentation. Known problems: indicator sound no longer functions with Xfce indicator plugin; gmusicbrowser's albuminfo plugin is deactivated by default and causes the app to hang if enabled...."

For this review, I downloaded the 32-bit Xubuntu Saucy, about 850 MB in size. It ships with XFCE 4.10, Linux kernel 3.11.0 and Thunar 1.6.3 as the file manager along with a host of lightweight and not so lightweight applications. It is targeted to "normal" PC users who want most out of their machines and is also optimized for low end machines. I am using Xubuntu 13.04 on my Pentium 4 with 1.5 GB DDR RAM successfully and I am happy with it.

I used Unetbootin to create a live USB and did a live boot on my Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor, 2 GB DDR3 RAM and Intel HD 3000 graphic card. Once satisfied with live boot, I installed it on a 10 GB partition.

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OS4 OpenLinux 13.6 Review: XFCE spin with a difference!

I used and reviewed OS4 13 (LTS version) earlier as well. But, I didn't find it appealing earlier. The default design of XFCE looks way better than the legacy BeOS design of OS4. I checked out the 13.1 version earlier and was not that pleased with OS4. However, my opinion changed with the release OS4 13.6 (I missed out the other updates after 13.1, honestly). With a change in design, interesting applications pre-installed in the distro and a more refined interface, OS4 13.6 OpenLinux suddenly seems more attractive.

Desktop Cube From OS4 Openlinux 13.6 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From OS4 Openlinux 13.6 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

OS4 13 series is based on Xubuntu 12.04 long term release and has Linux kernel 3.2.0. It comes with XFCE 4.10 and Thunar 1.6.3 as the file manager. More or less, it is similar to the offerings made by Xubuntu 12.04 or it's spins in terms of XFCE and Linux kernel. The OS4 release note states of some new additional features as well as introduction of OS4 based desktops and laptops with Acer:

"Today we are releasing OS4 OpenLinux 13.6 and unveiling our new hardware initiative. This release comes with a lot of bug fixes and application updates. We also have brought new functionality and services. First, hardware services. As a licensed ACER dealer we are bringing about a new hardware initiative. We are bringing state of the art, powerful, beautiful and functional hardware to the OS4 and Linux communities. We believe state of the art software deserves state-of-the-art hardware. So we have a wide range of towers, laptops, all-in-ones and of course our most popular, OS4 BriQ, is still available. We also have the engineering marvel, the Vision 64 all-in-one keyboard PC from Cybernet available. All of these systems make great gifts and they make a great addition to any home or office."

I downloaded the 1.8 GB ISO (pretty bulky for an XFCE distro!) from the OS4 site and did a live boot followed by installation on my Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM. OS4 OpenLinux 13.6 installation took about 5.3 GB space on my hard drive which is a bit high considering a lightweight XFCE spin. Fedora 19 XFCE in fact installed in almost half the space - of course, it is a stripped down version compared to OS4. Even Linux Mint XFCE took 40% lower space. 

As I take you through the review, you'll understand that OS4 OpenLinux 13.6 is not meant only for less potent hardware but can run with élan on most modern systems as well.

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Ubuntu 13.04 vs Kubuntu 13.04 vs Xubuntu 13.04 vs Lubuntu 13.04 vs Ubuntu 13.04 GNOME: A brief comparison

Every Linux novice goes through this phase - confusion to decide which Ubuntu to install when now you've got so many versions of Ubuntu coming out of the stable. The aim of this article is to facilitate taking decision by briefing about what distro has to offer and a comparison of their performance.

I take up here the latest Ubuntu release 13.04, codenamed "Raring Ringtail". Released in April 2013, it comes in five distinct desktop environments

Unity in Ubuntu 13.04
It started as a net-book OS environment and gradually gained favor from Canonical. The much criticized (and rightly so because of its initial instability) desktop environment is now gradually improving in terms of performance and stability. It is kind of a minimalistic desktop with a left hand side strip, accommodating the user's favorite applications, along with a heavy integration to social networks (like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.) through its unique dash. It is still not as stable as I would like it to be but, I feel, Unity has the potential to challenge the operating system biggies like Windows and Mac OS X. It is intuitive and very easy to use but not as customizable as a KDE. Right now, its use is limited only to Ubuntu. Unity leverages the Gnome 3 ecosystem of applications with Files (forked from Nautilus) as the file manager. My review of Ubuntu 13.04.

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

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Xubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" Review: Rock solid and stable as ever!

Let me set the tone of the review at the very beginning itself, these words are from the Xubuntu 13.04 release notes:  

"The Xubuntu team is glad to announce the immediate release of Xubuntu 13.04. Xubuntu 13.04 will be supported for 9 months and will need other media such as a USB device or a DVD to install. What's new in Xubuntu 13.04? Xubuntu 13.04 is mostly a maintenance release, and there aren't many new features. However, there are some changes, which include: Gnumeric and GIMP are reintroduced on the ISO image; new application versions - Catfish 0.6.1 and Parole 0.5.0 with many bug fixes; updates for the Greybird theme and a new wallpaper; duplicate partitions are no longer shown on desktop or Thunar; updated documentation. Starting with 13.04, the Xubuntu images will not fit on standard CDs. This is an effect of changing the target size to a 1GB USB device."

From Xubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

These words more or less sum up the incremental changes in the present release. Of course, XFCE never had any drastic shake ups like Gnome or KDE. More or less, things remained the same and supremely stable. With Gnome 2 being part of Linux history and things life complicated in Gnome 3, a lot of users, like me, have found solace in XFCE for good reasons.

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Emmabuntus 12.04.2-1.04 Review: Xubuntu LTS spiced up!

I recently came across Emmabuntus in Distrowatch, it is a Xubuntu 12.04.2 LTS based distro which comes with a large number of pre-installed applications. You can say it to be Ultimate Edition for Xubuntu. Naturally, I was inclined to try it out - to check if it is just mindless collection of applications or the developers have used their judgement in selecting those apps.

From Emmabuntus 12.04.2-1.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.com

I downloaded the 3.5 GB Emmabuntus ISO. And used an 8 GB pendrive to create a live-USB using unetbootin. I did a live boot followed by installation in my Asus K54C with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM. Initially I thought Emmabuntus to be just another dump of all available applications but once I started using it, I realized it brings in some very good features in addition to dumping all available apps. Details in the remaining part of the article.

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Ultimate Edition 3.5 Review: Ugly but fully loaded!

My first exposure to Ultimate edition was with 3.4. I installed the 64-bit one to my newly bought Core i7 3rd gen. laptop with 8 GB RAM last year, but had to remove it bugged by it's instability. First the default interface is devoid of much aesthetics, Second, effects are too loud and most important, third, instability - not a single day passed with something or the other crashing in the background or my laptop suddenly stopped responding and would require a hard reset. First two issues on aesthetics and too much of effects I took care myself with 24 hours of usage but I couldn't handle the third one and replaced it with supremely stable Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon.

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

It may sound a sad tone to begin with - but, the disappointment is primarily due to my high expectation build around the distro and hope that it would really work for me. Tell me, where you get Gnome 3, Unity, Gnome 2, etc. desktop environments together in a single distro? Everyday you can use a different desktop! Plus, it is loaded with applications - it has almost the entire Ubuntu repository loaded there! 

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

With the new release note of Ultimate Edition 3.5 coming out on 3rd Jan, and that too in KDE flavor, I was really intrigued to check it out, with the expectation of more stability in the distro. UE 3.5 is about 3.5 GB, which is about 300 MB more than UE 3.4. Both are built on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. However, the upgraded version has quite a lot of added flavors like KDE 4.8, XFCE 4.8, LXDE, OpenBox, Cinnamon, in addition to Gnome 3, Unity and Gnome 2. Linux kernel is 3.2.0 as in Ubuntu 12.04.1. I downloaded the 32-bit version this time.

Testing was done for a week on my Asus K54C 2.2 Ghz Core i3 laptop with 2 GB RAM, decent specs to run any OS. I did a live boot from USB and then installed it on the same machine to use it for a week and make a fair assessment. At boot up itself, one can sense little attention to art-work, as UE 3.5 KDE started with a Lubuntu screen and an Ubuntu login window! Further, because of the GUI's dark theme along with dark fonts, visibility becomes a bit of issue in UE 3.5.


Applications
It will take me at least 2-3 posts to accurately provide you the applications in UE 3.5. Better you check a few screenshots to build an expectation. The screenshots are taken in UE with LXDE desktop, as in the default KDE menu, it is difficult to show majority of the apps. In nutshell, entire Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Lubuntu - entire Ubuntu clan is present in UE 3.5 along with the Ubuntu repository. Actually there is no need to add any software center as there won't be any app left in repo! Multimedia codecs are pre-loaded and one can straight away listen to favorite music or watch movies immediately after installation or live boot.

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

Amazingly, you see Muon and Lubuntu software centers as well along with the default Ubuntu software center! Also, think of multiple file managers! Kind of over-abundance but I can live with it!

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

My only grudge here is LibreOffice is still 3.5, GIMP is 2.6 and quite a few of the other apps are also backdated. However, users can add the appropriate packages from Quantal/Nadia and upgrade the software.

Installation
Installation is typical Ubuntu and takes about 30 minutes. Steps are pretty simple and would not surprise even a newbie. Even here the installation steps have real font color problem and whatever is written, is barely visible due to white font and semi-transparent GUI. Seriously, the developers should take some help from an expert on art-work!

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

From Ultimate Edition 3.5

 
Performance
I downloaded the 32-bit OS for the test. Performance was assessed post installation and I tried all the available desktop options. Of these, Cinnamon 2D, Openbox and XDMC options didn't work for me. From the rest, LXDE was the least resource consuming option for me, followed by XFCE and Gnome classic mode. Surprisingly, KDE came out to be the most inefficient option!

Desktops	CPU	RAM
Cinnamon	1-10%	360 MB
Cinnamon 2D	-	-
Gnome	1-10%	285 MB
Gnome Classic	1-10%	286 MB
Gnome Classic (No effects)	1-10%	281 MB
Gnome/Openbox	1-10%	440 MB
KDE Plasma Workspace	1-10%	782 MB
KDE/Openbox	1-10%	774 MB
Lubuntu	1-10%	167 MB
Lubuntu netbook	1-10%	169 MB
Openbox	-	-
Ubuntu	1-10%	438 MB
Ubuntu 2D	1-10%	438 MB
XBMC	-	-
Xfce Session	1-10%	182 MB
Xubuntu Session	1-10%	182 MB
Ubuntu Studio	1-10%	185 MB

If the compare UE 3.5 desktop environments to the corresponding releases (from Ubuntu 12.04.1 and Linux Mint 13 stables), Ultimate's performances didn't deviate significantly from the parent distros (except for KDE). All the results are from installations on the same machine (which I tested at different point in time in 2012).

Competing Distro	RAM	CPU
Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon	6-10%	200 MB
Linux Mint 13 Mate	2-3%	207 MB
Kubuntu 12.04.1	2-10%	310 MB
Lubuntu 12.04	0-5%	119 MB
Ubuntu 12.04.1	5-20%	280 MB
Xubuntu 12.04.1	1-5%	160 MB

Stability
In my 10 days of usage, I found this edition of UE to be relatively more stable than the previous versions I had tested. Post initial update, I didn't have any background application crash. Except KDE, rest of the desktop environments were quite smooth to use. Specially I liked the Lubuntu version. Imagine the efficiency of LXDE with a whole lot of applications from Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu! Cool!

Overall
Using UE 3.5, as it is, is no fun at all because of shoddy artwork and really bad looking interface. I couldn't believe KDE can look so bad till I used UE 3.5. Anyway, users can improve the artwork. I don't mind the artwork when I see what I am getting in return - a whole lot of applications to work with and possibly never requiring to open the Ubuntu Software Center! Paradoxically, UE has 3 Software Centers to offer!

From version 3.4 to 3.5, there are quite a few plus points - the developers have toned down the effects quite a bit and now it doesn't hamper with productivity. All kinds of applications are out of the box and gives you a complete experience. I agree the distro is a bit inefficient compared to a single desktop distro like a Lubuntu or Xubuntu, but anyway, UE is not supposed to be installed to a low end machine! It is and absolutely is, recommended if you have a real good system (with dual core or high end processor and minimum 2 GB RAM) in your possession. Otherwise, don't even think of trying UE - it's not for the faint hearted.

Plus, I'll recommend UE 3.5 to Linux users with some experience. For newbies, it might be a little confusing to have so many desktops, file managers, system monitors, mail clients, browsers, and a whole lot of other apps for the same function.

So, if you are looking for a new experience, different desktop every day or a whole lot of applications to play with and can live with bad art-work, UE 3.5 is a must try. You may like it! You can download UE 3.5 32-bit and 64-bit editions from here.

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[SOLVED] Docky issue in Mint/Ubuntu: How to enable compositing?

Having a docky / Avant window navigator (AWN) gives a cool look to the desktop. From the day I started using Linux, I have always preferred to have a docky. My desktop with the AWN docky helps me to access all the common programs I need at one place, plus CPU user in the dock tells me how much CPU I am using at any point in time. Auto-hide feature doesn't shrink my desktop as well.

All in all, I find docky useful. And it's 3D look actually add a mystic charm to the GUI. However, in my recent update of netbook to Xubuntu 12.04 LTS and PC to Linux Mint 13 Mate, I found that I need to enable Compositor to customize the dock.

Now, for this kind of problem, there is a easy way out. Linux Mint uses Metacity and the desktop effect can be rendered by enabling compositing from Desktop Settings. Just check the option for compositing from desktop setting to enable 3D effect in the docky.

For Xubuntu, Go to:
Settings -> Settings Manager -> Window Manager Tweaks ->Compositor-> Enable Display Compositing

This would solve the issue of enabling compositor for the 3D effects in docky.

9th June 2012:
To enable compositor in debian, go to Applications -> System Tools -> Configuration Editor.
In Config Editor, go to Apps -> Metacity -> General and check compositing manager. Restart Docky and that would do the trick.

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